Niches & Your Ideal Customer’s Language
Determining your niche, unique selling proposition, what you’re famous for, etc., and who you want to serve is critical if you want to minimize or eliminate your competition.
Donald Miller, the author of the book, Building a Storybrand, explains it as “claiming your territory” in this excellent short video.
But determining your niche and then using language that isn’t familiar to the people you want to attract, is a massive waste of money and time.
You have to use the words and terms they use.
This applies to EVERY industry.
Successful Witches Claim Their Niches
Excellent examples of this are Glinda, the Good Witch of the North, and Elpheba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Both are service providers in the Witch industry who have clearly defined their niches.
Glinda
Niche: The best at protecting good people from evil and providing magical experiences.
Ideal clients: the little people in this world and those who have lost their way.
Elpheba
Niche: #1 at wreaking havoc and inflicting maximum terror.
Ideal clients: people who want to seize power and dominate the world.
There is no competition when people know what you do best and who you do it for.
Looking for someone who has the perfect sparkly pumps and is excellent at helping people who are lost? Glinda’s your gal.
Looking for someone with an army of monkeys to knock your neighbor’s holiday display off their roof? Elphaba will make it happen.
Elpheba doesn’t worry about the competition. She wants nothing to do with cheerful, happy people living in harmony. They are not her ideal customers.
Is it pronounced Nit-ch or Neesh?
It all depends on your target audience.
Once you determine who you serve, you have to speak their language. That means using the exact same terms (and pronunciation) that your ideal customer uses for the product or service you sell. It will make it easy for people to instantly know you are perfect for them.
Running a Facebook ad using words and phrases like, “magically making wishes come true,” would attract Glinda’s target audience, but it would be a complete waste of money for Elpheba.
Pop vs. Tonic
What do you call a fizzy, non-alcoholic drink? A soda, soft drink, pop, or soda pop?
My parents called it tonic, and so, of course, did I too when I was a kid. Even if it was an Orange Crush or a 7-Up.
If I do research and find out you call it soda pop, that’s what I will use for marketing my fizzy, non-alcoholic drink. Tonic would mean nothing or something else to you.
I won’t have to waste money and ad space describing it as a fizzy, non-alcoholic drink (aka the features). You instantly know what a soda pop is. So, I can focus on telling you what this fantastic soda pop can do for you (aka the benefit).
Use their words. It’s as simple as that.
Create a niche customer glossary
Make it easy to reach your target customer every time you create marketing. Write down your answers to a few questions and create a niche customer glossary.
Here are two examples of the specific language you are looking for:
- What terms and jargon do they use?
- If you mow and clean up yards, do your ideal customers refer to your service as landscaping or lawn care?
- How do they refer to their own business tasks?
- I refer to the writing in marketing pieces as content or messaging, but my customer refers to it as text or words.
Get the idea? Create your niche customer glossary by answering those two questions and a few more.
- What terms and jargon do they use?
- How do they refer to their own business tasks?
- How do they refer to their own business sector?
- What terms and words do they use to describe their value proposition or unique offering?
- How do they refer to their competitors?
- What is the tone of their conversations?
- Are they more casual or formal?
- Are they using simple language or more complex?
Next steps:
Review your website, social media posts, ads, etc.
- Do your ideal clients talk the same way and in the same tone that you have been speaking to them?
- Replace any words or phrases that don’t match your glossary.