Do you wonder if your coaching niche is narrow enough?
A lot of coaches do!
Let’s start with some fundamentals so we can all be on the same page.
Q: What is a coaching niche?
A: Your coaching niche is a combination of who you coach (this is also called your target market) and what you coach on (the results and outcomes that you help clients achieve).
Q: Why have a coaching niche?
A: Your marketing becomes more effective and is easier to implement.
A: Your clients get better results, faster and with more ease.
When you focus on coaching a certain type of client to achieve a specific outcome, you develop expertise in that area. You get good at coaching those clients to achieve their desired results.
A: You can charge and receive higher coaching fees. Clients value and pay top dollar for expertise, experience and perspective.
Okay, so now on to the niche question that comes up for a lot of coaches…
Q: Which is better a broad coaching niche or a narrow coaching niche?
A: It depends. It depends on…
=> What your current coaching niche is and how well it’s working for you. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
=> How long you’ve been in business. Some new coaches really benefit by starting off with a broader niche so they can work with a lot of different client types on a variety of topics. Then after gaining that experience they are able to confidently choose a specific coaching niche.
=> The kind of marketing you enjoy most.
Let’s say you’re a coach who enjoys in-person marketing such as speaking, networking and being active in your local community. You could develop your expertise and become known for a specific area (e.g. career transition, leadership, business growth, health and wellness, financial freedom) that allows you to serve multiple target markets in your community.
In contrast, a coach who prefers internet marketing will want to stand out from the crowd by having a narrow and focused target market and niche.
=> Your background and experience.
Many coaches wisely leverage their personal or professional background and experiences when choosing their coaching niche.
For example, I recently met 2 different coaches who were considering focusing their coaching business on working with veterinarians.
The first coach was a retired veterinarian who had just sold her successful vet practice. She was passionate about sharing her wisdom by mentoring and coaching new veterinarians.
For this coach, choosing veterinarians as her target market was a natural fit and made a lot of sense.
The second coach was a marketing whiz who helps small business owners attract more ideal clients by leveraging the internet. She thought she needed to narrow her target market and was considering veterinarians. She recently had great success working with a vet client and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian when she was young.
However through our discussion, she realized that while she was attracted to working with veterinarians, her real passion was marketing. She loved helping all types of service professionals to easily attract more of their ideal clients.
So instead of choosing a narrow target market like veterinarians, she decided to stick with a broader target market and just did some fine-tuning by going from “small business owners” to “service professionals.”
She then identified more than a dozen different types of service professionals who she would like to coach. Now she can get busy with her two favorite marketing activities (attending networking events and doing speaking engagements) to reach them.
So my friend, how is your coaching niche working for you?
Do you need to get more narrow and focused?
Or perhaps is it time for some fine-tuning?
Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.
You can also post any questions you have about choosing your niche and I’ll personally respond and give you my feedback!
“C&GR’s ‘heart-felt, business’ philosophy has added dramatic sizzle to my coaching practice. I have had a 400% increase in revenue. What I used to earn in one month I now earn in one week. I presented a workshop to 77 people and had 1/3 of the audience desire a comp session. 50% of those people became my clients in 10 crazy amazing days. Wouldn’t you like 8 new clients in 10 working days? I have also developed 6 Strategic Alliances which provide me a steady stream of clients and also a beautiful new granite kitchen island. I love C&GR and I love my coaching life!”
“I’ve just completed the C&GR program and have $55,000 of new committed coaching revenue. With Coach & Grow R.I.C.H., I’m convinced that this is only the beginning of more success. Now I need more coaches on my team thanks to Michelle and the C&GR business-building program.”
“Before getting the Coach & Grow R.I.C.H. system I was not even coaching anyone but after I met Michelle at workshop in San Diego I decided to buy it and try it out. The program has a lot of great material that helped me wrap my head around what I was doing and get clearer on my goals. I’m really looking forward to going through the course again and use the material more since I’m really trying to launch my business this year. Michelle’s program helped me to take the first big step – starting my coaching business! I already developed my first website and had the confidence to do it. Now I’m working on starting a group. After going through the program I gained confidence that I can actually do this simply by seeing that so many other people at different levels are currently doing it as well. In the past I was getting stuck at times because I always want to do everything perfectly but now I know that it was holding me back! This is definitely my year!”
Hi. I have dreamed of being a life coach for many years. For the past 15 years I have worked part time for myself as a holistic practitioner offering different therapies including massage, Reiki etc. I offer angel card readings and I have also in the past few years got a diploma in healing meditation, NLP practitioner and the latest Law of Attraction practitioner. Currently part of the way through an actual Life coaching course. I have been a single mum to 3 kids for most of my adult life, a survivor of domestic abuse and now at 42 I am ready to help transform other peoples lives!!! … and yet I am a little confused as not sure how to summarise what I can offer of have a tight niche. Any advice would be great. Thankyou Liza.
