As an agency / web studio, do not overdo it with narrow positioning
Hi, Habr! Usually we write fairly extensive reviews on various aspects of management, marketing and sales in the studio (for example, a large overview of how an agency’s marketing strategy should look like or a web studio’s business plan material with analysis of a variety of indicators). But today I would like to convey a rather short and understandable thought about the problem that many agencies began to encounter in the market.
I have always told in the framework of speeches, lectures and other materials that it is very important to stand out among the general mass of studios and agencies (there are more than 10,000 in Russia only) due to the distinct and often narrow positioning on key services, client audience segment, technology, approach to work.
But quite unexpectedly for ourselves, we saw that many market players were faced with an inverse problem. Increasingly, people are turning to us with something like “ We began to look for narrow positioning points, and decided that we would only make websites in Ruby, only in Nizhnevartovks, and only for cosmetics stores. We have a problem here - there is only one such store in Nizhnevartovsk, and we have already done it, and not at all in Ruby . ”
')
Thus, many start to shrink too much, and the process of work becomes something like this:
In addition, many people do not think (or simply forget about the unique positioning on a joyful wave) that any segmenting of Central Asia should include an increase in the efficiency of work in the selected segment. Hence the very thought:
Narrow positioning and the allocation of a specific segment of the target audience (it does not matter in the industry, in the client’s position, even if it’s the hair color of the office manager) is always a narrowing of opportunities. You are aiming not at the entire potential market of the customers of your service, but at a certain part of it.
So, the effect of this narrowing should overlap the growth of your overall efficiency (marketing, sales process, average receipts, etc.) by working specifically for this segment.
If your potential audience of customers for creating websites was - 100 companies, you narrowed positioning, highlighted Central Asia - and it became 33 companies, but your efficiency in this segment has only doubled - this is not positioning, but complete nonsense - and it is not only not useful, but also sufficiently harmful. Taking into account the reservation at the end of the material about the "monopoly position" in the segment.
Now, if in the above example you started working more efficiently 7 times (once again, we are talking about a certain overall efficiency, which immediately includes a set of indicators for marketing, price, and quality of work), then this made sense .
That's the whole thought. Do not overdo it and treat any marketing advice with a good deal of common sense - “actions for action” can lead your agency to rather pitiable results. Think about whether you now have such a problem, perhaps not for the whole business, but for some separate service, segment, etc.
And, of course, we must not forget that the narrowing of the target audience has an absolute effect - if you take a too narrow segment, then even working with a very high efficiency, you can choose it very quickly - and the market will collapse. This is still not bad, but you need to have a strategy in advance for new segments and expansion of Central Asia. And so, of course, a strong “monopoly” position in a narrow segment is better than the residual share of the entire market - but it depends on the segment size and further development options, taking into account the advantages of using this mini-monopoly. These advantages are often quite significant and can slightly offset the discrepancy between the narrowing of the target audience and the increase in the efficiency of the segment.
Terekhov Andrew, as a result of communication with various studios in the framework of the project Ruward and not only.
I have always told in the framework of speeches, lectures and other materials that it is very important to stand out among the general mass of studios and agencies (there are more than 10,000 in Russia only) due to the distinct and often narrow positioning on key services, client audience segment, technology, approach to work.
But quite unexpectedly for ourselves, we saw that many market players were faced with an inverse problem. Increasingly, people are turning to us with something like “ We began to look for narrow positioning points, and decided that we would only make websites in Ruby, only in Nizhnevartovks, and only for cosmetics stores. We have a problem here - there is only one such store in Nizhnevartovsk, and we have already done it, and not at all in Ruby . ”
')
Thus, many start to shrink too much, and the process of work becomes something like this:
In addition, many people do not think (or simply forget about the unique positioning on a joyful wave) that any segmenting of Central Asia should include an increase in the efficiency of work in the selected segment. Hence the very thought:
Narrow positioning and the allocation of a specific segment of the target audience (it does not matter in the industry, in the client’s position, even if it’s the hair color of the office manager) is always a narrowing of opportunities. You are aiming not at the entire potential market of the customers of your service, but at a certain part of it.
So, the effect of this narrowing should overlap the growth of your overall efficiency (marketing, sales process, average receipts, etc.) by working specifically for this segment.
If your potential audience of customers for creating websites was - 100 companies, you narrowed positioning, highlighted Central Asia - and it became 33 companies, but your efficiency in this segment has only doubled - this is not positioning, but complete nonsense - and it is not only not useful, but also sufficiently harmful. Taking into account the reservation at the end of the material about the "monopoly position" in the segment.
Now, if in the above example you started working more efficiently 7 times (once again, we are talking about a certain overall efficiency, which immediately includes a set of indicators for marketing, price, and quality of work), then this made sense .
That's the whole thought. Do not overdo it and treat any marketing advice with a good deal of common sense - “actions for action” can lead your agency to rather pitiable results. Think about whether you now have such a problem, perhaps not for the whole business, but for some separate service, segment, etc.
And, of course, we must not forget that the narrowing of the target audience has an absolute effect - if you take a too narrow segment, then even working with a very high efficiency, you can choose it very quickly - and the market will collapse. This is still not bad, but you need to have a strategy in advance for new segments and expansion of Central Asia. And so, of course, a strong “monopoly” position in a narrow segment is better than the residual share of the entire market - but it depends on the segment size and further development options, taking into account the advantages of using this mini-monopoly. These advantages are often quite significant and can slightly offset the discrepancy between the narrowing of the target audience and the increase in the efficiency of the segment.
Terekhov Andrew, as a result of communication with various studios in the framework of the project Ruward and not only.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/230457/
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