Talking to your Niche!

A good rule of thumb to remember in marketing: If you're talking to everyone you're actually talking to no one. So what does this mean? It means if you are talking to catch everyone's attention, what you're saying is too broad and people don't relate to it so they keep scrolling past. What we really need to do is talk specifically to a smaller group of people and relate to their specific needs.

Where to start.

One of my favorite self development books I have read is "The 7 habits of highly effective people" and one of those habits is begin with the end in mind. So, let me ask you - how do you picture yourself when you are an Expert Massage Therapist? If you can't answer this questions easily - check out this article on "How to Strategically Plan your Massage Career". If you can answer this question - great! Let's dive deep!

When you are an Expert Massage Therapist:

• Who does your expertise help out the most?
• What problem, complaint, or issue does your expertise solve?

Imagination

Now that we have a small idea of who we are looking to help, let's picture them. If you've ever created an avatar of your ideal client, you'll recognize this exercise. If not, I'm excited to walk you through this. We are going to imagine a person, our ideal client, and we are going to fill out all of their details. If you're finding yourself torn, don't worry about it, you can have more than one avatar - but try and keep it to no more than 3 and have them as closely related as possible. If you have too many ideal clients - it becomes very difficult to craft different messages to reach them all personally.

Dive Deep

To make this as personal as possible, we're going to give our avatar a name. If you're avatar is a child, we're going to picture this child's guardian as well (Because this is who this child's decisions regarding who to choose as their therapist are made by).

Answer these questions to fill out the details about your ideal client:

• What gender is your avatar?
• How old is your avatar?
• What economic class are they in?
• What kind of work do they do?
• Do they work Full-time, Part-time, Over-time?
• Is their work physically demanding?
• What strains/pains do their jobs cause them?
• What hobbies or sports do they participate in?
• What strains/pains do their hobbies or sports cause them?
• Do they have a condition that massage/you can help?
• Have they been in an accident that has caused them strain or pain?
• Do they have emotional or mental concerns that you can treat?
• Is there some part of your avatars that you can provide an escape from?

Now that we know who our avatar is and how we can help them, we can strategically plan how to craft our message to them. Ask yourself:

• Where does my avatar spend time online?
• Are they in specific Facebook groups?
• Do they use Google to find what they're looking for?
• Where would they get word of mouth recommendations from?
• What audiences are they in that could speak to or sponsor your services?
• What hashtags or keywords does your avatar use?
• What other professionals do they visit that you could get referrals from?
• What media are they most likely to consume? Paper vs social media vs other?

Knowing where to post your message will determine the best way to craft your message. For example - you wouldn't share your personal journey on a brochure in a chiropractors office but you would share it on an Instagram post.

Finally, we get to the most important part - What your ideal client consumes: the message!

• What words does your avatar relate to or find eye catching?
• What images does your avatar find eye catching? Evoke some emotion?
• Does the content you're creating speak to your avatar and their specific needs or problems?

From identifying who your avatar is, what their specific needs and pain points are and where they can hear your message, you can now work on our marketing strategy.

If you're like me, you are going to want to do this exercise and keep it in an organized place to look at as you are creating your marketing materials - I got you! - download your free workbook here!