ep 02. Figuring Out Your Niche, Sub-Niche, and Side Niches. | thedailyinfluencers.com

Episode Notes

ep 02. Figuring Out Your Niche, Sub-Niche, and Side Niches.

You’ve probably heard the term the riches are in the niches, or heard people say “you need to pick a niche”…

ep 02. Figuring Out Your Niche, Sub-Niche, and Side Niches.
ep 02. Figuring Out Your Niche, Sub-Niche, and Side Niches.
ep 02. Figuring Out Your Niche, Sub-Niche, and Side Niches.
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You’ve probably heard the term the riches are in the niches, or heard people say “you need to pick a niche”…

But what the heck is your niche? I hear from my students ALL THE TIME that they have no idea what their niche is or how to figure it out. So, I figured what better than to make an episode for us to figure it out together!

Niches:

When thinking about your main niche I want you to answer these questions, and if you have a notebook, now would be a great time to jot these down and answer them later. If not, just come back to this episode when you can

Answer these questions:

  1. The main question I want you to answer is, “What do I want to be the go to person for?”
  2. What are your passions/ hobbies / interests?
  3. What would be products/services that you love so much you would work for trade or free?
  4. What is your expertise in?
  5. What do people ask you for help with or about?
  6. What would your friends describe you as/ come to you for? (ask them!)
  7. What are problems that you can solve?
  8. What is needed right now?
  9. What is trending/ working right now?
  10. What type of content do you like to consume?
  11. Look at your analytics and browse through your top posts. What were you talking about or sharing?

What type of niche do the above answers fall into? (Remember you can have a main niche, sub-niches, and side niches. You don’t have to stick to only one thing! I encourage you all to have a few)

Sub-Niches

Next, I want you to think about a sub-niche for your niche. A sub-niche is a smaller portion of your main niche. A more defined and specific portion of your niche. This is what people mean when they say “niche down”

So, for example my main niche is fashion, but my sub niche is affordable everyday fashion.

Something That Sets You Apart

Narrowing down sub-niches even further I want you all to come up with something that sets you apart within your niche AND sub-niche.

This is going to be really important for those of who want to grow. When you can set yourself apart and find something that makes you the go to person for that thing, you will see growth. 

So for example, my niche is fashion, my sub-niche is affordable fashion, and something that sets me apart is that I find a lot of dupes for designer items.

This could also be combining two things together. Maybe your main niche is Fitness, and one of your side niches is autoimmune diseases. Your sub-niche could be Fitness for people with autoimmune diseases.

If you can’t decide, a good idea would be to try a few things out and just see how they go. See how your audience takes to different topics.

Considering your audience’s desires is very important, just as long as it is also something you want to do.

Side Niches

These are going to be other things you like besides your main niche. If you’re anything like me, you’re multi-passionate and it is extremely hard to put yourself into one category, let alone 2…

I do want to point out, if you have a main niche and that is all you want to focus on, that is totally okay! My instagram used to only be about fitness, and when that was all I focused on, that is who I attracted – other people that were super passionate about fitness and health.

I have since changed my niches and that is TOTALLY OKAY TOO. You might lose some followers, but you will gain new followers. Always do what makes you most happy.

I might turn into a total mommy blogger one day when I have kids. Who knows. This isn’t something that you are locked into for life.

When you answered the questions above you probably got a variety of different niches as answers. I want you to go through those and think about which ones you’re most passionate about or the ones that you want to talk about.

For me mine would also be:

  • Autoimmune diseases & Healthy lifestyle changes
  • Beauty
  • Hacks
  • Home Decor and Real Estate
  • Entrepreneurship & Influencer marketing 

The best way to incorporate multiple topics and niches, is to be sure and rotate them.

All in all, it is important to have direction and focus, but for influencers; it is most important to be authentic and connect with your audience.


Full Episode Transcript

0:07  

Hey there Welcome to The Daily Influencers podcast My name is Erica Marie Daily – former marketer and brand manager, turned your influencer marketing coach. On this podcast we help both influencers and brands: maximize their collaboration, grow on social media make more money and waste less time. Speaking of which let’s jump right into today’s episode.

