Gender Specific Niche

I find that I connect better with some people than others; and even though there may be more of one gender than another, I wouldn’t want to pitch myself to one and to the exclusion of the other.

Unless your product is for women specifically, or men specifically, I think it’s a mistake to aim for one, but not the other.

People are complicated.

It’s impossible to know without a lot of experience whether one gender will like your products more than the other.

The more you call out your perfect customer, the more valuable your offer appears. After all, it’s NOT for everybody.

In today’s environment, I’d be really careful about not getting sued for discrimination. There are kumquats in this world who seek out ways to be offended, then try to parlay their offense into cash.

Don you can aim at one gender without it being so overt that it upsets people. There again people see what they want to see. Equal respect, equal honour, but definitely not equal abilty.

You can influence who chooses to involve themselves with you (optin, buy, etc) by using language that appeals to that gender.

Of course you aren’t excluding the other gender, but you can influence who responds.

What is really happening is that people are responding based on their reaction to your words . . .

so if a woman responds to a testosterone-driven ad . . she may operate more like a male psyche . . .

and if a man responds to a serotonin – driven ad – he may operate more sensitely . . .

I’m not an expert at this, but Beverly Taylor is . . .

Her download is powerful: Gender Brain Science

Sean

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Jan Sandhouse Hurst, Mark Rhodes

I have a gender specific niche right now. At some point it will be expanded into any gender. But for now, I work with mamas.

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Julia Rotgers

I do not see a problem with working with the people you prefer. My sister is a coach in the get your ex back niche and she primarily deals with men. She says the men feel more comfortable with her and she likes working with been more.

I guess some could say she is neglecting a huge part of the market but she is happy, her clients are pleased, and she’s operating at a profitable.

Julia, I’m not totally sure I understand the question. Is your whole business all about just the one product that isn’t inherently gender-specific?

*****

Here were some of my thoughts. Maybe something in my experience could be a little bit of help…

I’ve been in the hormone world for 21 years now. It leans female for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that women are more likely to seek help.

Anyway, my patient client percentages run something like 80% female. ALSO, even my doctor client percentages run about 65% female. I don’t market the business so much with that in mind. It’s just how it works out. However, I would market a product toward a specific gender when it makes sense. Examples in my world are: hormone testing for men, for post-menopausal women, or for cycling women. I market the products accordingly. Measuring stress hormones falls across gender, as does digestive function. So all my patients get their adrenal/stress hormones checked. I require it.

Big companies differentiate all the time. Just look at the ads around us. Lots of vitamins/magazines/shoes/etc. that are marketed very much toward a single gender. But a vitamin company often will carry a women’s version that may not be too different from the men’s version.

“These stress relief vitamins are made just for women. So that’s why they cost more.”

Mark

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Julia Rotgers

Julia

have you been able to achieve clarity on this?

Sean

I’ve never leaned toward targeting a single gender, possibly because I tend to ignore women-specific sites, products and services – thinking I want to learn about it all, not just what someone thinks I should learn because I’m female. Some things are obviously for males or females; I’m referring to the “of some interest to all.” One exception might be if my product or service “usually” is seen as either a male or female interest, but has some value/interest to the other gender, then I might explore: is anyone else targeting that side? If not, it might be a viable market segmentation. I’ve seen a few websites do that with a special site section, so the other gender feels welcome even while the main site concentrates on the owner’s preferred market.

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Sean Mize

Dana

I like your comment here . . . I would agree that the marketing should almost be a result of whatever the product need is . . and if that happens to be something more women would need, then the marketing would be female leading, and vice versa . . .

One thing I’ve also seen is male/female split testing . .

so for example, a weight loss product . . . men will convert higher to a different set of words and language than women . .

so then if you have a page that asks, are you a man or a woman, then based on the answers serves the appropriate page . . your spit test results will be different and over time, the pages will morph on their own.

or . . if you follow Beverly Taylor and her gender-brain science, you can cut right to the quick and write to men or to women, then conversion optimize from there

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Jan Sandhouse Hurst, Dana Cassell

I work very well with both men and women. In fact, one of my best
testimonials, when my focus was on social media management and
teaching social media, is from a man. He tells everyone who’ll
listen that had I not taught him how to use LinkedIn and then almost
forced him to get on Facebook, he would not have reconnected with
his college girlfriend. Now they’ve been married for almost four years.

Over a period of years though, I found that the women I coached and
mentored were mostly 50 and above. I am my ideal client. Earlier
this year I made the decision to focus of women 50 and wiser. It does
not mean that I wont coach or mentor men. However, my message can be
more tailored towards my target market instead of a broad-based
coaches, online marketers, entrepreneurs, and small business owners.

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Jan Sandhouse Hurst, Dana Cassell

Additional thoughts here after Dana’s last comment…

I’ve sold hormone testing for a long time. Most of my patients have been women. Of the men that I’ve had, a significant percentage were sent to me by their wives. Is there a market segment called “get your man back?”

I’ve also had quite a few moms call me regarding their (usually grown) children. Maybe that’s “get your kid back.”

There is definitely a market for “get your elderly parent back.”

These markets should be addressed hormonally, nutritionally, and relationally. I won’t pursue any of these segments directly, but I would help anyone so inclined.

Mark

Julia, you can target your marketing to specific genders, or other target segments, but you don’t control how people will respond, or who you might attract based upon a specific message. If you want to target a specific gender, either because it is the business model you want to follow or because you think it is a better marketing decision, then you should do it. You are not likely to be as successful if you are trying to work with customers that you feel are not a good fit with you. You are just defining your niche along gender lines, as opposed to some other demographic characteristics.

I follow several people who primarily target women, but they have male customers as well. Seam has recommended following two of them, Lisa Sasevich and Kendall Summerhawk. You might get on their lists and see what they are doing. If you are looking for a male-specific recommendation, Sean can probably give you suggestions.

Take a look at what Victoria Gibson is doing . . and here very specific call to action to women

Sean

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Julia Rotgers