My Biggest Issue With “Niching Down” & How I Finally Did

I have a secret, and I’m coming clean about it today. It’s something that I’ve been avoiding and trying to ignore for the longest, even though I know I should have done it long ago. So, by now I’m sure you’re wondering what it is, so here goes:  my big fat secret is that I hated, like royally hated, the idea of “niching down”. Yes, it’s true, and although I knew it was something essential that I needed to do, I was extremely adverse to do so. I’m sharing why in today’s post, how I finally did it, and what happened as a result.

If “niching down” is something you’re having trouble with or have had trouble figuring out how to do in the past, I got you covered in this post to get you on track. But first, let’s get to the nitty gritty of my “niching down” aversion:

When I finally arrived at the point where I knew I needed to get specific within my niche, I did so kicking and screaming. And you want to know another secret? This just happened recently, like during my unintentional hiatus from my blog and business. Even though I had heard time and time again from various online marketing experts that it was essential to get super specific within your niche, especially when it comes to your service and products offerings, I kept going against the grain. I was convinced that I could still be successful without getting ultra specific because after all my niche was female creatives with entrepreneurial aspirations. Specific, right? Not so much. Here’s why…

The female creative niche is a huge niche that encompasses many different types of women, with many different types of skill sets and potential needs and pain points. The female creative who’s a maker (one who creates a physical product, be it jewelry or something handmade) deals with a different set of issues than the female creative who’s a graphic designer. Mind you, the female creative who is both a full-time working mom with a side hustle jewelry making business has different pain points than the female creative who’s a part-time student, part-time working, freelancing web designer. You see the issue there? Both female creatives, however, they’re lives differ tremendously, and so do their struggles.

[Tweet “A major part of “niching down” is knowing the pain points of your audience.”]

In all fairness, I could create content and market to both, but that could greatly confuse both types of audiences. I’d have one audience of working moms with side hustles and another of young freelancers. I’d be difficult to write and serve both without neglecting their specific needs. My content would, in essence, to too broad for both and potentially confuse or not serve them specifically at all. This is a content creators worst nightmare, spending so much time creating content that goes unused and unappreciated.

[Tweet “A content creator’s worst nightmare is creating content that goes unused and unappreciated.”]

So in order to avoid this entire predicament going forward; I forced myself to dig deep and examine my brand and what I want it to stand for and represent. I knew in doing this, it would not only allow me to really get to “know” my target audience really well, but also create specific, actionable content that would serve them best. I want my audience to be able to use my content to better their lives and aid in their success. However, I can only do that if I’m creating content that they can actually use, answers their questions, and gives them solutions to those oh-so-crappy pain points that they’re experiencing.

Here’s the exact thought process and action steps I took when I niched down:

Action steps for “niching down”:

• Identifying my niche
• Niching down within me niche
• Creating content that will specifically serve my new ultra-targeted niche

First things first, I needed to identify my niche. I started by asking myself the following:

1. Who do I want to serve?
2. Why do I want to serve them?
3. How do I want to serve them?

Secondly, niching down within my niche involved me diving deeper into the questions I asked myself when identifying my niche. I did this by:

1. Creating a mythical person to have in mind for who I want to serve

• Gave them a name, job, age, relationship status, kid/no kids
• Gave them a personality, interests, entertainment and fashion tastes, even down to the car they drive, etc…

2. Brainstorming the pain points, areas of opportunities, and struggles of said individuals

• What type of issues do they deal with daily?
• What does their schedule look like?
• Do they work solo or with a team in what they do? – Do they have help if they need it? Can they afford in?

3. Content creation was the last, but certainly not least. The reason it needed to have been left until last is because I needed to know specifically who to create content for.

• If I blog, who is going to be reading it? If I make videos, who is going to be watching them? If I have a podcast, who is going to be listening to it?
• What does this person expect to gain from partaking in my content? – Does is solve a problem they’re going through? Does it provide them with more clarity on how to achieve their goals?
• What transformation will I be offering or providing them with my content? – How will it make their lives better? Earn them more money, time, or fulfillment?

[Tweet “Having trouble niching down, here’s the exact process for how to do it.”]

Download the PDF of the infographic here – no email necessary.

[Tweet “Nicheless? Grab this identifying & defining niche down infographic to help you niche down now.”]

The meat & potatoes

Niching down is really nothing more than defining your target audience or customer/client down to their core, or as far down as you can. It’s nothing to be stressed about or put off, and now that I’ve done it, I don’t know why it took me so long. If you take anything away from this post, take away the idea that by niching down, you’re serving your audience best, doing them the biggest favor you could ever extend to them.

[Tweet “Niching down is nothing more than defining your target audience or customer down to their core.”]

By creating content that they can easily ingest and specifically use, it will build trust as they will see you as an authority of whatever the topic of the content you’re creating. It puts you in the best position possible when you go to create products or offer services, because not only will they be targeted and exactly what your audience needs, they will be more than willing to purchase them.

If you find that you’re struggling to answer some or many of the questions above, no worries, I’m here to help.

I’m launching a new coaching and clarity service soon, but to kick it off, I’m offering free…yes free live group coaching calls in my new Facebook community. I’ll be sending out an email soon with more information on when the live coaching calls will start. So if you’re not already signed for my list, you’ll definitely want to so you don’t miss any of the juicy details. Pop in your name and email below and you’ll be automatically added!

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Join The Dream Makers Creative on Facebook or click the image below ?? and you’ll be directed right over to it where you can request to join.

 Listen to the accompanying Branded Bliss podcast episode of this post below: