Everything You Need To Know About Niches

How to Find Your Niche Specialty: A Step-By-Step Guide

The Advantages of Having a Niche Specialty and How To Determine and Decide What’s Best.

It seems nearly everyone is a self-proclaimed influencer or side-hustler these days. Nowadays you’re right to assume that you need a brand or niche specialty for which you are well known. To make growing your business easier and to ensure your success, you’ll want to stand apart from the crowd and position yourself distinctly from any oversaturated markets. 

The truth is, no matter your umbrella industry or expertise, there’s one phrase that will always be relevant to marketing, “the riches are in the niches.”

What is a niche? 

Most novices aren’t new to the idea of a niche, but all too often people confuse it with a target audience, ideal clients, or just some gimmick. All tools serve a purpose—and a niche is meant to be a tool to find a specific solution to a specific problem for your ideal customer or client. 

Do you really need a niche? 

Well, yes and no. Do you need a niche to have a brand? Well, no. But it’s like asking the question, “Does your business really need a website?” Well, technically no, but isn’t it better to have one than not to have one at all? Does your business have to have a funnel? Well no, but doesn’t it make sales conversions a whole lot easier? Do you have to have an email list? Well no, but will it drive more profits? Absolutely!

A niche is ultimately a FAQ sheet to magnetize the casual browser or prospective consumer. When people browse your site they want to know if you can help them, and your niche is what helps attract them. 

Will You push customers away? 

While niching down means that you’ll be catering to one subset of clients over another, it doesn’t mean you’re going to lose out on business. Knowing your niche specialty, who you are speaking to specifically, and the exact problem you’re solving for them positions you as an expert. In turn, it empowers you to; serve at a higher level, charge higher rates, and focus on the precise solutions or problems your prospects want to solve.

Niche Advantages

When you’re ready to take your business or brand to the next level, below are 9 top tips for determining and deciding on your niche. First, however, let’s start with a few advantages:

1. Reduced Competition

Targeting a niche market reduces the competition so you can dominate over business generalists and target and attract those who are looking for specialized services.

Even if there are already competitors in your niche, you can stand out in unique ways through your value proposition. Consider the following to set yourself apart:

• Offering better customer service
• Pricing your services competitively
• Utilizing highly-specialized skills or new technologies

2. Better Business Loyalty

By providing specific solutions for your clients, you can foster trust and loyalty. By specializing, you’ll have fewer customers who are generalists while at the same time increase the probability of acquiring loyal customers.

3. Instant Differentiation

With globalization in the age of the internet, It’s becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to stand out. Being a niche specialist helps establish higher credibility compared to more generalized organizations that cater to many industries or individuals.

4. Higher Pricing

More personalized services demand a higher price because it displays specialized knowledge, skills, and abilities and a greater return on investment. Greater solutions and higher value delivered equals higher level pricing.

How to Determine and Decide Your Niche Market: 

What is a niche market? A niche market is a subset of a large market. Those in the niche market have specific needs and preferences that set them apart from the market as a whole.

Step 1: Make a List of Your Passions and Interests

Passion is a powerful thing in business. Doing something you don’t care about, increases the chances of failure.

On the other hand, doing what you like in business will help you stick with it. To start finding your specialty niche, the first thing to do is list 10 things you’re interested in and passionate about.

Find a quiet spot free from distractions. Start a list with your areas of interest. Beside each item, write your expectations, things you want to achieve, and any challenges you might encounter. After finishing your list, review it, prioritize it, and finalize it with any needed adjustments.

Step 2: Determine What You Can Solve

After writing down your list, it’s time to figure out which problems your target customers face that you can solve. This helps you think of better ways to deal with them and find other methods to solve the problems you think you can’t.

For example, you decide to specialize in bookkeeping for real estate firms. Learn all about the bookkeeping-related problems these firms face and how you can solve them.

Here are some ways to do learn more about your target customers’ pain points:

• Talk to people in the industry to learn about their pain points. Anticipate their problems so you can ask appropriate questions, but avoid talking over them since they might provide a perspective different from what you initially thought.
• You can also utilize the Internet for your market research. Visit online forums or pages that talk about your selected niche and learn from their discussions.
• You can also search for related keywords of your niche to help you uncover popular search terms that are useful. This is especially helpful when you’re creating a blog or adding more pages to your business website.

