5 Answers to Your Questions about Niches
I decided to do a bonus post this week since I’m on a deadline and am procrastinating. I’m using the excuse that several readers had some great questions about my post on having sub-niches that I am betting other people have as well. But really the reason is that I have like a million things due on Monday and I don’t want to work on any of them. So I’ve decided to compile the answers I gave in the comments and through email into a post.
I also wanted to wish a very happy veterans day to everyone who has served our country, especially my Grandfather who serviced in World War II. We miss you Grandad!
Here are five questions and answers about niches:
I really worry about limiting myself by picking a sub specialty. Are you sure that won’t decrease my client opportunities.
You aren’t limiting your work, you are making it more likely that you will get the clients you approach because you have the unique skills for their brand so you stand out. Plus, I promise that by narrowing you will be able to more easily identify clients to approach. This is especially true with niches that have a lot of writers, such as travel, parenting, food and health.
I met a writer at an ASJA regional conference a few years ago, that told me that she had been very successful marketing herself as a teeth whitening content marketing writer. She said that while on the surface it seems limiting, it had been very lucrative. She said she got work at both the companies selling teeth whitening products as well dentists looking to increase sales of their teeth whitening services.
This is the thing, you aren’t really risking anything since you can have as many niches as you want. You just market yourself based on who you are talking to. If you are still worried, start with one sub niche and see how it works for you.
I hear you about the niches, but I really LOVE writing broadly about parenting, travel and food.
I told Melinda that it is totally fine to write about and market yourself as writing about all three for journalism. No problem, writers have been doing that successfully for year. But when approaching content clients, i would narrow it. You probably already have sub-specialties within those niche that you have written about many times, such as attachment parenting or solo travel. You can have as many niches as you want – I have like 10, including a very odd niche of stadium technology.
I want to add a new niche. How should I do that?
I usually recommend my double niche technique for changing niches (https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2016/02/29/break-the-catch-22-how-to-gain-clips-in-a-new-niche) I’ve done it successfully in my career and know others who have. For the first two years of my content marketing writing career, I made sure that almost every clip served a future purpose for building a niche and strategically picked topics that would help me whenever I had the chance to pitch. Another strategy is to pitch the stories on the new niche to journalistic publications to get the clips since publications and online websites are typically more interested in your specific idea than in your expertise.
My current niches and the one I want to add are very far apart. I’m not sure that the double niche will work. What should I do?
I don’t usually recommend this, but in cases where the new niche is very luctrative, such as technology or a specialized health field then I would suggest taking some lower paying technology clients to get the clips that you need. I was in a similar situation with technology a few years ago. I did some double niche stories to get me some basic tech clips (using tech in business) but needed more and more technical. So I used the clips I had to get some lower paying jobs and then quickly transitioned to better gigs. The trick is to not stay in the lower gigs too long.
How narrow of a niche should I go?
You want to go as narrow as there are clients that sell to that audience, but it really depends on the niche. If you have a niche that has more writers, such as travel, parenting, food or health, then I recommend going as specific as possible to stand out from the crowd. If your niche is less common or the subspecialties overlap, then you can keep it broader and then narrow it when you talk to specific clients. However, in the health field in particular I think specializing is really important. A writer that is an expert in neurology is not necessarily an expert in oncology and both of these (and most health disciplines) require this specialized expertise to be able to write great content.
Leo asked about whether he should specialize in HealthIT or narrow it as far as electronic health records. Since most of the issues with HealthIT are interrelated and there are not a ton of HealthIT writers, in his case I recommended saying he’s a health IT writer on his general marketing (LinkedIn and his website). But the beauty of writing LOI’s is that you can market yourself to that specific company in a way that shows you can meet their needs. So if he was approaching a company that produced electronic health record software, then he should focus his LOI on experience writing about that specific topic and market himself as an EHR writer.
I really think that the key to making a high income as a freelance content marketing writer is having niches and marketing yourself as an expert in that area to the people who need your expertise. Most writers who struggle to make the transition to content marketing from journalism are those that stay more of a generalist, in my experience.
Do you have any other questions about niches? Did any of these answer spark more questions? Anyone else procrastinating and not want to work because everyone else in your family is home from school and work?
