To niche down or not?
We bet you’re constantly hearing contrasting opinions on whether your Instagram should have a niche right from the start, or maybe it’s not necessary. We know this is becoming a source of distress for many of you, and you are too concerned about where you should be putting your energy!
From our perspective and our experience (as well as our clients’): the market of lifestyle, general accounts is getting really crowded, so profiles with niched-down topics may have it much easier, especially at the beginning.
If you want to succeed on Instagram and develop your recognizable personal brand, you need to focus on one primary sector. Don’t get too worried – no, you don’t have to be overly specific or exclude different topics at all costs. It just means you have to decide in which domain you’re an expert in and clearly manifest that, so people know what you can help them with and what they can expect from you.
Niching down is genuinely helpful and can speed up your growth – and today, we’ll discuss why, so let’s go!
What exactly is niching down, and how to find your niche?
Think of what makes you distinctive, what knowledge you bring to the table that no one from your competitors has. Your niche, put in other words, is your specialty. The area you feel the most comfortable in, the set of topics you could talk hours about. Thanks to this choice, people will start to associate your profile with particular subjects much faster, and you’ll gain recognisability in a shorter period of time.
It’s a win-win solution: you won’t get bored or too overwhelmed when creating content for your account, because discussing these topics will seem more natural to you. You’ll be able to bring many meaningful, educational insights without additional extensive research because you’ll already have most of the needed knowledge right in your head.
How to put your niche into words? Think of it in one of two ways:
1) what are you actually providing to your followers
2) who is your perfect follower (your target audience – in case you’re not familiar with this stage of developing your Instagram marketing strategy, we’ll focus on this topic in one of the upcoming posts!)
In other words: what you do here on Instagram, and who can you help? For example, in our case:
1) we share content marketing tips to help you grow your Instagram + we provide the most advanced hashtag research & deep profile analysis tool out there
2) we help individual creators, as well as entrepreneurs, use the full potential of their Instagram accounts
Protip: Focus on the problem you’re solving and the people who need this solution. Name it. It’s a necessary task to get to know your strengths and your Instagram potential – even if you’ve always been against niching down.
There are too many generic accounts out there
Why should your ideal follower or ideal client stay with you and watch your Instagram activities? Why does your content stand out from the rest? Without niching down, you’ll be just one of the many creators – and people may find it a little bit more difficult to decide whether it’s worth it for them to follow you or not. Some profiles which are avoiding niching down seem a little bit too generic, don’t you think? They’re sharing exactly the same quotes, the ones you’ve seen thousand times, using the same stock photos as their competitors, having very general descriptions in their BIO. They’re much less likely to compel someone to collaborate with them, buy their products/services, or even download their freebies. That’s another good debating point and a reason to consider niching down more seriously.
Experts bring a lot to the table (so they can assess their prices much higher)
You can have higher prices for your products/services because when you’re an authentic expert in a particular field, people trust your experience (because they can also see it on your profile!). They’re most likely to notice that you’re someone they’re looking for, and you’ll be the perfect fit for them. When you offer something extra and you niche down your leading domain, you unquestionably stand out from other creators who are too similar to each other, so the only difference between them is the price.
Followers or clients looking for particular solutions won’t hesitate to contact you when they see you’re doing exactly what they’re looking for – and that you’re focusing on the topics they need help with. It will give you a vantage.
You’ll attract high-quality followers
You will attract people who are sure they need you, so they will most probably stay with you for a long time. Defining your niche will also give you the confidence of having your mission statement as well as your personal brand’s identity more clear.
The market is really crowded, and many people are doing exactly what you’re doing – and niching down results in the situation when you have 15-30 competitors rather than 20 000.
Niching down – in conclusion
Niching isn’t only about deciding what content to focus on or what type of follower/client you want to engage with. It shapes not only your account but the whole outlook of your personal brand (whether you realize it or not – even when you’re an individual creator, and you don’t offer or sell anything, you’re building your personal brand as well).
Niching down doesn’t have to be stressful: it needs to come from you – analyze where; in which area you can make the most significant impact and help people the most? Moreover, niching down gives you an advantage because you’re more effectively positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
There is popular marketing saying: the riches are in the niches, and indeed, there is some truth to that!
PS: We’ll be diving much deeper into the topics about defining your target audience and niching down, so stay tuned for lots of credible materials coming this way!
