On this solo episode, I’m answering the question “What if I Have More Than One Ideal Client?” We’ve all heard the importance of having a niche as an entrepreneur, especially when starting out. But I want to challenge you to think about what niche means to you. You’ll hear my approach to niching and examples from me and my clients. I’m also sharing more about the rebrand and upcoming book and workshops!
"To me, a niche is more about finding people with a similar worldview than having an exact demographic description of the client persona." – @sarahsantacroce #humanemarketing Share on XIn this episode, you’ll hear about a different perspective to Niching as well as…
- the niche myth
- why it’s ok to have different clients
- why their worldview is more important than what they buy
- some examples
- and much more…
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Marketing Like We’re Human – Sarah’s book
Authentic & Fair Pricing Mini-Course
Email Sarah at sarah@sarahsantacroce.com
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Imperfect Transcript of the show
I will provide a transcript of the show whenever I can, but please be informed that this is non-edited, so far from perfect. On the positive side you might get a chuckle from reading it, because these robot transcripts are often quite funny 🙂
[00:00:00] Sarah: Hello, humane marketers. Welcome to episode 102 of the new humane marketing podcast. The place to be for the generation of marketers that cares. This is a show where we talk about running your business in a way that feels good to you is aligned with your values and also resonates with today’s conscious customers because it’s humane.
[00:00:26] And non-pushy as always I’m Sarah Santacroce the host on this show and you’ll know that you’re in the right place. If you are a heart-centered entrepreneur or change maker who is looking for a different, a better way to market your business, or you might also be a marketing impact, pioneer someone who’s working for an organization who does business for good.
[00:00:49] And who’s looking to align your company’s marketing with the rest of your value. If you’re a regular here, you know that I’m organizing the conversations around the seven PS of the humane marketing Mandalah and if you’re new here, welcome, and maybe you don’t know yet what I’m talking about. So you can go over to humane.marketing forward slash one page to get the one page marketing plan with the humane marketing.
[00:01:17] Of the seven PS of marketing, it comes with seven email prompts to really help you reflect on these different PS and fill out your humane marketing Medallia. Today’s monologue. Yep. It’s just me today. So today’s monologue fits under the third P of the humane marketing. Mandalah the F P of people. And I want to address the topic.
[00:01:44] What if I have more than one ideal client? So before we get into that, though, I want to give you a few updates regarding the rebranding and what I have coming up this fall. So slowly but surely things are moving in the right direction of the rebranding. So the new website is now up. If you’re not on my email list, maybe you haven’t heard it yet.
[00:02:11] So you can go over to www dot Humana. Dot marketing. So there’s no.com or.org. It’s the.marketing domain. So humane.marketing, and I’m still getting used to it as well. And I even noticed that in some forms, when you fill it in and there’s no.com, they give you an error message. I’m like, no, but the, the end.
[00:02:38] The extension is.marketing. There’s no.com or.org. So still getting used to that. Since you’re listening to this podcast, you already know that also the, the new show is basically up and running under the new name, humane marketing, all the feeds on iTunes and Stitcher and all of that should be updated with the new podcast cover and you’ve title and everything else.
[00:03:07] The gentle marketing revolution book is now. Edited for the second time. And it contains a new preface explaining the name change. I decided that I had to kind of give an introduction to explain, you know, why I sometimes refer to the gentle business revolution or even gentle marketing. And now all of a sudden I’m using first of all, a new title.
[00:03:33] And I get to that in a bit. But most, most of all, also I talk about humane marketing as kind of the concept. I’m just waiting for the layout and the new version will be submitted very, very soon. So yes, regarding the title, I decided to change the title to marketing, like we’re human. So that’s going to be the new title, same subtitle, but a new title called marketing.
[00:04:03] Like we’re human. I didn’t want to use the humane marketing in the title. Because maybe, you know, a need some explaining, but it’s essentially, you know, humane marketing also includes that humanness in it. And so I thought that was a good title for people to really understand what it is. And and then in the book I explained the.
[00:04:29] The humane approach to human centered marketing in a way. So that’s a scoop. Number two, if you like. And then I also just, this week submitted the new book about humane selling to the other there. So that’s currently in editing phase and improve reading and. Hopefully we’re planning on publishing that book sometime mid November, definitely before Thanksgiving.
[00:04:58] So hopefully first, second week of November. So yeah, very happy with that. So in the, in my newsletter and the weekly newsletter that I send out on Saturday, I was kind of analyzing and, and, and saying, you know, if I was to focus on the negative things of this whole season desist fiasco, I’m sure I could come up with a few things.
[00:05:23] And every now and then there’s a, you know, a voice in the back of my head that says, and now we have to. Pay again for publishing the book again, basically, or editing the book again, even though it was already done having the cover redone. So yeah, there’s a few things that are definitely on the, you know, not so positive side, like time lost money lost and patients lost and things like that.
[00:05:50] But there have also been so many positive outcomes of this, that the negative side really doesn’t matter. Anymore that much. So here are a few things on that positive side of the bell. Like, for example, I’ve always struggled with the fact that gentle marketing was perceived as a bit soft and that’s not who I am.
