How to Pick an Agency Niche: The Beginner’s Guide

Table of Contents

• Why Niche
• Pick a Unique Niche
• Build a Niche List
  • Things You Like (Examples Included)
  • Common Niches (Examples Included)
  • Businesses Around You (Examples Included)
  • People You Know (Examples Included)
• Pick the Niches You Like
• Does Your Service Work with that Niche? (Examples Included)
• Does Your Pricing Model Work with that Niche? (Examples Included)
• What Niche Obstacles Will You Have to Overcome? (Examples Included)
• How Big is the Niche Industry? (Examples Included)
• How Can You Get in Front of Those Business Owners? (Examples Included)
• Consider Future Niche Pivots and Parallel Niches (Examples Included)
• Keep an Open Mind

---

Your niche is probably one of the most important things you’ll decide for your agency. It can determine things like your pricing and the services you offer. It also has an impact on your brand name and even how much success you’ll have.

Most gurus out there will give you a list of local business industries they think are lucrative and pick one of those (i.e solar, roofing, HVAC, etc).

That’s stupid advice.

I’m going to give you advice on how to pick your niche the right way. This will actually set you up for success and have you not hate your life feeling like a failure.

Or you can listen to us talk about it rather than read this in episode 40 of the Agency Growth Podcast: “How to Pick a Niche for Your Agency“.

Why Pick a Niche

If you found yourself reading this post it’s probably because you already know a niche is important. But I want to explain just how important it can be.

Niche agencies:

• Are more scalable.
• Are cheaper to operate.
• Have more brand recognition than general agencies.
• Have higher authority over their industries than general agencies.
• Make it easier to rank in Google.
• Make life simpler.

If you want to do a deep dive on why this is important, I wrote about it in depth here: “Why Should You Pick a Niche for Your Agency?“.

Don’t Do What Everyone Else is Doing

Niche’s tend to become oversaturated when YouTube gurus attempt to exploit a “profitable” niche. The common ones I’ve seen are:

• Roofers
• Solar
• Agencies
• SaaS
• Crypto (I honestly can’t believe this one)
• Medspas
• Dentists
• Realtors

Success in a niche (or in anything) is directly related to the person doing it. If someone is having success in roofing, that doesn’t mean you will. You might have more success than them if you went into deck building.

If the point of niching down is to reduce general market competition, picking an oversaturated one isn’t helping your case.

It’s important to do something you’re familiar with or something that is somehow involved in your life.

Create a List of Possible Niches

If I were to start over with a blank slate and nothing to jog my ideas, I would start creating a list of niches. I would spend a lot of time on this because whatever industry you choose is the one you’re going to need to stick with for years.

Write Out Things You Like

List out the things you like.

I might list out things like:

• Video games
• Paintball
• Lawn care (spoiler alert — that’s my agency’s niche)
• Writing
• Hiking
• Business

My wife might list out things like:

• Makeup / Cosmetics
• Dogs
• Crafts
• Music
• Art
• Interior Design
• Fashion
• Retail

From here, think of different businesses surrounding these things you like.

For video games, I would consider niches like:

• Indy game studios
• Mobile game developers
• Streamers
• Gaming YouTube channels

For paintball, I could look into local paintball fields and paintball brands. I could also think of adjacent things like laser tag places and airsoft fields. If I’m willing to do those three then I bet I could also work with other activity-based businesses. Things like whitewater rafting tours, ziplining companies, etc.

You can go the route of only focusing on one micro-niche like “paintball”. Or target something like the “outdoor activities” industry which includes paintball.

We don’t just work with lawn care companies. We work with landscapers, deck builders, masonry contractors, and tree trimmers. It’s all part of what’s referred to as the “green industry”.

Let’s look at one more example of looking at things we like: Interior design.

With interior design, you have quite a few options.

• Actual interior designers
• Professional home and office organizers
• Architects
• Furniture sellers and stores
• Home decor sellers and creators

I don’t even like interior design. These are just things I thought of off the top of my head. If it was something you liked, think about anywhere interior design is relevant.

Whatever you choose, it’s important you’re interested in your niche. Otherwise, you won’t stand out or have much motivation to be an expert in it.

Think of Common Ones

Let’s add to your list a bit and jot down some common niches you can think of.

I’ll wait.

.

.

.

.

While I was waiting, I wrote down a few that I thought of off the top of my head:

• Local Service Businesses
  • HVAC
  • Plumbing
  • Lawn care
  • Pest control
  • Window repair
  • Roofing
  • Locksmiths
  • Electricians
  • General contractors
  • Driveway sealers
  • Gutter repair
• e-Commerce Businesses
  • Exclusively Amazon sellers
  • Clothing companies
  • Electronics
  • Furniture
  • Digital courses
• B2B Businesses
  • Agencies
  • Manufacturers
  • Retailers
  • Logistics companies
  • Goods distributors

Some of these I’ve drawn from the people in my life and my own life experiences. You can do the same, but I have a separate section for this coming up.

