My team will be surprised, but I didn’t have an enchilada while I was in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Not even a quesadilla to be honest; I thought I would try some of the local specialties.  I was pleasantly surprised with a pumpkin soup that I had at the Water & Beach Club Hotel.  Really, it was excellent! 

The hotel that I stayed at was a boutique hotel with captivating views of the ocean.  They embraced the fact that they weren’t the largest hotel along the ocean and they hammered that point home with unique food offerings and services that the big guys couldn’t compete with.  They new their niche and they were certainly working hard to keep it. 

They weren’t the only ones mastering a niche though, this group of online marketers loved to embrace niches.  There was no fear that you had to “be everything to everyone”, with the love of a niche came more success than trying to please everyone. 

I won’t sell any t-shirt, that would be crazy 

Let’s take one of these power packed entrepreneurs.  He sold t-shirts online.  Now, not being the size of GAP, Banana Republic, or Wal-Mart he new he had to be different.  He knew that going after the entire t-shirt market would be crazy.  It would be too expensive and he would have to compete on price (never a good idea), so how did he stand out in a sea of online competitors?  

He has pursued the mastery of a niche for years (20+ years in the business in all).  He markets specifically to the people who want to purchase Greet t-shirts.  So you won’t purchase “any old” t-shirt at his online store, you will only purchase if you are in the Greek system at a college or University. 

There were some major benefits to him specializing this far: 

  • Deep understanding of his market.  Not only was he a graduate of a college where he was involved in a Fraternity, he has continued to learn more about what the needs of the Greek population are.
  • Cost savings - He doesn’t have to advertise “want a t-shirt? Get it here!”.  He is able to advertise at very low targeted levels for his audience.  He can advertise to specific sororities, fraternities, and schools. Hyper targeted and he gets hyper results for less.
  • Eliminates the competition - He has only 1 major online competitor.  He is so specialized that it is virtually impossible for someone to break into his market.  He has so many designs to choose from and such expertise that NO one wants to go against him (and why would they). 

Take action with your business 

Now it’s your turn to be different.  One of the biggest problems in real estate is the lack of specialty.  Too often we see that someone specializes in “residential, commercial, condos, land sale, manufactured homes, etc”.  No one can be a real EXPERT in that many fields, but real estate agents advertise that way because they are afraid they might lose business.  The reality, as John showed with his t-shirt business, is that with specialty comes more business than the lack of specialty. 

Remember, we said that you should only read this series if you are prepared to take some action, so here it is.  

  • Decide on your specialty - Make it specific and make sure you embrace it.  Remember you aren’t turning away business; you are embracing the flood of business you will receive once you specialize.  Can’t think of a specialty?  Here are a few ideas:
    • Condos in your City - Yes, only do condos
    • Homes in your City - Yes, stick only to the homes, refer the condo business.
    • 1-4 residential income properties - Avoid the commercial, just embrace the 1-4 unit properties and master it. 

You get the idea, decide on a niche and really hammer it.  Write loads of blog posts, web pages, e-mails for your drip campaign and then start advertising, just for that niche.  Don’t say “Real estate expert in MyCity” because it’s too vague.  Remember if you wouldn’t sell just a “t-shirt” you wouldn’t sell just “real estate”. 

Keep the Learning Going: