How digital entrepreneurs can discover a distinctive area of interest in a saturated market

When you’re a digital marketer working in a saturated market, there are two possible solutions to getting business: Find a way to stand out from the crowd or find a way to narrow your focus, or “niche down,” even further within that market. Today I want to discuss the latter option.

Let’s start by wrapping our heads around companies that have found great success by niching down.

Everybody likes a good pair of socks, yes? Start naming brands and we’d waste half the day. To narrow it down a bit, let’s discuss athletic brand socks.

Within the world of athletic socks, we can further niche down by shopping for running-specific socks. What brands come to mind? For me, it’s Bombas, Feetures, and Fitsok. You’ll notice if you really evaluate their websites that they’ve each niched down even further than running socks. You’ll see Feetures focuses on runners who want to perform their best, Bombas has found a way to niche down by donating one pair of socks for each one sold, and Fitsok is focused on high-quality innovation.

In addition, the brands have individually found ways to niche down by sharing their brand’s mission, one-upping each other, and building upon what their audiences appreciate the most.

As a digital marketer, you may be weighing the various industries in which you know marketing services are needed. For example, the health sector, while huge, is in dire need of many online solutions to serve its customers. Let’s say you’ve decided to focus on breaking into the skincare industry (as a category under health) and examine how you can narrow down even further.

WHAT’S YOUR COMPANY’S MISSION AND BRAND MESSAGING?

If you’re going to approach any company, they’re going to look into your website or, more specifically, your “About” page. Whether you decide to share your own story or keep your brand messaging broader, it should tie into why you chose that specific niche.

In skincare, you might relate a personal experience. Do you have past experience in the industry? Or do you just really care about the chemicals that are going into customers’ skin? Perhaps it’s your passion to support this niche. Let your customers know.

NARROW DOWN YOUR TARGET MARKET

Next, you’ll want to narrow your focus even more. Too many people are afraid of missing out on other customers if they only promote one type of target audience. However, if you’ve done your research, you’ll find that there are plenty of customers within very narrow marketing niches that would be thrilled to work with a company that hyper-specializes.

Anti-aging (think collagen products), anti-acne, and medical spa (think chemical peels and more intensive solutions) are all under the skincare umbrella. Picking just one of these categories will show your prospective customers that you know their industry, product, and selling points inside and out.

LOOK AT THE COMPETITION AND FIND A WAY TO ONE-UP THEM

While no one wants to compete on price, as that’s a race to the bottom, consider how you can make your customers’ experience extra valuable. Can you find ways to do free competitive audits for every package sold? Add-ons and the specific knowledge you have pertaining to their industry are all helpful bonuses when a client is deciding whether to hire your agency.

Something to consider within the skincare niche is offering free skin quizzes or assessments for their customers. This works as a great lead magnet and might allow you to gather customer information like email addresses or phone numbers.

KNOW WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE LOVES AND BUILD UPON IT

At the end of the day, the agency that wins is the one that understands its target audience through and through. What do they struggle with the most that other niche health sectors might not? How can you add solutions to those problems in your service packages?

For example, within the skincare industry, many customers want one-to-one attention and customization. Offering a personalized text service to find the right products for their potential customers will help your client turn more leads into customers.

THE MESSAGE COUNTS

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how far you niche down unless the client knows that you’re the agency for them. Make it clear on the front page of your website who you serve, what you believe in, and the specific results you can get for that industry.

Your audience will be amazed by your industry knowledge and your ability to relate to them on a different level than any other broadly niched agency can.

Solomon is a sales and marketing guru who has built a number of successful companies over the last decade. Read more at Thimothy.com