Finding a Niche to Focus Your Marketing Efforts On: by Chris Horner

Over the years I’ve had the privilege of talking at length with many business owners, executives, and aspiring entrepreneurs. It seems that identifying a target market is one of the hardest tasks for these folks to accomplish. I believe it’s because they try to market their wares to anyone with a pulse. (Yes I was actually told that once – word for word – from a bank executive) Unfortunately, I’ve noticed the same thing from many new photographers who decide to go into business for themselves. There are a number of negative results from this, namely wheel spinning, poor sales, and the business owner scratching their head trying to figure out what exactly happened as they’re driving to bankruptcy court.

Fortunately there’s a solution to this problem. It’s called niche marketing – or in other words finding a narrow group to focus your marketing efforts on and producing products specifically tailored to that niche. When people first hear this, their reaction is usually “why on earth would I want to do that? I want everyone to know about me/my company/my product!” But that doesn’t work – and here’s why:

If your target market is too broad, your product and message get diluted to the point where no one cares. For example, I’ve seen more than a few website “About” pages read something like this: “I do portrait, wedding, commercial, fine art, landscape, architecture, and of course macro photography! Did I mention graduations?”

Can you see the problem here? How can someone possibly successfully market all of those different styles of photography? And do you think prospective clients really believe this? Each niche has it’s own requirements, challenges, and need for specialized knowledge. It’s far easier to pick just a couple (ideally complementary) fields and become the best you can be in those areas only. Be known as THE go-to person for your niche.

Think for a second about these companies: Hasselblad, Ferrari, Patek Phillipe. Likely you can name what each one produces and what they specialize in.

But more to the point, think about what they DON’T make.

What niche are you focusing your efforts on? What excites you? What are you better at shooting than anyone else you know? What makes your vision unique?

The most common objection I hear to this is that people are afraid of turning away business, especially given the current economic circumstances. While that’s understandable, think about it from this perspective: If you can demonstrate concrete expertise in your chosen field, you can command higher rates. Again, think about the company names mentioned above. Are they worried about reaching everyone, or even making sure everyone can afford their wares?

These days thanks to the Internet, social media, forums, etc it’s easier than ever to find clusters of people interested in a particular niche. Study that niche and figure out what problems they have that you can solve better than anyone else, then execute accordingly.  It really can be that simple.

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Company: Lens Artwork
Phone: 734.926.9595
Email: chris@lensartwork.com
Website: http://www.LensArtwork.com
Twitter: @LensArtwork
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lensartwork

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