[00:06:15] I really am both. I’m strong and gentle, but the, the, the whole gentle marketing was. You know, sometimes it kind of put me into the circles that I’m, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be in the kind of marketing that I want to bring forth is not just kind of marketing is not just the marketing, the lines with you know, gentle soul.
[00:06:42] It is that, but not only it really, for me, it’s bigger than that. It’s it’s and I think that’s why humane marketing feels so more aligned it’s because it’s both, it is. Yes, compassionate, but it’s a compassion that we can bring into a business context. It’s empathy that can go. Out of the, just a yoga circles and the, you know, astrology circles.
[00:07:10] It can really go and set at the table with, you know, business owners and organizations and things like that. So I really feel like with the humane marketing, I have that now that I can say this is not just, you know, the Wu of the moment, it really is a solid thing where we need to have this conversation around humane marketing.
[00:07:36] So that’s a, a positive outcome for me. And I really feel like I, it is me gentle is me as well. I’m not only gentle. There’s also another kind of a stronger side to me where I feel like, no, this is the way it is and we need to talk about it. The other thing is, is also with the word gentle is that, you know, for some guys, it was still kind of this more female thing.
[00:08:06] And now with humane marketing, That really? Yeah. That gender bias doesn’t exist because it’s just very clear it’s for humans and humans who care. So I’m glad I don’t have to always explain. No. Does this for everybody, not just for women. Yeah, I already mentioned that with gentle marketing. I just wasn’t sure if I could approach organizations and with humane marketing, I really feel like nothing is holding me back.
[00:08:37] And it’s now part of my offering to consultant, offer workshops for organizations who do business for good and. That feels good to me that I can now bring that out there to bigger businesses and not just talk to, you know, female entrepreneurs, again, nothing, nothing against female entrepreneurs. That’s a big part of who I am and what I do, but I also want to do the other thing.
[00:09:07] So I really feel like what happened was meant to happen, to challenge me to, you know, think it over and come back strong. So, yeah, I wanted to share that in, you know, that I’m sharing this rebranding journey with you not to show off, but hopefully to really inspire you, to keep showing up and doing the work as well.
[00:09:30] And yes, there will be setbacks sometimes, but. I feel like if you have built a business on the foundation of your passion and purpose, you will, will bounce back just like I did. So it it’s, we need to, you know, feel the feelings and yes, I cried and felt sorry for myself, but after a few weeks, maybe two months, if I’m honest I did, you know, say, okay, what do I do with this?
[00:10:01] So that’s really why I am sharing this to hopefully encourage you as well to, you know, keep going, keep showing up. And, and for many of us right now, this COVID crisis still has an impact on, on business. And so sometimes we can wonder, you know, am I really doing the right thing here? Or you know, do any need to maybe think about my services and what I want to stand for and, you know, just rethink and do it again.
[00:10:35] So, yeah, that’s what I Wanted to share with you. And it’s, if you’re on my newsletter, you already heard that kind of in written form. I also want to give you a heads up about what I’ve got coming up. So for this fall so sometime in the next 10 days, as I mentioned, I’ll resubmit the book. And under the new title marketing, like we’re human, the cover will also be different and align with the new brand.
[00:11:04] So it’ll be Emerald green instead of orange. First I kind of thought, Hmm. Green yeah, I really liked the gentle marketing revolution book, the, the orange and the, and the purple, but I now like the green Emerald, just as much. So it’s just you know, take some time to getting used to it. But I really do like it now too.
[00:11:26] Then on September’s 22nd and 24th, you’re invited to a free workshop called marketing. Like we’re human in which I’ll share the main principles of this new marketing. So. Bad coming up. I’ll share more about it soon. I don’t have the links yet just yet, but we’ll share about that soon. And then, as I said, also the new selling, like where human book is currently with the editor and will be published sometime mid November.
[00:11:56] So with that back to today’s episode, that hopefully gives you some answers around the question. What if I have more than one ideal client. So what I talk about on this episode is, is first of all, this niche myth, you know, that this idea that we all have to have our niche or niche and just focus on one client and why it’s okay to have different clients.
[00:12:25] And why their worldview is more important than what they buy. I bring you some examples. And at the end, as is often my modus operandi, I give you a permission slip really to say, you know what, all this niche talk well, I’ll do the niching my way. And I find my own niche. Really, when you think about clients, there’s often two different cases.
[00:12:57] The first case is that your business offers different versions of a core service for different types of customers. So, for example, I offer a LinkedIn profile done for you service for my high level clients. These are busy people who need one-on-one help. They need it fast and they’re willing to make a significant investment.
[00:13:23] And then the second word is version of this product is is my LinkedIn profile. Quick-fix video course that appeals to new business owners. It’s perfect for the bootstrapping budget and to do it yourself mode. And if I look at the clients, they are completely different. Of course, one might be a member of a board at a big corporate and the other, an energy healer and the founder of a small.
[00:13:49] So, if you were to explain or analyze the different clients, the persona of these different clients, well, they would be completely different, but what matters is the way I describe the product than the benefits, it’s the usual thing. The first client has more money than time and the second client has more time than money.
