Many writers think that their niche doesn’t lend itself to content marketing writing.  But I honestly think that will a little creativity and thought that you can find markets for any niche in content marketing writing. Yes, certain niches have more options and some niches pay better, but it I think that every industry has a need for content marketing writers, even writers with unique or lifestyle niches.

Here are 5 easy steps to come up with ideas for brands to market to:

1. Pick one of your niches. It doesn’t matter which one. I’m going to take you through this exercise using the niche of gardening. A fellow writer shared this niche with me at the conference and I thought it was a great example because it’s not one of the common (and more obvious) ones such as health, technology, or finance.

2. Think about your audience. Write down what you know about the audience. How old are they? Education level? What magazines do they read? What are their common questions about the topic?  The key to this exercise is really having an understanding of your audience so you can brainstorm all of the various companies who want to market to this audience.

3. Make a list of types of products that this audience needs.

What products does your audience buy? For example: Gardeners need seeds, flowering plants, vegetable plants, trees, soil, lawn mowers and other garden tools like edger’s and blowers, fertilizers, irrigation system, plant food, products that keep deer and bugs away, flower pots, outside gloves, wheelbarrows, gardening gear marketing specially for kids, waterfalls and ponds, stone for patios, pavers for making garden beds, mulch, pine straw and garden décor such as benches and statues.

This list is nowhere near complete and I am sure that if gardening is your specialty that you could keep going. Allow some time for this and be creative. I have found that once you get going that the ideas keep flowing.

4.  Make a list of businesses that market services or have retail stores for this audience.

Now that you have your product list, switch gears and think about businesses who want your target audience as customers. Be creative and write down all ideas that come to you. While you may originally come up with just one or two, there are most likely many more ideas just below the surface.

For the gardening example, the obvious business is garden centers (both national and local). But beyond those, there are many other businesses as well, such as lawn maintenance services, landscaping companies, landscaping design companies (often different than the companies who do the actual work), tree removal companies, farmers markets whose vendors often sell plants, and businesses that rent gardening equipment such as aerators and tractors.

5. Start a list brands selling each product or services. Begin finding specific brands that sell each of these products or services. Be sure to include both national and local brands. Internet searches are a great place to start, but be sure to also ask other gardeners for ideas as well. You should also go to the store if relevant and write down a list of all specific brands you can find for each category. If you are overwhelmed by all of the possibilities, pick one category to start that you are most familiar with or most interested in.

When you are done, you will have a list of companies that need your industry expertise as well as your writing talent to create content to help their target customer’s gain trust in their brand.  And each of these companies need content in some form or other. If you go through this process completely and really spent the time needed to get the ideas going, I am positive that you will end up with many more options that you ever thought possible. Since most writers have multiple niches, when you do this for each of your niches, you will have an almost unlimited number of brands to market.

 

Any tips for this process? Are you stuck on finding ideas or think you have a niche that doesn’t work? Let us help you come up with ideas for brands and companies. I have yet to find a niche that doesn’t work.