When it comes to creating a profitable and scalable business, one choice overshadows all others: the market you choose to serve.
For years, there’s been a widespread push to narrow down and niche until you’ve carved out your perfect spot.
But even with all the advice available, many entrepreneurs struggle to apply this to their own businesses, unsure of whether they’re really making the right choice.
In this guide, we’re going to tackle market selection head-on.
We’ll move from understanding high-level desires (health, wealth, relationships) to identifying a specific niche, avatar, and audience—all designed to streamline your business and make sure your marketing is targeted, relevant, and impactful.
This model will bring clarity to every level of your market, helping you avoid costly mistakes that come from over-niching or focusing on too narrow an audience.
Every customer’s motivation boils down to one of three fundamental desires:
These are what drive customer decisions and behaviors and ultimately set the “destination” that your product or service will help them reach.
It’s easy to confuse a desire with a market, but these are distinct concepts.
Desires are what customers want to feel or achieve. By keeping the distinction clear, you can see how their primary desire fuels their buying decisions and gives you a compass for aligning your brand’s messaging.
The Three Core Desires:
Exercise: Take a moment to identify which core desire your product or service aligns with most closely. This is the “destination” your ideal customer wants to reach.
With a core desire in mind, the next step is breaking it down into more specific segments that represent how your customer sees their path to achieving this goal.
For this model, desires are not the market itself but a “destination” for your customer.
Think of it as the vision they hold for themselves when they decide to make a purchase, whether that’s becoming fit and energetic (health), financially secure (wealth), or deeply connected with others (relationships).
The next level is identifying the market, or the “path” customers see as their way to fulfill that desire.
Each of these paths contains hundreds of millions of people who share the same broad interest in achieving a similar goal.
Example:
At this point, your market is still broad, covering many sub-markets and interests, but it’s a valuable directional choice. Customers choose this path based on their beliefs and past experiences, seeing it as their best way forward.
A sub-market is more specific than the market level, adding one or two defining characteristics.
It becomes a more targeted segment, giving you the option to tailor your message for relevance and clarity.
The sub-market is like the “vehicle” your customer chooses based on their lifestyle, skills, or preferences.
Example:
Each sub-market narrows the scope further while still offering broad appeal.
Think of it as the difference between a sedan and an SUV—both are vehicles, but each serves a different purpose.
Exercise: Evaluate your product’s alignment with a specific sub-market and its primary appeal. What specific language or terms are unique to this sub-market?
In the next level, we reach the niche. Niching down means going three levels deep to capture a unique positioning in the market. This is where real differentiation begins. Niche markets still encompass millions to tens of millions of people, but they’re defined by specific needs and preferences that make your product or service stand out.
A niche is like the “make or model” of the vehicle that customers choose to navigate the path. Each decision about the niche should connect to the customer’s circumstances, resources, and preferred outcomes.
A good niche is large enough to allow substantial market share but narrow enough to avoid saturated competition.
Example:
Your niche represents a detailed choice within the sub-market that meets the precise needs of a segment. The people in this niche share more specific motivations and pain points, making it easier to craft marketing messages that resonate deeply.
Once you have a defined niche, you’ll need to focus on your avatar and audience, which is where the market model comes down to a personal level.
An avatar is the “driver” behind the wheel.
This customer persona has specific demographics, goals, challenges, and preferences that make them your perfect customer.
You might have more than one avatar within your niche, but to start, focus on one that aligns well with your offer. A well-defined avatar makes it easy to speak directly to the motivations and needs of your target market.
Example:
Define key characteristics such as:
Audiences are smaller, segmented groups within the avatar category, categorized by demographic or behavior.
While your avatar is the ideal customer, audiences contain sub-groups within that ideal. Knowing your audience helps in fine-tuning your marketing and optimizing ad spend.
Example:For the “Vacation Rentals” niche, a possible audience segment could be:
Audiences add specificity to the avatar by helping you locate them on specific platforms, target interests and preferences, and hone in on messaging that feels familiar and relevant to them.
When defining a market, business owners frequently make a few common mistakes.
Here’s how to avoid them:
Assess your market size with tools like Facebook Audience Insights, LinkedIn Ads Audience, or Google’s Keyword Planner.
This can give you a general idea of audience size and advertising cost.
See how competitors are positioned in the market and how many serve the same niche.
Understand if they’re addressing different avatars or audiences and if there’s a gap in your niche that can be leveraged.
Selecting and defining your market isn’t just about picking a niche—it’s about building a structure that allows your business to grow with a clear understanding of your customer’s desires, market paths, sub-markets, and niche-specific needs.
By following this framework, you gain clarity in your market messaging, reach, and long-term potential.
In review:
With this model, you can confidently create a business that resonates with your ideal customers, backed by a market foundation that scales.
This clarity will make it easier to create content, ads, and offers that attract and convert consistently, ensuring that your business is built to last.
1. Join Flywheel: Trying to grow your business alone isn't fun. That's why I created the Flywheel community. A place where like minded business owners could connect with each other and grow their businesses together. Join us each week for the Flywheel Collaboration call to work on your business and collaborate with others. Flywheel is Free! Click here to join us.
2. Marketing Action Plan: Mi tincidunt elit, id quisque ligula ac diam, amet. Vel etiam suspendisse morbi eleifend faucibus eget vestibulum felis. Dictum quis montes, sit sit. Tellus aliquam enim urna, etiam. Mauris posuere vulputate arcu amet, vitae nisi, tellus tincidunt. At feugiat sapien varius id.
3. Join Quantum CMO: Mi tincidunt elit, id quisque ligula ac diam, amet. Vel etiam suspendisse morbi eleifend faucibus eget vestibulum felis. Dictum quis montes, sit sit. Tellus aliquam enim urna, etiam. Mauris posuere vulputate arcu amet, vitae nisi, tellus tincidunt. At feugiat sapien varius id.