Blog Posts For Our Practitioner Community

This is a guest post by Amanda Cook of WellpreneurOnline.com.

Oh, the “target market.” You’re probably tired of hearing that you have to choose a target market (or a ‘niche’) in order to create a successful wellness business. But it’s an area where many wellpreneurs drag their feet, because even though a target market is supposed to help you grow, it can feel limiting.

There are two common concerns I hear from almost every new business owner. Let’s deal with them now, so you can choose a target market and move forward with your business!

1. “But my product or service can help everyone! Won’t picking a target market eliminate 95% of my customers?”

The reason you choose a target market isn’t because your product or service can only help that one specific person. It’s because everyone wants to feel that their individual needs are being catered to.  

Think back to the last time you had a problem that needed to be solved (maybe even to your own health issue that got you into health + wellness in the first place). Did you want a one-size-fits-all solution that works for you, your spouse, your great uncle Harry, and the elderly woman who lives across town?

Or did you want a specific solution that fixes your problem, with success stories from people like you, and with tips, advice and strategies specifically for your life situation.

You want the specific one, right? Generic offerings raise too many questions in the customer’s mind and don’t make her feel like you have a solution that will truly work for her.

Let’s look at an example: Say you’re a holistic health coach and you help people transition to a whole foods diet. Eating less processed food and more whole foods is a lifestyle change that could lead to a huge range of improvements. Just off the top of my head, you might experience improvements in your skin, look younger, boost your energy, lose weight, regulate blood sugar levels and get stronger hair and nails and fewer food cravings, just to mention a few possible outcomes. And who would like those outcomes?  Well, honestly, almost everyone with the typical western diet!

But imagine if that was your marketing: “Work with me as your health coach and you’ll lose weight, have more energy, have better skin, hair, and nails, look younger and stabilize your blood sugar! My solution works for everyone - teenagers, men, new moms, menopausal women, diabetics, vegans, broke college students, jet setting playboys and busy professionals!”

Would you buy a product like that?

Honestly, it sounds like you’re selling a miracle pill or snake oil. It sounds way too good to be true.  

When you’re just starting out, especially online, you need to be super specific about who you work with so your target customer instantly connects with you. For example:

“I’m a health coach who works with new moms to get restorative sleep every night.”

“I teach broke college students how to prepare healthy, budget-friendly meals in 20 minutes for under $10.”

“I help busy executives to reduce their stress levels and increase productivity.”

So - don’t worry at all about limiting yourself by choosing a target market. You’ll actually get traction (and clients) faster, and that revenue, success and momentum makes it easier to expand your business into other areas in the future.

2. “Choosing a target market feels so permanent. Am I going to be stuck in that little box forever?”

If you choose new moms as your target market, are you destined to work with them forever? What about your equally fervent passion about supporting endurance athletes or 20-something newlyweds?

The truth is, there’s no way you can predict what direction your new business is going to take as it evolves. Your clients will change, and you will change, and the products and services you offer will change.

The point of choosing a target market is to get traction in that market, and go further than you could spreading your energy across ten different potential paths. By focusing all of your marketing efforts into one target market, you’ll see results a lot more quickly. And once you have clients (and revenue) coming in through this one market - you have a choice. You can either improve and increase your reach in this one target market to get more revenue there, or you can choose to start into a second target market as well. But if you start off by trying to be everything to everyone, you’ll get very few clients, very little revenue, and never be able to really get traction and growth in any of those markets.

So take a deep breath and choose a target market that you’re excited to work with for at least the next six months. It’s not forever, and it’s not your entire business - it’s just the starting point for building a customer base and steady revenue as quickly as possible!

Amanda Cook is the author of Wellpreneur: The Complete Guide for Wellness Entrepreneurs to Nail Your Niche and Find Clients Online. The book is available on Amazon. She also hosts a weekly podcast by the same name.