Freelancer to Agency #3: How to Identify Your Niche Market

Hey there!

Welcome back to the Freelancer to Agency series, where we’re going through all the steps you need to take to go from freelancer to marketing agency owner.   

Now that you’ve established your company, let’s discuss how to identify the industry or niche market you plan on serving with your agency. 

If you’ve already been focusing on a particular industry as a freelance writer, you can stop reading here. Because if that’s the case, and you’ve built up expertise and experience in that market, serving this industry probably makes the most sense for you and your agency. 

That was the case with me. 

I worked as a freelancer content writer/marketer in the Bitcoin and blockchain space for years, so when I decided that the best way to increase my income was to start a content marketing agency, targeting companies in that industry was the obvious choice. 📈

However, if you’ve been more of a generalist in your freelancing career or aren’t sure how to niche down, keep reading! 

Why niching down is the way to go ⬇️

“The riches are in the niches!” 

I am not quite sure who to attribute this quote to because I have heard several marketing thought leaders make this statement but I 100% agree with it. 

It would be very difficult to sell your services as a generalist agency, especially when you are starting out. 

After all, why would you be better than an agency with 10+ years of experience and a track record of delivering results for large customers? 

However, if you niche down to specifically target certain industries or types of companies, you are much more likely to acquire clients who will be excited to work with you.

Why? 

Because you will have the specialized knowledge in the specific industry your potential customers are operating in, which helps to build trust with your (prospective) clients. 

So let’s take a look at how you can identify a niche market for your agency if you are unsure of what types of clients you’d like to serve. 👀

What industries you’ve worked in interested you the most? 🏦

If you’ve been creating content for clients from a wide range of industries, stop and think about what content you enjoyed creating the most based on the industry of the client. 

• Did you enjoy working with tech companies because you learned about innovative new technologies? 

• Did you like working with tourism companies because you enjoyed writing travel-related content? 

• Did you develop a passion for gardening after writing content for the gardening niche? 

You should be able to figure out pretty quickly what you enjoyed the most. Taking a look at those niches first will probably make it easier to pick your niche. 

Research your potential niche(s) ✍️

Once you have a shortlist of niches you’d potentially like to serve, you need to dig a little deeper to find out if they are viable. 

What I mean by viable is whether a niche market is profitable and sustainable, and has plenty of companies that have sufficient demand and the willingness to pay for your services. 

You want to operate in a market that has plenty of businesses with deep pockets that have a need for the type of services you are offering. Moreover, it should be an industry that is growing and will likely continue to grow in the future.

That will make it easier to acquire and work with large clients on a recurring basis, which is what you want as an agency owner. 

Look at up-and-coming industries 📈

If you still haven’t found a niche that interests you and none of your previous work experience has helped you choose a market, you can also look at new, high-growth industries that are attracting a lot of funding. 

The obvious example today would be AI. 

The amount of VC money streaming into AI startups right now creates an opportunity for agencies that can help these companies attract paying customers. 

Even if you take this approach, however, you should also have an interest in the subject matter, otherwise you won’t enjoy the work you do. 

Take a look at your peers in your niche 👀

While I don’t think you should spend too much time looking at your “competitors,” you should take a look at who else is doing something similar in the niche you are targeting. 

I am actually not a big fan of competitor thinking, which is why I prefer the term ‘peers’ over ‘competitors.’ There’s enough to go around for everyone and I have made friends with several marketing agency owners in my industry who I ended up learning a lot from and getting referrals from. 

So take a look at the other agencies targeting your niche to see what kind of products and services they offer, what types of companies they highlight as their flagship clients, and (if they are showing it on their website) what they are charging for their services. 

This can help you find potential gaps in the market and will show you what’s working already for agencies in that market. 

The Take Away

It’s important for a new agency to focus on a specific market instead of attempting to service every man and his dog. 

Choosing a niche market will be more beneficial to your business as you can easily identify businesses that you want to work with. 

In addition, you’ll also be viewed as an expert in that space and become a go-to agency for businesses looking for your marketing services. 

And remember, you can always pivot if you need to. There’s a chance you start out in a very small niche and then expand out to service a larger market as your agency grows. 

Until next week!

Alex