We’ve spoken about the dangers of getting too specific. Now, let’s talk about the advantages of being too specific, at least some of the time.
You want to have your business appeal to as many people as possible. This means that if you’re a car repair shop, being able to show knowledge of everything from tires to chassis is a great way to rope in people who are interested in all levels of car repair. You’ll be able to establish relationships with these people who will hopefully become repeat customers of yours, and maybe even offer references to others.
What you want to avoid in general is getting too pigeonholed, as this can cause you to miss out on a lot of business.
However, the fact of the matter is that staying broad and appealing is a good thing, but people do tend to have specific interests. Maybe you know a lot about overall car repair, but you prefer to tinker with the engine. Maybe you like all car brands, but you prefer Jaguars. Humans do tend to gravitate toward increasingly specific levels of mastery depending on their inclinations. Just because you happen to know more about Jaguars than any other brand of car doesn’t mean that you should hide your knowledge out of fear of seeming too specific.
The “too specific” parts of your business can be used to your advantage. These are called “sub-niches,” and are basically where you can get super specific without losing huge chunks of your audiences.
In fact, being able to use your sub-niche is a great way to really get your business to flow. Maybe there aren’t that many people in the world who are as psyched about Jaguars as you are, but if you can tap into this sub-niche, you might be floored about how much business they’ll give you. People love to tap into others who have similar specific interests, and if you can manage to find the people who are as obsessed about the Jaguar engines as you are, you’ve probably made about fifteen new best friends. Best friends are excellent for advertising – and they’ll likely mention you to others who just have general interest in car repair, just because you’ve connected over Jaguar engines.
The trick is not to let the sub-niche take over the niche. Again, more balance. Maybe you like talking about Jaguars more, but you shouldn’t let it keep you from the general “help me with my oil change” threads on forums. In this way you can stay broad enough to help even the most out of touch layperson as well as the experts in your sub-niche. Behold the power of the sub-niche if used properly – just don’t let it take over everything else!
