Tuesday of this week I attended an online workshop hosted by Cheryl Downing, founder of Cheryl Downing and Associates. The topic of the workshop was “Prioritizing Your Target Market Niches.”
From the workshop I learned:
1. Why you should select your top 3 target market niches
2. Why to focus on the top 3 characteristics of each niche
3. How to prioritize your market niches
It is important to select what you believe are your primary markets because most offerings really have more than one niche. Additionally, the different niches have a common thread which ties them together. Choosing three niches gives you flexibility in case one niche is not profitable and it provides room to make mistakes. In the early market, companies are trying to figure out what is and what is not working. Thus the importance of exploring and testing markets simultaneously.
After you choose your three niches, you want to find three characteristics within each market. Ideally, you want these categories to have as many characteristics as possible in common. Using these characteristics as a guideline will help you identify prospects faster.
Now that you have identified the characteristics of each niche market you want to prioritize them in order of which you believe you are solving the most compelling pain. This is the market in which you want to delegate the most time. Cheryl suggests that 60% of your time should be focused in this market. Subsequently, she suggests that you should spend 30% of your time in the secondary and 10% of your time in your tertiary market niches.
Cheryl has also blogged about this topic in “Prioritizing Your Target Market Niches.”