The concept of niche marketing has been around for eons, but I feel it’s worth discussing in relation to photographers. It carries on from last week’s post about finding your photographic voice.
When you’re starting out in photography, there’s absolutely nothing wrong experimenting with photographic styles and photographing any number of things that interst you. But it’s a different story when it comes to commercialising your business. When you’re trying to market a product or service, you can either do it in a general, scatter gun approach (the “be everything to everyone” approach), or you can focus your efforts on a smaller, more concentrated group of buyers.
What is niche marketing?
The Business Dictionary defines niche marketing as “Concentrating all marketing efforts on a small but specific and well defined segment of the population. Niches do not ‘exist’ but are ‘created’ by identifying needs, wants, and requirements that are being addressed poorly or not at all by other firms, and developing and delivering goods or services to satisfy them. As a strategy, niche marketing is aimed at being a big fish in a small pond instead of being a small fish in a big pond. Also called micromarketing.”
What are the benefits of niche marketing?
Concentrating your limited time and marketing resources on a select group of potential buyers has many benefits:
- Marketing this way is cheaper – when you know who you’re trying to target, you can be more selective about the marketing activities you do. If you’re a wedding photographer, it’s probably not going to make sense to advertise in parenting magazines (or even local newspapers for that matter); participating in a local bridal expo, reception venue or related wedding supplier’s newsletter is probably going to be more effective.
- You can better focus on the needs of your niche market, and set about creating products and services that they want! If you know that your target audience is likely to want to share the photos you create for them on social media for example, build that into your product offering!
- You can focus your effort on developing mutually beneficial affiliate networks. For example, if you want to develop a niche in maternity photography, consider the place where you’re likely to find mothers-to-be. Try working with your local baby supplies shop or other appropriate suppliers to get your brand in front of your prospective clients.
- Niche marketing helps you to stand out by honing your abilities. It stands to reason that if you keep practicing a particular style of photography week in, week out, you’ll improve over time.
How to build a niche?
This post from SmallBizSurvival.com provides great suggestions from Mike Klemme, a photographer who has built a global business out of photographing golf courses, about how to build a niche:
- Pick a niche without an existing specialist, one that capitalizes on your skills and abilities.
- Start learning all you can about it; read the trade publications.
- Network, meet everyone involved, know the industry players and become a guru in your specialty.
- Get beyond the obvious; develop your own perspective and your own style.
- Slam the door on that niche by being the absolute best.
- Find your tribe of people who are passionate about the topic. Communicate directly with them.
- Build great partnerships. Find compatible professionals, and grow your work together.
The articles below provide additional information about niche marketing. I hope this post inspires you to consider why you should focus on your photography niche!
Related articles
- Find a niche, fill the niche and kill the niche (smallbizsurvival.com)
- 8 Ways to Ace Niche Marketing (openforum.com)
- Useful Photography Tip #27: Specialize to Succeed” (The Phoblographer)
- Finding Your Perfect Photography Niche” (Light Stalking)
- Are You Choosing The Wrong Photography Niche?” (Expert Photography)
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