EP29: Focusing vs. Niching

In Demand: How to Grow Your SaaS to $1M ARR and Beyond

When it comes to building a business there is a big difference between focusing and niching.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia Orangio, CEO of DemandMaven, breaks down how you can achieve focus by niching, but why you don't have niche to achieve focus.

TL;DL:

• 2:00 - When we talk about focusing, it is a founder really dedicating for a period of time to a specific part of the market. Niching is going to market saying that you only serve a specific segment. An example of a niched product is a CRM that is for trucking companies. An example of focus could be a CRM for small businesses that is investing over 12 months in focusing on marketing agencies and then the next 12 months focused on design firms.
• 5:00 - If you're focusing, you probably wouldn't turn away a customer that is outside of your focus. If you're in niche, you would turn away a customer that is outside of the niche.
• 9:10 - Focusing is not necessarily a forever thing, but it is important as you think about go to market. Start by thinking about who your raving fans are and who will get the most value out of the product. That is how you identify who to focus on first.
• 11:00- Hubspot is a great example of a company that focused, but did not niche.
• 12:30 - When you are niching, what's important is targeting a niche that has enough market turnover to create opportunity over the long-term. Then it is critical to have a plan for identifying when to expand or pivot out of that niche.
• 20:00 - When you are niching, you want to make sure that you are focusing on long-term macro trends and not short-term micro trends. For example, Blockbuster was niched, but missed the macro trend towards streaming.
• 24:00 - As a recap, focusing is a temporary effort focused on specific segments. For example a small business CRM where you are focusing your product and marketing efforts for 6 months on marketing agencies. Niching is a defining your product as being for a specific segment. For example defining your product as the CRM for marketing agencies and turning away other customers.