Why Marketing Fails #5: Niche Exhaustion

When it comes to marketing to multiple niches, I have two words of advice:

1. Go ahead! There’s nothing wrong with targeting multiple niches. BUT…

2. Pick one and become a leader in it, then move on to the second one.

If you try to go after too many niches (target audiences) at the same time, you will wear yourself out. It’s exhausting and doesn’t use the “best of you.”

When you go after too many niches simultaneously, your marketing time and money is scattered too broadly. Say for example that you want to go after “salespeople in the pharmaceutical industry” and also want to go after “salespeople in the auto industry.”

There appears to be a common denominator (salespeople), but the two industries and the two selling styles are dissimilar.  You would have to connect with both industries simultaneously, which means you can’t really focus all your time, energy and marketing money on just one target. Scattered focus equals scattered results.

In my blog post, The Problem With Niches, I said that the whole purpose of choosing a niche is so you can find a central place that potential clients congregate. Find ALL the places where auto industry salespeople congregate: meetings, magazines, conferences, classes…especially those that are specifically focused on the niche you’re going after. Center your marketing attention on those areas first. Once you become known and recognized in that niche, then move on to other industries or other niches.

Read the complete Why Marketing Fails blog series here:

• Why Marketing Fails: Introduction
• Why Marketing Fails #1: Market Research
• Why Marketing Fails #2: Follow-the-Herd Marketing
• Why Marketing Fails #3: No Follow-Up
• Why Marketing Fails #4: Blindfold Marketing
• Why Marketing Fails #5: Niche Exhaustion
• Why Marketing Fails #6: Lack of Repetition
• Why Marketing Fails #7: Not Tracking Success and Failure