Niche, Then Niche Again
Freelancers that niche down can laser target their clients.
Something I put off for a very long time in my freelance career was niching down. I was afraid that if I niched down I would lose my existing clients.
I’m going to argue in this post, that every freelancer should look into creating their own niche and offer a small focused range of services.
What Is A Niche
A niche is a way to position your services in such a way that you offer a very specific solution to your client’s problems.
It enables you to find clients more easily, prove you are an expert and charge higher rates than the jack of all trades.
Here’s what the internet defines a niche as.
place (something) in a niche or recess.
a comfortable or suitable position in life or employment.
Why Niching Works
Niching works because you can refine your marketing message to target a specific person with a very specific problem.
Because of this, it’s easier to find and convert clients needing the solution you supply.
If your niche is knitting custom purple widgets when someone with the desire to have a custom widget knitted in thistle purple comes along they know you are the guy or gal for them.
Your blog is full of how-to documents on purple widget stitch styles, you have a YouTube channel showing all the widget styles you can create.
In your free content, you can detail how complicated casting off is with purple yarn, highlighting your expertise and the challenges of purple knitting.
When you run an ad you target a very specific customer persona and bring them into your marketing funnel focused on knitting that purple widget.
When you are looking for work on freelance sites you search for a specific job title, there are fewer jobs on offer but your expertise will allow you to prove you are the best hire for that job.
In short, you are a subject matter expert on purple widget knitting and your potential client would be a fool trying to get custom knitting for their widget from just a knitter.
Knitting in purple demands a higher hourly or per-project rate. Knitters are in a race to the bottom on fees along with all the other knitters in the market.
You can standardise your knitting and charge more per project but it will take less time to deliver the service.
When we cross paths with our client, it’s like it was meant to be, there are fireworks it’s love hired at first sight.
How To Niche
Think about the services you offer and then think “How can I offer those services in a more specific way?”.
Let me give you an example of how I niched my own business.
Web developer.
Web developer, WordPress.
Web developer, WordPress, WooCommerce.
Web developer, WordPress, WooCommerce, UK.
I can still offer services to my existing clients as a web developer, I’m not going to lose existing clients, but my marketing efforts and the new clients I’m trying to generate leads from are in need of a web developer with WordPress and specifically WooCommerce skills in the UK.
There are tens of thousands of web developers and I bet most of them know WordPress. By focusing on the technology WooCommerce for UK businesses I can target my ideal client more tightly.
Could I niche even more closely, yes and I’m thinking about that now, why not go for WooCommerce site owners, based in the UK who want to improve sales, I can offer a service to optimize returning customers, upselling products and stopping abandoned carts, I can create an ultra-niche productized service, and find clients with a very specific problem to be solved.
This potential service is valuable and I could price it by the value I create. I can price by saying I can bring in 10k more in sales per month, and charge five figures for a day or so in billable hours.
What To Niche
There are a number of ways to niche your services. You can drill down by technology, type of client, location of businesses, size of business the list goes on and on there are numerous ways to niche down.
My niche is by technology type.
I know a web developer that has niched by client type and works with charities.
I subcontract with an agency that only works with organisations working in the environmental arena.
Will I Put Off Potential Clients?
Yes, and that’s the point, to go back to our knitting analogy you don’t want to work with people in need of a red widget, you are the purple widget dude.
The tighter the niche the easier the sale. The more focus, the more expertise you show.
What Is Your Niche
How can you laser focus your services and niche down, let’s take the discussion to the comments?
I don’t want a general practice doctor to fix my broken leg, I want an orthopaedic surgeon. Think how your client would when purchasing they are purchasing your services.
The greatest debate is left to the last sentence, is it “nitch” or “neesh” I go with the latter because I’m fancy like that.