0:35  

You’ve probably heard the term the riches are in the niches are heard people say you need to pick a niche, but what the heck is your niche? Now I hear from my students all of the time that they have no idea what their niches or how to figure it out. And they come to me saying help me figure this out. I have no idea and I hear it’s super important. So I figured what better than to make an episode for us to figure it out.

1:00  

together. So in today’s episode, we’re gonna be going over niches and how that applies to influencers specifically, and then we’re going to talk about finding your niche, your sub niches and your side niches. But first, I want to address the elephant in the room, are you the kind of person that says niche or niche, I feel like people are either in one camp or the other, and they’re very passionate about the way that it should be pronounced. So if you want DM me, let me know what you our niche or niche. So the first thing I really want to do is break down that saying the riches are in the niches. Now, this is very true when it comes to the business world. For example, let’s think about doctors and then think about specialists. Specialists make a lot more money because they literally specialize in one specific thing. And they are the expert at that thing. And generally, there’s a lot less people that specialize in something and so there’s a lot less competition. Therefore, they generally make a lot more

2:00  

more money than just a general doctor would. So this is really where that term the riches are in the niches come from. And when they say the riches are in the niches, they really mean like the niche down niches. So this isn’t your broad, general niche, this is actually what we would consider your sub niche or something that’s really small within a general niche. Now, when you niche down, you can really target a certain kind of person and be the person for that niche. And there’s a lot of value in that because people will pay a lot more to work with that it person within a subnet. So let me give you guys another example. Let’s say that I was going to dye my hair fire engine red, and that’s always been a dream of mine and I will probably never do it. Maybe I should just get a wig or something. But if I was actually going to dye my hair fire engine red, I wouldn’t go find any old hairstylist who does hair color. In fact, I probably wouldn’t even go to my regular hairstylist that dyes my hair, I would go out and find a color stylist that either specializes in

3:00  

vivid colors are in red hair specifically. And I would be a lot more willing to pay a premium price for somebody that specializes in that red hair or vivid colors than somebody who just dyed your hair, you know, like a regular color. And so you’re really paying for their expertise and their experience in that specific area. And so I’m sure you guys can think of examples in your own life where you’re willing to pay somebody a little bit more money, when they really specialize in something that you really care about. And that’s why things like your health or your physical appearance, like your hair, we’re really willing to pay people more money when they specialize in those things, because they’re important to us. So you can see how this niching down is very true inside of business. However, something that I want to point out is that this is not necessarily as true inside of the influencer world. So influencers won’t necessarily make more money by being super niche specific. In fact, we’re actually seeing that a lot of interest

4:00  

influencers have actually become more so something we consider a lifestyle influencer or people that really share about their entire life. Now a lot do still have a niche, that’s their main focus. But more and more we’re seeing influencers talk about their lives, and all of the facets of their lives. And they’re really working with brands across the board as well. So when you share your life and you can connect with your audience on a more personal level, and really build that connection, that’s truly what makes an influencer successful or not. And when you can connect with people, you’re going to get them to follow you. You’re going to get them to share your stuff. They’re gonna trust you, they’re gonna feel like you’re their friend. I mean, how many of you guys have influencers that you feel like you have this like friendship with and they literally don’t know that you exist. Now, when you think about that influencer, you probably have this connection with them because they’re on their stories all the time. They’re sharing about their life and they’re really connecting with you on that more personal level.

5:00  

That is what makes a successful influencer. So the reason I wanted to bring this up is because I don’t want you all stressing out about your niche, or what it needs to be. I want you to focus more on sharing your story and connecting with your audience first. But niches are still important because it is that starting point for where your content creation comes from, and what we really want to focus on so that we can be known for a certain thing, because that is still important. So let’s jump right into figuring out your niches, sub niches, and side niches. And this is really going to help you guys with your content creation and planning as well. How would you like to get one of our courses for free? That’s right for free. We are giving away our ultimate social media audit course for free to anybody that subscribes, rates and reviews, this podcast and how you’re going to get that for free is by emailing podcast.