Is “helping millennials create fulfilling lives” too broad of a niche for Internet marketing? I like working with millennials because they are faced with many of the struggles I overcame myself such as finding direction in life and career, as well as knowing when you are in the right romantic relationship versus not. It all came down to needing and wanting clarity and connection with my inner guidance to navigate my life – so this is what I help clients do now. What do you think?
I am starting a consulting business. I have 12 years of church experience and feel I can be an asset. At the same time I have the same amount of experience with non-profits, small businesses, and community groups. Should I focus on one group or market myself as a business consultant to all of these groups? My hesitation is when I market on social media, I don’t want one group to feel left out.
Great question – Focus on What you help these groups do and then create specific marketing initiatives to each target market. ie: let’s say your focus is helping organizations hire and retain dream employees. That becomes the thing you get known for and then you reach out and market to the different groups. Make sense?
Hi, I started working with young children like two years ago in the area of career moulding and building self esteem to enable them actualize higher academic grades as well as avoid been bullied by older once or even their peers.
I seriously need to niche on one of the above mentioned.
Can you possibly be of any helproblems?
Is am having trouble with narrowing my niche and target market. I want to focuses on law of attraction, goal setting and affirmations with women in corporate jobs that are considering a career change or starting their own Internet business.
Thanks for this article Michelle. It was very helpful. I would like to start coaching but I find myself completely lost when it comes to a niche. My passion has been working with women survivors of domestic violence & sexual assault as an advocate (15 years) but have left that field. Is there a way to use this experience in creating a coaching niche? It gave me the coaching experience but I’m not sure where I can take it from here. Any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Shawn, yes you can use your experience in creating your coaching niche. Start by making a list of all the types of outcomes you helped those women achieve when you were an advocate. Next, make a list of the types of outcomes and results you can see yourself helping clients achieve as a coach. Can you start to see how your past experience can be applicable to new coaching clients?
Thank you Michelle!! That is excellent advice. I was being too literal in my thought process and it wasn’t feeling comfortable creating something that survivors could get at a crisis center for free nor did I want to take advocacy online. Excellent!!! Thanks again!
Hi Michelle,
As someone who helps coaches master their niche, I have to admit that I’m a little biased:)
You’ve highlighted so many of the benefits of having a coaching niche. Here are a few more:
– It allows you to create programs in your area of expertise so you can leverage your time, help more people, and earn multiple streams of income
– With a clear niche, it’s much easier to attract valuable strategic alliance partners. Just find people who serve the same target market but offer complementary solutions.
On that note, I like to think of a niche as more than a segment of a target market. I help my clients solve the “Niche Puzzle” so they can clearly identify WHO they help, WHAT solution they provide, and WHY people should work with them.
Thanks for sharing Michelle and allowing me to share.
warm wishes,
Cindy
Thanks for adding to the “Benefits of Niche-ing” list Cindy. And you are so right about those 2 huge benefits.
I am starting a membership site on stress management for learning disabled teen and adults. I have want to be a reiki-coach and stress management consultant. I am just starting out. I plan to take a online coaching stress management program. I have my certificate already from CTA and taking a reiki level I and II refresher course next month.
Sounds like a good plan Mary!
Sweet and to the point. Thanks for the reminder about staying or becoming focused to attain the success you want!
Focus is key!
Hiya Michelle – I’ve suspected that I need to narrow my target market for awhile now (ironic that I’m a marketer and have advised my readers to do just that!). Some say to speak only about the WHAT – the outcome – and not at all about the HOW. Wish I had known this before I named my business, as the HOW is built in to my name: Blue Boat Social Marketing, and one advisor I follow suggested I should rename and totally rebrand, including new domain. Do you think I have to go that far? Seems extreme, so am looking for another opinion. Thanks!
Hi Cara, Sometimes your HOW can be a marketing benefit, as it is in your case. I’m assuming that Social Marketing is about using social media to attract more clients and grow your business, is that right? I’m also guessing that your ideal client knows they want and need to use social media and need help making that happen. So for your business I would think that having the social media reference helps attract the right clients to you.
Finally some truthful sensible talk on niche!
Thanks Angela. At C&GR we focus on being straightforward, practical and real.
Great post on narrow niches.
Thanks, your timing was great too.
Thom
I’m glad it was helpful Thom.
Thank you for the valuable information.
You are my Guru!
You are most welcome Janice. Are you getting ready and excited for Q4?