Owning your niche in your market, using your personal brand, means you are creating a mini-kingdom where you are the king or queen of a particular target market. When people think of that niche, they think of you. The niche and your personal brand become synonymous.
You can begin to create your own niche by picking a specific area that you want to be great at and claiming it. If you’re stuck, ask yourself which problems you’re especially good at solving or who seems to be drawn to you.
You need to let go of the idea of serving everyone when choosing a niche. The world is filled with experts, and you simply can’t know that much about everything. Many people are afraid to eliminate people from their niche because “What if I narrow so much that I don’t have any clients or work to do?”
Because they are afraid to let go of those who no longer fit into their target audience, people often stay too broad in who they serve. Don’t make that mistake: You don’t want to end up with no defined niche and not being known for anything.
If you have no idea how to choose the type of people for your niche, think about your favorite people to work with and choose to name them as your niche.
Perhaps you’re a tattoo artist and you find that you prefer to work with women and your favorite tattoos to do are roses. It doesn’t mean that you don’t work with other clients, but you make it known to everyone that you especially love to work with women who want rose tattoos.
Narrow your niche to one or two choices and then start learning everything you can about your target audience. Devote two to three hours a week gaining knowledge about your niche. Investigate questions like: What are trends in this industry? What kinds of meetings do these people attend? Who in my company belongs to a professional association or has an area of expertise that I can learn from?
Cultivate yourself as an expert in that niche. Become the go-to person for a particular group of people or become a subject matter expert. Become an expert. Write articles, blog, speak, and do whatever it takes to be known in that niche.
Claim your niche: Own and be known!