Profit More, Work Less: 4 Steps to Niching Down For Your Agency

Have you ever wondered what the most successful agencies did differently than everyone else?

Was it luck, skill, hard work, the industry they chose, or something else?

Through my consulting work at Revenue Boost, I have worked with over 400+ agencies and coached them on how to grow their business.

From this I have seen consistent patterns and traits in those who grow effortlessly…

In contrast to those who stay stuck for years – no matter how hard they work.

One key difference in approach caught my eye.

I will illustrate what that difference was with a story.

In ancient times…

Two marketing experts graduated from business school with big plans to start their own agency.

Ready to take on the world, they started cold calling, emailing and doing everything under the sun to get clients.

And even though they had the SAME levels of work ethic and talent…

One of them now has an 8-figure agency.

Another of them is still doing freelance work and barely making ends meet.

What did the successful one do differently?

He took a big risk and started turning down clients and projects.

Instead of offering everything to everyone, like most agency owners…

And to be a jack of all trades, but a master of none…

He decided to only serve plumbers and be the best plumber salesman on the planet.

With the goal of making their pipeline fuller than a broken toilet pipe.

He mastered the art of aiming and realized that it would be easier to be the biggest fish in a small pond.

You should too – and in this article, you’ll learn exactly how to define your niche.

Now, it can seem daunting to turn down clients… and it can feel like you’re limiting yourself by focusing on just one type of client.

But it is exactly the opposite. You are actually limiting yourself by being everything to everyone.

Targeting can increase your income by 2x-3x

One of my clients Lauren ran a digital agency that offered everything under the sun.

Social media, paid ads, web dev, SEO, and she has offered it to clients from many different industries.

Because of this, her agency was stuck at $25,000 a month and she couldn’t break even.

On top of that, she and her team were working way more than they had to and the operations were sloppy.

Each client needed different things, required customization, and nothing was standardized.

We sat down together to review all of her past clients and discovered that her best clients are doctor’s offices.

They are easy to sell, they lasted the longest and gave her the least headaches and complaints.

So she changed her entire business model to serve ONLY this industry.

Then it developed a standardized offer for the industry, instead of customizing everything.

One offer, one target market. After that, she started cold emailing companies in her niche with her new offering.

The results?

She doubled her income and grew to $52,000 in monthly income in less than four months.

All from one simple change. One decision that can make everything easier, and you can too.

You see, most agency owners and marketers start with one or two clients and then get referred to new clients from various industries.

Before they know it, they are selling everything to everyone and have NO idea who their ideal client is.

The problem with running a business this way is that it’s impossible to scale.

Every single new client requires a ton of research, thought and brain power.

Since each new client has different needs, this leads to a lack of standardized processes and systems.

Which is why the founder is stuck in business and can’t hire a team.

Another problem that arises is acquisition.

There are hundreds of thousands of agencies on the planet and it is very difficult to stand out.

UNLESS you specialize.

When you specialize in a niche – say SEO for plumbers…

Then you are not competing with every other agency on the planet. You don’t look or sound like them anymore.

Now you have created your own little pond where you can be the big fish.

There are far fewer agencies that specialize in plumbing or SEO, let alone both. So you eliminated the competition with one decision.

If a plumber were to look at two agencies – one that is a general digital agency and one that specializes in helping plumbers…

They almost always choose an agency that specializes in their industry and has testimonials from people like them.

Not to mention, it’s easier to market when you have a clear niche in mind.

You know who you are writing your content for…

You know who to email and DM on social media…

You know exactly who to target with your ads…

You know which podcasts you should subscribe to

And so on and so forth.

Plus, you can charge whatever prices you want. Since you are not comparing yourself to the hundreds of thousands of agencies out there – you now have a unique offer.

Committing to one niche makes it easier to market, easier to sell, and easier to scale.

You only have to be good at doing one thing for one person and you can build systems and processes around that. That way, you can hire a team to take over and you will be able to work less.

How do you do it now? What if you don’t know who your ideal client is?

Step 1: Review your current and past client list.

Write down every single client you’ve ever served and group them by niche. Industry, location, size and so on.

Once you group them together, one niche may already stand out to you as your favorite type of client.

If not, use my 7-point checklist and rank each niche on a scale of 1-5.

These 7 criteria make a great niche.

#1 – Total addressable market:

How many companies are there in this market? Is it big enough to support your larger goals? Is the market shrinking or growing? Make sure the niche is big enough for you and doesn’t collapse.

#2 – Purchasing power

Can this market (or at least a segment of it) afford what you want to charge?

Think back to whether you received many price objections when you sold to these people in the past.

#3 – Lifetime Value

How long did your clients stay? Were they one-off projects or did they stay with me forever?

The higher the lifetime value, the more money and time you can spend on acquiring a client.

If the niche is usually lost in a few months or only works with you on quick, one-off projects…

Then you will have to spend so much energy on sales and marketing to keep the business alive.

#4 – Strong need and pain

Does this market have an important problem to solve, one that they need to solve? Or is what you’re selling just a “nice to have”?

If the latter, it will be very difficult to get clients.

If they can’t live without your solution, getting clients will be a breeze.

#5 – Desire to resolve that pain

It is one thing for the market to have a problem, but it must also have the desire to solve that problem.

Even if they have a need that you fulfill, that’s not enough – they also have to worry about that need being fulfilled.

#6 – Easily accessible

Is the market fairly easy to find online? Can you reach them through most advertising platforms and social channels? Are their groups and communities online?

If you’re targeting businesses that are hard to reach online, you’re creating an additional barrier to your success.

Step 2: Select 1 niche after ranking each of your past clients.

Add up all the ranks and choose the 1 with the highest score.

Don’t worry about making the wrong decision.

Consider this an experiment.

You’re not married to your new niche, you can always come back in a few months if it doesn’t work out.

Step 3: Create a prepackaged offer for your new niche

The whole point of targeting is to create more focus and simplicity in your business

Part of this is about WHO you are selling to, part about WHAT you are selling them.

Start by choosing 1 problem to solve for them and 1 solution to that problem.

Specify what will be delivered and what you want to charge.

Keep it simple! You can build on this later.

Step 4: Test Waters and get 5 new clients.

Before you make any drastic changes to your business, such as firing clients, rebranding and website…

Test the water first and see if this new niche is the direction you want to go.

Find about 5 more clients and that will be enough to determine whether they are really our ideal clients or not.

You might think they are at first, but you’ll know for sure when you serve more.

Finishing…

Now you know the problems of being a jack of all trades without a clear focus.

Every new client is a ton of work and requires adjustment…

And getting new clients is difficult because your agency doesn’t stand out. You’ll look and sound like everyone else.

This means that when you target a niche and sell 1 offer to 1 target market…

Your workload will be reduced. Each new client will be easier to serve than the previous one.

You will become world class in helping your clients from your focused repetition

You will quickly gain a reputation and become a big fish in a small pond.

In every way, it will become easier to grow, expand, attract and retain clients.

In addition, you will have more fun, and the work will be simpler and easier to manage.

And with that knowledge…

You have learned 5 simple steps to niche.

So…

It’s time for work!

Put this into practice and watch it change your business.