Why Should I Niche My Practice?

One would think that all it takes to get the word out for your private practice business is hanging a shingle and hoping the world magically shows up. This is simply not true. Marketing is a big piece of how we sell our services to people. If you own a self-pay private practice business you probably have a bit of an understanding of this concept, or you are really struggling to get new clients. If you own an insurance billing private practice this may never have occurred to you much as clients find you through insurance directories. 

Niching is a huge part of marketing.

When you try to speak to everyone, you speak to no one… 

Let that sink in for a second. I will wait…

Ok, I think there is space to make the argument for niching your private practice and marketing message no matter if you are a self-pay practice owner or an insurance billing practice owner. My wife always says that “clear is kind.” For the insurance billing practice owner rather than take any client, why not be a little more selective in who you want to serve and why? Why not purposely reach the clients that excite you and interest you? That helps with avoiding burnout…

For the self-pay private practice owner that understands engaging potential clients and marketing is a must for their business to survive then niching your practice down is where it starts. Niching is a must and needs to be done before you do any other marketing. Niching is what allows you to set your marketing strategy for everything else you will do in engaging and attracting clients. 

An argument I hear a lot about niching is that it will eliminate other types of clients that you will see. This is not true at all. Niching does not eliminate any other potential clients, it just means you are going to put your energy and messaging into attracting your ideal clients. It does not mean you wont work with or even attract other types of clients. As a matter of fact, I have found the opposite to be true. When you Niche down your marketing and practice, you all the sudden cast a wider net and attract other types of clients as well. I know, it seems counterintuitive, but it is true.

Potential clients really like to know you have your shit together. When you niche your marketing and get really clear and good about who you serve, you really come across as having your shit together. Another great thing about niching your messaging down in your marketing is that it is easier to make the sale to the client. They trust that you “get it” and it makes sense to them that you do. Just that alone greases the skids a bit and makes it easier to get clients to buy in. 

Building the relationship with potential clients starts in niching down to who you want to serve. Once you understand who you want to serve in the most specific way possible then you can start to build a strategy in how you reach that potential client in order to establish that trust it takes to move them from first engagement then into the chair, or maybe even the couch…

When we work with clients on marketing, we start with niching down your practice. We have to get really clear on who we want to reach for your practice. If we can’t get clear on that you will never establish a clear marketing strategy to engage them. Niching drives how the rest of the marketing will look and feel. Once you get clear on who you want to serve, that will help to establish the where and when you reach them. 

Many of us get confused by the nebulous that appears to be marketing, I get it, there are whole careers built around marketing alone. The thing is, the fundamentals of marketing do not change. You have to identify who you want to serve and everything else flows from there.