Ready to fix your following? To do that, you’ve got to gain an understanding of a couple of major marketing concepts. There are two words that get thrown around an awful lot when we talk about your following: niche and ideal client avatar. A lot of times, they are interchanged. They are not interchangeable concepts. Understanding these marketing concepts is key to building your business – especially in the digital age. This topic is a HOT BUTTON for most overwhelmed entrepreneurs trying to figure how to become profitable online. The goal of guide is to simplify it for you, breaking down what each one is, how they line up together, and how they’re different. So that you can fix your following!

Simplifying Niche and Ideal Client Avatar

Niche

Niche is the specific category your business falls under. In my Make it Happen Marketing Method workbook (for direct sellers), I show different examples of niche. Take a look below:

• Meh: Health & Beauty
• Okay: Health & Beauty for Moms
• Good: Health & Beauty for Working Moms
• Better: Health & Beauty for Work from Home Moms
• Best: Health & Beauty for Work from Home Moms with Toddlers

Can you see where we got really specific for this social seller? It allows her to really target her posts and her content. This change can lead to higher prospect conversions. It also allows her to decide which networking groups she’s going to join, what Facebook groups she’s going to hang out in, which hashtags and SEO information she’s going to use, and make decisions on in-person marketing events like craft fairs.

Ideal Client Avatar

Ideal client avatar, or ICA, is a “character” you develop to represent the person or persons you want to work with. It dives deeper than niche, and you can have multiple ICAs for your different offers. When you develop this “character” you want to focus on demographics (age, job, location, income, marital status, etc.) you also want to focus in on their behavior patterns, interests, pain points, pleasure points, and how they would talk/how you would talk to them.

Niche .vs. Ideal Client Avatar

When you get into the nitty gritty of it, the biggest difference between niche and ICA is the detail. A niche is broad. It allows you to have a variety of offers and options to serve your audience. ICA is extremely specific.

Let’s look at this example for a social seller:

Susie is a BODi coach. She is currently casting a really wide net, just talking to moms in general. She’s overwhelmed and frustrated because her business isn’t growing. She works full time, but the stay at home moms who are following her just aren’t buying. Not only that – they can’t connect with her.

Susie’s kids are 8 and 10. She’s busy running from sports to cheer and scouts. They eat on the go and rarely have a sit down dinner. Her creative genius is ordering healthy-ish things at fast food restaurants and adding to her workouts with walks around the ball field. She squeezes her workout in in the hour she has while her daughter is in cheer. And she’s lost 50 lbs following BODi’s 2B Mindset and improved her body image in the process.

Her NICHE would be health and wellness for working moms of school aged children. Her ICA would change depending on her upcoming offers. IF she’s got a group coming up that’s called “Change Your Life in 22 Minutes,” she’s probably NOT going to be working with beginners. This group is going to be focused on the program 22 Minute Hard Corps, a Tony Horton program that is INTENSE. It’s going to address a more intermediate to advanced individual.

Let’s look at another example for a business coach:

Taylor is a business coach. She’s spent 10 years in the corporate world as an HR professional. She’s seen every mistake a small business owner could possibly make when it comes to benefits, payroll deductions, and recruitment. She wants to build a side hustle that makes her $500-$1,000 a month teaching other HR professionals and small business owners how to prevent major financial losses by implementing better systems and strategies.

Her NICHE is going to be professional development for small business owners. Her ideal client would likely change based on her offer.

The reason that an ideal client changes when a niche does not is because an entrepreneur’s offers change. Having a wide product suite is going to help build your profitability. Which is why I offer 1:1 design & management, courses, and digital products. Each service I offer has a different price point from low to high-ticket, but my general niche is the same: brand design and management for entrepreneurs.