As a coach it is important to specialise in something. There are so many coaches out there and if you are marketing yourself to everyone then technically you are marketing yourself to no-one. It is important to stand out and set yourself apart from everyone else. This will assist you to create a name for yourself and your brand and will increase the associations that the general public have with your brand. It is also a lot easier for people to refer you to others as they are aware that you are THE expert in that particular area.

So, once you have tapped into what is purposeful for you, connected with your mission (what you would like to be doing with your time) and you are clear on the services that you want to provide people, now it is important to narrow down a target market and a niche.

So, where do you start?? There are two parts to choosing your target market and niche. No. 1- What are you experienced in? and No. 2- What are you most passionate about?
Start by asking yourself these questions:
• What experience or knowledge from your past can you leverage off?
• What are the top five things that you are most passionate about?
• If your entire journey was only to prepare you for now, what would you do next?
• What difference do you really want to make in the world?
• What is unique about you?
A target market is the group of people that you would like to target and gain custom from.
• Who would you most like to work with?
• What defines this group?
• What is common about them?

Once you have chosen a group to gear your products and services toward, it is beneficial to find out as much about them as possible. So, you may choose to target women aged between 40 and 50 who want to re-enter the workforce. Once you start gaining interest in what you are up to and you have a database starting to form, it would be interesting to note any thing else that these women have in common asides from their age and employment situation:
• Where do these women live?
• Where do they shop,?
• What schools do thief children go to?

When you start noticing common themes it will then assist you to find even more prospective clients by tapping into the networks and circles that these women already move in. this can also be handy when considering joint ventures. If you notice that a number of women who are your prospective clients or clients drive the same model car for example why not combine with the car dealership and start sending business to each other. What promotion could you run with that business that is mutually beneficial?

No it is time to really "niche" your business. Your niche is what you specialise in that you can offer that target market.
• How would you like to position your brand in the marketplace?
• What will your brand be synonymous with?
• What is unique about the service that you offer?
• What do you specialise in?
• What are you an expert in?

Choose a niche that is an inch wide and a mile deep!! So, for example if you are targeting women aged between 40 and 50, who want to re-enter the workforce, you may specialise in assisting these women with their confidence to then expand their career choices and that would be your "niche". There is a lot of depth to that niche because assisting women with self esteem and confidence can branch off into many areas and so can assisting them with career choice. Another business with the same target market may assist those same women with their image and resume and that would be their niche. What are you the expert in? What results can you assist people to obtain?

Once you have decided who you would like to work with and what you would like to specialise in and offer them specifically it is important to find out if there is a need or a want for that in the marketplace before you go investing too much time and money in setting up your entire marketing structure and branding. This is where it can become handy to use a survey tool such as surveymonkey.com. Google is also great for this as you can use a search tool to gain insight into how many people are searching for specific keywords each month.

Asserting yourself as an expert and specialising in something is a powerful way to lift your profile and have your business take off even more because your potential clients will recognise you as their coach immediately and you will also be able to market directly to your target market using the language that they use and in places where they will find you. You can then tailor your products and services to them specifically. Have fun ☺

Rachel Anastasi is an empowerment coach, speaker, mentor and founder of Free To Be Me Life Coaching and www.secretsofasupercoach.com. For more information visit www.freetobemecoaching.com.au