Web Developers Should Pick a Market Niche

[greeneagle]

Web Developers Should Pick a Market Niche

What is your market niche? What are you and your organization best at? Where is your central knowledge base? What Industries do you favor? In what Industries do you and your staff have the best knowledge and experience?

Clients want to know; “Where is your business acumen?”

With the ever increasing complexity of Web Development and Internet Technologies it is impossible to be everything for everyone!

The days of being the “all-in-all for-everyone” are quickly fading. Recent Search Engine algorithm modifications reinforce that fact.

Without being in or having ever been engaged intimately in your clients industry directly do you really have enough knowledge to:

1) Win a bid against competitors?
2) Build a relative and convincing storyboard?
3) Have the familiarity of products or services to effectively copy-write when information is short of client and SEO goals? – To even know when they are short?
1) Build the proper SEO into the metatags?
2) Install leading SEO into HTML verbiage on Product or Service pages from the onset?

Do you want to:

1) Win contracts?
2) Spend less time bidding and estimating?
3) Beat the competition?
4) Reduce cost through multi-client product iteration?
5) Get the all important client references?

The client knows! They are savvy business men and women! – for the most part.
There are several detriments when taking a broad spectrum approach in your On-Line business presence:

1. The technologies have become too numerous and complicated.
2. Site SEO becomes spread too thin and ineffective.
3. Subsequent Marketing becomes ineffective, truncating revenue streams.
4. A multi-disciplined portfolio becomes washed in lower PRs
5. Personal Portfolio becomes less Industry and topic specific diminishing affectivity and SEO.
6. More time has to be spent in Marketing, including lost bids to competitors.

Let’s face it, our business:

1) Is completely fluid, changing frequently – requiring continual update and learning
2) Requires continual testing and other means to glean knowledge of obscure proprietary rules mandated by search engines
3) Extremely competitive
4) Has approximately a 30-40% time affectivity
5) High equipment, software and network overhead demands.

Why spoil a business model from the start? Only, highly staffed organizations with multi-disciplined acumen should build an all encompassing Internet Guru Web Presence! Otherwise, it hurts everyone in the industry. There are so many disappointed clients, perceived shiesty web developers and failed attempts at good web design, that our industry doesn’t sport the best name around.

Not taking the time to realize and target your mainstay, target markets and remaining focused not only hurts your company but the entire industry!

Look at it another way. – Have you ever been approached by a business client that was not particularly focused on a market niche?

If so, they are probably not still a client because they are most likely out of business!

Mountain Eagle Marketing is embedded in:
The Oil Industry
Heavy Manufacturing
Engineered Products & Services
Marketing Small Business

Our staff has 30 years in Engineering and Engineering Management, 7 linear years in Web Development, 6 years in Marketing Strategy and Management for fortune 500 companies, 20 years experience in fine and digital art…

Why on earth would we take on a Hotel Chain? Why wouldn’t we contact another developer that specialized in that field and ask for a 10% commission? – even for the life of the project?

We all need to understand where our business acumen is to diminish our own costs, increase profits, build a strong branding, service our customers at elevated levels.. yes and even support our own web development industry…. Making it a better place for everyone!

We are not convinced that Internet Community value starts with obscure search engine algorithmic mandates as opposed to the way we conduct our own business as web developers and webmasters and build relationships with other developers and in conducting our business with the highest integrity!

All comments are welcome!
Good Luck in Your Business!

Ken Webster
President
Mountain Eagle Marketing

[ChrisRC]

I think there's a lot of value to your suggestion. Not just for designers, but in all industries, focus is vital and at a least a rudimentary understanding of your client's business can get you off to a running start.

There are some problems with the idea to consider though, and I point these out as someone who briefly tried focusing most of my energies on one industry.

*Client references: if they think you did a good job for them, why would they refer you to someone they consider thier competition? If they are dissatisfied with you for any reason though, you better believe they'll tell everyone.

*Expectations: The fact I had a good general understanding of the industry I was focusing on and access to someone with a pretty encyclopedic knowlege of it, worked against me when I did ask questions. Some things are specific to individuals and individual companies - and they don't always realize it themselves. If you know a lot, they seem to expect you to know everything, including whether thier wife's cell phone number should be the primary contact channel or not, without being told.

I'm not saying the idea isn't a good one, I'm just saying there are some things to consider.

These problems, although they were problems in my experience, weren't the reason I abandoned my first attempt at focusing on an industry. It was the people in that industry. Partly because of the demands that industry puts on the people in it, and partly because of the type of people the industry attracts, I just didn't want to spend all of my time dealing with it. I still think it's fertile ground, and I may go back... but let's just say I'll never consider a full-time career in that industry.

[WebDesignDatabase]

Perfect guide line for our business

[vwebworld]

Ken, you make some good, logical, and rational
points for (web) designing for a market segment.
And I hope every "web designer" (used to mean any
developer of web sites for hire) takes your advice.

For I have a different approach...

