by David Steele
The Need for Community
We survive and thrive in relationships. We are social beings and cannot
be successful or happy alone. Ever since we lived in caves our social
environment largely determines our fate. As technological advances allowed
us to increase our mobility, we were able to leave our communities and
travel the world. We eventually became a mobile society, choosing where
to live and work, and choosing whom to live with, rather than limiting
ourselves to the locations and people we inherited and grew up with. Fewer
and fewer people choose to live and work in the communities in which they
grew up.
“Birds of a Feather Flock Together”
In today’s world, given that most of us have an unmet need for
community, one of the greatest services we can offer the clients and prospects
in our niche is simply to get them together.
Think about it. A niche is a group of people that share common situations,
needs, and goals. When these people get together, they immediately feel
a common bond; they understand each other and can easily provide mutual
support.
Any niche would be attracted to, and benefit from, participating in a
niche community:
- Fortune 500 CEO’s
- Morbidly Obese Women
- Real Estate Investors
- Singles Over 50
- Tai Chi Practitioners
- Small Business Owners
- Unemployed/Laid Off Tech Workers
- Ph.D. Candidates Working On Their Dissertation
- Stay-At-Home Dads
- Women in Transition
- New Moms
You get the idea… any niche you can think of for your practice
is a candidate for a niche community.
My Story: From Therapist to Singles Guru of Silicon Valley
In 1997 when I transitioned from therapy to coaching and wanted to be
THE Relationship Coach for my community, I started a weekly “Friday
Night Social” singles gathering. After a one month pilot program
and some market research, I designed a community for the singles in my
area unlike any other setting available, that would meet their need to
meet other singles in a safe, fun, supportive setting, and would further
my mission to provide relationship education and support for my community.
Our Friday Night Social continued for 8 years and was a vibrant singles
community that supported the practices of the four
coaches who collaborated to make it happen. It was a lot of fun, and the
time and effort needed to make it happen was minimal. We featured a guest
speaker each week, a local professional who was usually a good referral
source as well.
We became well-known in our community and had a loyal following
of singles who sometimes continued to attend with their partners when no
longer single! With the goodwill and contacts we have developed over the
years, word of mouth referrals from singles and professionals brought a
significant number of new participants and prospects for our services
each week. We did a minimal amount of external marketing.
After the first year of working every Friday night, I needed to be home
with my family and handed the operation over to my business partner, Marvin
Cohen, who was attracted to my venture in the first few months, and the
business continued to thrive independent of its founder until Marvin
decided he wanted to transition his practice to therapy and discontinued
the community after 8 years.
How a Niche Community Can Benefit Your Practice
- External marketing- attracts people you don’t know, who don’t
yet know you - Internal marketing- helps build your relationship with your prospects
so they hire you - Stimulate word of mouth- participants tell their friends more readily
about a community resource than a private service - Build strategic alliances- invite other professionals to participate and
cross-refer - Increased visibility- become the “go-to” resource associated
with your niche - Low cost marketing- a viable service that can pay for itself and even
generate profit - Increased credibility- success of niche community reflects upon your abilities
as a service professional - Increased effectiveness of service delivery system- more people are exposed
to more choices of how to engage you and benefit from your services - Increased traffic- free or low-cost gatherings attract more people and
create more prospects - Attracts partners/collaborators- other like-minded professionals recognize
the value and want to participate - Transforms a “practice” into a “business”- you
have a community presence and multiple revenue streams and do more than
simply work with your clients on an hourly basis
Types of Niche Communities
1. In-person: draw from your local community and meet
in person. Best if you deliver your services in person.
2. Virtual: Meet online and/or by telephone and draw
from anywhere in the world. Best to combine e-mail distribution list with
regular conference calls.
3. Open membership: Anyone can join
4. Restricted Membership: Members are screened and must
meet certain criterion
5. Free or Fee: Members can join for free or must pay.
Often guests can attend on a trial basis and must pay to continue.
Tips for a Successful Niche Community
A. Define your niche and do your market research to identify what they
want/need
B. Provide more value than expected
C. Be continuously creative and keep it fun and interesting
D. Take responsibility for the leadership and outcome. Most communities
fail due to lack of leadership
E. Involve participants- form committees, ask for volunteers to greet,
host, set-up, break-down, etc
F. Don’t do it alone- form a partnership, collaborate with other
like-minded professionals, outsource administrative functions to free
you to work on your business and serve your clients
G. Form strategic alliances- network with similar and complementary professionals
and organizations
H. Create an organized system and plan events well ahead of time
I. Be responsive to participant issues and requests
J. Use a website, newsletter, schedule of future programs/events, e-mail
distribution list, and conference calls to communicate with participants
and prospects and keep them engaged
K. Use registration process, even for free events, that allows you to
capture contact information to add to database
L. Use short feedback forms to solicit input about events, with “Please
contact me about” with your calls to action at the bottom
M. Create safety by having and enforcing rules:
(e.g. sign at door of Friday Night Social- “We reserve the right to refuse admission to anyone that does not meet our minimum standards of appearance, behavior, and sobriety”)
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