EP29: Focusing vs. Niching

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. 

Om Podcasten

Growing a SaaS? Yeah, that's hard. Growing a SaaS without a clue what you're doing from a marketing and growth perspective? Pretty much impossible — especially if you want to break the $1M and $10M ARR marks. Kim Talarczyk sits down with Asia Orangio to extract and unpack all the strategic insights she holds in her brain from working with hundreds of SaaS companies and interviewing thousands of their customers. Together, they break down how to diagnose and troubleshoot growth challenges across every part of a B2B SaaS business. About your hosts: Asia Orangio is the CEO & Founder of DemandMaven. Asia helps founders of PLG SaaS companies troubleshoot their growth across GTM, acquisition, activation, retention, and expansion and get unstuck. In early 2018, Asia founded DemandMaven — a consulting firm dedicated to helping bootstrapped and funded SaaS companies build revenue-generating growth engines. Previously, Asia served in a number of marketing roles, but most notably as head of marketing at Hull where she helped the team 10.5x in growth, and #FlipMyFunnel / Terminus as demand generation manager. Asia also served on the board of Moz before its successful acquisition in 2021. Kim Talarczyk is the Client Services and Operations Manager at DemandMaven, where she ensures all client engagements are executed to the highest standard. With a strong background in client-facing roles and professional service firms, Kim has played a key role in scaling operations and delivering exceptional experiences for both B2C and B2B brands.