Niching your agency: How to stand out and scale up

How to choose the right niche for your agency

If you’re unsure where to start, try answering these three questions:

1. Who are you actually working with?

Take a step back and look at your current and past clients. Are there any patterns? Do you keep attracting the same types of businesses? And more importantly: do you enjoy working with them?

Here’s where a CRM like Copper comes in handy. If you’ve been tagging your clients by industry or using custom fields, you can quickly pull up a list and spot trends. Maybe you didn’t even realize how many fitness brands, law firms, or e-commerce stores you’ve worked with. If you haven’t been tagging industries—no worries, it’s never too late to start! The sooner you organize your data, the easier it’ll be to figure out what niche makes the most sense.

2. What kind of work excites you (and what drains you)?

Be honest with yourself—what projects make you excited to dive in, and which ones make you want to procrastinate forever? If certain types of clients or industries energize you, that’s a clue. The work you enjoy doing is the work you’ll get better at, which makes it easier to stand out and scale.

3. What problems do you solve best?

People don’t just pay for services—they pay for results. Instead of focusing on what you do, think about why clients actually hire you.

• Instead of saying, “We do social media for SaaS companies,” try “We help SaaS startups scale to $10M ARR through organic social.”

• Instead of saying, “We build websites,” try “We create high-converting websites that double online leads for law firms.”

See the difference? When you position yourself as the agency that delivers real business outcomes, you become way more valuable.

4. What do people already come to you for?

Sometimes, your niche finds you. Look at the types of projects and clients that naturally land in your inbox. Are people consistently asking you for a specific service or expertise? That’s a sign that the market already sees you as the go-to person for something—lean into it!

5. What audience is underserved (but growing)?

Sometimes, the best niche isn’t the most obvious—it’s the one that’s overlooked. Look for industries or business types that are expanding but don’t have a lot of specialized service providers yet.

Maybe emerging tech startups need branding help, or independent healthcare providers need better digital marketing. Spotting a gap in the market can put you ahead of the curve and position you as a go-to expert before the competition catches on.

6. Where’s the money?

Let’s be real, some industries have deeper pockets than others. If you’re constantly battling clients over budget, it might be time to focus on businesses that see digital marketing, branding, or web design as an investment rather than an expense.

Think about industries like SaaS startups, law firms, and luxury brands—they need specialized services, and they’re willing to pay top dollar for the right agency.

And here’s another Copper CRM pro tip: You can filter past deals and see which industries or services have brought in the most revenue. If you’re debating where to niche down, let the numbers guide you.

Now, put your niche into action

Alright, so you think you’ve found your niche—great! But before you go all in, let’s make sure people actually want what you’re offering. Because picking a niche isn’t just about what you think is a good idea—it has to work in the real world.

Think of this as your soft launch. You don’t need to flip your whole agency upside down overnight. Just start talking about your niche, testing the waters, and seeing how people react. The goal here isn’t perfection—it’s to figure out if your niche is actually attracting the right clients, bringing in better leads, and making your life easier before you go all in.

• Update your website and messaging: If someone lands on your homepage, would they immediately know who you serve and what makes you different? If not, tweak it.

• Start talking about your niche: Post about it on your social channels, write a blog, or share case studies that position you as the expert in this space. Your niche isn’t real until other people see you as that go-to agency.

• Reconnect with past clients in your target niche: If you’ve worked with businesses in this space before, reach out! Ask if they need any follow-up services or if they know someone who does.

• Run a small test campaign: If you’re serious about this niche, put a little effort behind marketing it. Try targeted ads, niche-specific cold outreach, or a lead magnet that speaks directly to your new audience.

How do you know if it’s working? Simple: are you getting more inquiries, referrals, or engagement from the right kind of clients? If yes, you’re on the right track. If not, tweak your messaging, experiment with your outreach, and adjust until things start clicking.

And don’t forget to market yourself like you’d market your clients—because too many agencies forget this part. If you’re now a go-to web design agency for law firms, then every touchpoint—your website, your social media, your email signature—should reflect that. If you don’t put it out there, how will people know?

But what if you get bored of your niche?

A lot of agency owners worry that choosing a niche means being stuck forever. Not true! Your niche isn’t a lifelong contract—in fact, your future niche may not even exist yet! Over time, you may fall into what works best for you and your agency, but always consider it a strategic starting point. If you outgrow it, pivot. The best agencies refine their focus over time, shifting as they gain experience, uncover new opportunities, and learn what excites them the most.

Think of it like a career path. You don’t wake up one day and suddenly land your dream job—you build toward it. The same goes for your agency. Finding a niche is about getting traction, building expertise, and becoming known for something specific. Once you have that foundation, you can evolve it.

For example:

• You might start as an SEO agency for fitness brands and later expand to e-commerce brands in general.

• You could start as a Facebook Ads agency and shift into paid media across multiple platforms.

The key is to start somewhere. Get traction, gain experience, and refine your niche based on what works and where the best opportunities are.

Niching doesn’t box you in: it gives you a focus that makes scaling easier. And when the time is right, you’ll have the foundation to pivot into bigger, better opportunities.

Final thoughts: Your next steps

If you’ve made it this far, you know that niching isn’t about boxing yourself in, it’s about making your agency the go-to choice for the right clients. The best agencies aren’t the ones trying to do it all; they’re the ones that own their space, charge more, and grow faster. But finding your niche isn’t something you figure out overnight—it’s a process, and it starts with small, intentional moves.

Here’s what to do next:

• Look at your past clients: Who did you actually enjoy working with, and who paid well? That sweet spot is where your niche could be hiding.

• Clarify the problem you solve:Clients don’t pay for services; they pay for results, so get clear on what transformation you deliver.

• Test the market: Start positioning yourself as a niche agency, update your messaging, and see how the right clients respond.

• Refine over time: If something isn’t quite clicking, tweak your approach and keep fine-tuning until it fits.

And if you want to really make this process easy, start tracking your clients now with Copper CRM. With tags, you can instantly see which industries and service types you’ve worked with the most, making it a whole lot easier to spot your niche.

Haven’t tagged your clients yet? Start anytime! Try Copper free for 14 days and get your data organized while you’re at it.

Niching takes guts, but the agencies that do it well don’t just survive—they dominate. So, what’s your niche?