Does the thought of committing your agency to a niche market makes you nervous? Are you worried your agency will lose clients and miss out on revenue? Stop the madness of trying to be everything to everyone and start focusing on what it is your agency does best. You will reap major benefits of having a niche market, including increased clients and revenue.

In this episode, we'll cover:

• Finding your agency's niche market and niches within niches.
• 3 benefits of choosing a niche.
• Is your agency charging enough?

Today I spoke with Raman Sehgal, founder and managing director of the super niche agency, Ramarketing. With over a decade of experience in his agency's niche market, Ramarketing is still servicing their very first retainer client, eight years later. Raman provides great insight into the importance of niching down and the benefits it can bring to your agency.

Is It Time To Declare A Niche Market?

Has your agency had a painful project with an unrealistic client ultimately ending in dissatisfaction? Were you able to walk away with insights on how to move forward? If not, you need to learn from these experiences and start to understand:

• How to spec a project properly.
• How to manage client expectations.
• How to value what your agency does and communicate that to prospects.

Raman offered up a great idea of a "red flag system" that his agency uses when prospecting clients. It could be criteria such as demographic or size, it could be attitudinal or behavioral.

Whatever it is, figure out what will and not will not work with your agency and be prepared to say no. Don't force the fit just to make a buck. Most of the time it'll bite you in the ass. Go with you gut when something doesn't feel like a good fit.

This just reinforces that you cannot be everything to everyone successfully. Your agency can't know every sector. So find the sector you DO know and stick with it. Learn the ins and outs.

Money isn't the best indicator for taking on clients, even if the amount is large, the costs to properly manage the account will probably be large as well.

Remember: Once you get your niche market, you can always expand. And, choosing a niche only means targeting your agency's marketing to a specific audience. You are still free to take on work outside of the niche. Therefore, it's a win-win.

When Do You Know It's Time To Expand?

Finding clarity is key.

When your agency is focused, finding clients and hiring talent will all start to click because you will be doing these things with purpose and intention. Expanding can happen within your niche market - you will find niches within niches.

Raman uses an 80/20 model, dedicating 80% of agency resources to their niche market and 20% of resources are for fun projects outside the niche. This model allows for some flexibility and keeps things fresh with the ability to change things up once in a while.

3 Benefits of Finding Your Agency's Niche Market

1. Free up time for opportunities that closer align to your agency's expertise. Stop being afraid to niche down because you might push one or two clients away. Losing those clients will free up time to work on better ones.
2. Providing focus allows you to become an expert. If you totally get your clients business, they'll trust you more and when they trust you, it makes it very easy for them to choose to work with you.
3. Finding your niche market will help keep your competition at bay. If you become the authority in one segment of the market, then your competition of "generalists" will be left in the dust.

Are You Charging Enough?

Having a niche market raises your stock in what you can charge. Being competitive with your rates is important. If you are too cheap, this could cause the client to worry that there will be something wrong with your work. When you know what the market is expecting, you can adjust your agency rates accordingly. Pricing models will vary based on who you are talking to… and that's ok.

You probably aren't charging enough. This is the case with most of the agencies I work with, and it's because they don't fully understand the value they provide.

My challenge to all listeners is to consider increasing your rates by 25% right now!

Related: Start With One Niche At A Time, Being A Leader In Your Agency's Niche

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