The Common Characteristics of a Niche

Targeting a specific niche is a tried-and-true approach to getting good clients. But what exactly is a niche, and how do you serve it well? A niche is a subset of your ideal customer model that has distinct needs and characteristics, but is sizeable enough to be attractive on its own. You may need to fine-tune your customer experience, product set, or collateral to speak more directly to these people, but if they're a good fit with your strengths and expertise they can turbo-charge your active-marketing efforts. For instance, the California wealth management firm HoyleCohen, because of its experience and insights into the needs and challenges of health professionals, chose to target San Diego healthcare professionals as a client niche because of the local concentration of physicians and Scripps Institute employees.