Jennifer, great ideas.
How do you find a sub niche that’s not crowded with writers yet in demand?
Thank you.
Heather
That should read: How do you find a sub niche that’s not crowded with writers yet, but still in demand?
I gotta tell you, Jennifer, if you tire of working as a content marketing writer, you could *easily* find work as a content marketing career coach! Your advice is phenomenal–pertinent, actionable, easily understood, timely. You rock…just sayin’! 🙂
You are sweet and yes, I have thought about it. And decided against taking money for coaching. However, I am in the middle of writing a book on content marketing writing. And I also offer free coaching on the phone to any writer that asks. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years and really enjoy doing it. Charging didn’t quite feel right to me and this solution makes me happy.
I agree with Lori. You could be an excellent writing coach for sure if you ever want to leave the wonderful world of content marketing.
Yes, and it’s that time of year where it’s harder to get work done from your home office. Kids and family are going to be everywhere!
On days like these, I literally have to lock the door, and if that doesn’t work, I take a trip with my laptop to the library.
Jennifer,
I’m wondering about your thoughts on this topic.
What makes a good clip for trades and brand journalism pubs for writers entering a new niche?
I think with the spread of digital publishing, there’s a fine line between a blog post, a blogzine, magazine or a report like this article here from Travel Market Report.
http://www.travelmarketreport.com/articles/A-Dozen-Tips-For-Selling-Heritage-Travel-Part-2. The lines are blurred with digital formats.
So, with that in mind will a well-written blog post for a client with quotes and data serve as a good clip for a trade pub?
Looking forward to your thoughts.
That’s a very good question and I am actually going to write an entire post about this. I really don’t think that the format of the story matters very much – except if it is a case study or whitepaper. If you are marketing yourself to write case studies and whitepapers, then you need to show clips for these types of deliverable since they are specialized.
My experience is a brand doesn’t care if a clip is a blog or online mag or print or whatever. They care that the clip illustrates that you will be able to write content that resonates with their customers. I try to look for clips that illustrate as close to the type of expertise that the brand needs or writing to a similar audience. I also think that tone is important and I try to use clips with a similar tone. If you are sending an LOI to a brand that produces highly researched content, either with statistics/studies or interviews, then I think it’s also good to send in clips that show you are proficient in that level of research.
Thanks again Jennifer – you are so generous in sharing your knowledge and expertise, and I really appreciate that.
I’ve been thinking lots of these last two posts of yours and I now really get the difference between needing a specific niche (or 10!) for content writing and writing broadly for magazines/newspapers. I’m now wondering about your advice for displaying clips on a website – what do you think is the most effective way of doing this so that each potential client feels that you are the best candidate for their writing needs, and that they’re not bombarded with your other 9 niches and writing about general topics.
For example, if I’m positioning myself as a gluten free food content writer, what might be the best way to display my portfolio, given that it’s also likely I have other specialisations that have nothing to do with that (e.g. recruitment for small business or technologies in healthcare). Thanks again.
I am really glad you found the last two posts so helpful. I have had the same challenge with my niches since I have a big variety – insurance, hospitality and data analytics. Click on the Portfolio menu on my website and you will see that I have a separate page of clips for each niche. This has worked very well for me. On my old website, which was more basic I had them all on one page but broken into categories with links to the sections at the top. I am actually planning on further breaking up my tech clips over holidays into categories use sections and linked. This is a great question and I’m going to write a blog post on it. Also, if I know a client is looking for a specific type of clips, then I send them links myself since I have hundreds upon hundreds that are not on the website.
Jennifer, you’re the greatest. Quick question: When you talk about sub-niches, you mention a specialized area of yours like Stadium Tech. How would you go about finding content agencies that handle tech companies that are trying to market to stadiums and arenas?
Great question, John. I think I will probably write a blog post about this for Friday or next week. Spoiler – I would pretend I was the a stadium owner looking for technology and see what companies came up during Google searches as well as what companies were advertising in publications that I would read. I’ll expand on this next week.
Hi Jennifer,
Do you ever write in the dental niche? Here’s a current project I need help on:
Dentist Creedmoor Road Raleigh NC //platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
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