6 Tips to Finding and Owning Your Niche
By Mickey Anderson, Founder of 90-Day Campaigns Inc.
Ever wondered if saying yes to every potential client is actually holding your agency back?
You’re not alone. I haven’t met a single agency owner who hasn’t had to go through the daily grind of trying to please everyone but end up spreading themselves too thin.
Let’s face it, being a jack-of-all-trades in a saturated market is like trying to find a needle in a haystack – while underwater and blindfolded. This guide will help you zero in on a niche and avoid the most common mistakes along the way, making your agency not just another option, but the go-to expert in your niche.
Tips 1: Don’t Search
Contrary to what everyone says, do not search for a niche. If it takes you more than 1 minute of Google searching to get a full page or more of specific information about a market, the niche is either too hard to find or too broad.
When you choose a niche that’s too obscure, you’ll spend all your time and money trying to find these elusive customers, and when you do, there won’t be enough of them to sustain your business. On the other hand, juggling too many client types is exhausting. You can’t be everything to everyone. Avoid too broad or too obscure markets.
Aim for a well-defined, easy-to-target group with a problem you can solve. The result? Streamlined operations, improved targeting, and better resource allocation, leading to more effective marketing and client acquisition.
Tips 2: Add Layers
A great niche includes three layers:
- Industry (who)
- Solution (what)
- Location (where)
Like many agency owners, I started with a one-layer, stale vanilla cake—“Copywriting Agency.” After many years of resistance and mistakes, I learned the power of adding more layers to a niche to truly own it.
You might be afraid that niching down too much will limit your opportunities. With this three-layer approach, you’ll be specific enough to reduce competition and gain more authority without limiting your agency’s growth.
The result is a deliciously profitable three-tiered niche, giving you less competition, more authority, and a clearer, more compelling brand message.
Tips 2: Steer Clear of Roller Coaster Industries
Constantly dealing with an unstable market leaves you in a perpetual state of panic, never knowing if you’ll have clients next month. Think about choosing industries the way Warren Buffet thinks about choosing investments – “If you aren’t willing to own a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes.”
Look for markets that show steady growth and avoid volatile industries prone to sudden downturns. The payoff is a more predictable revenue stream and peace of mind, allowing you to plan, grow, and sleep soundly.
Tips 3: Go Where the Money Is
I worked with authors for quite a few years. I love authors–they were amazing friends and terrible clients. Even with publishers as partners and a pipeline of clients with massive demand, I’d give it zero stars.
I spent more time chasing payments and rationalizing their “substantial” investments than delivering results. If you’re tired of clients who can’t afford your services, leading to constant haggling and delayed payments, it’s time for a change.
Target clients who are used to spending at your price point, and you can expect increased profitability, smoother client interactions, and a more stable financial foundation for your agency.
Tips 4: Know Their Pain
In the health and wellness sector, I built a copywriting agency that ultimately flopped. I didn’t fully understand our client’s pain and nuances. In case you didn’t know, health, wellness, fitness, and medicine are not the same. My background was in the fitness industry, but I lumped it in with “health and wellness,” which made things complicated because each had its unique pains.
We offered solutions that missed the mark because we didn’t fully understand our client’s problems. To truly succeed in a niche, you need to know your clients’ pain. When you deeply understand your client’s pain, what’s causing it, how it affects them, and what’s holding them back, you build stronger client relationships and deliver better results.
Tips 5: Specialize, Productize, Profit
Running a full-service agency stretched my team thin, leading to burnout on all fronts. I was terrified I would lose clients when I started cutting services, but instead, I kept them longer, served them better, and grew even faster.
I’ve built a Rolodex of partners to fill the gaps where we don’t work. Because we mastered our services and delivered amazing results, we don’t experience a high risk of losing them to the competition when we can’t fulfill a need outside of our scope.
Offering too many services dilutes your brand and stretches your resources thin, leaving you mediocre at best—only target markets where you can provide effective solutions and then productize them. This ensures you can deliver on your promises, build repeatable success, and a strong reputation.
Tips 6: Go All In
We had a list of industries our agency served, and we dipped our toes into marketing them instead of committing to one. It diluted our brand and our credibility. It wasn’t until we fully committed and promoted our niche that we saw significant growth.
If you’ve been dabbling in various niches without fully committing, it’s time to go all in. Embrace the riches that come with owning your niche. You’ll have the luxury of being able to charge more, increase profit margins, build a stronger brand identity, and improve client acquisition.
Own Your Niche
Niching down isn’t an overnight success story. It often takes a few attempts to get it right, but it’s worth it. By focusing on a specific niche, using the three-layer approach, and following the tips in this guide, you’ll create a more stable and profitable business. So take the plunge, niche up, and watch your agency flourish.
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