Niching Case Study: Alisoun Mackenzie

I help heart-centered business owners to grow their business by supporting charities and social causes.

alisoun.com

#sytycn2015

Tad’s Rating:

8/10

Contest Rating:

7/10

Average Rating:

7.5/10

Tad’s Comments:

8. I really love this niche. And I’m finding it hard to rate. I want to give it a solid 8/10. One on level, the ‘who’ is fairly vague ‘heart-centered business owners’. And the result you’re offering ‘grow their business’ is fairly broad too. And the way you’re offering to help them isn’t one I think most of them find themselves craving on a regular basis. But! I think it’s the kind of thing that would evoke a lot of curiousity. It’s an Island C kind of result: It’s the kind of statement that I imagine would evoke a lot of curiousity and “what? tell me more about that. How does that work?” What’s true is that these kinds of people want to make a difference in the world, often even more than they want to grow their business – so pairing them becomes a very provocative proposition. To make it a ten? If you were to hone in on a more particular kind of business (e.g. life coaches, holistic practitioners etc.) I think it could make your marketing a lot easier. Beautiful work!.

Niching Contest Participant Comments:

5/10:”Heart-centred business” is a familiar term, and supporting charities and causes is, but we need to see how you’re putting these together and why these entrepreneurs want to. Is it really growing the business, or is it about personal fulfilment, being part of the community, etc? The polar bears are cute but you might do better showing connection between humans.

7/10: I’d like to know what is a heart-centered business person really is? What type of a business persona?

7/10: The help that sounds to me really key is help in choosing and partnering, which is what tends to hold me up. I’d like to have a sense of how you can make that happened. “Heart-centered” is beginning to sound like a buzzword to me and doesn’t communicate what the business owner does, what business they’re in.

7/10: I would remove “to” from “to grow”. Is there a way to write this without repeating “business”? I don’t fully get how you help them. You encourage them to donate to charities?

7/10: The image is like a big hug. I think that’s what you’re trying to convey, along with the warm fuzzies. Sounds like a tricky space to define – I don’t quite get how it would fit with me, but I’d like to!

7/10: You got me with the Bears! What happens when they’ve grown their business? Speak to that more.

8/10: I get the general gist of it. I agree with others, it could still get a bit more specific, however I also could see keeping it vague so as not to limit your clientele. Hard call. Good job. Love the picture.

Alisoun Mackenzie’s Reflections:

Thanks for your comments Tad – I was focussing on therapist, coaches etc. but I find when I’m out and about locally, there are lots of socially conscious business owners who want to support charities through their business whether this be fundraising, employing people from social projects or making conscious social choices about their suppliers. I do sometimes say ‘socially conscious business owners) though some people don’t know what that means. I’m writing a book on this topic now so getting this statement right is going to be so important (it will be the tagline). I was saying ‘to get more clients by supporting a charity’ as an outcome but there are so many other benefits and there’s a bit of me that feels that could be interpreted as being manipulative and inauthentic cause marketing.

The Revised Niche:

n/a