What are going to be the best-performing SMMA niches in 2024? The short answer is, you can be successful in any niche, in any industry.
The key is just knowing the right criteria of a client for you to look out for. That’s what we’re going to be going through today.
The ideal client criteria when you start an SMMA agency and how to pick the best niche for you based on your interests.
Let’s get into it.
Table of Contents
Why Niching Down is Crucial for SMMA Success
When we are referencing a social media marketing agency or a service-based business, when we talk about choosing your niche, we are simply referring to choosing an industry that you would prefer to work with or offer SMMA services to.
The Strategic Goal of Specializing in a Single Niche
Now, as an agency owner, our goal is to work towards a point where we can specialize in just one niche.
We do this because it gives us a competitive advantage over other agencies out there. For example, in my agency we specialize in lead generation businesses.
If I approach a business and I’m trying to sell my Google ad service to them and another agency out there is trying to sell them as well, I specialize in their niche. That other agency doesn’t have a niche they specialize in and will take anyone and everyone, and I’m going to get that client.
Because the perception of my ability to get results will be higher. That business owner is going to be more inclined to speak to me and give me time and go ahead with our agency because we specialize in their industry, so we’re going to be able to get them better results by default.
From Generalist to Specialist
Now, it doesn’t always start off like that. When you’re starting off an agency, it’s very hard to just pick one niche and go into that, and I wouldn’t actually recommend you to do that.
You have to work to a point and work with multiple niches when you start out until you realize what industries you enjoy working with and what industries really click for you.
A lot of people will take a long time to establish what niche they eventually want to specialize in. For example, when I started my agency six years ago, I literally would take on anyone and everyone. I went through every single local business in my area that I could possibly sign up. Then, I found out through what industries I enjoyed working with.
Mastering Services for Targeted Niches
The key is mastering a service for one specific person, so it’s very hard to say no to you. That way, it’s very easy to scale your agency because you have an irresistible offer specialized for one individual niche.
I want to lay the foundation for you today to be able to go out there and pick a few niches to get started, dip your toe in the water, and then hopefully, you’ll be able to specialize in one after you start signing up your first few clients.
But the key, regardless of the niche, regardless of the industry, is actually knowing what kind of client is going to be good for you, and what criteria you should look out for. This is way more important than the industry or the niche.
The Criteria for Selecting an Ideal SMMA Niche
Like I said at the beginning, the niche is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. It’s about the criteria of the client. On that note, I want to highlight five things for you to look out for. As a beginner, you should look out for five things in your ideal first client.
1. Look for Businesses with Good Reviews
Generally speaking, the companies that have happy customers are easier to market for. Those customers will engage in your ads, promote the content you are putting out there, and become salespeople within themselves. And so look out for businesses that have a good reputation.
If you work with a business with a bad reputation, generally, the ad account is just not going to work. You are fighting an uphill battle from the get-go. And the more customers you get, the more unhappy customers you get, and the whole thing spirals out of control. Look out for businesses with great reviews and a good reputation.
2. Prioritize Local Businesses for Initial Leverage
The next thing is that that business is local to you. You’ve probably heard this time and time again, and it’s very important when you’re first starting out that you reach out to local businesses. Because as a new start agency owner, we need leverage. We need a reason to be able to build a relationship with somebody.
If we’re just approaching a random company from 1,000 miles away and we’re saying, I’m going to run your ads, we have no leverage, no common ground whatsoever. We don’t even have case studies that we can use.
Whereas if we speak to a local company, at least we can build a relationship based on the fact that we are close by to them. We have an in, and that’s what we need to focus on, is getting as many ins as possible when we’re first starting out.
Our first in is being local. Our second in is getting a case study, and then we can sign up clients elsewhere. Make sure this business is local, regardless of their niche.
3. Steer Clear of Startups
Unfortunately, according to statistics, 90% of startups fail. I’ve seen it time and time again where agencies come, and they’ll sign up their mate business, which literally just got started.
The issue is that business has no proof of concept. There is no proof that it’s a viable business. They don’t have customers, they don’t have data, they don’t have a proven marketing strategy. You are literally doing all of that for them. You might as well be their business partner, be taking a percentage of their company because they haven’t proven they actually have anything tangible yet.
As a marketing agency, it’s very hard to work with startups. Startups need to understand that they’re probably going to advertise for up to six months before they even turn a profit on their advertising. That can really have a detrimental effect on agency owners who then think they’re not delivering a good service. Trust me and hear this from me because I’ve done it and I’ve learnt from this mistake. If you sign up a startup or you’ve worked with a startup and you’ve ever felt like you weren’t able to deliver a good service, pick yourself back up.