Step 3: Research Your Competitors

Once you’ve identified a potential niche, don’t back away immediately if you see there are already competitors specializing in that niche. In truth, this signals that a particular niche has a proven pocket of demand.

To stand out from the competition, conduct a competitive analysis. This will help identify:

• Your competitors’ standing in the market
• Which products and services they offer that are in demand or unsuccessful
• How they advertise their goods and services

Thanks to the Internet, it’s now easier than ever to do competitor research. Search online for potential competitors in your niche, then compile the information in a spreadsheet.

After your research, figure out areas of opportunity for your business. This includes finding your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and how you can rank better online through Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

• Via SEM: if the competition is not using paid advertising to take advantage of certain keywords, you can use them to tip the scales in your favor.
• Via SEO: Competitors may be neglecting their online content, such as blogs or websites. Create high-quality content for your target market and begin to dominate the competition.

Shoot for an authentic, approachable online presence. While competitors may remain too corporate or stiff, you can do the opposite to show prospects you’re there to help.

Step 4: Learn the Profitability of Your Niche Specialty

At this point, you ought to have narrowed your preferred niche. The next step is to determine the earning potential in that niche.

Maximize the use of internet research to see how many companies offer the services you plan to offer. If it’s an underserved market you will have great earning potential in that niche.

Make sure to capture price points, so you can price your services competitively.

Step 5: Monitor Your Niche Market

Part of the process of finding a niche market is to do your due diligence. Continue studying to update your knowledge. This helps discover unmet needs and will provide new solutions.

Below are some areas to look into:

• National and international trends
• Key industry players
• Government regulations
• New opportunities, skills, and technologies needed

Keeping up-to-date on new skills and technologies will contribute to your USP and help your business become more productive and profitable.

Stay on the lookout for tutorials or online courses that will build your skills and broaden your knowledge about topics within your niche.

Step 6: Gain a Higher Perspective of the Industry

When identifying your specialty niche it’s also important to look outward. Seeing the bigger picture from multiple perspectives will help you succeed within your industry and market.

Doing this empowers you to see the following:

• How the current markets operate
• Who the biggest players are and their path to success
• How you fit into the markets

To do this, you can attend industry events and connect with others within the industry. Also, try interviews on multiple podcasts or listen to podcasts.

Note: Once you’ve made a choice about a specialty niche, begin to create a roadmap for your success. Having a roadmap will help when you go to market your products and services.

Step 7: Test Your Idea

After researching as much as you can about your niche, it’s time to put your knowledge, skills, and abilities to the test. In this step, you’ll execute a plan and evaluate the results.

The first step is to generate interest within your niche. The way to do this is to set up (or improve) your online presence through both organic and inorganic marketing.

Start by creating a landing page featuring the services you intend to offer. You can hook potential customers by offering a flash promotion such as the following:

• Offer a free trial for your services within a specific timeframe.
• Offer extra bonuses for your services for a limited time (like 72 hrs).
• Offer a social media contest or giveaway with branded gifts or bundles

These are just a few ways to gain interest. Maximize your social media accounts to advertise your offer organically. And, to ensure your online efforts don’t go unnoticed, use paid advertising to attract more people to your site. 

Step 8: Conduct Client Surveys

After a client has finished the trial period, ask them to answer a survey about their experience. This helps you identify winning strategies and those you need to improve.

When possible, conduct interviews (face-to-face or via video call). Prepare a specific list of questions that will help evaluate how you performed.

Be sure to capture their suggestions for improvement. They may offer you a solution or a recommendation you haven’t considered.

Apply what you’ve learned immediately and don’t stop learning.

Step 9: Market Your Niche

After you’ve put your idea to the test, evaluated the experience, and proved the feasibility of your minimal viable offer (MVO), it’s time to go all-in and advertise your business to all those in need of your products and services.

In addition to optimizing your landing page with organic traffic and using paid ads, you can also ask your satisfied clients to include a link or a short profile about you on their sites. In business, referrals from happy customers go a long way in helping to grow and scale.

I trust these steps will help you deliver a high-level impact within your industry and hope you discover all the freedom, wealth, and brilliance you deserve and desire.

Whatever you do, be a connector. Build solid relationships with people in and out of your industry, market, and niche. Relationships are the key to high-level success. The truth is, your network is what fuels your net worth.

For more free resources, tips, training, and events to help you grow and scale your business, join us in the Built for Brilliance group or contact us for a free one-time high-positioning consultation call.