Customers come to you because you offer a specialty. For instance, you are the computer consultant who specializes in dental-office computer networking. Customers come to you because you specialize in grooming award-winning poodles. People read CanadaOne magazine because it specializes in providing small-business advice that helps solve problems!

Niche marketing -- choosing a specific target audience and speaking directly to it -- brings you three things:

1. More customers
2. Qualified buyers
3. Repeat business

Why? Because you're filling an IMMEDIATE need.

Some of my clients hesitate to market as a niche business. "We can do it all," they argue. "Why should we market just one aspect of our business?"

So, I ask them this one question - "When YOU are the customer, how do YOU buy products or services?"

For instance, let's say you need a lawyer to help you with a few legal matters as you set up your new catering business. What do you do first? You might ask a few friends and associatesfor referrals. You ask things like, "Does he/she deal with a lot of small businesses?", "Can he/she help me draw up client, employee and independent contractor agreements?", "Can he/she help with securing the business to pass on to my children?"

These questions define very specific criteria -- a niche. You are looking for a company that provides very specific services to fill an immediate need.

In addition to asking for direct referrals, you might also look in the yellow pages. Which ad are you mostly likely to respond to:

Ad #1	"1998 recipients of the prestigious 'We've Got You Covered' service quality award."
Ad #2	"Big or small - we do it all"
Ad #3	"We specialize in family-owned buinesses"
Ad #4	"Your business partners for contract law and succession planning"

I would bet big money that most of you would call the companies who placed ads 3 and 4. Why?

Because ad 1 talks about a nine-year-old award that doesn't mean much to the potential customer. A service quality award is nice, but it doesn't say anything about how that helps the customer.

Ad 2 is too general. Do you really want a firm that tries to be all things to all people? Or do you want a firm that understands YOUR specific business needs?

Ads 3 and 4 tell you exactly what they do best. Don't you deserve an expert working on behalf of your business?

So do YOUR customers!

Niche marketers win over their competition because:

1. They know who their primary customers are.
2. They know what those primary customers want.
3. They give those customers what they promise.

You will get more qualified customers coming to your business if you consciously develop a specific niche market. This doesn't mean you can't 'do it all'. The point is to lead with what you do best. Once you attract customers to your business because of your specialty, you can introduce them to the other products or services you offer.

Here's one of my favourite examples of terrific niche marketing. A surplus store in St. Paul, Minneapolis has been running commercials that perfectly hit its niche market of customers. It's one of the best ad campaigns I have seen in a long time. Here's the winning slogan that gets the attention of its target market:

"For people with nothing to do, and all day to do it."

Does it work? Well, this little run-of-the-mill, 'one-man's-trash-is-another-man's-treasure' surplus store has grown to four locations in the metro area. Can you say the same?

So I ask you again, "What business are you REALLY in?" Once you know the answer, you're well on your way to attracting more customers - and bigger profits.