How to Choose Your Hunting Niche (And Reach Out to the Right Audience)

Everything starts with figuring out your ideal niche. Check out how to become a specialist and reach your ideal clients.

It was only three and a half years ago that I started working with accountants. 

When I first started my business, I worked with many other professionals – consultants, coaches, health and wellness professionals, and so on. Simply put, I worked with lots of different people.

However, almost as soon as I started working with accountants, I realised that that was the industry where my ideal clients are. I like to call it my hunting niche. It’s where I go when I want to reach out to people and find new clients. 

So, gradually, I went from serving multiple niches to focusing only on accountants.

If I had remained a generalist, I don’t think that I’d have been able to help accountants a whole lot. I needed to become a specialist, which to me is like getting a PhD in your chosen niche.

So, I spent a lot of time trying to understand what accountants actually needed. I worked out a plan to help them do marketing well without spending a lot of time, as I knew that accountants didn’t have a lot of free time (they still don’t, of course).

As I was learning more about accounting, I fell in love with accountants and bookkeepers. I wanted to use my knowledge to help them, and that’s how I went all-in with my niche.

As an accountant, you have to do the same. You must define your niche and your audience and then focus on them. 

Discover for yourself exactly how to do that.

How to Find Your Niche

Everything starts with defining your hunting niche. But if you still don’t know what it is, these four steps will help you find it.

Niche Your Marketing, Not Your Practice

Many people avoid niching because they’re afraid to put all their eggs in one basket. And that’s understandable. It can be scary, especially in the beginning, because it takes time to attract your ideal customers.

That’s why we want to offer a different idea:

You should niche your marketing and not your practice. 

What does that even mean? 

You define who are your ideal clients and then target that group of people. Focus all of your marketing efforts on the niche that you want to serve. Just like how I focused my marketing on accounting firms.

In my articles, I made it a point to speak directly to them. I’ve chosen to write about their problems and things that bother them. 

You should find a pain point of your ideal client and then talk to them about that problem.

But that doesn’t mean you need new branding, new website, or different social media accounts. You don’t have to change anything about your practice right now. Just change your marketing to appeal to your niche.

Find the Right Industry

There are many ways to target your ideal clients. 

Some choose their ideal clients by geographical location, age, or interest. But the best practice is to find the right industry and then focus only on it.

This works especially well for accountants and similar professions. You can focus on a particular industry and then master everything about it.

Once you define the right industry, you’ll realise there are thousands of ideal clients waiting for you. You should now focus on creating marketing that speaks to them.

Because when you work with a specific client, you get to understand their pain points and their fears. You know what they want and what they aspire to be. As a result, you understand them better than any other accountant and that’s why you’re an excellent choice for them.

Choose the Low-Hanging Fruit

There’s no need to make your job any more stressful than it is. So choose clients that are not particularly difficult to serve. 

Generally, this means you have to analyse the current situation and understand which niches are easy to work with. You also have to figure out which can be particularly challenging so you can avoid them.

For example, you should avoid the hospitality niche for now. We’re in the middle of the global pandemic and a lot of things have changed as a result. And hospitality and tourism aren’t in a very good position. The same goes for hairdressers and similar niches.

Not only are these niches going through a particularly difficult time and require a lot of help, but they also may not be able to pay you. And, at the end of the day, you need to put food on the table. That’s why we’d suggest focusing on those in stable industries that can afford your services.

If you prefer to work online, you should look for niches that work online, too. The work volume should be pretty stable as it’s less affected by outer circumstances.

Ask the Right Questions

There are a few essential questions you need to ask before you choose your niche. But one of the most important is: 

Where can I find my client?

Ideally, you should be able to find your clients online because that’s the easiest and the fastest way to find new clients.

Find out if there are any social networks or forums where people from that industry gather. Then, make sure that they’re ready to grow with you. The best way to do that is by asking the right questions. 

