With the rise in healthy living, the need for personal trainers, health coaches, and nutritionists is greater than ever before. While it’s an exciting time for successful business owners, the tremendous growth of the market also means more competition for entrepreneurs in the space.
Perhaps one of the best ways to stand out and get more clients in this hyper-competitive industry is by niching down.
Many new business owners have the tendency of trying to please everyone. They spend money on marketing themselves as the expert in weight loss or athletic conditioning without landing a single client because consumers don’t see the value in working with them over other, more reputable coaches.
It might seem counterintuitive at first, but one of the best ways to start gaining clients as a budding entrepreneur is by marketing to fewer people. Narrowing your niche will allow you to be seen as an expert in the field and reduces your competition so you aren’t struggling to gain traction with your business.
In this article, we’ll go over everything you need to help you successfully choose a profitable health and fitness business niche.
What Exactly Is a Niche?
A niche is a small but profitable segment of your target audience that shares specific needs, preferences, and characteristics that you choose to market to. By definition, successfully choosing a health and fitness business niche should concentrate on a specific need that is not being addressed by mainstream providers.
Many budding health and fitness entrepreneurs mistake the term niche for specialty. A specialty is the type of work you provide to support clients. A niche is a specific problem that you solve for a small group of people. While a specialty can help you find your niche, they should not be confused with one another. In fitness: barbell training, high-intensity exercises, and bodyweight exercises would be considered specialties.
A potential niche would be to use fitness to help overweight office workers lose weight in the comfort of their own home. Another example is helping elderly adults who suffer from joint pain improve their mobility with home equipment such as resistance bands. Finding your niche helps you clarify your marketing message to appeal to your laser-targeted audience. Clients who fit within your health and fitness business niche will see you as an expert in the field.
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Benefits of Niching Down
There’s a ton of competition out there, especially in the health and fitness industry. In fact, recent reports discovered that the wellness market is growing at a historic rate (12.8% in the last two years), nearly twice as fast as the global economy. Here’s why niching down can help you stand out in the crowded market:
Reduces Your Competition
Targeting a smaller, more specific audience will give you the opportunity to “set up shop” and potentially secure clients more easily because there’s less competition when you narrow down your niche.
For example, if you’re marketing yourself as a personal trainer, there are hundreds of other personal trainers in your area that your prospect can go to. On the other hand, if you’re a personal trainer for busy professionals who only have 20 minutes to work out, your services will stand out since there’s drastically less competition.
Become the Go-To Expert
Having a tightly-defined niche not only yields better results with your marketing efforts, but prospects will also see you as an expert in the field. Going deep in a specific category of health and fitness will give you the specialized knowledge and expertise clients are seeking to get the results they’re after.
Think about how many thriving nutritionists operate in your city who can help someone lose weight. Likely, it’s in the hundreds. Now think about how many nutritionists are known as experts in providing clients a diet program specifically for diabetics who want to combat metabolic syndrome.
There’s a good chance there is a specific niche you could enter that allows you to be a part of a select few who provide the same services rather than competing with hundreds.
How to Determine Your Ideal Health and Fitness Business Niche
It takes careful deliberation to determine your dream niche. We encourage new business owners to spend some time researching various niches before choosing one. Before you start prospecting for clients, consider addressing the points below to help you find a laser-targeted niche you can successfully market to.
Identify Who You Love
A great way to determine your niche is by doing a little self-reflection and finding out the specific group of people you like working with most.
If you find yourself more fulfilled after helping your female clients feel younger rather than helping the average male gain muscle, consider targeting a specific female audience such as women who are in the perimenopause stage of life and want guidance on effective at-home workouts to help restore their youthful energy.
Choosing a niche you love to work with will motivate you to keep progressing with your business even during times when resistance rears its ugly head.
Find a Market with a Need
Once you know who your target demographic is, it’s important to determine whether or not the niche you chose has a specific need you can provide a solution for. Simply choosing to work with women may not be enough. It would be close to impossible to be seen as an expert without finding a targeted market with a specific need.
For example, instead of targeting older women, craft your services to cater to women that are going through perimenopause or menopause and need help with losing weight.
Determine Your Growth Potential
It’s equally as important to assess the profit potential of your health and fitness business niche. Some niches may seem esoteric and small enough that you can set yourself up as an expert in your area, but in reality, there are already tons of well-established experts.
The more specific you get with your niche, the easier it’ll be for you to dominate that market and start profiting. We encourage new business owners to research their competitors in their chosen niche to determine whether or not they have the potential to successfully enter the space.
Solve a Specific Problem
A great way to find your specific health and fitness business niche is by auditing the current problems you or your clients face.
As a health coach, consider narrowing down your services to solve a specific need such as helping people living with autoimmune diseases such as Hashimoto’s, celiac disease, and multiple sclerosis; chronic diseases; or anxiety and depression. Or if you’re a personal trainer, you can become the go-to expert for middle-aged men who are advanced in lifting and help them increase their bench numbers by correcting their form and providing chest-specific workouts.
The more specific the problem you solve, the more you’re seen as an expert, and prospects will come to you effortlessly.
Characteristics of a Profitable Health and Fitness Business Niche
Once you’ve done your research and found a niche you’re interested in, the next step is determining your chances of success in the market. The ideal niche has enough people who feel a real need for your services and isn’t already well served by industry leaders.
When assessing how well you fit within a niche, consider the following:
- Do you have experience with it?
- Are you passionate about getting clients results in this niche?
- Do you have a network of prospects in this market?
- Do you have specialized knowledge that can help your clients reach their goals?
By answering these questions honestly, you’ll have a much better understanding as to whether or not the niche you choose is right for you.
When choosing a profitable niche, the market should:
- Be small enough that there aren’t any major industry leaders you’re competing with
- Target an audience of people who have time and disposable income
- Have a real need for your services
Examples of Successful Targeted Health and Fitness Niches
When it comes to your business’s niche, it should be small enough that prospects will see you as an expert over the competition, but the need for your services must be big enough and in-demand to stay profitable. Here are a few examples of good and bad niche choices.
Examples of niches that are too broad
- Weight loss for women
- Muscle building for men
- Healthy eating for growing teenagers
- Functional movement training
- Nutrition plans for better digestion
Examples of profitable, more targeted health and fitness business niches
- At-home workouts for women ages 65+ going through menopause who want to lose 10 pounds
- A squat-centric workout regimen for advanced lifters who want to increase their squat numbers using only machines
- A diet regimen for teens between the ages of 12-18 who are lactose intolerant and struggle to gain weight
- Nutrition plan for men ages 21-35 who want to increase productivity and work performance through a low carb, ketogenic diet
Niching Down Will Help Your Health and Fitness Business Thrive in This Competitive Industry
The health and fitness industry is growing at record-breaking speeds. While it’s an exciting and profitable time for well-established authorities in the space, new entrepreneurs may find it difficult to establish a sustainable business due to the vast increase in competition.
As with most things in life and business, trying to please everyone is a recipe for failure. When done correctly, marketing to a smaller, targeted audience can take your business to the next level. Choosing to niche down and solve a specific need to a small group of people will give you the opportunity to thrive in a noncompetitive market and be seen as an expert in the field.
Take the first step toward becoming a health coach by enrolling in an accredited health coach course with AFPA.
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