Google Tool for Niche-Mining

Staying on top of your niche is important. Thanks to Google.com it's also easy.

Google Trends

Just beginning to investigate your niche? Try Google Trends, a new tool, to see what the trends are for your niche.

Pop in your keywords and out comes a graphical report of the trends in that area for this year and three prior years. You can even refine the search by region and sub-region (i.e. United States and New York) to those trends.
Best of all, the page lists relevant and timely articles in the side bar.

Google Alerts

So if Google Trends shows you the forest, then Google Alerts shows you the individual trees. An alert is an automated email notification about a topic of interest to you. I call it 'set it and forget it' research.

Why? because once you choose keywords and set the alert a wealth of interesting, useful, sometimes surprising content comes right to your email box. You can stay razor-sharp about your niche with the click of the mouse. Cool, huh?

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow!
Dina

Finding Your Niche in a RSS Haystack

How do you find and reach out to the people in your niche? Tough question, but a bit of ingenuity (and technology) can help. I’m talking about Really Simply Syndication (RSS).

What is RSS?

Eh, it’s hard to explain. The RSS wiki does a great job of explaining. Don’t ask me how it works; I don’t know. But I do know that just like electricity, it’s an essential tool that can make your (marketing) life easier every day.

How? RSS is a fantastic way to broadcast your articles, tips or other marketing materials right to the desktop of interested potential clients with very little effort on your part. Imagine being able to tap prospects on the shoulder electronically to offer your help.

Niche RSS Feeds

The more tailored your niche, the more difficult it can seem to actually find ways to reach them. I was thrilled to find (via my Yahoo RSS feed aggregator) an article on Workz.com , a small business site, that shares a number of specialized niche feeds for a variety of industries like real estate, medical and law.

Fishing a Feed

There's amazing info waiting for you in a feed. Look at the types of feeds offered. Study a few to learn about new websites within your niche. For example, Medical-Feeds.com is a niche feed directory for the medical industry. Clicking through I came across several feeds like Health Education and Medical Association that lead to feeds and websites for different types of doctors ( a niche that’s notoriously difficult to reach).

What Does This Mean to You? Plenty! Add an RSS feed to your website or even articles. Research the links on feed pages for find even more Related Niche Groups (and you know how important they are) With a bit of curiosity, patience and tech savvy you can deliver help to thousands of folks and boost your web presence and traffic.

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow!

Dina

School-Based Mediation Programs

The comprehensive high school format is dead, according to a recent story on National Public Radio. Turns out that the model which was supposed to enhance learning while reducing overhead expenses didn't work as well as planned. Smaller academy style schools that focus on a specific curriculum and encourage community are now rapidly gaining favor.

It struck me that today's schools are more violent than ever, and there doesn't seem to be a good way to stem the tide. Maybe if there were more peer mediation programs.

Peer Mediation in the 90's

Years ago, just after the ice age, I worked for School Mediation Associates,a peer mediation training firm founded by Richard Cohen, who literally wrote the book on peer mediation design. Many a day I visited a middle or high school where I feared for my safety... and so did the kids.

Peer mediation showed these kids, who were plagued by bullying and threats, that there was another way to respond to 'a beef' besides fighting or killing. It was gratifying to see these young minds take the basics of mediation and transform it into something raw yet oddly elegant and highly effective. And, all the while they were being transformed themselves into better students and better citizens of the world.

The power of peer mediation to change lives is undeniable. I know because I've been told. Years after I stopped working with Richard and the SCORE program in Mass, I ran into one of the 'bad boys' we'd roped into taking the peer mediation course at his school. He explained that he'd only agreed to participate as a way of avoiding suspension. But that afterwards he felt differently about himself. Being a mediator helped him see himself as a leader and as a result he graduated and was attending a college that had a peer mediation program. I was stunned and grateful to think I'd had a small part in it.

Youth-based Mediation Practice

Knowing how my mind works, I began to think of different ways to bring mediation skills-critical life skills- to kids in a variety of venues. Here are a few ideas:

1. Adding a school/peer mediation component to a family practice (the line between family and school is getting blurrier)
   
   
2. Serving as a mediator for youth disputes in a school district
   
   
3. Developing peer mediation training for youth groups like the Little League or community sports (heck, you might even get some, eh, adult disputes, too)

What does that mean to you? Consider this niche. I found it satisfying and ultimately very hopeful, and I think you might, too. Drop me a note and tell me what you think.

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow!
Dina

What Problems are You Solving with Mediation?

