Has Your Agency Embraced a Niche?
An agency without a niche is like a person without a personality. Without solid expertise in any given industry or service, agencies start to all blend together.
By embracing a niche, agencies are increasing profitability and are realizing they’re not spread so thin as they were when promoting an agency that doesn’t have a clear vision. When it comes to the brands you want to land as clients, It’s all about expertise. And niches showcase expertise…
When you’ve found your niche, it’s easier to keep up with your industries or services of choice than trying to keep up with all the latest marketing trends and PR best practices.
As the CEO of The Campfire Circle, I work with many up-and-coming agencies and am always trying to solve all of their pain points. One of the most common, if not the most, reasons agencies don’t attain revenue and longevity is that they’re casting too wide of a net.
Don’t be another one of those forgettable agencies that goes after literally every brand, and let’s find your niche today with the help of this post!
Why Does My Agency Need a Niche?
I get that it’s tempting to cast a wide net and appeal to every industry with a ton of services, some you don’t know a ton about but assume you’ll figure it out as client need comes on board for that service. I get it because my agency started out as a general B2B agency, but the competition was fierce and forced me to embrace a niche. Now I’m known as the girl who runs an agency for agencies and has a pair because it was a risky move. Trust me, defining and owning a niche boosts profitability.
Agencies are a dime a dozen. And unless you have millions of dollars to promote your generic agency, a niche will help you land more business. If you think about it, it makes sense. The whole role of an agency is to bring more money in for their clients than the client is spending. And brands are okay with that and will pay more for an agency that gets them. Kind of what I looked for in a husband…
One last point that I want to make is that choosing a niche will actually increase your expertise since you will living and breathing your niche every day. And with this increased expertise, you’ll see more qualified leads and it will be a snowball effect as you learn and grow in your niche.
What Niches Look Like for Agencies
Now that you know that your agency needs a niche, let’s get you one! Typically, a niche can be a specific service or services, a specific industry or industries, or a combination of both.
Services: If you want to work with multiple types of clients, your niche can be a particular service or services. For example, you might be awesome at influencer marketing but haven’t quite gotten up to speed with other services, so your niche would be an influencer marketing agency. Since social media marketing is part of influencer marketing, your agency may offer that service as well and brand yourself as a social media marketing agency to encompass your multiple strengths.
Industries: Want to be a full-service agency? If you feel like you can handle every service (for the most part), then your niche may be 1-3 industries that you excel in. As you know, each time you land a new client, there is an exhaustive amount of research that goes into it. So if you narrow your niche down to certain industries, the learning curve won’t always be so tedious. When it comes to industries that agencies embrace, I found a fantastic and lengthy list of the most viable industries and I encourage you to take a look at it here.
Both: Some agencies find that they can pick a service AND an industry and further drill their niche down. An example of this would be an agency that excels at video production and has a lot of experience in the home services industry. That niche would be a video production agency for home services. The more you drill down, the smaller your pool but, the more credible your expertise so more clients.
How to Identify a Niche For Your Agency
Okay, you know now that your net has been cast too wide so reign your net, audit your agency thus far, and brainstorm your strengths.
Ask yourself three questions to get a pulse on the niche that will work best for your agency.
Which clients have I produced the best results for?
Which services do I know enough about that I could teach a class on it?
Which types of clients have I worked with that had the best budgets?
When I chose the niche for my agency, B2B was too broad and what helped me was mentally replay the strongest campaigns and strategies that I’ve implemented and right away I knew I needed to start an agency for agencies. I hope the decision when identifying your niche was as easy as mine!
10 Ways to Promote Your Agency’s Niche
Determing a niche is half of the battle and you’ll be able to see if you have chosen a niche that resonates after a little promoting.
Email all contacts (leads and clients) telling them about your new vision for your agency and encourage them to spread the word.
Join associations for your niche industry to connect with business owners who need agency support. A few months ago I found the most comprehensive association list and you can check it out here.
Embrace thought leadership and actively promote yourself as the owner of your agency who specializes in the niche you choose. There are a lot of benefits derived from thought leadership so I encourage you to check out this article on thought leadership for agency owners.
Start a referral campaign as current clients in your niche likely have contacts in that same niche. Referrals are pretty easy on the budget and worth their weight in gold. Optimize your referral campaign with this guide.
Social media is a great place to showcase your agency’s niche. Both organic and paid posts can reach your target audience rather quickly. Lead with expertise and don’t post sales promotions.
Create a lead magnet. Lead magnets, whether an industry report, an eBook, a webinar, etc. are great ways to establish thought leadership and generate new leads. Of course, your lead magnet should fit with the niche you’ve decided on for your agency.
Contribute to high-profile publications. This can be in the form of a paid contribution in publications like Entrepreneur or if your agency isn’t large enough for them to allow you to be a contributor, there are still effective publications relevant to your agencies niche. An example of a guest post that I’ve created that has brought in leads for my agency can be found here.
Sponsor an email blast or newsletter spot from a relevant third party. Do your homework and ensure that their audience is made up of your target audience.
Join HARO and monitor it daily for queries that journalists put out that align with your expertise. Be sure to reply to the queries with expertise, not a sales pitch. Your tips and quotes will get you far and the journalists usually link to the landing page of your choice.
Leverage social proof as your target audience wants to hear from a third-party who has had a positive experience with your agency than hearing directly from your agency. The gist is that brands seeking out agencies want credibility and authenticity which both can be derived from social proof. I’m passionate about agencies earning and leveraging social proof so I recently wrote a guide on everything you need to know here.
Final Thoughts: I’m Still Nervous About Declaring a Niche for My Agency
I realize I am advising you to abandon casting a wide of a net which is uncomfortable because your audience shrinks.
But keep in mind that when brands are seeking out agencies, they care more about expertise in specific industries or services as opposed to wanting an agency that is a “jack of all trades.”
Whether you are having trouble defining your niche or running into issues implementing this new realization of yours, I do free consult calls, and you can get in touch with me here. I mean it. I always love networking!
Does your agency have a niche? I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below!