Look at the Businesses Around You

If you’re lacking creativity or brainpower, just drive around town and look at some of the businesses around you.

Some that I would run into would be:

• Laundromats
• Restaurants (and all of the micro-niche restaurants)
  • Local sitdown restaurants
  • Franchise sitdown
  • Franchise fast-food
  • Fast-casual
• Gyms
• Tattoo shops
• Tire shops
• Car repair shops
• Used car dealers
• Bowling Alleys

There is a ton more and all you have to do is think a little.

Consider Your People You Know

Think about the people you know. What do they do?

My brother-in-law’s brother (… so… also, my brother-in-law?) started a company where he sells gym floor restorations. Schools and recreational centers reach out to him to get quotes on restoring their gym floors.

If this is a business model for him, surely he has competition which means this could be a niche you target.

My mom works at a podiatry clinic.

If you like feet… that could be your thing.

Decide Which Ones You Like the Most

You should have a pretty big list by now.

Start narrowing down the ones you like or find interesting to you. Don’t be too restrictive at first. We’re going to do more shrinking of this list relatively soon.

Start by crossing out the ones you absolutely won’t want to do. If you can’t see yourself being the agency for plumbers then cross that out.

What Service Offering Would Work Best?

People who make blanket statements like “Facebook Ads suck” are either not good at it themselves or are only thinking of their own niche.

Go down your list and think about the key performance indicators (KPIs) that a niche might want.

If it’s an e-commerce company, they might want website sales or return on ad spend (ROAS). If it’s a roofer, they might want leads. If it’s a mobile app developer, they might want downloads.

Then think about which service would work best to deliver that KPI.

When do people need plumbers? When something isn’t working. When something isn’t working, how do people find plumbers?

They Google them.

For this niche, you might want to consider offering Google Ads and SEO. If you’re wanting to offer social media instead of Google services, maybe plumbing isn’t the one you want.

If we look at an e-commerce niche like home decor, we might want to consider social media. Home decor buyers tend to review and purchase things that are shown to them rather than seeking them out.

Social media in general is a great medium for e-commerce. It can also be a great medium for things like bowling alleys and restaurants.

Things that are needed when they’re needed are typically best for Google.

Does Your Pricing Model Work for Your Niche

This is a sensitive subject for me.

Everywhere I look I see gurus telling new agency owners they can price their services at $2,000/mo to {insert niche}. But can you really?

Businesses that are able to pay that much are smart. They know exactly what KPIs they’re looking for and what you need to deliver in order for this to be a smart decision for them.

Imagine a gym owner makes $90 in net profit off of one $600/year subscription. You’re going to need to drive about 50 leads per month at $2,000 just for it to make sense for them. That’s if they close 50% of those leads.

If you drop your pricing to $500/mo then you only need to deliver about 15 leads per month per month.

Now consider how much time you spend on that client per month at $500. Is it more than 5 hours? If you spend 5 hours per week (20 hours per month) on a client at $500 per month, you’re making $25 per hour. That isn’t scalable.

If you want to know more about how to price your services I recommend checking out these two episodes:

• How to Price Your Services When You’re Just Starting Out (Episode 046)
• How to Price Your Agency or Consultative Services (Episode 004)

Also, if you want to learn more about how much you should work on clients per month, check out these episodes:

• Internal Labor Rate Calculation is More Important Than Making Money (Episode 019)
• Finding Success in Productized Services for Our Agency (Episode 033)

Are There Niche Obstacles to Overcome?

This one might come with some experience but it might be a good one to quickly eliminate some from your list.

If you do anything in the medical industry, you’ll need to understand HIPAA compliance. That includes working with doctors, podiatrists, chiropractors, clinics, etc.

If you’re not prepared to dive deep into that, don’t do it.

For some industries like the automotive industry, specifically with new car dealers, you’ll have to learn brand compliance. That’s when the manufacturer (Ford, Chevy, etc) pays for marketing on the car dealer’s behalf. The car dealer only gets these funds if the ads are compliant with the manufacturer’s guidelines.

Most distributors of any sort are like this. If you work with John Deere dealers and other implement dealerships, you’ll run into that too.

If, for some reason, you chose funeral homes as your niche then I hope you don’t plan on doing any retargeting with Google. Because targeting people who are grieving is against their policies.

