There’s a mistake I see many insurance professionals making in the name of attracting more business, and it holds their business back and keeps them playing small. What is that mistake? Not defining their target client or choosing a niche.
I often hear agents & brokers shy away from choosing a specific niche because they’re afraid of limiting the playing field and they don’t want to miss out on potential opportunities, connections, or growth.
One major pitfall of not choosing a niche, however, is that it is much harder to stand out in an ocean amongst your competitors. You have to compete against many other professionals for a chance at that client’s business. All of your content will be generic, and you’ll be covering anything and everything that may or may not appeal to your ideal client; this is a giant waste of time, energy, and money. Regarding networking opportunities, this comes down to how you will decide where to show up and helps others know how to refer to you.
This is somewhat more challenging when it comes to marketing, however, is tremendously useful for building your business and being successful. Having a specific marketing focus makes it easier for you to stand out, be remembered, and be attractive to your ideal client. For example, once you have chosen your niche you’ll be able to speak on topics that are laser-focused and address concerns of a specific group while generating interest in your services and attracting your ideal clients.
If you’re networking with professional referral sources, how will you stand out if you’re serving “everyone”? A great way to stand out is by being expert in who you serve and how you serve them. This gives you more of an opportunity to learn about the specific needs of one specific group versus trying to address the needs of everyone.
For example, if your niche is doctors, the longer you work with them, the more you learn how to work with them. You learn more about their needs and how you can best support and meet them. As an advisor, you need to come up with a marketing focus and dig deep into the community of your chosen niche. Having that targeted niche enables you to focus your energy to learn most effectively what will work for those target clients, and how you’ll set them up to win.
Due diligence to evaluate and confirm that your chosen niche will support your goals is a crucial part of this process. How many people are in your target market in your area? If you’ve chosen a smaller community and you determine the numbers aren’t sufficient, you’ll need to reevaluate your niche. For instance, if you were going to focus on Maxillofacial Surgeons and the numbers aren’t sufficient, perhaps you’d like to expand your niche to include Rhinoplasty Surgeons or go broader with the market to include general Plastic Surgeons.
Bottom line — to be successful, you need to define your targeted niche, do an excellent job serving them while effectively marketing to them.
If you are wondering how to narrow the focus and define your own niche (and support your own success in the process), email me now [email protected]