Choosing the Best Niche
Creatives fail to grow with their business because they aren’t focused on a specific customer.
There are too many jack of all trades, master of none creatives.
Today, we will go over 3 different strategies to find the best niche and specific customers with a specific problem.
A problem you can solve.
Narrowing Down Your Niche:
Narrow down your niche by choosing a sub-niche.
Here's an example of a sub-niche:
Broad audience → niche → sub-niche
For example, let’s say you're a photographer looking to build a photography business.
Rather than targeting Businesses (broad audience), or Apparel & Fashion (niche), you could focus specifically on Streetwear Brands (sub-niche).
This works extremely well if you have specific knowledge of streetwear and can speak intelligently about the topic.
Narrowing Your Niche by Service:
You can also apply this to the service that you are creating to arrive at your audience. This applies to any creative service out there, not limited to this example.
Instead of your service being photography (broad service), or a brand photoshoot (niche), you could focus specifically on creating collection look-books for streetwear brands. (sub-niche) .
The result?
This sub niche is more likely to have the same challenges, and therefore the same wants and needs. That’s where you come in.
Now what?
Once you’ve narrowed it down to your sub-niche, you can start learning more about them.
Where can I find these potential clients? What is the best way to connect with them? What common problems do they all have and how can I solve them? Who is already serving this niche i.e. who are your competitors?
Creating your own sub niche:
The most successful creators today create their own sub niches. These creators use a unique combination of skills and interests rolled into one idea and then offer it as a service to customers of that sub niche.
When you do this well, you own your very own sub niche.
The best in the market. The only.
And you can deliver services that people will pay a lot of money for.
Here are 5 steps to becoming an expert in your own sub niche:
1. Skills
Most creative skills, by themselves, are not unique. In fact most creative skills, by themselves, don't make you money. At their core, creative skills are just a tool.
You need to think of your creative skills as marketing assets if you want to make real money.
We are marketers.
That's right, creators are the best marketers. We aren't just photographers, videographers, web designers, etc. We are marketing experts. We're masters at turning content into leads and sales.
What do creators do? Creators build brands through visual and written storytelling.
We help companies grow & market their businesses. This is the approach you need to have if you want to be more valuable.
2. Interests
Decide what niche you enjoy creating in the most. Stick with it. This is where you'll find your ideal client. It's much less confusing and frustrating than experimenting with different niches, like we talked bout earlier.
Serve this niche.
This is your area to show your strengths and help your ideal client get their desired results.
For example, if you enjoy Italian food, create a googled search and type in "Italian restaurants near me". Read through the search results.
The first six businesses on the first page are the ones that will bring in the most business.
These are your potential clients. Find their weaknesses and position yourself as a service provider.
Example: "I help local Italian restaurants bring in more customers by creating really cool photos."
Try to find something within your creative abilities that your ideal client needs. Position yourself as the expert.
3. Idea
Use these combined skills to come up with a unique idea, then serve it to your potential clients. For example: "I am a videographer, who can throw a party/event/celebration.
Hire me, and I'll capture your special day!" Or: "I am a videographer and web designer. Hire me and I'll create an awesome website to promote your business!"
In closing, Become a marketing expert, and position yourself as an expert.
Create content, and market it effectively. These skills will improve your content marketing skill set, and thereby, your value.
Find the niche you love, become an expert, and offer more value.
4. Distribution & Audience
In order for people to discover your unique and interesting idea, they have to be able to find it.
Promote your content.
A simple way is to use social media. Post your content to all of the places you hangout online. For Instagram, head over to the Explore tab and like and comment on peoples' posts. Let them discover you.
When you post content, you can easily share it on your email list. Now, you need to be building an email list.
Why?
Because you have a lot of information to share with your ideal clients. Email is one of the most effective ways to convert potential clients into actual clients.\ Not to mention, it is the best vehicle for sharing your content to your email list subscribers.
5. Delivery
Now comes the easiest part. Creating the content. With a clientele built around a specific, unique idea, you can simply create content for them around that. Be sure to think about things as a marketer, not just a creative.
When you study these elements of your sub niche, it will give you a greater understanding of what content works best for the desired result.
When you understand their mindset, you can start creating content that they relate with.
Summary:
To pick a niche, you need to narrow down and focus in on one ideal client.
Step 1: Grow your skills as a creative and marketer.
Step 2: Choose a niche you're interested in.
Step 3: Combine them.
Step 4: Create a distribution system.
Step 5: Deliver results.
That's all for my guide on choosing the best niche for your creative business.
I'll be updating this throughout 2022. Thanks for reading.
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