Networking with Niches: It’s All About Who You Know and Who You Want to Know

Let’s face it, marketing to the public is not cheap and to make it more difficult, it’s unpredictable. Now, this doesn’t mean you should completely rule out public marketing (it does work great for some!) but it does mean you might want to spend some time thinking of additional ways to gain more clients by spending less money. Because let’s be honest, who doesn’t want to spend less on marketing? Of course there are numerous ways to do this but today the focus is on networking with niches.

Niches come in all shapes and sizes and they are likely right at your fingertips just waiting to connect with you. There is a good chance many of you are networking with some of the more traditional niches, like CPAs and financial planners or advisors. But, are you really taking advantage of all of the niches you could be getting in front of? If not, you should be.

Networking and building relationships with key niches not only gives you the opportunity to bring in more business with less overhead but it can also help you get off the public marketing hamster wheel. Plus, by taking a more integrated marketing approach, such as marketing to clients, niches or prospects, if something fails one month, you still have other marketing efforts bringing in revenue.

I’d like to take you through a quick exercise to make sure you are taking advantage of all of the niches you might be connected with or have a passion for. First, take a few moments and think about the niches you already belong to. Examples might include: family owned businesses, single parents, pet owners, etc. Here are a few more niche ideas for inspiration:

• Farmers/Ranchers
• Government Employees
• Dentists
• Rotarians
• Senior Centers/Groups
• Snowbirds
• Funeral Directors
• Care Givers (Hospice, Day Care, Sitters)
• Churches
• Community Centers
• Doctors
• Business owners
• Homeowners’ Associations

I bet you came up with more than you thought you would! Now, jot all of these ideas down. Second, see which niches your staff might belong to and add those to your list. Maybe they go to specific church, play golf or volunteer at the local nursing home. And finally, think through your client base. Who are they? Doctors? Veterans? Veterinarians?

Separately, are there niches where you don’t have any connections but want to be connected with? Write those down on a separate list.

Next, you’ll want to create a plan of attack. Here are a few things to get you started:

• Identify the “key contacts” you will introduce yourself to and build relationships with to promote referrals or set up seminars.
• List all possible ways you could be introduced to this niche.
• What strategies will you use for your initial stages of moving this niche closer to referrals or private seminars?
• What “special offer or offers” could be made for this particular niche? How many different offers can you think of? Do the offers benefit the key contact or the consumer?
• Once you have gotten the introduction with your key contact, what does the agenda look like?

The most important part of all of your networking efforts is to never give up. If one niche doesn’t work, go to the next. And if it didn’t work this time around, try back at a later date.

I hope you find this helpful and I wish you the best of luck in your future niche marketing endeavors!

Until next time,

Kelly Murphy
Practice Building Consultant
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (800) 846-1555
www.aaepa.com