Attracting the right visitors

I'd rather have 10 dedicated contributors than 100 random followers

Last week I talked about choosing between being a generalist or defining your professional niche.

One of the forgotten benefits of choosing a niche is the increased efficiency of attracting the right clients. See, when you do a little of everything, you also dilute your marketing to “do a little of everything.”

Imagine doing a Google search to find the best price and selection for a new flat-screen TV. You would probably expect the usual suspects: Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, etc. But what if Bill’s TV & Tire Emporium were one of the search results?

Sure, Bill may know about both tires and TVs, but what is his actual expertise in them?

I talk a lot about marketing ourselves and positioning ourselves as experts. What does that look like in practice?

Using our TV example, I would regularly post content on my website and social media about topics related to the needs of those I wish to attract. For example:

• How to choose the right size TV for your living room

• What is the difference between LED, QLED, OLED, LCD screens?

• Which is better? 720p or 1080p?

• Is a curved screen better than a flat-screen TV?

By focusing my content on buyer questions, I can almost guarantee that prospective buyers will search for and find my content (the Positioning part). Further, because the content centers around answering beginner-level questions, I can be a part of the education process, thus building trust. This education and trust-building establishes me as an authority or expert in the eyes of the prospect.

This model can work for any product, beer, doula services, photography, tech software services, SaaS, video editing - anything.

But imagine if we did not have a niche. Or an idea of what our audience was searching for. Our content may look like this:

• LED TVs

• TV stands

• Living room furniture

• Remote control batteries

• Flat screens

Not only would we set the record for the most pages at the very end of Google results, but we would also have little to no traffic (or paying customers) to show for our effort.

This week, consider how you can use your chosen niche to identify exactly what your audience is searching for. Once that is known, how can you publish content that attracts their attention through authoritative and expert advice.

Your web traffic and social media followers may not grow to influencer-level numbers, but the quality of your audience will far exceed envy-worthy digits. I’d rather have 10 deeply committed followers (customers) than 100 or 1000 passive fans.

Go, share your expertise with those looking for answers.

All the best,

-Shaun