Niche, niche, niche. You've heard me say it before- creating a niche practice is a very effective marketing strategy that distinguishes your practice from the crowd and attacts potential clients. (If you haven't begun to investigate a niche, now is the time to start, people.)

Refine Your Niche

Once you have answered the 4 questions and evaluated your niche, you're not done yet. You need to refine your niche further by articulating what specific problem you can be helpful in solving.

(Don't know the 4 questions? Join our next free teleseminar on May 7th at 12:30 p.m. by visiting ADRPracticebuilder.com

Why? Because mediation consumers, otherwise known as parties, are interested in solutions, not process per se. Your goal is to articulate their problems so well that they clearly understand that you can provide a way to reach the solution.

Let's look closer. Suppose you decide to be a family mediator. Great. Your niche is custody issues. Wonderful. But as a consumer I won't choose you unless I know that you can solve the type of issue I'm facing like who is the final decision-maker regarding college selection, for instance. Your marketing materials should speak to the specific custody problems you address. That way, I can 'see myself and my problem' and select you because you've demonstrated via your content that you can offer my desired outcome or solution.

Laurie Israel of Mediationtostaymarried.com

Laurie, a dear friend and colleague of mine, is a real-life example of a mediator who not only has a unqiue niche but does a great job of letting potential clients know who exactly will benefit from working with her. Her website is a primer on how to articulate your mission and solution to consumers.

Here's why it works so well

1. A warm, inviting picture that suggests Laurie will be good to work with
   
   
2. Her mission statement tells me who she works with- couples who want to work on their marriage- and why
   
   
3. Subheadings offer clarity- Legal Help for Married Couples
   
   
4. Bullet points and case studies add more detail on what problems she solves, i.e. differing spending patterns or challenges in second marriages

Talk with Laurie

Visit her site to see exactly what I mean. Better yet, Laurie has agreed to be my guest during an interview on Thursday, April 23, 2007 at 1 p.m. EDT
She'll share her thoughts on this particular niche and how she built it.

Family or divorce mediators, this interactive interview offers marketing insights you so register early!

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow!

Dina

Introducing Nancy Milton of Progress Mediation

Inspiration is everywhere if you will open your eyes and look. One of my best sources of inspiration, and the most fun, is the membership of ADRPracticebuilder.com. I'm continually energized and inspired by the exchange of ideas, information and fun we have in this innovative group of mediation entrepreners. Here's what I mean.

Creating a niche for your practice is part of mediation marketing. It takes research and planning to select the right one and focus to understand your niches concerns and interests. I challenged my members to formulate a niche profile- a characterization of one segment of your niche- during a recent contest.

Niche Profiles

Niche profiles aren't dry, boring demographics. Profiles are rich with the details and personality of your niche and fun to write.

Our Winner...

Nancy Milton is the winner of the niche profile contest. She's a family mediator from Elk Grove, CA near Sacremento, who founded Progress Mediation. Here's her winning profile:

Well, here goes - my niche profile. I see them as a group - a family who are deeply concerned about the welfare of their elderly mother. You have Julie, the oldest sister, and her two younger brothers, Tom and Sean.

Their father passed away several months ago and their mother is still living in the family home. She is getting weaker, but insists that she can still drive her 1987 Buick to the grocery store and church. Her children are very concerned about her safety. Julie and Tom live in the same town and Sean is about two hours away. They want to sit down with their mother with the help of a mediator to sort out the issues of her safety, where she will live, and her finances.

All of these are wonderful issues for Elder Mediation. The children and Mom are coming to mediation voluntarily with an eagerness to figure out their options. This is one of my niche profiles working with families. Thanks for reading it.

Clear as a Bell

What a great profile. Just reading it, I get a sense of this family and what some of their concerns might be.

Her profile also brings to mind questions about Mom and what interests or fears she faces during this transition. You can see how this concrete scenario gives Nancy a place to start planning marketing materials and products that will address the needs of this imaginary family, and by doing so, attract real clients. What I really appreciate is that Nancy took a moment to set an expectation about the kind of client behavior she'd like: voluntary and willing to get things resolved.

Congrats! Nancy, well done!

Dina

The Art of Pricing Creates Mediation Masterpiece

Finding the right price to charge is hard for service providers, and especially hard for mediators.

Most of us do a 'scratch on a napkin' calculation and charge somewhere near the bottom of the range for fear of looking 'greedy'. Or, we take our colleagues' fees combine with our costs then set prices pretty close to everyone else.