Do not beat yourself up over that. The problem is the client and not you. Nine times out of ten. But just avoid startups like the plague. Trust me on that one.
4. Target High-Ticket Services and Repeat Customers
Next is choosing to work with businesses that offer a high-ticket service, so they offer services to people for multiple hundreds or thousands of one-off service, so you can generate leads for that business.
The next option, it’s looking for companies that have a lot of repeat customers. They have a high LTV, which means lifetime value. It’s the amount of money that someone will spend over the lifetime of shopping somewhere. If we’re working with, for example, a restaurant, we want to make sure that we’re working with a restaurant that has the opportunity for people to come back again and again and again.
A gym is another good example of this because when they get a customer, somebody is signing up to a monthly membership.
If we’re working with a gym, they’ve got a $30 monthly membership and it costs $10 for us to get them a new customer via Facebook ads, they’ve profited $20 on the front end.
But on the back end, because that person will stay with them on an average of six months, there’s another five months to add on top of that, another $150. That business actually will have profited $170 from a $10 investment because the lifetime value is there.
Having businesses or having clients with repeat customer is a sure way to ensure a very profitable ad campaign. We always want to pay into the future with that. We want to think about which businesses we can actually get results for. Because that is the most important thing. When we can deliver a great service to people, we get reviews, we get case studies, and we can leverage that to get bigger and better clients.
5. Capitalize on Current Trends and Movements
People as consumers and buyers love to buy into trends. It’s just who we are. And so look out at what is going on in the world.
At the moment, we’ve got a massive rush of environmental-based products, and sustainable-based products, and these businesses are flying. And when businesses can leverage that standpoint with their ads, they perform better because people like to be behind a movement and trend.
Similar for vegan restaurants about a year or two ago, they absolutely flew with digital marketing agencies because it was a new trend that people wanted to try out the new craze.
Now, technically speaking, these are things that will be around forever, but it’s whatever people are speaking about in that moment in time.
So keep your eyes peeled. Have a look out at trends and jump on them if businesses are adopting them or if they’re just backing world crises and world affairs that are relevant to what’s going on right now.
6. Align with Personal Passions
Pick your passion. This is really, really important. As an agency owner, it is no good you are starting to work or you are picking some niches to work with that you have no interest in whatsoever.
If you want to work with fitness practitioners and gym owners, but you literally have no interest in fitness whatsoever, you’re probably going to resent actually working with that business.
This is so important when you’re first starting a new business. You need to be enjoying what you are doing. If you have no personal interest for the initiatives that you’re working with, you’re going to lose motivation and everything is going to fall to the wayside.
When you’re starting out, think about the things you’re passionate about in your personal life.
- Do you have certain hobbies?
- Do you have certain interests?
- Do you like to read about certain topics?
If so, then look for industries that are relevant to those interests. If you can work with an industry you are genuinely passionate about, you’ll be able to get much better results because you personally invested in what that company is doing.
You’re actually going to be interested in it. You’re not just working with them for the money alone. Pick your passion when you are considering whether or not to work with a business or put them on your lead list.
That’s the criteria. So what are the best niches? Well, let’s get into it. I’m going to highlight some niches that are certainly suitable for SMMA owners in 2024 and beyond, which have worked time and time again, and also some that are trending right now.
But what’s really important to highlight, and just please take this advice, you can make any industry work. You truly can. As long as the business falls into the criteria that I have just gone through. With that in mind, what niche should look out for.
Classic SMMA Industries: Food and Beverage, Fitness, Health
Firstly, let’s look at the three classic SMMA industries, and we’re going to break these down a little bit more to give you some idea. That is
- Food and beverage
- Fitness
- Health
And everything underneath that, all the sub-niches within that or the micro-industries.
Now, it’s important to note that within these three major industries, they are more saturated than others out there. They are the classic. They are the basic that people go for when they’re first starting an agency.
It’s very important that you are local to these companies if you are reaching out to them because that’s what’s going to give you that in over somebody else.
Food and Beverage
- High-end restaurants
- High-end bars
- Street food vendors
- Food subscription services
But I emphasize high-end because if the restaurant has an average order value of $20, it’s going to be really hard for you to get a customer for that business and actually be able to sustain a profitable ad campaign at that level.
