When you’re bored of the colour in your sitting room there’s a simple solution. You change it. You research colours, buy tester pots, get quotes or decide whether or not to do the work yourself. You know at the back of your mind, if the new colour isn’t to your taste you can run through the process again and again until you’re content with your decision.

The niche inside

Business is different. Reinvention doesn’t take place overnight. It’s a process. The majority of the process takes place in your mind as much as it does the plans laid out on the boardroom table.

For startups, the process is far easier. There’s nothing to change. Your business canvas is blank. You have no existing clients to explain your decision to. You have no website requiring a redesign. Your content journal is clear.

For established businesses, the idea of restricting your audience to a niche market is daunting. When your business was incorporated you opened your arms to the world outside. Now, you’re choosing a particular niche to work within. It’s a difficult decision.

The change shift

When you unleash your niche you’re taking your business down a path less trodden. You begin to shift focus away from the norms of a competitive environment (cost) and focus more on who you represent (people).  It may feel a little uneasy and little uncomfortable no longer looking over your shoulder at what the competition are doing. This is why the mindset, across your business, is critical. From customer service to frontline sales to marketing to the boardroom.

The change principle

As you prepare to adopt your niche you look to 5 key areas of your business. I refer to them as the hierarchy of convention. This is where the real impact of your change takes place – those that are effected – directly or indirectly.

5 core areas of consideration before you dive into your niche marketplace:

1.) You – the context of your work

As a marketer, or business owner, your role is about to change. The singlemost important element of working within a niche market is your own understanding of just who your audience is and what you, as a brand as well as business, mean to them. You put down the marketing megaphone and start listening and speaking to people. Not as a collective, but as an individual. You begin to phase out the standard methods of advertising you have adopted over the years. The ‘come one come all’ banners are taken down and replaced with a more empathetic message. ‘We understand you. We represent you. We are you.’

Let’s look at an example. A marketing agency that has been in operation for 7 years. 75% of their billing and workload comes from the UK architect market. The agency has thrived through the past experience of their MD within the architect market. As a agency, they unanimously voted to focus their entire efforts on the architecture industry. It’s where most of their word of mouth business has manifested and where they’re comfortable speaking to their audience about what really matters to them.

For the marketer, the questions you begin to ask of your market are far more defined. As the marketer of the agency outlined above, you would focus on matters within one particular industry. You’re no longer talking or thinking about hypothetical issues which your audience may face. Now, you know the challenge. You’ve witnessed them. You’ve experienced them.

2.) Organisation – the identity of your business

There’s a common misunderstanding that a niche represents a segment of market by demographic. An age group. A region. Niche can also represent mindset. Not necessary what your audience wants, but what they stand for. This needs to be reinforced across your business. The staff you employ. The message you send.

Take the action group Surfers Against Sewage. Set up in 1990 to campaign for the reduction and removal of sewerage being pumped into the UK’s seas. The identity of the group is clear. The message of the group is clear. 24 years on the group has achieved tremendous success through their campaign. Would the same have been achieved without the niche identity of the collection of individuals involved from the very start?

Clarity of vision and objective is fundamental no matter what niche your business is transitioning towards. This needs to be reflected in all out-going literature and branding. Consider how your existing brand may reduce the impact within the context of your newly defined audience. Are you people against dirty waters… or surfers against sewage. Go direct.

3.) Brand – articulate your niche

Repositioning your brand within a niche will not equate to niche ownership. It’s not that simple. Your brand now needs to mean something to somebody. You now know that somebody. Make that obvious and make that clear. There’s no ‘if we don’t suit your thinking then click here instead’ get-out. This is the real niche deal. Any attempt to dilute and you’re putting out a wishy-washy message. Your brand is you most vital collateral and you need to ensure the brand you portray is the business that you are. What I’m saying is ‘don’t fake it, you’ll be caught out’

Your brand message sits far beyond your logo or your website introductory text. The blogs you publish. The podcasts you create. Don’t diversify unless there’s a genuine and explained reason. If you’re a web design company that now specialises purely in Concrete5 projects there’s no benefit to your business, or to your audience, in talking about the benefits of other CMS platforms just to draw in new traffic.

4.) Marketplace – lead don’t follow

Long distance running events often employ a pacemaker to help avoid tactical racing. They maintain even split times and act as the ‘rabbit’ for an elite field of runners. In business, your competition are your pacemakers. You moderate your pricing based on the common theme within your industry. You add new services based on what you see happening around you.

Now, as a niche champion, you may be out there alone. You need to learn the art of self-moderation. It’s a tremendously liberating feeling for any business to see the depth of direct competition being shed from hundreds to just one or two…or potentially none.

As a leader of your niche you will no longer follow. The price restrictions that embargoed profitable opportunities in the past have now been slackened. The greater the story you tell within the context of your audience, the greater the opportunity to produce a more profitable reward for your business.

5.) Audience – those that really matter

All the talk so far will become irrelevant if your eyes aren’t focused on your audience. The immediate problem you’re going to face is the fact you’re thinking niche, but your core audience may not be. Whilst you offer an agency proposition specifically tailored around the needs of the architecture practice, your audience may not be on the same wavelength. Put simply, when they research for a new marketing agency they may not assume there’s an agency out there with the depth of industry expertise that you offer.

This is where your presence and influence across Social Media kicks in. Your message has to resonate across your industry. Your involvement isn’t just alongside the clients whose field of expertise you represent. Reach out to the supporting organisations, the publications, the industry bloggers. Collaborate with key players to ensure your message, your purpose, is captured by all. For a market niche defined by demographic this is an easier step to take. For niche defined by mindset your interest is in ensuring word-of-mouth travels quickly and without dilution. Reach out to like-minded brands with a similar mindset representing a different product or service range to your own. Unity will be formed by your train of thought.

Unleashing your niche

This has been a longer blog than you’ll usually read on my site. Thanks for getting this far. When you read about businesses that simply ‘carve out their niche’ I want to help you to understand that it’s not simply about taking a slice of a pre-existing marketplace. A lot of thought and a lot of observation needs to take place before you make the transition across your business. Niche isn’t for everybody. It requires a different mindset and a whole new way of viewing your marketplace.

The Change Principle I’ve outlined today gives you a flavour for the 5 areas of convention your niche has to break through. Many businesses go down the route of differentiating their brand by exploring the niche that are available to them. They look to how they can change the buying habits of their audience first and foremost.

A successful operator within a newly defined niche looks, firstly, at how they’re prepared to champion their niche and break through each convention that faces them. Only then can you unleash the niche inside your business.

Are you ready to dive in and ride the waves as a brand less ordinary?

 

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