What’s a Niche and Why Do You Need One for Content Marketing Writing?
For years, writers have debated whether you should have a specialty or be a generalist. Many writers resist having a specialty because they don’t want to write about the same thing over and over. But most end up having at least one (often more) areas of interest that they finding themselves writing about, whether it is a broad topic like health, personal finances, or business—or a narrower market such as writing about credit cards.
But with content marketing writing, you are writing from a place of authority and it is essential that you have a niche or area of specialization. Much of content marketing writing is actually thought leadership, where you are writing unique ideas and positions about trends and solutions to a problem. Instead of telling someone else’s story as is typical when writing for consumer or trade publications, you are creating the story from thoughts and ideas based on knowledge.
With content marketing writing, a niche is an area where you are knowledgeable about the industry, have a solid understanding of needs of the potential customer base, are up to date on the trends, and have connections with industry experts. But don’t panic if you think you don’t have a niche and aren’t sure how to find one. Most likely you already have a small niche carved out and don’t even realize it. We’ll talk about how to find your niche quickly this coming week.
I have always been one of those writers that didn’t want to specialize because one my favorite parts of freelancing is being able to learn about so many different topics. But there is nothing that says you can’t have more than one niche and simply position your niche differently depending on the brand you are working with or pitching to. If I am sending an LOI to a B2B company, I will write that I specialize in content marketing for small businesses. But if I am replying to a mortgage company looking for content, then I will include my personal finance clips.
Do you have a niche? If you are new to content marketing, what areas are you considering specializing in?
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I like your post, Jennifer, it’s very informative. I know it can be hard for a person to find his or her own niche, but, as you said, we all probably have one but we just don’t know that we do. It’s good thing to have several niches, that way you have opportunity to cover various topics and still have faithful target audience.
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