If narrowing down your target market in order to increase revenues, price, status, and clients sounds counterintuitive, Episode 9 of Market Inside Out, “The Niche Mindset” will help you overcome your fears so you can niche the hell out of your target market. Especially if you’re a small business owner, the idea of niching can incite a lot of fears. Fear of commitment. Fear of excluding potential customers. Even that big-F-word fear—failure!

Before you take that deep niche dive, tune in to Suzanne Longstreet, Emma O’Brien, and Michelle Tresemer, who will allay your anxieties with this been-there-done-that conversation about adopting a niche mindset. They speak with sage experience about why niching is scary, what niching does and does not mean, the process of niching, and why you should take a deep breath and take that dive into your niche.

Takeaways

• Niching is hard, especially for small startups. Be gentle with yourself.
• When you appeal to a smaller, defined section of the market, you’re narrowing your type of client and you’re focusing in on who you really want to serve.
• Accepting Seth Godin’s “Everyone is not your customer” is a good first step to developing a niche mindset. Even though you might technically be able help anyone out there to a certain extent, you’ll be able to help your ideal client perfectly—like 100%. Since your time, money, and energy are limited, focus on those who will appreciate you, want to pay you for your services, and give you great referrals. 
• Picture customers in concentric circles on a bullseye: your ideal customers are in the center, potential customers who need coaxing are next, and the outer circle is comprised of floaters who are not ready to buy but they’ll need to know you’re there when they have cash in hand. Market for your ideal customers.
• Put your time, money, and energy into reaching the ideal customers.
• Get your niche as close as possible to your ideal customer, but be really open to that adjusting over time.
• Put your focus out there; appeal to that niche. If it doesn’t work, adjust.
• Finding your niche is a process, and one that you will be adjusting from here on out.
• For startups, think of your niche as your “not-forever niche.”
• For your customers, your specialization equates with a higher level of expertise. And they’ll be willing to pay for that expertise.
• When marketing to your ideal customer, be authentic and embed your passions and purpose into your messaging. 

Welcome to “Ghost Audience,” Episode 8 of theMarket Inside Out Podcast series. Join Suzanne Longstreet, Emma O’Brien, and Michelle Tresemer as they tackle ghost audiences. If you’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur who despairs because your last three content posts received only a few likes or shares, it’s time to relax and trust the spirits.

Suzanne, Emma, and Michelle are here to reassure you that there’s a ghost audience out there that you can’t see in metrics, and it haunts your website and social posts. But fear not! It’s a friendly crowd—think Casper not Zuul the Gatekeeper of Gozer. And this amorphous, passive crowd is reading your content, secretly shopping your website, and may just manifest as your next conversion.


Key Takeaways From Today’s Episode

• A ghost audience is an amorphous category of people who remain invisible on social media. They see and maybe read your content, but they aren’t big on clicking the ‘like’ button or interacting with a comment.
• A ghost audience is passive; it’s a category of people who get to know you through your marketing and only appear to you out of the blue when they’re ready to buy.
• The ghost audience shops secretly and doesn’t like giving out information. A high percentage of e-commerce shoppers research and shop on social media before you ever know they’re there.
• Keep writing for your ideal customer, for many are part of your ghost audience. Don’t get into the habit of writing only for those who hit “like.”
• Like billboards or magazine ads, a lot of people will see your posts without interacting.
• Know your ghost audience is there, even if you can’t directly measure them.
• Worry less about vanity metrics and more about your authentic message to your ideal customer. Remember, there are plenty of shady-ass ways to get your social media numbers up, and you don’t want to be that person!
• Finally, KEEP GOING, KEEP POSTING, BE CONSISTENT, AND BE PATIENT! Your ghost audience is out there, and they’ll show up when you really need a boost!

What energy do your social posts give off? Cold oatmeal? Junk mail? The ‘meh’ of an empty toilet paper roll? If your social posts are uninspired, Suzanne Longstreet, mindset and success coach, Emma O’Brien, brand strategist and messaging expert, and Michelle Tresemer, whole systems digital marketing coach, strategist, and consultant, get to the root of the problem. 

