It sure seems counter-intuitive. A bigger market may seem to have more customers, but it’s also easier to get lost in.
Just choosing a smaller domain, a vertical and defining it sets a small business apart from all of the other small businesses that are trying to serve every customer on the planet and not doing much to attract any.
Becoming an expert in a small domain makes it easier to say “We’re the ones for you.” The you might be daycare centers, boomers, auto buyers, foodies, books buyers, cool apps afficiandos or exotic pet trainers — any definable group that has a group identity, talks to each other, and wants what you offer. The payoff in a smaller segment is often faster, greater, and more meaningful, especially when you start with a segment you’ve worked in, are a part of, and know intimately.
After all any small business should know what expertise it offers and be able to judge how well it is doing. It needs to know when new information is worth investigating and be able to apply it as needed.
Even the biggest brands started in one vertical … with good sense.
- It’s easier for anyone to attain true expertise in a smaller domain or segment. Learning a single domain and it’s traditional technical basis will free you up to be creative. Learning an entire industry won’t offer the time to for mastery that breeds true innovation.
- The rules and procotols are more easily mastered. You get to know the conditions and the players and their positions more quickly. As, a result, you fit in more quickly and gain status faster.
- A smaller field of knowledge focuses your effort, concentrates your learning. Being brilliant at one thing is more valuable than being good at many — especially if many are good at the same things. People place more value folks who understand their issues intimately.
- It’s the best way to get your game on and get to know your customers. Mastering a smaller domain allows you to hone your skills more finely, understand nuance, recognize finer opportunities, and develop offerings that more clearly fit customer needs.
- Being an expert in a smaller space raises ROI. You apply the same knowledge to similar situations rather than change gears with each new client. You’re able to find ways to connect client work and research to lower your investment. Relationships go deeper and partnerships are more likely — you might share in development for different uses.
- A smaller pond enhances your visibility. It’s easier to see the stars in a smaller universe. You can build a network quickly and that network will stay with you and help you grow into new segments.
- As you gain visibility, you can extend your expertise and reach by moving into other niches and verticals strategically. With slow moves to related fields, your expertise grows exponentially. You can take on larger territory with out problems of scalability.
With those thoughts, it makes sense to start with a vertical you already know. If you were trained as a teacher or a lawyer, you might want to start near education or a law, where you already have depth and credibility. You can always overlay your marketing or social media passion on the vertical you know.
Remember when Amazon was only books?
What vertical suits the small business expert in you?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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Hi Liz, Great job of summarizing the many advantages of vertical mastery. One qualification, though – to what extent you limit your markets depends somewhat on the nature of products and services you offer. If your offering is highly specialized – e.g.,ColdFusion blog development – you should be able to attract customers from many industries. On the other hand, if your offering is widely available, you’ll definitely gain by becoming an expert in a single vertical. What do you think?
Hi Brad,
I agree that a more generic product … say tissue might be good for everyone, but I still believe that you can protect your company and raise your expertise if you start by focusing more closely on one customer group. Then you have a better chance of standing out as an expert to that one group of customers.
I’m thinking the tissue company for sensitive noses might get more attention than the tissue company for everyone — the 2nd has to compete with all other companies who are competing with everyone and solve everyone’s problems. That’s what I was saying. 🙂
Liz:
Great points. I am fairly new to blogging and it is easy to get caught up in trying to be all things to all people. We all want huge readerships but as you point out having a loyal following in a well defined niche is more important.
Thanks for the insight.
Hi Doug,
Some small group of fiercely loyal fans will spread your goodness faster than a whole lot of uninvolved visitors who find a nice article now and then. 🙂
Great post, one of our businesses was video production. We chose to specialize part of our business to market to a very small niche, gymnastics coaches, and the product Gymnastics training videos (a community we knew) and started http://gymsmarts.com, now we have a wildly popular gymnastic minute on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/thegymnasticminute) – able to monitize that, and are the largest producers of gymnastic training information in the world. When we first started we were tempted to go off into cheer and other sports, but kept to the smaller niche, and succeeded.
We are now taking what we learned there and going into a different market – non-profit education and community with http://Thenon-profittoolbox.com.
Reikob,
Have you tried adding your gymsmarts video to a playlist? You might find it gets even more traction. 🙂