Have you ever
This is so essential that it is one of the first things courses like Affiliate Marketing Mastery and Pinfinite Growth teach.
If you are in the makeup niche, you most likely will target makeup interested women.
If you are in the grooming niche, you will target men who want or have a beard.
As you can see, your niche helps you to define your target audience. However, it is not always as easy as this. Let’s say you can’t decide on a small niche and instead want to build your business around a broader one. For example, Personal Development, Entrepreneurship, Fitness, or Finances.
In that context, you might not need to do gender targeting, but aim at any person who needs help in those topics.
That was my initial plan with Striving for Felicity. I wanted to do Personal Development, Success, and Mindset advice for Felicity Seekers of every gender.
However, as I started Pinfinite Growth, I surprisingly found myself frowning at the niche and target determination unit. I had thought that I could rush through those because I had dealt with them before.
But as I listened to Melyssa talking about the importance of a clearly targeted audience and niche, I became honest with myself. I realized that I still had issues with those.
The primary underlying problem was that from the very beginning, I wasn’t exactly sure what niche I wanted my business to be in. I didn’t feel experienced or talented enough on any topic. So I just went with Personal Development, in which I was interested in and had somewhat of competence because I was regularly learning more about it.
After 9 months and working a lot on growing my barely existing traffic, I was at a point where I had a deep passion for the whole “how to start your business” niche, and I also accumulated quite some knowledge that I felt comfortable teaching.
At the same time, I realized that the Personal Development part I was mostly interested in and had some talent for, was the mindset part.
And one topic I had grown extremely passionate about in 2019 was the whole boss babe/being in your feminine energy niche of Monica Yates and Women Love Power.
However, I didn’t have that much knowledge yet on that topic.
So, answering the questions in Melyssa’s workbook, I realized that you could actually combine the whole “starting a successful business,” “mindset” and “living in your full feminine potential” into
But that’s where suddenly massive resistance appeared towards the whole gender targeting topic. As I might not be the only one with this issue, I thought I give you an overview of my thought process, which led me to finally targeting specifically women.
1. You are cutting your potential audience at least in half, but …
This was my most significant reason for desperately wanting a gender-neutral audience. It felt like I was limiting my success if I only focused on women.
But that is so NOT true! The fact is, there are a ton of men and women out there who are having immense success with a gender-targeted business. I just want to name Monica Yates, Kimberley Wenya, and Alpha M. Of course, there are many, many more.
Furthermore, we have over 7 billion people on this planet. So trust me, even if you target just one gender, there are more than enough possible customers/fans for you out there.
2. You can create raving fans more easily
The more targeted your audience is, the easier it is for you to connect with them on a deeper level.
Chances are it will be easier for you to connect with women, if you are a woman yourself, or with men, if you are a man. It merely comes more natural to you because you are similarly wired.
Of course, this is just a rule of thumb and doesn’t apply to everyone. But you can very quickly do a test …
3. Whose content/products are you consuming?
The test is simple. Whose content or products are you consuming? Who are the people you are following most online?
For me, I realized that the vast majority of the content I consume comes from women. Sure, I am also interested in the content of men like Stefan James, Ryan Daniel Moran, or Tony Robbins. But without realizing it, I automatically followed women more often than men.
By the way, I also have male friends, so it’s not like I anyway just surround myself with women. And I also asked my brother, and he follows men primarily. So I see a pattern here.
So, don’t feel afraid of targeting your own gender. Very likely, you would have attracted them anyways.
4. Who is already consuming your content?
This is another test you can make. Who do you imagine is consuming your content?
Although I hadn’t tried to target women, I realized that the content I was creating, the pictures I was using, and the pins I uploaded onto Pinterest probably attracted many more women than men.
According to my Pinterest Analytics, 67.1% of my audience is female. And the 27.3% male audience probably only consumed those Pinterest boards that were less targeted to my niche.
So what about your audience? Who do you think they are?
5. How does the thought of targeting every gender feel?
This is a question that requires you to analyze your feelings carefully. Imagine what you would do with your blog or business if you’d specifically targeted also the other genders. What content would you create? What brand colors would you choose?
Now, how do you feel thinking about those things? Personally, I felt like I needed to hold back. Like I wouldn’t be able to be absolutely authentically me, because I tried to appeal to everyone.
6. How does the thought of targeting that one specific gender feel?
On the contrary, the thought of finally targeting just women, in that boss babe way, made me feel excited and free!
If I listened carefully, it was so evident that my intuition wanted to target women.
What does your intuition say?
7. This doesn’t have to be your only business
Still, I don’t feel content, thinking that I will only provide value to women for the rest of my life. That thought makes me feel kinda small.
But here’s the great thing about being an entrepreneur: You have freedom! Who says you will only have this one business for the rest of your life?
You might as well start other businesses, too, that will also help different genders. I, for example, would LOVE to have some kind of technology business someday. Maybe I could invest in research that will help to stop climate change! Who knows?
You also have the freedom to develop your brand. For example, Monica Yates, who is a Period and Women’s life coach, has also started doing some Podcasts for men only. And Tatjana James, who sells waist trainers, has created a line of waist trainers for men.
Everything is possible! You are not restricted in your business. You can do whatever you want. But at the very beginning of your business journey, it might be beneficial for you to really target a small and specific niche.
8. Targeting A doesn’t mean you won’t attract B
Just because I now target women, doesn’t mean I won’t also attract men or other genders. If my content seems appealing to them, then they will consume it no matter if I say it’s for women.
And that’s awesome! I am so excited to have all kinds of people part of my community! The key is that they like the way you express yourself and your brand. That they like your authentic self.
Conclusion
The lesson I want to convey with this article is this:
You do you!
Depending on your niche, it is very much possible to target both genders. But if it feels more aligned with you to target one specific gender, than go for it!
The key to success is less what you do, but more how you do it. There are no rules set in stone for who your target audience should be. You could be in the niche of makeup and target men or in the niche of grooming and target women.
It might be a bit more complicated, but I am pretty sure you could pull it off.
The important part is to feel comfortable and aligned with doing it!
I hope this helped you. This topic had given me quite some headache in 2019 because my head said one thing and my heart silently something else.
But once I actually found a balance between the two of them, I suddenly felt so comfortable and so incredibly aligned with my brand. I am 100% sure this was part of the reason my business finally flourished.
Until next time.
Sophie
