The 1-Page Marketing Plan: Get New Customers, Make More Money, And Stand out From The Crowd

by Allan Dib

Being all things to all people leads to marketing failure.

Targeting a tight niche allows you to become a big fish in a small pond. It allows you to dominate a category or geography in a way that is impossible by being general.

Once you dominate one niche, you can expand your business by finding another profitable and highly targeted niche, then dominate that one also.

If you had just suffered a heart attack, would you prefer to be treated by a general doctor or a heart specialist? Of course you’d choose the specialist.

So figure out the one thing your market wants a solution to, something that they’ll pay you handsomely for. Then enter the conversation they’re having in their mind, preferably something they go to bed worrying about and wake up thinking about.

Dominate a niche, then once you own it, do the same with another and then another. But never do so all at once. Doing so dilutes your message and your marketing power.

For example, back to our photographer friend, he might do: Weddings Corporate photography Photojournalism Family portraits These are vastly different market segments.

Personal fulfillment, Value to the marketplace and Profitability)

Remember it’s not about the “turnover,” it’s all about the “left over.”

The ideal customer for the photographer is people wanting family portraits. They are the most fun and profitable, highest-value and best-paying types of customers. There’s likely to be a standout market segment for you too.

Who is your ideal target market? Be as specific as possible about all the attributes that may be relevant. What is their gender, age, geography? Do you have a picture of them? If so, cut out or print a picture of them when you think about and answer the following questions: What keeps them awake at night, indigestion boiling up in their esophagus, eyes open, staring at the ceiling? What are they afraid of? What are they angry about? Who are they angry at? What are their top daily frustrations? What trends are occurring and will occur in their businesses or lives? What do they secretly, ardently desire most? Is there a built-in bias in the way they make decisions? For example, engineers are exceptionally analytical. Do they have their own language or jargon they use? What magazines do they read? What websites do they visit? What’s this person’s day like? What’s the main dominant emotion this market feels? What is the ONE thing they crave above all else? These questions are not theoretical, pie-in-the-sky questions.

For example, if you’re selling IT services to small companies in the financial services industry, you might be dealing with both the business owners and their assistants.