Fitness
- Membership gyms
- High-end coaches
- Online fitness coaches
- Supplement businesses
Any membership gym is always a great client for social media marketing agencies. Coaches as well, but they have to be high-end coaches, not somebody that’s charging $20 a month. Somebody who’s getting at least a couple of hundred dollars per month for a coaching service, they’d be great for you. Even online fitness coaches.
Then also we have supplements: any company selling supplements, great supplements within fitness.
Health
- Dentists
- Chiropractors
- Hair transplant clinics
- Spas
- Nails and hair
I find hair salons, they need to be high-end. Men’s barbers just don’t really work. They’re too low-end.
High-end hair salons that are doing colors and things like that can be great clients.
Real Estate
- Real estate agents
- Property developers
Real estate agents are great. Now, I personally haven’t worked with any real estate agents in my agency. That’s because I was really good at selling them back when I worked in corporate sales. I was sick of them by the time I started my agency. But I know many people who have built multiple five-figure-a-month agencies and six-figure agencies from real estate agents, both on the buying side and on the selling side, these are lead generation clients, definitely one to look out for.
Homeware and Furniture
- Homeware
- Furniture
- Kitchen showrooms
- Bathroom showrooms
These businesses do need to be established if they’re not selling products online already. But if they have the capacity to sell products online, you could upsell them to help them build a Shopify website, for example, or outsource that and then start running their ads, but they need to be established.
Automotive
- Car dealerships
- Car detailers
- PPF wraps
- High-end valet services
We also have the automotive industry. Car dealerships have more of a brand awareness standpoint. We also have car detailers, PPF, and high-end valet guys who can be really, really great clients. Not somebody you’re spending or paying a few bucks to clean your car. High-end guys that are charging at least $50 per person. It can be really, really great clients.
Other Contractors
- Roofers
- Construction companies
- Bricklayers
- Landscapers and gardeners
Emerging SMMA Niches
Under emerging SMMA niches, we have things like:
- Cryptocurrency businesses
- NFT platforms (Non-Fungible Tokens)
- Businesses leveraging blockchain technology
I’ve already highlighted that cryptocurrencies can be great. NFTs could also be really good if you know someone running NFTs. Quite a hard industry to get into. Anyone with blockchain technology is a great trend to look into right now.
Advanced Niches for Experienced Agencies
Software
And linked to the technical side, we have SaaS products or software as a service. Software businesses can be really great clients. Certainly not for beginners, though. I certainly wouldn’t advise software for beginners.
You need to be an established agency and be able to get results. Because anyone who’s running a software company is pretty tech-savvy, and you’re going to need to prove yourself to them. So get some case studies before you reach out to them.
E-Commerce
E-commerce isn’t even really a niche because e-commerce is just online commerce. It’s online sales, any business that sells products online.
Within e-commerce, we have every possible sub-niche you could think of. We have pet stores, you have apparel, which is a great niche that people like to go for. Avoid startup apparel, though. Trust me, only go for apparel that has good reviews.
The Holy Grail SMMA Niches
E-commerce, info products, and lead generation are the holy grail niches for you to reach out to as an agency owner, but they are not for beginners.
I’ve seen so many agencies start and fail because they want to run before they can walk. They go for e-commerce businesses from the get-go. It just doesn’t work out because e-commerce business owners are people who are starting online businesses.
They are tech-savvy, similar to SaaS. They understand that they need to be running ads. They’re not going to let some jumped-up guy who’s just started an agency who’s never run ads before. If they do, then you’ve got extremely lucky and you positioned yourself very, very well.
Strategic Approach for New Agencies: Start Local
But for most people out there, you can’t just jump into e-commerce unless you have worked in a previous marketing agency and have other case studies that you can leverage that may be arms, even yours.
My advice would always be, if you want to move into e-commerce, start local with local industries, with local businesses, and then get case studies, leverage those case studies to move into it later down the line.
High ticket lead generation is also an exceptional niche for you to get into. But again, you’re going to need experience to start local with some of the normal players, some normal industries, any of the ones I’ve just gone through, and anybody else that fits the criteria. Get enough case studies to then move into high-ticket lead generation, e-commerce, or info products.
Final Thoughts: The Key to Success in SMMA
I hope this has given you some food for thought, and I hope this has given you the ability to think about some businesses in your area. I just want to remind you again, there is no set niche that is going to make you kick off your agency in 2024.
Hard work, resilience, determination to speak to your targets, your outreach to follow a sales strategy that works and is proven time and time again. Learn from someone like myself. That is what’s going to help you be a successful agency owner.
