Hana Dickinson, MD of The Bridge – Strategic Marketing & PR Specialists – and creator of SuffolkWire has some key advice about marking out your own unique territory:
Can giving people too much choice be a bad thing? Well, imagine you’re walking down an unfamiliar high street looking for somewhere to eat. The first place you see does pizzas, kebabs and curries. The second place is a pizza parlour. Further down the road there’s a curry house and a Turkish restaurant. Which venue are you going to choose? Depends on what you fancy of course, but let’s say you’re after a pizza.
Are you going to go for the first place, the one that offers all those cuisines? Surely they can’t be an expert at making all those dishes well? What if they’re stretching themselves too thin, like the base of a badly made pizza?
Or are you going to go to the pizza parlour? After all, it’s a fair bet they’re going to know how to do a pizza well, because they make pizzas all day every day, you’re willing to trust them that little bit more.
Why? Because nobody can expect to be the best in the world at everything. However, it’s possible and much easier to be good, or even the very best, at doing one specific thing, or a narrow range of things. It’s called picking your niche, and it’s time you found yours.
Why limit yourself?
Identifying your niche makes life easier. You don’t have to compete with generalists, for a start. Once you build a reputation in your niche, people will know where to find you and word will spread.
It’s also a great way to maximise your marketing budget. By understanding your niche, you can figure out exactly where you need to advertise, and you can optimise your website to make your offering easily found on Google.
Finding your niche:
- What are you passionate about? The more passion you have for an idea, the more time and effort you’ll put into it. It’s true that you’ll never work a day in your life if you do something you love. Think about your greatest passion, and then find a way to make it a part of your business.
- Research your niche. Who wants your product or service? What blogs and publications cater to your niche?
- Study your competition. Is there already a lot of competition in your niche? What can you offer that others don’t? What is going to set you apart from all those pretenders to the throne?
Finding your niche will not only focus your marketing, energy and creativity in one concentrated direction, it will help give potential customers a clear picture of who you are and what you do. It’s the perfect way to rejuvenate or begin your business career.
The Bridge will help you identify, understand and reach your target audience – get in touch.