The successful business owner knows his/her market,
his/her business, and has goals for that business and
their web presence. The web designer doesn't need
to intimately know the business. The web designer
needs to be able to effectively communicate the
business' marketing message through the web, and to
achieve the results the business owner seeks.

Maybe it's because I have many years (too many
than I'd like to admit here) experience (outside of
web design) dealing with a multitude of business
types.. that I'm comfortable with this approach.

My approach is to translate the business' bricks and
mortar success to the virtual world (internet). How do
I do that? That's a tutorial for future threads.

Is there some benefit to focusing on a market segment?
Yes, the web designer saves some time.

One advantage (to the business ower) of using a
designer with broader experience (or without a nitch
focus): An "outside the box" design, for what is
successful in another market segment might be
applicable to this one.

As far as a business plan yours is a sound approach
that is applicable to most businesses. But, if you
think of web design as "building" something.. like
a house. You would choose a builder that can build
what you want (to plan, by his/her skills). You
wouldn't choose a builder that can only build ranch
houses.

~Roland

[greeneagle]

Thanks for responding everyone!

ChrisRC – You have some good points.

Here’s my view though:
A client would not be very likely to refer you to competition, that is not what I meant by “referrals”. Not only that, but it would be a real good idea not to take direct competitors on as clients. This could cause:

1) Irreparable reputation damage
2) Loss of clients
3) Blacklisting in an industry segment
4) And, has potential for litigation if confidentiality is not strictly maintained

Technical Positions, Industry segments etc are so specific these days that there is little possiblity of transgressing on that kind of issue, but they remain similar enough to apply familiar logistics in quoting, application, number and type of web pages, SEO methods, link building submission lists etc.., all of which diminish the development and design time, increasing your profit margin!

Most entrepreneurs and business owners travel in circles of friends and acquaintances that are in similar or related businesses such as suppliers, same segment different niche, customers. Their friends are not generally direct competitors!

Let’s toss in more value --- Offer your client a 10% commission on all web maintenance for each referral they bring you for specified services rendered, up to the life of the project, including maintenance. Deposit it into a “maintenance account for them for easy tracking” and when billing that client null out the fees equal to that current account balance and charge for the rest.

Look at it another way:
We have multiple Oil and Gas Industry Clients in different market niches. Let’s take www.vortexventures.com for example, owned by a Physicist and his wife. They manufacture multiple products in the niche “mixing and blending equipment” for several industries. They have a 100 page site now. We wouldn’t take on a customer that manufactured anything similar, but how about other Physicist friends, suppliers or customers? – You Bet!

We have another customer that is a certified Geologist, Geophysicist, and Geoscientist. His company is an independent oil and gas exploration company specializing in Coalbed Methane. I could have 10 more Geoscientists that had different non-competitive market niches, easily. I could bring on 1000 more companies owned by mechanical, electronic and software engineers, all in the Oil and Gas industry and never approach issues of competitive conflicts!

Virtually every industry has hundreds, if not thousands of niches that are not competitive, even if it is only a geographical divide.

If a competitive conflict potential is perceived, then the best thing to do is contact your existing client and place him/her on the up-and-up! If they say yes then go for it, if they have reservations… let the client know that you respect your business relationship and their decision and pass the lead to another developer that you have an agreement with.

Yes you can earn 10% without being unethical – as long as no confidentialities are violated. This is the way business is done. Building these secondary relationships with other trusted professional developers/designers can help add other revenue streams to the 21 century business climate which require multiple revenue streams in many cases.

Roland
You also bring up a very good point – If an entrepreneur has found a market niche and wants to represent themselves on the open market, they very well may want to safeguard that business model so that it is not copied by less scrupulous individuals. It may be a life long dream they have realized.

This is becoming a serious issue with the expansion of technology and degree of outsourcing offshore that is so currently prevalent worldwide.

Your attention to this matter should also help make everyone aware that we also have responsibilities as web developers and designers to: To not give our client’s “cookie store” away, even when it requires us taking the stance with our clients and saying; “I have reservations about you putting that on the Internet because” ie.. that country does not honor patents and has demonstrated a strong proclivity to reverse engineer and steal design.

Best Regards,
Ken

[Digger51]

What is a "web designer"?

[greeneagle]

Digger51

Where are you going with this?

Are you going to make an argument that there is no place for independent web design, that if you don't have more skills than that, you better fold it up and find a more productive and lucritive way to spend your time, if that's where you are going, I agree.

Ken

[Digger51]

I wasn't really going to go there although I do think if you think you are a big value-add to clents because you can layout a screen and code it up in HTML you better think again.

I was really looking to find out what the scope of the "web designer" role is.

Personally, I think web design is a small portion of the value that I try to deliver. Analysis, process and DB design and project management can make ou invaluable to clients.

The days of making a living on doing digital three-fold brochures are over and marketing is just a portion of what business needs from its software investment.

[eightfifteen]

Originally Posted by Digger51

Personally, I think web design is a small portion of the value that I try to deliver. Analysis, process and DB design and project management can make ou invaluable to clients.

