Last night’s Commpose meeting involved a short discussion on niche markets. The topic was met with mixed feelings. Following the meeting, I began thinking more about the concept of working within a niche and had a few thoughts to share. I have been listening to the Marketing Mentor Podcast for some time now, and its creators tirelessly promote the need to specialize your services towards a specific market. One of the things that I have learned from this podcast is that a niche market can be defined in many ways. When people hear the term niche-market they generally think of industry specialization. However, having a niche doesn’t have to be defined this way. You can look at your specialization from many angles: by industry, by service type, by voice, by demographic, etc.

Take my business for example: most Commpose attendees know by now that I am an amateur/aspiring writer and a designer by profession. In my design business, I specialize in working with small businesses who desire a polished image. Everything I do is focused around this mission: my service, timelines, pricing, and the value that I build into my service. Thats the benefit of having a niche—you are able to tailor your services so that you become indispensable to your market. It tooks some time to get to this point, but over the past years I’ve finally learned that just love to work with little businesses and help them use their resources to create a strong face for their business.

However, a small design firm like mine could take several other approaches: they could be the design firm known for working in a specific business sector, the firm who only works with high-end clientele, the firm known for their logo designs, or the firm known for working in a grungy style—they could even be positioned as the ‘cheap firm’ or the ‘fast firm’ or even the ’slow and tedious’ firm. Likewise, a writer could be known for writing for the financial services sector, or one who writes creative copy, or descriptive or technical copy, the writer who writes formally, conversationally or sarcastically, the writer known for editing (as is last night’s speaker, Jennifer Halloran), or for writing press releases, articles or web copy—you could even further specify these markets if you chose to.

My point is that I vote for specialization. Narrowing down a niche for your business is a really positive thing. If you are just beginning your business, developing your niche is a process that can take some time. You will probably need to experience several styles of work before you are able to determine not only your passion but what you excel at and can profit from. While uncovering your niche helps you reveal who you are as a writer, this process will also help you be able to better market and explain your speciality to potential clientele. And clients are drawn to a clear-headed, focused service provider.