How To Select the Perfect Niche For Your Digital Marketing Agency

Hello, hello everybody. Thank you for joining me for today. The presentation I want to talk to you guys about is how to select the perfect niche and industry for your agency. So one question I get often and one problem agencies come up to me and say, Akeel, I'm stuck in scaling my industry. I'm stuck. You know, I've got 10 clients. I've got 5 clients. I'm spending all my time and effort trying to make them happy. I'm spinning my wheels, I'm working day and night just to keep them happy, but I just don't know how to go any further. I keep, you know, I get a new client and then the quality starts suffering on the other client. And I keep— and I look into their business and it's so simple. A lot of times they're just so spread out thin. When you're trying to solve for everything, you're solving nothing. Okay, and that's what I go up to them and I tell them, look, you're trying to do too much of everything. You're doing social media, you're doing Facebook ads, you're doing Google AdWords, you're trying to do everything. You're working with real estate agents, you're working with chiropractors, you're working with an e-commerce store. So you're spreading yourself thin, your mind is all over the place, and this is what happens. You're here with me today stuck in this situation. So this is exactly why I created this video, because I want to help other agencies get through this hump and continue scaling their business. So before we get started, this is what I want you to get takeaway. Choose your niche is one of the most important things that you're going to take away from this video. Okay, if you go and speak to— so this is a key takeaway from, you know, Charlie Munger, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett. A lot of you guys know these people. They ask these people, if you look back and can go and relay one key factor and what was the reason for your success, the one thing they keep going back to and what they refer to is the word focus. Okay, that seems so simple. Yeah, I just need to focus and build my business. No, but go even deeper. Focus on very specific things. You will be successful. All right, so choosing a niche is going to— is actually extremely important, and that's what I want to talk about. And if you haven't chosen that, you haven't chosen a niche for your service or productized your service, you think it's not a big deal. No, I can handle it. I can do real estate. I can work with a dealership. Wrong. Okay, you're going to screw up. It's going to cost you money. You're going to waste more time. You're going to continuously be frustrated. So please start today. And this is how I'm going to show you how to select that niche. Okay, so there's 3 parts of this on how to focus your agency. This is the foundation of your business. If you follow these 3 steps, you're going to be on the path to success. At least, you know, get that first foundation started at the right way so you can continue to build on it. So step 1, choose an industry. Once you choose that industry, choose a profession and go deep into that. And then the idea is to productize your service so you're not spreading yourself thin doing completely different things and running all around. Okay, so step number 1, how do you choose an industry? You're like, yeah, well, okay, great. I've got an industry I've got to pick, but how do I know which one's better? Which one should I focus my time on and whatnot? So that's kind of what we're going to go through here. But before we go into that, you know, reasons to choose a niche. So you're saying, well, okay, it sounds great, but why should I bother choosing a niche? I'm fine with what I am. I'm making money. But the truth is, if you go down and choose a single niche, reduce the cost of leads. The cost per lead is going to go down. You will have higher sales. You'll have better retention, meaning happier clients. You become an expert. In a domain and niche. Okay, people start coming to you for being that person. So you're not just no longer a generalist, you become that expert that every single chiropractor in the city will know you for being the best at. Okay, and it's also a lot easier to scale your marketing efforts, your agency, your team, your content, everything around that's built that you're going to build is going to be based on one single focus element. Okay, so that's Bunch of good reasons to focus on niche, but let's go a little bit deeper. I hope that's enough for you. But before we go into how to select it, I want to show you guys a quick case study. This is a health website. What happened is they got really, really good at running ads in the health industry, okay? They were able to generate thousands of leads a month for their client. This is an agency. They work with health industry. I can't specifically name the website because of the white label and kind of that. the liability we have with them and security, we were able to get it down to less than $1 a lead. And you can see here, so before they started working with this agency, they were generating about just under 100 leads a month with the budget that they gave them. Okay, this was connected to their CRM. You can see on the left here, their cost per lead went down. Okay, so 90 to 95% of the leads that the client was able to generate was dropped down to less than $1 a lead, and they were producing 1,000 leads a month. So from 100 to 1,000 leads a month just by focusing on the health industry. Okay, this is a 10x improvement for most clients. This is like a game changer, right? So you can say, oh shit, I wish I can 10x the amount of leads just from, you know, making some simple changes. But, you know, there was also an issue behind this as well, and that's what I want to go through. The issue was they were now— they were getting all these bunch of leads, but they lost their focus on closing these leads, okay? And the difference between that focus and, you know, not worrying about those leads was the difference between 3 years, a client staying with them for 3 years versus canceling after 3 to 4 months. So same thing, see how focus equals 10x amount of leads? It's also 10x the amount of happy clients and the value of the client, okay? Okay? So that's the big kind of exponential growth you get from being that focused person, okay? So when they did not focus, what happened is they were at the beginning, they weren't really focused on how to close their leads. They just assumed these leads were worthless and they would just— they wouldn't be interested. Maybe