Ask them what their goals are and how they feel about learning and growing. You have to figure out if they’re open to change and new ideas that could help them transform their business. 

You want to position yourself as a VITAL accounting firm that helps peoples and companies grow.

The other important question is: 

Is this client able to afford my services?

Let’s be honest. Every business needs a stable cashflow to fund the work. If your clients can’t pay you or if their payments are late, that could seriously affect your business. 

If you can’t fund the work and if you can’t pay your staff, you won’t be able to continue doing the good work. And in the long run, everyone will be missing out.

You want to serve companies that understand the value of having a good accountant.

Reaching Your Audience Effectively

Once you decide on a hunting niche, it’s now time for you to reach out to your audience. Do it more effectively and position yourself as an authority in your niche with these tips.

Cut Through the Noise

No matter the niche, you always need to find a way to stand out.

When I first started working with accountants, I knew that I had to cut through the noise and make myself super visible. I needed to position myself as an expert in the field. It’s because I wanted accountants to see me as a go-to person when it came to marketing and sales.

So, what did I do? 

I decided that I was to write 100 blog posts in 100 days. And that challenge helped position me really well in the niche.

All I had to do was to share my knowledge with the world. I already had all that within me, but how could accountants have known that I had the knowledge if I never shared it?

So, this challenge soon gave me visibility and positioned myself as a sales and marketing expert in the niche.

Use Organic and Paid Marketing

There are more ways to reach your prospects, but we suggest combining organic and paid marketing. Both have pros and cons, but that’s the way to get the most out of both worlds.

Organic marketing is about being present on social media such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or wherever your ideal clients like to spend their time. It’s about posting useful content and engaging in genuine conversations with others.

The best thing about organic marketing is that it’s free – it won’t cost you anything except your time. The biggest downside, in contrast, is that you don’t see results immediately. You have to slowly build your online presence.

On the other hand, paid marketing costs money but allows you to reach more people in less time. Apart from social media, you could also use Google ads or other search engines.

So, to maximise your results, you should combine both types of marketing to see what works better for you.

Focus on Partnerships

One of the best ways to reach your ideal clients is through partnerships. 

Keep in mind that partnering with someone is a two-way street. So, you must find a company that has the same audience as you but is not a competitor. 

The idea is to give each other a platform to share expertise and reach each other’s audience.

The best thing about it is that it’s free and you won’t reach just any people but those with all the characteristics of your ideal audience.

A really great example is our partnership with Free Agent. Our ideal client is a Free Agent client and their ideal client is also our client.

We’re giving them tips on marketing and sales. And in return, they’re giving us a platform to reach a wider audience. We often do Q&A sessions on their platform, which always gives us more following and potential clients.

See how it’s a win-win situation for both?

Use Newsletters

Many people wonder whether email marketing is still effective. The answer is yes… but only if you do it the right way.

Your newsletters must provide value to your audience. So you shouldn’t churn out newsletters just because it’s time to send out something. Take your time and think about what your audience wants to hear and how you can help them.

Another tactic that works incredibly well if you’re struggling to create enough content for your blog, newsletters, and social media is to use the same content. The only thing you have to do is repurpose it to meet the expectations of people who use different social networks.

You may need to adjust your style and language you use to address your audience. If you post it on LinkedIn, for example, it can be in the form of an article. But if you post it on Instagram, make sure to add a picture that will catch your follower’s attention. 

So, the next time you release a blog post on your website, send it out in a newsletter and say: This is my latest blog post, check it out.

In that way, you’re not only getting people to read your content but also increasing your website traffic.

Master Your Niche

If you want to find ideal clients, you have to become a specialist. The world already has enough generalists who claim to be able to help every business when they don’t really help anyone. 

But to specialise, you should first select your niche carefully and then learn everything you can about it. Master your niche like you’ve been working in it forever. 

It’s how you can approach clients with more confidence knowing that you have everything it takes to solve their problems.