Many businesses try (and fail) to be all things to all people. Most successful businesses have a real understanding of what is special about them – what their Niche is. Niche marketing is all about narrowing your focus… specialising… establishing yourself as the expert in a tightly focussed range of products or services.

Niche
Compact Oxford English Dictionary – /neesh, nitch/
Noun — ORIGIN French, ‘recess’, from Latin nidus ‘nest’.

1. a shallow recess, especially one in a wall to display an ornament
2. (one’s niche) a comfortable or suitable position in life
3. a specialized but profitable corner of the market
4. ecology a role taken by a type of organism within its community.

What
Your niche is the place in which you have a natural competitive advantage because you occupy the right place in the right business ecosystem.

A good niche is one in which:

• You are highly visible and easily accessible to the people who are most likely to benefit from your work, including prospective clients and customers, prospective collaborators and partners, and others with whom value-adding activities are most likely to be mutually beneficial.
• You can employ the widest range of your talents, skills, and training (your offer.)

Why

• Differentiate yourself
• Spend your precious marketing budget on the right things targeting the right people with the right message
• Target the right people with the right offer
• Avoid the downward spiral of commoditisation

How

• Look at your business – objectively; Consider all aspects, especially:
• • Strategic Plan
  • Strengths, Weaknesses
  • Competitors (How are you alike? How do you differ?)
  • Top 20% of customers
  • • Why do they buy from you?
    • Once?
    • Repeatedly?
  • Skills, People
  • Products, Services, Processes
  • How are you special?

In Practice
This does not necessarily mean that you stop doing things that bring in a profit. One Marketing Design Agency I know has done very well through specialising (long before this became commonplace) in digital marketing. They were still a great place to go to get good quality print designed but they promoted themselves as a digital specialist. Their web-site and the thought leadership work that they publish is now written around profitable e-relationships. (You will find them if you ask Google to search for “Persuasion Pathways”). The point is to refine your proposition to the market so that clients and potential clients can label you. When people can label your business, they are much more likely to enquire about your products and services.

This was a guest post by Paul Fileman of SPS who are a national team of proven senior management professionals, passionate about working to help businesses achieve their next level of development and performance. Whether they are facing market changes, financial problems, people/skills issues, or are preparing a major project, they offer dedicated support from a multi-disciplined team of experts.

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