Small Business Guide - Small Business Resources
    (Add to Favorites  |  View All Articles  |  Resource Directory)

Small Business Marketing: Specialize or Generalize?


There have been many great points raised on both sides of this discussion. In order to make a final decision, we must look at how the business world is moving and at the purchasing patterns of the consumers who will be utilizing your services.

The Internet has changed the way people look for services (personal and professional). For example:
If you do a search in Yahoo for a Personal Coach you will get 1.4 million matches.
If you refine your search to Personal Life Coach you will get 760,000 matches.
If you refine your search to Personal Career Coach you will get below matches.
If you refine your search to Weight Loss Coach you will get 80,000 matches.
(search result numbers are subject to change)

Once you have selected the area of specialization you are interested in, you can then drill down into the results by location or other qualifying factors. As we are spending more and more time online, our patterns are shifting and adapting to more effectively navigate the over-abundance of information available. Web users know that in order to avoid a list of millions of possible matches, they must be more specific in their requests.

Generalizing - The Benefits:
As a generalist you aren't limited in the type of clients that you can work with. Everyone is pressed for time; having one coach who can handle all aspects of your goals (personally and professionally) as opposed to multiple resources each with a unique area of focus would be of certain benefit.

Generalizing - The Challenge:
The trade off is assumed to be that if you are a generalist in all things you are not an expert in any of them or at least in most of them. To state that one individual can work on any aspect of any business and/or in any area of a person's life and still achieve success is unlikely and may be interpreted as unrealistic or exaggerated on the part of your potential clients.

Specializing - The Benefits:
As a specialist you can attract a client based on his unique needs then share the wide range of additional areas you can bring benefit too. Each person wants the best for themselves and they perceive their situation to be completely unique. Specializing places you in front of the right client at the right time.

Specializing - The Challenge:
Initial pool from which you can draw clients is potentially smaller (but more refined), your copy must be more targeted, and you may be vulnerable to economic swings in specific market segments.

The concept of moving towards a more specific or niche approach to positioning and promoting your practice is becoming the standard in business. Building an environment that allows you receive the benefits of being positioned under Specialist and Generalist is one of the foundations of www.ldurandconsulting.com

Have a successful day! Leslie Durand, Marketing Coach and Emarketing Specialist

Leslie brings over 10 years experience in new media marketing to every project and a unique coaching approach to every client relationship. www.ldurandconsulting.com


MORE RESOURCES:

News provided by Yahoo! News and Google News

Small Business Jobs Bill: No 'Itty Bitty' Thing
I was surprised to hear Minority Leader Mitch McConnell say he believes the Small Business Jobs Act currently before the Senate is “a little itty-bitty small business bill that no one thinks will have much of an impact on the economy.” In fact, I would encourage him to go on the road with me to places like Saratoga Springs, where I was just yesterday meeting with several small business owners ...

Small biz getting lower health care costs - Queens Courier

Small biz getting lower health care costs
Queens Courier
Senator Toby Ann Stavisky – along with members of the Community Service Society, the American Cancer Society and a local small business owner ...

and more »

SmallBiz Guide to Power - Hawaii Business Magazine

Hawaii Business Magazine

SmallBiz Guide to Power
Hawaii Business Magazine
Imagine the huge cost to your small business if the 2010 Legislature had raised the general excise tax or failed to cut unemployment insurance ...

Health reform's impact on small biz - Marketplace (blog)

New York Times (blog)

Health reform's impact on small biz
Marketplace (blog)
A new report takes a look at how small businesses are affected by the new health care reform law. The law includes a tax credit to help small businesses ...
Report: Health law's small biz tax credit could expand coverageUSA Today
A Whole Lotta Studies on Small Business and Health InsuranceWall Street Journal (blog)
Health Reform is Good for Small Business EmployeesTIME (blog)

all 172 news articles »

Small Business Administration moves Gulf Shores, Orange Beach service center
Last Wednesday, the U. S. Small Business Administration announced that the Business Recovery Center currently located at the Harry Roberts Community House, 300 E. 16th Ave. in Gulf Shores was moving to the City of Orange Beach Medical Arts Building at 4223 Orange Beach Blvd., Suite B, on Monday.

home | site map | articles
© 2006