It’s specifically called out in their “Personal Hardships” ad policy. Diet supplements and medspa-related things can fall under this as well.

The cannabis and crypto industries are tricky as well. Do your research.

How Big is the Industry?

If you pick a niche that’s exclusively surf shops, then you’re going to be restricted to businesses in warm climates along the coast.

Not a good idea in my opinion. But also, I know absolutely nothing about the surf shop market. Maybe you do and it is a good idea.

The US lawn care industry is a $59b industry. Landscaping is $183b. That’s a $242b combined market cap. There’s plenty of opportunity in this industry.

Looking at the size of the industry might give you an idea of the viability of it.

Gyms are $32b

• Gyms are $32b
• Pet groomers are $14.5b
• Hair care is $17b

Also in case you’re wondering since I mentioned it, the US surfing industry is $1.8b. It’s even smaller if you just go with the surf shop example I gave.

The market size in terms of dollars might not be the best gauge as now we have trillion-dollar companies. You can also do a simple Google search around you.

• How many bowling alleys are in your state?
• How much revenue does the average blowing alley make?

The number of businesses and how much money the industry produces is a good gauge of its size and potential.

Consider How to Get in Front of These Niche Business Owners

You should be narrowing in on a select few niches at this point.

The next question I would ask myself is how do I plan to get in front of these business owners?

There is always cold calling or emailing by just Googling or scraping lists from Apollo.

Or you can do what we did and find industry podcasts to guest on as well as magazines to write for.

In the lawn care industry, there are magazines that our clients read. If we can be featured in those, we can get in front of them. And we have.

• Green Industry Pros Magazine | How to Find Quality Lawn Care Customers
• Lawn & Landscape Magazine | Digital Dominance
• Turf Magazine | Does Winter Marketing Make Sense for Lawn & Landscape Companies?
• Landscape Management | You’re Spending Too Much Money on Google and Here’s Why

We actually did two episodes on getting published in niche magazines (episode 035). One was about how to get published and the other was about what kind of content to write (episode 039) for those magazines. So if you want more information on how I go about these emails to editors, check these out.

Same thing with industry podcasts that our potential clients listen to. Can you find podcasts in your proposed niche for those business owners?

The landscaping industry isn’t unique.

The tire industry has a huge following for business owners. Just look at these sites dedicated to business owners in the tire industry:

• Tire Business – Tire Industry News, Manufacturing News & Analysis
• Tire Review Magazine
• Modern Tire Dealer

There are even podcasts and YouTube channels dedicated to this stuff.

We’ve done some work in the restaurant industry and the same is true there.

Pick any niche, then search for the following in Google:

• {niche} business magazine
• {niche} business podcast
• {niche} business events
• {niche} business YouTube
• {niche} business forums
  • I also recommend checking our Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit for these (in that order)

You’ll find a lot of places to get in front of your target clients.

When we first started, we got a lot of our business from answering questions in an online lawn care business forum. Being on those industry podcasts and magazines helped too.

Consider Future Pivots and Parallel Niches

When you pick a niche you like and want to pursue, make sure there are parallel niches that you can move into. If you’re going to do the work of aligning your brand to your niche, make sure it can pivot.

• Maybe the micro-niche you went after was too small.
• Referrals from adjacent businesses are more common (painters might refer drywallers to you).
• Consider future industry changes that cause your pricing to no longer align with your current micro-niche. Can you pivot?

I have a mentee in Scotland named Marcus. Marcus loves dogs and because of that, started a marketing agency focusing on dog groomers.

What I wanted Marcus to do was think about all of the other businesses he could include with his agency just because he loves dogs.

This would include:

• Pet groomers (including cats)
• Veterinarians
• Dog boarding
• Dog training
• Dog bars and parks

All of these don’t break his niche selection and he can stay knowledgeable in every one of these. The only one that might be significantly different would be dog bars and parks. This one leans closer to the restaurant industry and has different KPIs than the others.

By being hyper-selective on dog grooming, he can narrow in on that micro-niche with a bigger brand presence. Once his brand presence is well-known, he can add these other business types.

Also, think about the amount of pet groomers that have business friends who own veterinary clinics or dog boarding facilities.

The referral network can be huge.

Keep an Open Mind

You don’t have to start out with a specific niche. You can keep it broad at first and figure out which clients you like working with and which ones you’d like more of.

If you have really good success with one, maybe you’ll have success with more like that.

Some new agency owners opt to have a few niches they work with at first. They then taper down to the niches they enjoy and see more success in.

Want to Learn More?

This site is full of free information in both these blog posts and our weekly podcast. You can also subscribe to our YouTube channel.

If you want updates on new things we post, give us your deets below and we’ll keep you updated.