Riches In The Niches!

Align your marketing with deep interests

Niching waaaay down.

It’s something a lot of us have heard before, it’s how travel advisors reinvented themselves over the past 25 years, but when it comes to putting it into practice for growing your business today… well, that’s not always an easy thing to do. 

Here’s a story. 

A few years back, I had the opportunity to talk to one of the heads of a well-known tourism board. 

I asked her what trends she was seeing in the advisor space. Without missing a beat, she talked about how the advisors who were slaying it had found a deep niche. 

And the example she used was an advisor that focused on cruises for recovering alcoholics. That business, she told me, was on fire! 

The advisor couldn’t keep up with demand. 

Years later and I’m still thinking about that super specific niche. 

Never in a million years would I have thought about something that… well… niche. 

But there it was — a business for a limited audience that was crushing it.  

Why does niching down work? 

I believe there are four reasons.

#1 It’s A Big World 

Let’s start with the obvious. It’s a big world. Any advisor who thinks they can cover it all is an advisor who’s not going to be closing many sales. 

Why? 

Because there’s just too much to cover. Today’s customer is looking for experts. And it’s hard to be an expert on everything.

So don’t even try.

Instead, focus more time and energy on becoming an expert in a specific area. 

Remember the story above. It’s not cruises for everyone… it’s cruising for one specific group. A group that you can grow and engage with. 

A group that will begin to carry your message out to their community. Smart, right?

#2 A Niche Helps You Stand Out. 

A big part of being a travel advisor is just getting on people’s radar. And that’s a lot easier to do when you can be known for a certain thing. 

Here’s an example: 

Jane Smith, travel advisor 

or 

Jane Smith, travel advisor focusing on fly-fishing adventures to New Zealand

Not sure about you, but if I’m interested in going fly fishing at the bottom of the world, I think I want to talk to the second Jane Smith. 

#3 A Niche Lowers Your Marketing Costs.

You need to market to drive inquiries and start conversations. But marketing costs money. So, if you’re trying to market to everyone who might potentially take a vacation… that gets expensive. 

Don’t try and boil the ocean. 

Instead, focus your efforts on those individuals who are going to align with what you offer. Target those. It’s a lot cheaper. And way more effective. See the story above. 

#4 Finally, You Can Make More Profit.

If you own a niche, you have more control over what you charge because you’re not a commodity. 

The service you provide is unique and special, therefore you have the opportunity to make more on each transaction. 

So, there you have it. Four solid reasons why you want to niche down. 

But wait there’s more!

Before we ride off into the sunset, let’s spend a few minutes talking about niche businesses and how to find one. 

Let’s start with a short quiz. Which biz model is a niche? 

• A travel advisor who specializes in Europe
• A travel advisor who focuses on vacations to Mexico 
• A travel advisor who focuses on trips to Disney 
• The answer: None of the above. 

These are too broad. There’s too much competition. If this is where you’re planting your flag… you better have a big war chest because it’s going to take a lot of dollars to win. 

It’s not impossible — just a lot harder. 

So, let’s take the examples above and start thinking about different ways to turn these into a niche.

You can break things down by audience types: 

• Low impact vacations for seniors 70 and older
• Vacations for military families
• Vacations for widows / widowers
• Vacations for millennials without kids
• Vacations with grandparents 
• Friend-cations

Break it down by geography: 

• Vacations to Finland 
• Vacations to the Poles
• Baltic Cruising
• Vacations to Peruvian Andes
• Vacations to Emerging Europe

Break it down by certain interests: 

• Extreme Adventure 
• Super Foodies 
• Retirement Celebrations
• Cultural/Spiritual Journeys

You’re catching the vibe, right? 

Find an area that you’re interested in and begin focusing on a group that is underserved. That, my friend, is where the gold is at. 

Final thought… and this one I’m totally stealing from Seth Godin. Here’s the example he gives.

• It’s hard to make a profit selling milk.
• There’s so much competition, margins are terrible, and it’s costly to transport. 

• It’s a lot easier selling high-protein cashew milk. 

Is this a product for everyone? 

Of course not. 

But those who are into protein and low carbs are going to be attracted to this product and be willing to spend some more on the product they want. 

Think about this when it comes to developing your travel niche. And remember – stay out of the milk biz 😉

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