The days of making a living on doing digital three-fold brochures are over and marketing is just a portion of what business needs from its software investment.

Heh, that makes me laugh. If a person or a company does not NEED a database, then why go to someone that charges more per hour because they can provide one?

Our niche is providing a clean, attrachive design with ample information of what the customer does. Most of our clients are small companies that absolutely don't need any sort of dynamic content or database design.

As far as analysis, I've always assumed that was part of the web design process. Who can design a site for a client without understanding what they do, and how their competitors are doing it? So just because you do analysis, doesn't mean that you are above us "web designers"

[Digger51]

Who said anything about charging more? Do you charge the same regardless of what you are doing?

Based on your response you must be a graphic designer. You can have all of the $250 brochure sites and laugh all the way to the bank.

[matauri]

Good thread Ken, it's actually an area I have been looking at pretty closely lately. Also, some good points raised by others.

Ken ::
Admitedly the industries you are embedded in are fairly secure areas, but say for example they bottomed out? Creating a niche can landlock you in this case. Just speaking from my past experiences dealing in niches, here are a couple of examples.

1. US dollar went up, price of gold went down. The whole industry slowed, right down to the fuel manufactures, machinery suppliers, etc.

2. Interest rate rise, building & construction slows, companies go out of business all the way down the line to suppliers, contractors, real estate/developers, designers, etc.

3. An event such as 9/11 occurs, and the hospitality/tourism industry feels it throughtout many sectors, from transport to the restraunt owner & their suppliers.

While the logic behind having specialized a niche sounds good, I think it is also a good idea to have a bit of diversity with them. You dont want to allow one incident to bring down your whole client base.

[greeneagle]

Matauri,

As always, you bring several good points to the table, and as you note, there are several good contributions

Being engaged in the Oil & gas Industry, one of the most cyclic on the planet, I have been downsized 3x in 23 years from high end Engineering (R&D), Engineering Management, Marketing Specialist and Strategist positions. The last, being on December 14th, two months after 9/11. My wife and I were working two jobs and we had 2 businesses on the side. We also lost the B2C and kept the B2B. The company I was working for was being sold to a much larger company that would not need the additional Marketing Specialist/WebMaster/Editor-in-Chief. No, we have not recovered the $100K/year income and benefits lost.

You are absolutely right, it’s always good to have an out, “an ace up the sleeve”. However, those too, may have to be somewhat dynamic. What I really want to do with this thread though, is to examine just how competitive our industry is and some of the techniques or mechanics we use to “add eggs to the basket”, or “tend the eggs already in the basket” with special attention”.

The “Free World” economy has been in the “drinks” for over 2 years now, interest rates are at lows not seen by most of us in our lifetime. As business owners, we all have to ask ourselves; “How do I get the competitive edge?” If we can’t answer that for ourselves, we can’t answer it for our clients ----- and that is the business we are in!

Typically, the first industries to recover after a steep recession or depression are the “heavy”, industrial and manufacturing segments, which we and our clients are well poised for.

If most of my clients are in “Heavy Technical Industries”, coinciding with my background, then it is much easier to relate, copy-write, evaluate competitive analysis, express competitive terms in SEO design and generally provide value.

There is not a whole lot of room to place a static 3 page corporate brochure on the Internet and hope that someone finds it these days. Most of our income comes from updates. maintenance and SEO, not new clients.

The biggest problems we face in this industry right now are:
1. Do my clients really understand the dynamic nature of the Internet?
2. Can I provide the content depth and uniqueness required for top search engine traffic?
3. Can I help provide a busy entrepreneur with top keyword/key-phrase value without eroding their time?
4. Have I done everything I can to educate my clients on value and ROI (return on investment)?”
5. Am I competent enough to take a brochure with 95% graphics and do sufficient research and analysis to copy-write the HTML verbiage that commands multiple top search phrase results – beating all the top listings?

Many observations follow this path.

If you take the time to educate your client, they will have a better understanding of the value your firm provides and they will be more likely to utilize you for repeat business (maintenance).

Can you reach these levels of acumen without intimately knowing the industry or their business?

Can anyone portray that level of comfort and service to a client without an intimate understanding of their business?

The other benefit of taking on clients in related industries include a great competitive advantage at many levels:

1) Quoting initial development is much easier and takes less time, even if it requires slight modifications in a spreadsheet.
2) It is much easier to estimate maintenance projects.
3) You develop an intrinsic understanding of the SEO required, making it much easier to build value into the front end design.
4) It takes much less effort in expressing your company’s expertise to a client or potential client.
5) More likely to “prove out” against competition when bidding, requiring less marketing and sales time.
6) Competitive analysis takes less time because you know where to look.
7) Primary Linking programs are already established as far as major Industry Portals and Indices

This list goes on, but the argument for; added value, reduced logistics, and developing a competitive edge for your own company cannot be dismissed lightly, taking this approach.

All opinions are welcome,
Ken