Niche Down to Gain Confidence

IT’S OKAY IF YOU DON’T HAVE A NICHE RIGHT NOW

Before I jump into this topic, I just want to say that it is totally okay if you don’t have a niche right now or if you are not sure what that niche might be. I didn’t have one for quite some time and in the early days of my entrepreneurship, I kept hearing the same message over and over…niche down, niche down. Honestly, I wasn’t completely convinced niching down was necessary. I love to do LOTS of things. I have LOTS of passions. I get bored EASILY. So I kept bouncing around from idea to idea. I would see something fun on Instagram and think I had to try it.

In reality, my struggle to determine if niching down was worthy advice was really my own inability to be clear on my long term vision for my business. I was in a trial and error period and niching down wasn’t possible for me yet. Some people launch their business with a very clear vision of where they expect that business to be five years from now. That was not me.  I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I was lacking the wisdom, the experience. I was floundering from idea to idea. I needed to just get started and then make the necessary adjustments later. The experience of trial and error, of throwing things at the wall and seeing if they stick, of failing and succeeding and failing again were all extremely valuable to me. It was not time wasted and if I had to go back, I would do it the same again as it gave me so much wisdom.

BUT…..YOUR MARKETING WILL NEVER BECOME CLEAR IF YOU DON’T EVENTUALLY NICHE DOWN

While that testing period did teach me so much, you absolutely need to eventually find a niche, particularly if you want to gain clarity and confidence when it comes to marketing. And when I say “niche down”, I mean really niche down as narrow as you can possibly get. So if you run a home bakery and someone asks you what you do, your answer would be more than “I own a home bakery”. Your answer would be focused on what you are known for, what makes you stand out. Your answer might be one of the following:

  • I own a home bakery that offers delicious baked goods that are healthy and gluten free 
  • I own a home bakery that focuses on healthy baked goods for pets
  • I sell authentic sourdough bread
  • I sell gourmet cupcakes
  • I own a home bakery and specialize in custom wedding cakes

You should niche down in this very narrow manner for all of the common reasons that we hear…to deepen your expertise, to lower your competition, to provide more tailored products and services, etc., etc. But, honestly, the most important reason we should niche down is because our marketing becomes extremely clear when we gain clarity and confidence.  You see, when we are unclear on what we are doing, we present as unclear to our customers as well. As bakers, we sense that confusion and our confidence declines rather than increases.

But once you niche down, far down, your ability to present yourself as an expert in your field significantly increases. When you are asked the question, “What do you do?”, you will respond with contagious passion for what your business offers your customers. Your ability to speak about what you do, describe what you offer, and convince others why they need what you offer will become crystal clear. Marketing will no longer seem as overwhelming. Instead it will be aligned to your narrowed niche and overall vision. And, of course, once we have clarity and confidence, there is no stopping us. 

BUT WHAT IF I DON’T WANT TO HAVE A NARROW FOCUS FOREVER?

If you are concerned about choosing one thing and having that one thing prevent you from baking other items that you also love and are passionate about, please know that your niche doesn’t have to define you forever. But it should define you until you get a strong customer base. Once you are well known in your area and have a strong customer base, you can begin to experiment a bit and that will excite your customers rather than confuse them. They will already be loyal to you, understand what your business goals are and that your products are top notch. Consider the following scenarios:

Jackie is unclear on her niche so when she is marketing to her customers, her social media looks something like this:

  • June Week 1: I have cupcakes available for pick-up this week. $3/cupcake
  • June Week 2: I’m testing out some delicious banana bread and I’ll have loaves available at the farmer’s market on Sunday
  • June Week 3: Look at these amazing cookies. I love experimenting with cookie art. What do you think? Should I add them to my menu?
  • June Week 4: Anyone up for caramel drizzle brownies this week? I will have them available for pick-up on Saturday
So we can see from this scenario that Jackie is in a testing phase. She is unclear on what her customers want and she is unclear on what will sell well. Testing out different items is an important step but eventually she has to move past this because her customer base will likely not grow due to the confusion that is created when she is always offering something new. Let’s look at another scenario.

 

Jackie primarily sells cupcakes and she is very clear on her niche so when she is marketing to her customers, her social media looks something like this.

  • June Week 1: Planning my cupcake flavors for our regular Saturday pick-up. This week will be a mixed pack of chocolate/caramel, white/lemon, and vanilla bean. Visit this link to place your order.
  • June Week 2: On the menu for this week, white cupcake with raspberry which was ranked the favorite flavor of all during our March survey! Visit this link to order. Pick-up is on Saturday. 4 pack/$12. Sorry…no other flavors available this week but you all know it’s not even necessary when white/raspberry is on the line-up!
  • June Week 3: Back to mixed packs this week! On the line-up, white/lemon, snickers crunch, vanilla bean, and salted caramel chocolate. Pick-up Saturday as always. You can order at this link. Excited to bake you up some goodies.
  • June Week 4: Exciting news! Cupcake line-up this week is white/raspberry only but I’m adding in my family-famous sugar cookies. I don’t typically offer these (I make them for family only) but figured you all have been so good to me that I’ll let you in on this goodness. All 4 pack cupcake orders for this week will also include a 2 pack of my sugar cookies. You can also order additional, if needed. Order at the link below and I’ll see you on Saturday!
So as you can see in this scenario, Jackie is very clear on her niche. She switches up her flavors to keep her customers engaged but she also operates her business in a manner that works for her. She is consistent in her offerings but from time to time will test out an additional product (i.e. the sugar cookies). This allows her to get feedback and determine if there are any other baked goods she may want to add. BUT…this only works for Jackie because she invested the time to become an expert in something (cupcakes) and her customer base trusts that her baked goods are delicious and of high quality.

In closing, start thinking about your own niche or, if you don’t have one, be thinking about what might become your niche. Once you’ve identified that be consistent as heck with it. Even if it is slow going at first, BE CONSISTENT. It will pay off and so will your marketing skills.

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