Yep, even artists gotta niche

One of the biggest problems I find with clients I work with (and I know the arts is not the only offender in this realm), is a lack of niching. Niching is simply finding your thing. The thing that’s special about what you do and then using it as a launch pad for the rest of your branding and marketing. I think creatives are scared of niching for a few reasons and it’s very worthwhile to spend some time putting those misconceptions out to pasture.

It won’t stifle your creativity

The problem with a lack of niching is your energy becomes really scattered. As creative people, we love new ideas, innovation, new products. We’re “multi-passionate”. The problem with that is it can be really confusing if we’re trying to build a market or following. What we really need to do is to understand what’s special about us so we can focus on that and do it really well. I’m not ruling out side projects or bringing in new products or innovating the way you work. But knowing exactly who you are makes it so much easier to find the person who wants exactly what you are.

It will help you find your perfect market.

Sometimes we like to think that our market is everyone. But the fact is, it isn’t everyone, and the clearer we can be about who we are, the easier it is to find a market who raves about what we do. We’re building a fan base of people who connect deeply with what we’re creating and want more of what we have to offer. These become lifetime customers and that’s what we want more of. We don’t want to spray our marketing efforts all over the place hoping to get a hit. And we don’t want to attract people who don’t love what we do. They’re gonna tell their friends that you’re crap and that is not the kind of word-of-mouth we’re hoping to generate! Knowing exactly who you are allows you to market yourself to exactly the right audience.

Become a master

Niching also allows you to become a master. As dynamic as it can be to be a jack of all trades, there is the flipside that you become a master of none. By niching down, you can become the best at what you do. Being the go to person for a certain service, object or experience is a powerful position on a marketing level. On a creative level excelling in a particular niche is a challenge that will push you to expand your creative boundaries and extend your craftsmanship.