How to Find Content Marketing Niches In Your Clips

One of the secrets to getting high-paying content marketing clients is to have a specialized niche. If you have experience writing about the industry or writing for the brand’s target customer, your LOI (Letter of Introduction) will stand out from other applicants and you will be more likely to get the work. I’ve talked previously about how to find niches among your existing clips. But what about those times you see a need for content marketing in a specific area, but don’t have the clips to land the gigs that you know are out there?

Here are three steps to adding a new niche:

  1. Make a list of topics that will help you demonstrate your expertise to potential content marketing clients in the industry. Last year, I wanted to expand my business into the hospitality sector and was looking to write about hotel/restaurant management and the technology used by these businesses.
  2. Write down the websites, publications and brands to which you are currently pitching topic ideas.
  3. Think about topics of interest for your readers at each of your current publications that are also related to your new niche. At one point, I was writing for American Express OPENForum which provides information for small business owners in a variety of industries. My editor wanted me to profile a “green” business so I wrote a story about a hotel that was zero waste. I also pitched stories about using iPads in restaurants and how restaurants can use LinkedIn. I was able to use these clips to land several ongoing trade publications gigs and a few content marketing clients in the hospitality field. For example, if you want to move into technology and are currently writing about the health field, you can write a few deliverables related to medical technology.

Most importantly, be sure that the stories that you are pitching are appropriate for your current publication. You don’t want to damage your reputation with your clients by pitching stories that are not a fit for their publications.

How have you added new niches to your content marketing writing business?

 

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3 Comments

  1. seo on December 26, 2013 at 11:16 pm

    Aw, this was a very nice post. Finding the time and actual effort to produce a good article… but what can I say… I hesitate a lot and
    don’t seem to get anything done.



  2. […] How to Add a New Niche to Your Content Marketing Writing […]



  3. […] are fine if you have written content in another niche. Almost all clients I have talked to consider journalism clips as expertise in the field. Yes, of course it’s a double bonus if you have content clips in their niche, but the subject […]