How to Successfully Niche on LinkedIn

HOW TO EFFECTIVELY FIND AND RESONATE WITH YOUR NICHE

As you know, my newsletter always focuses on the practical - real implementable strategies to increase your LinkedIn ROI, sometimes focusing on the what but always focusing on the how!

As competition in your industry grows, it makes it more difficult to differentiate between professionals who are offering similar substantive services.

Clients will remain loyal to firms as long as the latter offers quality services. However, firms that do not make amendments and adapt to changing market conditions will doubtless lose business.

In this scenario, it is vital not just to be better but also different to your competitors if you want to grow your client base. This entails developing a value proposition necessary to connect with your target audience. It requires you to identify a niche which you can cultivate for connecting better with your desired audience.

What is a niche?

How is it different from a target market?

A niche is a unique position or place you offer to attract your audience. A target market is a group of people you wish to retain as prospective customers.

The latter is typically connected by something they have in common which you can use to develop a service model. Your niche is a specialised section of your target market that you wish to attract.

Types of niches

Though almost any niche from an affluent-sized target market can give you what you are looking for, it can be challenging to know which niche is the best. There are 5 varying types of niches which have their own unique experiences and services. Let’s look at each of these in turn below.

1. Affinity niches are built upon social connections. This includes business development at your yoga class, at the chess club or at your kids’ school programs. When a consumer is not sure about whom they should pick for financial advising, knowing that someone in their affinity group uses them for services can influence their views.

2. A value niche has a shared philosophy or values which builds trust among people. Knowing that leadership coach shares the same principles as their client will make the former seem more reliable and relatable to the latter.

3. An educational niche is where the target market needs to be acquainted with relevant issues prior to forming a decision. In such cases, a person who has a reputation of giving good financial advice to clients will be much sought after.?

4. Another niche, an experiential niche, is based on the advisor providing a unique experience which will inspire clientele to seek their services again and spread the word about their services among their networks.

5. The psychosocial niche involves working with clients who have undergone painful or disorienting experiences and need emotional and financial guidance in making their decisions. On the other hand, a technical niche involves providing financial services using knowledge, resources, and skills which other advisors do not have.

Finding your niche on LinkedIn

LinkedIn can help you identify where your strengths are and how you can leverage them to attract your clients. Indeed, I do not work with everyone who wants to increase their visibility and use LinkedIn for business generation, I work predominantly with decision-makers in professional services. Pick 2-3 target audiences or industry niches that you want to focus on, and rework your entire profile to appeal to those specific individual niches.

For example, the reason I chose financial and legal services as my initial "niche" on LinkedIn was simple — I'd practised as a property finance lawyer so I have familiarity with the biggest problems and challenges these professionals face on a daily basis — especially when it comes to public relations and marketing.

You can create a profile that speaks to your potential prospects by catering to a specific niche segment. A senior CEO, for example, prefers to deal with financial advisors who have both competence and experience working with senior executives, rather than an advisor who just works with the wealthy. Your About section, work experience and recommendations/testimonials should all reflect your chosen segment.

STEP 1 - POSITION YOUR PROFILE

The first step is to make your LinkedIn profile page customer-oriented. This will enable your target audience to find you easily and allow you to do better business on the platform. You can adopt a few of these tactics to make your business profile more appealing.

If you haven’t updated your profile in a fair while, have a look at our LinkedIn Profile Checklist to make sure you’re leveraging all the new features (or contact me directly to have your profile optimised for you )

For instance, if you are the CEO of an advisory firm, make sure your profile lists that information in the headline section. Do not list your professional LinkedIn headline as “CEO, Company X.”

Instead, mention the services that your company offers and first and foremost the result that people will get from working with you. It can read like this: “Growing and Preserving Your Wealth |Wealth & Investment Management for Mid-Career Professionals | Inventory Management | Retirement Planning | Estate Planning” and so forth.

STEP 2 - LEVERAGE KEYWORD AND SEARCH OPTIONS

Keep in mind that LinkedIn members use the platform as a professional version of a website like Google.?