because they had a Gmail account or they had a Hotmail account, they just assumed that they're a waste of time or they only followed up with them once or twice. And they didn't really give a lot of effort into pushing And closing every single one of those leads and giving them that extra attention, that made the difference between canceling after 3 months and actually staying as a long-term 3-year client. So that's what our system is designed for. You're going to see over the next, you know, couple of videos and training sessions that I put together. The idea is not only to close hundreds of clients and scale, but it's also to create a long-term recurring business model. So you're not continuously churning out, you know, clients aren't churning as quickly as you are closing them. So, you know, yes, I got 10 new clients this month, but then I'm also losing those 10 clients that I just signed up last month, okay? So then it's like a hamster wheel where you're just spinning and spinning, and it's a zero-sum game, okay? So that's not what we want to do. We want to build a sustainable model that grows month over month, okay? So enough of that, let's go into it. Choosing a profession And going deep, how do I select the right business model? So let me show you. I actually have a little spreadsheet I'm going to share with you. Just a second before I get into that. Another special thing you need to consider is when you provide sales information, how can you provide sales information for a chiropractor, a real estate agent, for a doctor, for a dentist? If you don't specialize, right? So that's another thing as well is you're trying to help them, but how can you create so many pieces of content and spread yourself thin of being all over the place if you're not specialized, if you're just creating content for dental clinics, for example, okay? So specialization is the key to being able to make those improvements, keep growing, growing, growing, and get there where you want to be, okay? And what we found is that most clients are actually If you can show them that we're going to help you increase your sales and you have a case study of another dental clinic that you just did this for, they're going to be willing to try you out. They're going to be willing to work with you and give you that chance because you could show them that increase in sales, right? And this is what you're showing them. So these are the niches that I'm going to recommend to you guys to look at, okay? What we found to be very, very valuable. Okay, these are the ones: doctors, chiropractors, naturopathics, health coaches, dentists, nutritionists, gym owners, personal trainers, e-commerce health businesses. This is only in the health industry itself. These are just the top ones. You can go into service. I like electricians, plumbers, HVACs. Those type of industries work really, really well. They are high ticket. They are less susceptible to churn, and they stick around. For a long period. Okay, so these are just a list of some that I look at, especially if you're in the health industry. But now if you're trying to decide, how do I decide? It's really going to depend. Okay, you're gonna say, well, yeah, it depends. And I'm going to tell you why in a minute here, because it really depends on your personality. Every profession has a different sales model, and you're going to— your personality, your skills are going to be tailored and be suitable depending on the model you pick. Okay, but the main goal is that you want to pick one profession, stick with it, answer these questions, and then create templates that you can plug in over and over and with each client. Okay, so once you have that groove and you feel good working with a dental clinic, now you go to the next one, you have that template that's already worked, you know, you make that incremental improvement every time you repeat it because you've done it. Then the next time it gets better, and it gets better and better and better for every single client, and you're not trying to reinvent the wheel. Every single time, that makes sense, right? So these are the questions that I need you to ask yourself for you to choose your niche and decide on where to focus. Okay, what industry do I really want to be in? Do I enjoy and see myself working with a dental clinic every single day? Have I ever worked in this industry before? Do I have any clients I'm really successful that I've already worked with and I'd like to work more with them? Am I good at running campaigns for these clients and creating clients? Do I have case studies? Do I have results to show for this type of business? What type of sales model do I want to master for these type of industries? Is there a limit, right? So is the market size of this type of leads that you can generate in your city or maybe your area, maybe there's only 10 of them? Is that enough that you want to go after? Do you only go after those 10 or do you want thousands or maybe hundreds of those type of businesses that you can work with. And the last one is, does this niche earn enough money to pay my fees? Which is an important one. You don't want to go after those, you know, those lower-end type of clients who just can't pay, right? So that's a very, very important question is do they have the money to afford your services? One thing before we get into that, I want to share with you guys a spreadsheet. For those of you who stick around and provide your email after this or subscribe below, I'm going to send you guys a copy of this spreadsheet. You can see it. The way it works is you basically enter your niche here. So let's say I want to put in health or let's call it chiropractor, okay? And you basically fill in the sheet based on the dropdown and it gives you a score on how to select them, okay? So you put in your 4 different niches that you're not sure about, you're trying to decide between. Go through these questions. Do I have any experience with this niche? What is the average value of the transaction, right? So if they're $50 to $100 versus a $2,500 to $5,000 a month client, that's going to be a big factor. How many transactions would I be able to pull off in an average week? How many businesses are in my area? Okay, how many cities of this have in my country, right? How many cities of this size are in your target country? So go through these questions. If you want this spreadsheet, simply put in your information below and I'll send it over to you absolutely free. And then you'll be able to go through this exercise yourself and help decide your niche. And what I want