I had a great question come in re: yesterday’s nudge about niching:

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So, I like to think about niching or specialization as simply the “who” and the “what”.

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Who do you help, and what problem do you solve?

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The narrower you get on one or both of these, the tighter your specialization, and the faster you can accelerate acquisition, delivery, referrals, and reputation.

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This aligns with Philip Morgan’s 3 types of specialization:

Vertical — you specialize in a who (e.g. B2B SaaS companies)

Horizontal - you specialize in a what (operational efficiency, email marketing)

Platform - a subset of Horizontal, you specialize in a tool/software (HubSpot, Salesforce, Wix, etc.)

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All three types of specialization are valid, and you don’t have to go full tilt across all 3 dimensions.

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If, like the reader, you’re playing in the Horizontal or Platform space, your ‘what’ is already narrowed, but still…

• The narrower the who, the easier it is to build your reputation and market affinity.
• The broader your who, the more proof you’ll need to make people believe you really can help anybody
  • This could look like case studies, testimonials, or a portfolio

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Plotted on the diagram, the reader might look like this — a respectable niche:

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But if he opts to tighten his market position a bit, he could see additional benefit in market affinity and scaled delivery.

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Questions to you:

1. Where would you rank yourself on these two dimensions?
2. If you’ve chosen the broader side on either dimension, have you had any issues communicating to the market what it is you do?

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If your inbounds are in a good place, congrats!

If your inbounds are slow or non-existent, it might be a signal to tighten up.

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💡

-Wes

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P.S. Want to chat through your niche strategy?

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