You need to ensure that your profile contains the right search phrases and keywords your audience will search for when looking for someone offering your services.

Mention your target marketing eg. Inventory Management for Cultural Organisations

Though your product can be used by anyone, you are establishing boundaries as to whom you are selling to. By targeting 2-3 industry niches, you can reach multiple people within that group and design your profile to appeal to them specifically.

The About section: The "30-second pitch" in your ABOUT section should be crafted with the client in mind. Although your writing should be professional, it does not have to be dull. Allow your enthusiasm to shine through, and if a touch of soft humour or irreverence suits your style, go for it. This section should include the following:

• What you do and for whom you do it - The value you provide to clients in that particular niche
• What makes you unique?
• The problem you solve for clients in that sector
• Your ingenuity and your individuality
• Your contact details

The “Experience” section in your LinkedIn profile should contain a record of the various positions you have had and how long you have worked in each of them. By creating multiple “Experience” listings, you are trying to reach each of your niche audiences.

For instance, for your wealth management company, you can include an “Experience” section that says “Wealth Management Services for Cultural Organisations”. Mention the name of your firm and how long you have worked with them. Make sure this listing focuses on cultural organisations as the target group that you serve.

In the description section, you can discuss ways in which you provide wealth management services to cultural organisations. Incorporate client testimonials from places you have worked with in the past. Provide sample videos of your financial management practices. It is not going to be enough to list your services simply, so ensure that you are providing these additional details.

You can then create a similar experience listing for another niche. It can say “Wealth Management Services for SMEs”. Follow the same format as you did for cultural organisations but include niche-specific testimonials, videos, etc.

If you are just now starting to target a new niche, add an experience and "notify your connections" - most will get a notification from LinkedIn that you are now working with these markets in this role

By creating multiple “Experience” listings, you are taking a step toward connecting with your diverse niche audiences.?

Doing this will enable such consumers to locate your profile when they are searching for similar services. It also makes your profile more appealing to consumers since you appear to specialise in their industry.

STEP 3 - YOU LOOK GOOD BUT DO YOU FEEL GOOD?

Have at the ready both industry-specific examples and industry-specific testimonials to use to appeal to others in the same sector

Niche your service down to target audiences based on your existing clients — using those industry-specific work samples and testimonials to appeal to additional prospects who do the same type of business.

STEP 4 - LINKEDIN GROUPS

Join groups where your ideal clients are and start regularly sharing interesting new and valuable content that positions you as an expert in getting results for others in their niche.

One of my clients who is currently on my LinkedIn business development course started a new niche group last week and it is now already populated with 200+ industry leaders. A niche group with focused content attracts key industry leaders.

Think tips, guides, lists or a new legislation update they may not know about.

STEP 5 - SPEAKING EVENTS

There is no better way to showcase your sector authority than speaking to large groups in your niche SECTOR so think about joining podcasts and searching for LinkedIn events as well as setting up your own:

Six out of ten users look for industry insights on LinkedIn. So aim to create content that educates and inspires members. It can identify you as a thought leader. And it’s an excellent way to promote your brand in your niche.

The articles you write will be shown on your profile. When your network reacts to and comment on them, their network will see this activity and Google searches will also 'see' them.

Tip: When you write an article, include relevant hashtags, so more people discover you. Yes, you can add them to articles like this ! You highlight the word eg. #investing and then go to the link icon at the top and add the URL you wish to link https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/hashtag/?keywords=investing :)

It’s going to help you resonate stronger and your marketing business/lead generation is going to be more effective - you’re going to be able to do less and provide more for your clients and build a system that’s scalable. People are going to talk about and want to work with you.

So that’s it, that’s my thoughts on niching and why it’s important, especially for business generation on LinkedIn but more so than just your lead gen and your marketing, it really moves into your mechanics on business as a whole - OWN THAT GAP!

?................................................................................................................................................I hope that you found these LinkedIn tips and strategies useful. If so, do click on the??? ?on my profile to be notified of my new posts and follow?#Trevisan ?to see LinkedIn strategy tips in your feed. that amplify your presence here.

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