You’ve decided to focus your business on a niche. But now what? How do you get the word to spread?
While there are many options for generating awareness about your business, one quick way is to find your patient zero. What’s a patient zero? It’s “a person identified as the first to become infected with an illness or disease in an outbreak.”[1] Usually, having a patient zero may be a negative, but it is a positive in your case. Every business would love to have viral growth. This rapid growth starts with “infecting” one person who will then spread their enthusiasm about your work.
Who is the one person you know that is well-connected to your niche? Who is the person who will make introductions to others in your niche to jump-start your growth?
I recently spoke with an advisor whose patient zero was a friend and client who was a partner at a prominent consulting firm. This one person loved what the advisor was doing for him and introduced the advisor to a few colleagues. This started the ball rolling with this niche. After working with three or four more partners from the consulting firm, the advisor wrote a white paper specific to their needs and shared it with these clients. And those people shared it with their colleagues. Business took off from there, and the advisor has struggled to keep up with demand ever since—with very little additional marketing.
How to Identify Patient Zero
So how do you find your patient zero? First, you need to identify people with the right characteristics and relationships. Your patient zero is likely to be someone who:
Is highly connected to your niche
Is a connector by nature
Has professional or personal experience working with you (a client is the best option if possible)
You will have the most success with someone you have a long-time relationship with because you don’t have to spend months (or years) developing trust.
New clients are also good candidates for patient zero because they are usually enthusiastic about the advisor-client relationship in the first months of working with you. These people are likely to tell others about you during this euphoric stage.
For example, I spoke with an advisor who told me her niche got off the ground after she met a wealthy woman at a club she belonged to. This woman became a client and referred enough people to kick-start the niche.
How to Evaluate Patient Zero
Once you’ve identified a list of possible patient zeros, you’ll need to explore which ones have the capability to infect others with your message. To do this, conduct informational interviews commonly used by new college graduates exploring career options. With this approach, you ask people to meet with you one-on-one to get their feedback on your business. You are honoring them by asking them for their opinion and expertise while planting the seed for introductions and referrals. As you wrap up the conversation, ask them these two questions:
What other opportunities do they recommend you take advantage of to get in front of your niche?
Is there anyone else in the niche they suggest you speak to?
If their response is positive, probe further by asking them to provide you with introductions to the people and opportunities they mentioned.
By the end of the interview, you’ll be able to gauge which people have the potential to be your patient zero. If you are lucky, you will uncover a few options to pursue.
How To Engage Patient Zero
Once you’ve determined someone has the potential to be your patient zero, you need to help them infect others. While you hope they will just shout from the rooftops about your amazing work, realistically you need to provide them with tools to make it easier on them. You do this by giving them something to share, like an ebook, a recorded webinar, a podcast episode, a video, or an invitation to an event you are hosting.
When you give them the marketing asset, be clear that you hope they will share it with their friends, colleagues, and contacts who fit into your niche. If you have identified the right patient zero, this should not be a difficult ask.
Final Thoughts
I’ll be honest. Relying on one person to drive clients to your business is not a smart long-term marketing strategy. But when you are just starting with a niche, a patient zero can lead to quick wins and jump-start your efforts. You can eventually build a more solid marketing foundation on top of your early momentum, but in the meantime, identify the patient zero who will help drive that initial momentum.
[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patient%20zero
About Kristen Luke
Kristen Luke is the President of Kaleido Creative Studio, a marketing consulting firm that positions Registered Investment Advisors and their employees as experts in a niche, making them “uncomparable” to other advisors. Over the past 17 years, Kristen has consulted with hundreds of financial advisory firms and shared her marketing expertise via industry conferences and publications nationwide.