It’s funny, but most of us barely know our next door neighbor, maybe we chat about the fence from time to time, but … we don’t really know them. However, we regularly send emails to our friends in Australia or the US.
Is that funny?
As the “global economy” has grown and planet Earth has become connected, where you live has become, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant. I live in St Albans in the UK. But, when it comes to running my business, I could also work from Vancouver, the Costa del Sol or New Zealand. You see, it is not where you are, but what you are INTERESTED in that drives everything. It never ceases to amaze me what interests people.
I really enjoy going to the local Waterstones (where there is also a great Starbucks) and buying four or five magazines about things I know absolutely nothing about. My son just started getting a tattoo, so I got a magazine about it last week. I sat down with a Grande Chai Latte and took a look at his world. It was very revealing! Fascinating indeed.
You will see that each of these markets has its own community, language, market and a true passion. The people who inhabit these “strange” worlds have secret paths and rituals, special meeting places, certain rites of passage. And the smaller and more “niche” that world is, the more strange and cultured it often turns out to be. So how does this relate to doing niche research for your internet marketing effort?
Well … if you can really step into one of these “worlds” and understand it intimately, you will be able to say “the right thing” and the members will instantly recognize you as an initiate. Literally in ten seconds they recognize that you are “one of them”. Imagine the power this would give you over your marketing? The power of your sales messages if you were instantly recognized as “one of them”? Here’s an example of that … if I were to sneer at “precious”.
… any self-respecting moviegoer who has seen one of the Lord of the Rings movies will immediately tell you “oh yeah, that’s Gollum obsessed and lustful for the ring.” Picture this … you’re sitting on a bus and there’s a “hairy” guy immersed in a Tolkien book and you say, “We waited inside Old Man Willow until Tom Bombadil sang us from there.”
Now this is different. Only hardcore “Rings” fans would understand this as it is a line that is in the book but NOT in the movie. As soon as you speak that line, an INSTANT bond will be formed between you. In an instant you have a wealth of shared experiences and knowledge. In fact, it is a secret password. You are instantly recognized as a member of the “club”.
Immediately this quiet, reserved and withdrawn guy perks up. You talk for hours. He is from the US and you are from the UK, but you start sending emails every other day and then for the rest of your life. He invites you and your family to his son’s 21st birthday … and it is.
If you really speak the “niche” language, if you can really write something in your book, in your journal, and it doesn’t have to be a lot, then you will fully engage them. A simple phrase will be enough to attract attention. It could even be a single word or phrase!
This really engages the conversation inside the customer’s head, by doing so you will ensure that you can win and win big in whatever niche you decide to target. Your ability to succeed in ANY market has more to do with this than anything else. You should only try to sell to the people you have really “been”.
This is the reason why so many marketing messages and advertisements seem artificial, sterile, and, not to be precise, downright boring. This is why some sales letters will never sell, because the people who write them are simply paying “lip service” or simply “doing their job.”
They are not connecting with anyone’s passion or fear. They are simply technological babble. They say words like “innovative” and “ROI” and “core competency” and “data management solution” and no one knows (or gives a damn) what they are talking about.
But if you understand your customers with that psychic connection, then the marketing part is so easy that it just flows.
So … now you know how (and why) you should totally get into a niche, immerse yourself in it, and if you do, the sky is the limit!
As always … for * YOUR * success
