“You need a niche,” everyone screams.
I get it. When you do one really specific thing for one really specific group, you’re more likely to be the only one.
You get to be THE top expert who’s top of mind when someone says,
“I need an online business strategist for gluten-free bakeries.”
“I need an electrician for short people.”
“I need a dentist for Manhattan socialites with meth mouth.”
“I need a sexual paradigm coach for over-40, non-binary individuals who want to make sweet love to avocado toast.”
We all want someone who specializes if we have a special situation, right?
If you need your brain fixed (yes, please!), you want a brain surgeon. Not someone who’s like, “Oh, I love doing all kinds of surgery. What kind do you need?”
But still, I’ve been asked what I wish I knew when I started out, and mostly, I’m glad I didn’t know one basic rule:
Have a niche.
(You can hear me say so on The Copywriter Club podcast on this page.)
I probably would have panicked.
I would’ve choked and said, “Um. OK, I work with a lot of coaches. So, copywriting for life and business coaches, I guess. Or maybe health coaches?”
And then my life would’ve become a daily hell of finding new ways to say “step into your greatness,” “radical self-love,” and “abundant goddess mindset.” The thesaurus is only so big. My threshold for gobbledygook is only so high.
If I’d chosen just one kind of client to write copy for, I wouldn’t have gotten to work with/ on:
Should you be for everyone?
That’s why I make it clear on my Work With Me page who I’m NOT for:
Now you.
Nitch. Neesh sounds like I’m trying to be all up-in-your-face fancy. I’m just starting out in my biz and think I will most likely have a nitch to start but would like to branch out eventually. I’m a proofreader for court transcripts, exclusively. So, probably court reporters to begin with =)
Once again (or should I say “as always”?) you voice what my head is saying. I’ve been working creating copy for 21 years now, a Lone Ranger on the prairie of work (meaning I work for myself) — and the coolest projects I’ve had have all been the most diverse.
A pond fish business that grew sport fish+ koi to stock large ponds — James Earl Jones was a customer. A Visiting Scholars series for a college that brought in Robert Ballard (it was his remote deep ocean explorer sub that found the Titanic, among many other accomplishments), and Lisa Ling — and I spent the entire day with both of them, plus worked with National Geographic.
But best of all — there’s my work on the behalf of Seven S Flashyzipper, a champion Palomino, about to begin his career as a stud. “Seven S” as I call him, didn’t contact me, his breeder did, but hey — if I had one niche/nitch, I’d never had the chance to put that on my resume.
“Give us any chance we’ll take it,
Read us any rule we’ll break it…”
You and Marie would make a great LaVerne and Shirley. I can’t tell which would be which though.
Ugh. Yeah can we come up with a completely different word instead? Nitch sounds so harsh on my tongue, but neesh does sound hoity-toity…
I guess we kinda do have another word – er acronym – ICA. Figuring out who and who isn’t our ICA sounds much more enjoyable than trying to put labels on what sets us apart from the rest in one catchy sentence.
I guess I’m super-niche-y. But honestly, when I first started out, I didn’t even think about it that way. Now I sell it up like crazy, emphasizing that I’m writing books that speak to children with interests not found within the mainstream… And it really works! Vacuum books, anyone? 😉
Interesting! What’s your website? I work with a lot of ‘non-mainstream’ parents and this might be a good crossover…
Oh, Carolina!! Almost a year later and I just now see your reply. Sorry! My author page is http://www.yvonne-jones.com/
Thanks so much for asking!!
So good to hear this!! Al I hear from every blog post, to every podcast, to every….. everything! is Niche, niche, niche…
I was getting so worked up about it too.
I do social media for small businesses and just yesterday I was thinking, “maybe I should focus on businesses owned by mums and dads….” (just so happens that most of my clients fit this bill). Is that a niche? I don’t want to miss out on other amazing opportunities. ????
Yeah! You discover match and niche and specialty by actually working with people and businesses. It doesn’t happen because I decided my niche is aquarium filter providers. Or maybe it does for some people. People who make the world mold around them. But that’s not me, or not entirely me. It’s more of a give and take.
Oh so much this! I am a coach and do write for coaches, but don’t want to write exclusively for coaches. I spent ages trying to find ‘the right niche’ as advised by well meaning business coaches and really got my knickers in a twist about it… But then I spoke to clients and found what is consistent across all my work is the level of connection I create… Is that a ‘niche’? I don’t know. But I am happy and so are my clients. So, niche, smeesh. I’m glad I trusted my intuition.
I struggled with this whole niche thing for ages. In the end, I decided the one thing I could do with absolute authenticity, is help people that are smack-bang in midlife and want to get their sh*t together (money, time, life). That’s why I started MidlifeTribe.
My consulting niche is very different, though. It boils down to helping small-medium businesses address the gaping holes in their marketing and branding strategies; taking complex stuff and simplifying it so they can reach the right people with the right message.
Thanks to your worship-worthy teachings, I’m getting better at both. 🙂
“One-size-fits-all” business advice is generally useless. And I’ve come to believe that the “ya gotta have a niche” (however you pronounce it)(one day let’s have the fight about how to pronounce “route” ) advice is one of those things.
It works well for some–partly because it gives the unfocused a focus and the directionlless a direction that they’re sorely lacking.
It doesn’t work well for others who have a broad range of talents and whose talents would be wasted on a narrow selection of clients. (Or they’d quickly become bored).
Or is it possible that some of us have very broad niches?
Well, yes, I agree. I like having a variety of clients. But anytime I need to do anything I’m told to start there. It’s one thing for advertising – I can have lots of niches. But what about for branding?
How will I write my infuriating tagline without defining my audience, my customer, my niche?