Whenever I’m at events or meetings to help beef up my business, I get asked who my target client is. I always name a pretty broad range of ages, orientations, genders, and demographics, because that’s my reality! I have a diverse group of clients. But conventional small business wisdom is to narrow, narrow, narrow to best cater to your perfect niche. I don’t know if that even appeals to me, because I frankly enjoy keeping tabs on different trends in different sectors of the online dating market. It’s fascinating to me!
A friend recently helped me identify a core tenet across all my clients, though. My target clients aren’t a specific age or gender or income level or geographic area, but they all share a consistent mindset. They’re all excited and ready to find love, they recognize that the Internet can provide value in that process, and they’re willing to hire professional help to navigate the online dating world.
So many people out in the greater online dating world are jaded, negative, and understandably untrusting of online dating. (It’s possible to have truly awful experiences, of course. I’ve had my share.) And so many people feel like they can do fine on their own and don’t need help from someone like me; they’d rather spend time and energy studying guides like templates for the ideal profile/message, or pickup artist guides, etc. And that’s totally fine; those just aren’t the type of people that are drawn to working with me. My clients pretty quickly recognize that something truly personalized and tailored to them is so much more successful, comfortable, fun, and likely to attract a mate who values them for what they’re really like!
Anyway, I think I’ve finally identified my “narrow” target customer niche. It’s customers who are awesome, and motivated, and who believe that they can have an experience that’s positive if they put in some effort and get some guidance from me a long the way. And I love that! That’s so much more exciting than, say, “25 to 30-year-old men in the Greater Seattle area who work in a technical industry.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that group, haha; it’s just not nearly cool enough a descriptor to encapsulate all the awesome folks I help all over the globe! [icon-heart]