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In this post, we’re going to take a look at generic niches and why generic niches don’t work anymore.
Any time you’re trying to come up with a niche idea to start a business, you always have to drill deeper into the next level.
How to get more specific with choosing a niche?
I’ll show you here with specificity as to how things have evolved.
Let’s say you were looking to get a logo/website. Typically what you used to find (in the 1990s) a person that could do websites, and then logos. Those logos also led to business cards.
That also went to SEO or search engine optimization, But usually, you found a tech person. This was a tech person that could handle a lot of these things.
Things were not as complicated back then. In today’s world, you’ll find websites that only focus on dental websites.
When it comes to logos, it could be that they focus on cartoon logos or minimalist logos.
It could be that they are focused on business cards, flyers, and postcards. Everything is getting more segmented.
And it continues to split into this direction.
Even within websites, you have things like:
- UI designer
- Funnels experts
- Opt-in manager
- Customer support
You can see how these things now get segmented into more levels. It continues to dig deeper into that next level and zone.
Photography world
Here’s the same situation. When you search for photography, and you look for a photographer, you’re looking for someone specific.
There’s a lot of segments in there:
- someone who is doing baby pictures
- someone who is a wedding photographer
Who are you looking for?
A lot of these things get more segmented depending on what you’re doing in your focus. In the past, you used to have a photographer that specializes in all of these things.
Nowadays, you’ll see that they specialize in rustic weddings. But you don’t see a photographer that also specializes in wedding videos, and they also make wedding cakes.
A photographer is a photographer.
People want this specialty nowadays. They are looking for it because they want to see if you can fulfill their needs.
This is what happens when you’re doing logos and websites as well. This happens when you’re doing photography.
Let’s search for a photographer
If I search for a photographer in Tampa, Florida, it’s because I used to live near Tampa.
You can see what’s going to show up.
You’re getting:
- the top 10 best affordable
- the Groupon website
- Wedding Wire
You’re not getting a photographer specifically.
- What if I’m looking for a pet photographer?
Now all of a sudden we’re digging deeper. Let’s say pet photographer in Tampa, Florida.
Things are getting more specific.
I want to see those kinds of things because this is the service that I’m looking to get. They specialize in pet-related photography.
Look at how they turn out. Very creative, very crafty. It’s different than you would find if you’re looking for generic photography.
You can see how they capture some of the moments with the pet. You can see much different than doing portraits of a human being.
Business opportunities are in the specificity
It takes specialty and expertise to get this done the right way. And you can see if they’re doing business around the animal section; usually, there’s money involved in it.
If you want somebody to take pictures of your horse or dog you’re not going to search for a wedding photographer in Tampa.
Pro tip: Depending on what you’re trying to do the more specific you can get that’s how you’ll attract and land a client.
If you have a generic niche and you’re focusing on everybody, then nobody will come to you. Dig into it further, and then you can create your little sweet spot for your clients and audience.
That way as people are searching for your specific expertise, that’s who they’re going to go with. They’re going to go with you.
Common mistake:
If you say you’re doing general tech services that could mean:
- I do website design
- a new logo design
- I do search engine optimization
That is too wide.
However, when you start getting more specific like:
- we do Pinterest marketing for small business
- we do a logo design for small startups that are tech companies
- we do the cartoon logo design for small startups
You get more specific because if you don’t, you can see that being wide in your niche you’re not going to land anybody.
Here and there you might hit a handful of people. But people are going to see that they’re not experts in this.
For example – the wedding niche
They do weddings. They do video, but again where the pets?
It’s not there. So this is catered for weddings and family-based things.
Specificity is the key.
If you want pets, that’s another thing. If I want baby photography in Tampa, Florida, look for that.
You’re getting more specific. That’s because of some of those other ones they don’t handle baby or newborn photography.
Here you have more maternity, baby pictures, which is entirely different.
Final Tips
I hope this makes a little more sense to dig deeper into your niche. If you’re looking for specific specialty or expertise or professionalism, then you want very specific things.
It doesn’t mean you can’t offer five or ten things. But it’s almost like if you’re doing photography you will split that up into four or five websites nowadays.
In the past, you could say this is my photography website. Now it’s better to split it up into three or four websites.
In one division we do weddings. Baby and maternity in a second division, and it could be pet photography in a third division.
You would probably want to do that if you had enough base and clientele to attract those kinds of people.
Otherwise putting it all in one could confuse people. And they could also say that you’re not as specialized as they want.
Conclusion
Remember, look at building an empire around what you’re doing. Not just this one website and this one thing are going to make it for me.
Build out different divisions in different segments, and that really can ramp things up for you.
