For small businesses and startups, there is always a strong pull to come up with products or services that will serve the entire market. Even among bloggers and vloggers, you see the tendency to dwell on everything and nothing in particular. So they want to have writings on every possible sector or beat.
The truth however is that the easiest way to stand out is to stand in a niche, rather than spreading your energy and resources everywhere. When I say niche, I mean laser-like focus on a single beat, niche, service, product, or solution. It is focusing on the barest minimum and expands gradually only after gaining a foothold.
Where possible, focus on the market segment that the bigger brands have ignored, I mean the most basic consumers. At a time in the dairy sector, a particular brand was dominating in Nigeria. But somehow, another came into the market and decided that instead of the large packaging, it was going to focus on packaging its products in little sachets and target the average everyday Nigerian who cannot afford a big tin. Of course, they met with a huge market acceptance, and gradually moved to the bigger packaging with time.
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By niching, you are deciding to focus on customers who may be underserved, and this allows for quick sales, more revenue and high turnover. You also build a following in the process, majorly among the market segment, you have chosen. Dig deeper and find untapped subcategories in your market, sell to that core customer and expand from there.
A second point to note is that niching allows you to have one strong angle that you can flaunt in your campaign to customers. This becomes a competitive angle for you, seeing as you are in business to solve a problem for consumers in that area. It is the secret to outpacing your competitors especially the bigger ones. You can now tie this competitive angle with your origin story about how and why you started the business. This is also now attached to your products and services and the market can now associate your brand with something specific, rather than everything generic. It makes for an amazing marketing story which customers can relate to.
Targeted products and solutions: Being in a niche will help you to be able to make products and solutions targeted at your specific customers and this way, you can always have something new, a new idea, a new upgrade etc. You will always be ahead of the big brands when it comes to your niche. You can deliver valuable promise and experience which will always stand out from competitors. Conquer and know your niche. Once you can meet the needs of a smaller group and gain their trust, you will have no issues breaking into other market segments. Don’t be the regular jack of all trades and master of all.
For instance, if you are in the software development area, you could choose to niche and focus on banking products and solutions, rather than being the guy that does any and everything. In medicine, you can choose to focus on maternal and child healthcare. In creative designs, you can choose to focus on creating ads rather than just designing all kinds of graphics.
Every industry has sectors and angles you can approach it from. Find your angle. Find your niche and fly with it.