to know is what niche you decided to work with after going through this exercise. Put into the comments. I'll be happy to look at that and give you any feedback as well. What I also want to share with you guys is 2 quick case studies of very successful business models that have gone through this. One has gone into the— one is called ChiroBuilt, and their focus is on chiropractic. All they do is build websites for chiropractors, okay? And they follow our exact model: productized services, specific niche, specific service, repeatable model, okay? And they're doing very successful. I know that for a fact. Another one, plumberseo.net, you can see here 2016, 2017, 2018, they're on Inc. 5000. Why? Plumbing and HVAC SEO. That's it. Seems so simple. Who would have thought of that? They do SEO, PPC, web design, social tools. Those are add-ons and upsells. But the main thing is they focus on plumbers and they're doing SEO, and that's how they build that kind of stream of being able to get to where they are now. Okay, so hope that makes sense. You guys can see these are 2 very good models that you can kind of mimic and learn from. But some considerations to look at and think about is that might impact your decision. Please make sure to focus on high-ticket services, okay? Because it's easier to provide results. It's easier to get them back their money. So you're spending— you're driving a campaign for them. If they're spending $1,000 a month, you can test very quickly. You can put more effort, more time versus somebody spending $200 a month. They're going to be waiting, wasting a lot of time. It's very difficult, okay? You can scale with them a lot quicker, working with a lot of those $200, $300 a month clients, but you need a much tighter marketing funnel, a much better product that shows results a lot quicker. It's really just a pain in the butt to go after that. So that's just my recommendation there. And another thing to think about is You go to a small business and let's say you ask them, okay, I need $500 a month to spend on Facebook ads, plus I need $200 a month to manage your campaign. Let's say $500 a month. Now you're basically asking them double the cost for doing the work they haven't already been spending. So maybe they're doing $500 a month right now on Facebook ads and they're getting some of the returns, but now that they added your fees on top, Less money in their pocket and probably less money in your pocket. It's just not— it's like a lose-lose situation. So if you don't want to offer advertising, it could be a little difficult to start with that. Look at a model like offering social media management services. Every business needs social media, okay? It's just a matter of picking which one works best for different industries. But that's an easy way to get that foot in the door, build that relationship, build that trust as a ticket into the, you know, medium-sized or even high-ticket price. And then you can build on it by offering advertising, SEO, and other, you know, website, etc. Okay? So just those 2 things to think about when you're going through that exercise. The last important part here I want to go after and discuss is productizing your service. So what do I mean by that? When you offer a service, you have to know exactly what you're offering, how much work you're going to give to them, how much work it's going to cost. You, what it's going to cost you, what that price is, and then what offers you can make to incentivize a deal on that same call because you know exactly what your margins is, what it's going to cost you. You're not going to have to go back and forth. I have to research it. I have to look into it. No proposals. Everything is just ABC, simple, expedited, and scalable sales process. So that's the idea. You're saving time from customizing sales process and figuring out what to offer. It's just a lot more efficient. Yeah, the team is more productive. The whole team is just, you know, works a lot better and you get better results. So what do I mean by that? Just like those 2 websites I showed you, single price. I'm offering Facebook ads— sorry, Facebook posts 7 days a week, $599 a month, and I'm going to send you one report a month. Okay? And we're going to do a weekly call. Check out, go through the process, go through the review. That is it. You're not going to say, well, I'm going to manage your Facebook. And I think it will cost anywhere between $500 to $1,000 depending on your website, depending on this, depending on that. Let me look into it. It's going to take me 6 hours. Then I'm going to put together a proposal and then you're going to think about it and then we're going to go back and forth and in the end we're going to get back to $799 and then we'll think about it. Okay? So that whole process can be streamlined. This is my price. This is my offer. This is what you're going to get. These are the results you can expect. Cool, let's move forward. Yes or no? If not, why not? If yes, let's move. This is how quickly it's going to go. Simple, easy, I love it. One thing also, automatic billing is critical. Okay, if we find same thing with proposals, if you're sending proposals, invoices waiting, you know, it's a nightmare. Okay, we found that clients that need to review, make sure it's approved, they're not going to make it a priority to pay you guys. But when they have that credit card in your file and they know that billing cycle is coming up next month, They're going to pay attention. If you're paying, you're paying attention to your business. You're going to be paying attention to making sure I get you what you need so you can start doing your work as quickly as possible. Get the payment upfront, add that recurring business model, that payment system on there, and it's hitting the bank every single month and you get that attention of your client. All right, so let's go back, rewind. Key takeaways of this: go to your existing clients right now or Or go back to your business model, select a niche, okay? One niche, go through that exercise. Make sure it's a high-ticket offer, meaning you're not charging less than $500 a month unless it's, you know, just a very easy in-the-door kind of service. And you want to offer productized services with high margins, okay? None of this 10%, 5% model where you're barely scraping even and you're working for $10,000 a month. but your take-home is, you know, $500 a month, okay? Make sure there's a high-quick model where you can scale. That's the idea here, scale your business, okay? Thank you guys so much. I hope you guys enjoyed that. Thank you.