After the first full week-and-a-bit of November I must confess I think I’m falling behind on my tasks. Here’s what I’ve accomplished so far:
- Define up to three target niches, and what specific offer to make to them. (I defined two niches to focus on, and reserve the third slot for a later brainwave).
- Half-done: Complete a customer analysis for each of the target markets, identifying areas where I need more information.
- Attend training session for facilitators and hand out cards, promoting graphic recording services. (That took me two and a half days – I’ll blog about it in a separate post).
- Complete transition of Directis website from Joomla to Wordpress
I also re-wrote my professional bio, which wasn’t on the task list but needed to be done. Much harder than I expected!
My Results, So Far:
The two niches I’ve identified for my ongoing marketing efforts are:
A) Business Owners of 1-5 employee firms / Solopreneurs. The offer here is for Visual Business Planning sessions, which I’ve tested out with four guinea pigs so far with great results. This is a half-day in-person session where we collaboratively create a visual map of their current business, their goals, and their action plan. Until December 31, 2009 the price for this session is a bargain $300, and then it goes up to $350 in the new year.
B) Associations / Social Enterprises. The offer here is for facilitation of membership or stakeholder consultations/workshops to define issues, identify priorities and plan actions. Graphic facilitation is one tool that I offer this market niche, but a session does not require graphics to be effective. My knowledge and experience in process design and facilitation will help groups achieve their stated outcomes/goals. I’m going to be focusing on groups with their roots in social responsibility, community leadership and change.
The next step is going to be laying out a more specific customer profile. Who do I contact in these associations/groups to tell them about facilitation? What avenues or channels will I use to communicate information about these offers, based on where these target niches are looking for that information.