To me, neither of these methods really captures the true value that mediation provides for our clients, appreciates a mediators unique talents, or creates a revenue stream that mediators deserve. That's why I was thrilled to read a new book on pricing strategies, The Art of Pricing by Rafi Mohammed.

Finding Hidden Value

Rafi, a Batten Fellow at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business, offers us hope in his book by making pricing theories accessible and, dare I say it, easy to apply. He encourages us to find the hidden profit that lies within our practices by examining our thoughts and perceived value.

For instance, most mediators keep their fees low possibly as a concession to the attorneys they work with or the knowledge that consumers are skeptical of seemingly extra fees. According to this book, and the Professional Pricing Society, the lowest price will not always draw the largest amount of clients.

Think about your own purchasing experiences. When the purchase was important like buying a home, did you select based on the lowest price or were there other factors that made a higher price point acceptable? You probably weren't looking for the least expensive house, but one that met your needs. It is reasonable that clients will pay more to work with a mediator who meets their needs even if the fees were higher.

What's It Worth?

One of the most useful sections of the book explores differential value, meaning that different people are willing to pay different prices for the same product based on their interpretation of value. I saw real life examples of this years ago when I was an auction enthusiast collecting McCoy pottery. Sears uses a similar strategy by grading its products: good, better and best. You get the vacuum but with more or fewer features depending on how much you're willing to pay.

Unbundling Mediation Services

This idea works for mediation, too. Our product is resolution and peace of mind for clients and we provide it via a mediation session. But what if we unbundled the mediation process and offered the results in differing ways? Then, we can set differential prices, too.

During my teleseminar, 3 Keys to Making Money as a Mediator, we discuss how to un-package mediation and offer real information and value to consumers in a way that reduces their risk, increases their confidence in us and ultimately leads to booking more mediations.

In his book, Rafi, discusses a value decoder, a formula for assessing the value to clients. It doesn't have to be that fancy. You can do it the easy way: just ask.

Questions like:

1. What was your batma (best alternative to a mediated agreement)?
   
   
2. What did you like best about working together?
   
   
3. How much would this have cost, emotionally and financially, if this had been litigated?

go a long way to understanding what specific, repeatable, unique value your clients receive from working with you. This knowledge, combined with marketing tools, can be a real boon for growing your practice and your income.

The Art of Pricing Teleseminar

On Thursday, March 22nd at 1 p.m. EST, Rafi Mohammed is scheduled to join me for a spirited discussion of the book and its application for us. If you want to increase your current income as a mediator, or start your practice off right, don't miss this call. Sign up now; seating is limited.

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow!

Dina

Russian Matryoshka Nesting Dolls and Mediation Marketing

No Reservations, my favorite travel/cooking show, is quite a sort of inspiration for me it seems. First, globe-trotting host Tony Bourdain convinces me to confound expectations and now he’s got me thinking about how nesting dolls resemble niche markets. Go with me here…

Russian Matryoshka Dolls originated in Moscow in 1890 and gets its name from the Latin word for mother. The dolls range from largest to smallest in size, each one fitting nicely inside of the next.

Sounds like choosing a niche, huh. You start at the largest segment of the population and work you way towards a smaller one that’s sustainable and you feel passionate about working with.

Think about mediation as the largest ‘momma’ doll. Why not embrace the next doll? Think about a broad area to specialize in like workplace, family, commercial, divorce. But why stop there? Choose a sub-niche within your niche…like a marital mediator.

Laurie Israel of Mediationtostaymarried.com originally assisted divorcing couples. However, her interest in marriage itself and the experiences of her clients inspired her to shift to a sub-niche, helping couples communicate better so divorce is unnecessary.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Matryoshka dolls is their diversity. (There are over 450 traditional styles and 308 sports styles alone) They vary in so many ways- material used, shape, style, and subject. Yet, they all spring from a single idea. Your mediation practice can be just as diverse and still fit inside the big momma of mediation.

If you’re not sure how to do that, join me on Friday, February 9^th at 1 EST for my teleseminar Sizing up Your Niche: the Mechanics of Picking a Niche. We’ll talk in depth about online tools that will make research a breeze, where to find out the ‘inside poop’ on your niche and how to make that first approach. It's 60 information packed minutes that can make marketing much easier.

-This teleseminar is a pre-requisite for enrolling in the upcoming Niche Action Group-

Hope to ‘see’ you there!

Try. Fail. Learn. Grow!

Dina