The mavens of marketing talk about expected outcomes when you write social media from a mindset devoid of enthusiasm. And they’ve got advice on how to reach out to your target audience from a swirl of energy and enthusiasm. Likening these two states to vacuum or vortex, today’s conversation examines the visibility mindset, how to manage spells of low energy, how to ensure your energy conveys that you give a shit, and how to maintain your love for your clients in a language they understand when you outsource social media. 

Today’s episode begs the question, “what energy does your social media send out into the world?” Pull on a pair of ear buds and let’s tap into your vortex energy!

Are you trying to fine-tune your target audience or your ideal customer avatar? Do you feel overwhelmed by all the disparate marketing information out there? If so, this episode of the Market Inside Out Podcast is the tonic you need. In it, the mavens of marketing, Suzanne Longstreet, mindset and success coach, Emma O’Brien, brand strategist and messaging expert, and Michelle Tresemer, whole systems digital marketing coach, strategist, consultant, and trainer, respond to two questions posed by one of the podcast’s viewers. 

1. “What specific questions should we ask ourselves to fine-tune who our audience is?”
2. “How does one narrow down the information in order to find the right fit to make what they do work?” 

Plug in some ear buds for expert advice on tapping into the real lives and needs of your raving fans, while finding your own method of filtering through all the irrelevant crap advice that’s out there.

Join the mavens of marketing as they take a holistic dive into all things that help you market your service or product. If you’re an entrepreneur or solopreneur feeling left behind because you’re not a TikTok or Instagram sensation, Suzanne Longstreet, Emma O’Brien, and Michelle Tresemer will help you recognize that many of your best business practices are really marketing.

Tune in for common-sense expertise on mindset, brand messaging, and digital strategy and tactics as the three discuss what marketing is not, how product, price, and place are your foundations for promotion, and the ‘clean your car’ perspective of marketing—how you show up, what your business behaviors are, how you match what you do to what your customers need and expect. 

From advice on pricing as positioning to marketing with a future-oriented mindset, this episode is chock-full of great, down-to-earth marketing advice. 

On Market Inside Out Podcast, Episode 4, “Messaging and Change,” Suzanne Longstreet, Emma O’Brien, and Michelle Tresemer discuss messaging, change, and action. You’ll learn why you must keep your messaging flexible and why your messaging must change as you grow your business. You need new messaging when you:

·       launch new products and services

·       expand your target market

·       need to cope with a world changing around you. 

The three cover how long to let new messaging run and how often you should revisit what appears to be working. But the bottom line about messaging is you need to “make a freaking decision,” focus, commit, and act. 

If your metaphorical messaging sailboat is still moored at the dock, Suzanne, Emma, and Michelle are the able crew you need to get your marketing sailing!

Welcome to “Names, Fear, and Visibility,” Episode 3 of the Market Inside Out Podcast series. Join Suzanne Longstreet, Emma O’Brien, and Michelle Tresemer as they unpack the angst that can arise from naming your business to being visible on social media. 

The trio talks about their journeys, which too often included listening to bad advice, asking for feedback when wanting validation, and ‘grandma’s cat syndrome.’ 

With honesty, humor, and empathy, they tackle common entrepreneur fears. 

If you fear visibility, pressing post, or not having anything original to say, this episode is for you!

Welcome back to the Market Inside Out Podcast with Suzanne Longstreet, Emma O'Brien and Michelle Tresemer.

Today’s episode, “It’s Not About You,” identifies a typical marketing ‘psycle’ described by Emma as a “soul-destroying thing I had to do, that made me feel bad about my business.”

Can you relate? We talk about why people get into that ‘psycle,’ using a great April Dunford anecdote, and then discuss how to break that ‘psycle.’

And learn to repeat these words, “it’s not about you!”