CNW Digital – Marketing Blog Finding Your Niche | cnw-digital.com

August 12, 2019 Editor Digital Marketing 0

Hey there,

Clarissa here. This week I wanted to focus on a topic, that’s really become somewhat of a “buzzword” in the past few years: niche.

/niCH,nēSH/
Definition: denoting or relating to products, services, or interests that appeal to a small, specialized section of the population.

Note, two important keywords here: small and specialized. I will return to this in a moment, so bear with me.

We All Want To Belong

As human beings, we’re constantly soul searching – trying to find what we’re good at, what we’re passionate about, what’s our purpose in life, and what can we see ourselves doing for the rest of our lives? We all want to find our “tribe” right? We all want that sense of belonging to a community. It’s in our nature. It’s in our DNA.

For instance, growing up, I imagined myself as a linguist and counterterrorism analyst for the government to follow in my mother’s footsteps (even got a degree in it). I quickly realized it wasn’t for me. But I was also always interested in fashion. So I said maybe I’ll go to fashion school (which I did) and received a B.S. in Fashion Marketing. Started my first business, CNH Creative, my last year of undergrad where I focused on brand strategy, artistic direction (what does that even mean anyway? But it was very trendy at the time), and styling for high-end fashion brands. Because that’s another funny thing about human beings – we want to try and do it all. We want to do EVERYTHING.

You Cannot Do It All – Trust Me

But here’s the thing – I do not care what anyone tells you…you cannot be GREAT at EVERYTHING. You can be good, mediocre, competent, and qualified, but you can not be GREAT. The reality is: no we are not Superhuman. There are only so many hours in the day and days in the week. Therefore, there is only so much time we can dedicate to any given task. You will eventually burn out, spin your wheels until the rubber burns off. This, I guarantee you. Ironic right? You’re going 100 miles per hour and getting nowhere fast. Because without focus, you will get very little traction. As cliche as it sounds, it really is about quality over quantity.

And I’ll be honest with you: it’s taken me eight years of schooling, two businesses later, and a lot of time, money, and energy wasted to come to that realization. You may have noticed some recent changes and terms to our ‘Services‘ section of the CNW Digital website. That is because I came to my senses and said why am I trying to service everyone by offering everything under the Digital Marketing umbrella?

For me, it wasn’t worth it. It’s expensive, time-consuming, and physically, emotionally, and mentally draining. So I got rid of all the fluff and focused solely on email marketing and automation. I only work with fashion and beauty brands, because why not blend passion with expertise, right? Why not have the best of both worlds? I can service my clients well, and get to stay involved in an industry I love. And once I made that switch, everything changed. The flood gates opened.

Why I Found a Niche and Stuck To It

Why the sudden influx of business? Because I picked my niche and got really, really good at it. I become obsessed with all things email marketing – A/B testing, segmentation, automation, personalization, optimization, copy, email design – you name it. And the results for my clients were so good, the quality of my work was so great, that they started telling all their business friends about it; and before I knew it I couldn’t keep up with the incoming requests. And when prospects ask me – well can you do this as well? Guess what my answer is? “NO. But I’m happy to refer you to someone who can.” I would say I only offer email marketing and specifically through Klaviyo. Because again: focus on one and perfect it. I stopped wasting time trying to perfect ALL the ESPs out there such as HubSpot, Pardot, Active Campaign, and stuck to learning everything there is to know about Klaviyo and how to leverage it best for my clients.

And brands loved that level of honesty and transparency. The reason someone hires a consultant is for his/her unique insights and level of expertise in a particular category or industry. Mine just so happened to be email marketing. I can’t stress enough how many brands underestimate just how powerful email marketing can be. Don’t take my word for it: take a look at our recent case studies here.

To Be or Not To Be

So, to be or not to be? That was the magic question I had to ask myself. Do I want to try and compete with the big dogs and be a full-fledged marketing agency offering paid search, social advertising, SEO, brand strategy, email marketing, social media marketing, etc (yeah I know, it’s a lot to even say aloud)? Or do I want to become the best there is in this small, specialized sector of email marketing?

So I made the decision, and the decision paid off. My revenue increased by 2.6x in less than 30 days! I couldn’t believe it. And right now as I write this draft, I just on-boarded two more clients for email marketing. Et voila! There you have it, folks. Find ONE thing you are good at, passionate about, or could see yourself doing for a very long time that brings or adds values to others. Stick to it, study it, absorb it. Get really, really good at it – and I mean the absolute best (because you work hard enough at it and you will be). Then go out there and see what happens. I promise you won’t regret it.

Until next time,