[00:14:14] So. My pricing needs to be in accordance to this logic, as well as the communication needs to be targeted towards these different clients. I give you another example from my client. She offers a program called beach hill. It’s a variety of techniques that help students transform energy into a calm confidence.
[00:14:39] And for this program, she has several ideal clients, big international schools, and even other suffragists whom she’s selling the education so that they can then run the program as a franchisee by themselves. So really three different clients. And of course the offer to a school looks completely different from an offer to a parent.
[00:15:05] The same thing goes for the communication. It needs to be adapted to each specific customer persona.
[00:15:15] So that’s the first case where you offer different versions of a core service for different types of customers. So the same. Service or product is being sold to very different types of audiences. The second case where you have different clients is that you have more than one different product or service.
[00:15:39] So. Again, let’s continue with Annette. Besides the beach hill program, she also offers a sleep easy group program. So the audience for discourse could overlap with the beach chill course, but it’s definitely addressing adults, not so much the teenagers. In my case, I offer my marketing like we’re human program for entrepreneurial.
[00:16:05] And yes, it’s starting next year. I’ll start offering it in person again as well. But I also offer workshops and consulting for organizations who want to do business for good and then align their marketing with their conscious customers. So on one hand you have the entrepreneurs that’s you. And on the other hand, you have the workshops for organizations.
[00:16:31] So again, the audiences are completely different. So, if I was to follow the niche gurus, who say you have to find a specific niche and only have one ideal client, none of this would be possible. You would have to really just focus on, you know, your ideas, real client, that persona basically, and always communicate in the same way.
[00:16:56] But what I found over the years is that I can come up with my own opinion of what a niche means. And to me, a niche is more about finding people with a similar worldview than having an exact demographic description of the client persona. What does that mean? It means that the school director from an Etsy example, beliefs, for example, in alternative healing and providing her students with self-empowering solutions in the same way that the parent of the teenager whom an ad works with.
[00:17:33] So they have an, an aligned view of alternative healing. They both believe in mindfulness. For example. Let’s take my case. The chief marketing officer of the organization that buys a workshop or consulting for me has the same open mind and sees that he needs to communicate to his clients in a more empathic way in order to get their trust.
[00:18:02] Even though he works in an organization before everything, he’s a human who cares, he could be an entrepreneur. It just so happens that he’s a human working in an organization and having a chief marketing officer title. So what really matters here? The human and the worldview and the openness to think differently.
[00:18:28] Right. That’s what makes the niche in my case and in Annette’s case, even as well. So do you see how looking at a niche this way is different from the traditional way of describing customer personas or avatars, like job title, income level spending level, et cetera. In my opinion, that doesn’t matter as much, you can have a mindful millionaire and mindful office clerk or a mindful entrepreneur.
[00:18:58] Their buying power is different, but if their worldview is the same, you can get their attention by talking more about your values, also in your marketing and your purpose. The purpose is big here as well. Right? It’s like. Do we want to raise or educate students in a way that makes them into human beings who care about today’s planet.
[00:19:24] If that’s the purpose, then you can talk to a school director in the same way that you talk to a parent and see how that kind of worldview is really overlapping. It’s much more important than just. Putting people into different buckets and saying, no, that is your niche. So what matters knowing your different clients and their different needs, and then making it very clear to them.
[00:19:56] What your specific offer is for them on your website? Especially it can be confusing if you have different clients. And so that’s why it’s so important that you do that thinking, you know, what is, what are my different offers? What, who are my different clients and how am I going to make it understood by them?
[00:20:17] That even though they’re different, The worldview is the same. What matters to them is the same. The values are the same, but here are the different offerings. So on websites, you often see a home page with two different ways to enter. If you’re an organization, click here. If you’re an individual click here, or you could also have a generic home page and then you have different clients in the menu bar.
[00:20:45] So that’s how I’ve chosen to organize humane marketing for. So that’s what I wanted to share with you today. It’s maybe. Maybe almost easier to see it in front of your eyes. So, so maybe look at a few websites and, and, and see how they organized it and see if it, if you see that it’s clear for the person who visits the site, that even though there’s different offerings and maybe even different clients, it makes sense.
[00:21:17] And it’s clear who’s being addressed. So that’s kind of the solutions. I think. We can, yeah, we can understand if we have more than one ideal client and it’s not true that you have to have only one niche or only one ideal client. So I hope this monologue gave you some insights. If you like so many others are struggling with this niche dilemma and are wondering, but what if I have more than just one ideal client?
[00:21:52] What if I want to work? Different clients. So really think about these different clients and make it very clear for them on your website and in all of your other communication, your marketing. You’ll find the show notes of this episode with further links, add humane.marketing forward slash H. 1 0 2 next week.
[00:22:17] I have another treat for you, a conversation with the thinker jerk of itch, author of the book, sell with love. And I really enjoyed my honest and draw conversation with Finca. And I think you will too. So make sure to tune back in next week. Thanks so much for listening and being part of a generation of marketers who cares for yourself, your clients and the plan.
[00:22:41] We are change makers before we are marketers. Go be the change you want to see in the world. Take care.
