One of the first things I do with all my full branding clients is to establish their industry niche. What is that?

Entrepreneur.com defines a niche as:

A portion of a market that you’ve identified as having some special characteristic and that’s worth marketing to .

Businessdictionary.com defines it as:

A small but profitable segment of a market suitable for focused attention by a marketer. Market niches do not exist by themselves, but are created by identifying needs or wants that are not being addressed by competitors, and by offering products that satisfy them.

Basically it means a very specific part of a larger market. My background is actually in marketing and something they drilled into my head was to become successful at any business you need to 1) define your niche 2) become the best at it 3) expand. The idea being that once you’ve become and best and well-known for a certain service or product, then you’ve earned the right to expand into other areas and try to become the best at that niche. Customers want to know you are experts in an area. If they go to your website and see you do 20 different markets that isn’t very appealing to them if they are seeking out someone with lots of experience in one market.

For example, I work with a lot of wedding photographers. Within the wedding industry there are MANY types of weddings. There are rustic barn weddings, ballroom weddings, estate weddings, beach weddings, etc. Your market location determines those “niches.” You are best at identifying the niches in your location. It’s just a matter of deciding which one to go after and heavily advertise you do so.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

1. Just because you decide to focus on one niche doesn’t mean you can’t get into other ones. You want to make sure your brand clearly expresses which niche you are in, but it doesn’t mean you can’t work in other niches. For example, if you are a wedding photographer focusing on the barn weddings in the Frederick, Maryland area then put LOTS of barn weddings in Frederick photographers on your website, your instagram, your Facebook. Let your audience know YOU are THE Frederick, Maryland barn wedding photographer. But please, by all means take some museum weddings too if you want.
2. Clients like to see a focus. If I’m looking for a wedding photographer and know I want a vineyard wedding I want to see lots of vineyard images on a photographer’s website so I know they have lots of experience with those types of weddings. NOTE FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS: Remember most brides probably book their venue before you so they are looking for photographers who have been at a certain venue or similar ones. If a museum bride comes to your site and you are a vineyard photographer she may rule you out off the bat BUT THAT’S OKAY because you want the vineyard brides to find you because that’s your focus, your niche, and they’ll be more likely to book you.
3. Don’t choose a niche with no client base. Be smart about choosing a niche. If you want to do beach weddings, but live in Kansas that’s not realistic. That’s an extreme example, but do your research and make sure the niche you want to focus on exists in your market (location) and has a strong following.