6:00  

At the daily influencers.com send us a screenshot letting us know you’re subscribed. And we will send that to you for free. And the great thing about that course is if you’re still trying to figure out your niche, you’re probably still not really sure how to set your profile up for success. And your profile is kind of like your online, resume your portfolio, it’s where people are making that decision of whether they want to follow you, work with you, hire you, or do anything that you want everyone else to do for you. So if you’re unsure if your profile is set up for success, make sure to get into the audit course for free by subscribing rating and reviewing the podcast. Alright, let’s get back to the episode.

6:45  

So the first thing we’re going to talk about is niches and I want to go over the actual definition of a niche first because some of you guys might actually be wondering what the heck is a niche. So a niche is an area of the market specializing in one topic and generally when I talk about it

7:00  

niche versus a sub niche, a niche is going to be a more broad and generalization of a specific topic. And a sub niche is a smaller subset within that niche. So it’s really hard to be everything at once, especially if those things are completely different and like on the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to a niche, and so not everyone will be interested in all things and not niching down can be a turn off to them when you can go all in on one thing that can be very beneficial to you as mentioned, and this can help you a lot in that growth phase. However, again, it’s not the end all be all you can be everything and that is called a lifestyle influencer. And really when you think about our social media accounts nowadays, they’ve almost become like your personal blog or vlog since we have you know, video all over Instagram. And this is really where we share all facets of our life. So being what people call a lifestyle influencer is kind of just sharing your life and the life

8:00  

Saw that you live. But not everybody wants to do that some of you guys might already know exactly what one thing you want to focus on, and you don’t want to focus on anything else. And that is okay to now being a lifestyle influencer really works best if you are good at selling you, when your audience is sold on you, they will take any type of content you throw at them. And I will note that this does work best if you’ve already built a large and super, super loyal following. Because again, if they’re loyal to you, they’ll take anything that you throw at them. So otherwise picking a niche and focusing on that can oftentimes be your best bet when you’re starting out and focusing on growth. As you grow and sell yourself more and more to your audience. You can really start introducing other things and other topics. So let’s jump first into figuring out your main niche. Usually this is something broad as mentioned, something like fashion, beauty, cars, business, family and parenting or a lot of people consider themselves mom

9:00  

mommy bloggers, fitness and health, there’s a ton more. But those are just some examples for you guys. And if I had to pick a niche that I was on my personal account, I would kind of actually say I’m overall just like a girly lifestyle page. But if I really had to pick a main niche, mine would probably be fashion. I probably talk about and share clothes the most. But I do truly share all aspects of my life. So even myself, the Pro has a hard time fitting myself into one box in one niche, and that’s okay. Like I said, influencers do really well when they really share about their personal life. And that’s something that I think that I am really good at doing. I also want you to remember that this needs to be truly what you want to do or what you are interested in. Because the more passionate we are, the better that we’re actually going to perform. No one wants to work on something that they just don’t really care about or they’re not passionate about. So your niche really needs to be something that you are passionate about. Now some other things to think about when coming up with your main niche is how popular

10:00  

As your niche, something like fashion is obviously very popular, which is a good thing because that means there’s a big demand. I mean, you think about humans, we all wear clothes every single day, hopefully. And it is highly consumable wearing different things every single day all the time. And if you’re anything like me, I definitely change fashion a lot. And so I buy new clothes very often. So now we’re going to get into actually figuring out what your niches if you have no idea, and this is a good time, if you’re sitting down, get out a pen and paper and you can actually write these down. If you don’t have a pen and paper, maybe you’re driving your car, which is where I like to listen to my podcast, you probably don’t have the ability to write these down. So what you can do is just go later to the show notes, which is in the description of this podcast, and you’ll see these questions all written up so you guys can answer them, but I want to go over them with you. So the number one question I want you to answer is what do I want to be the go to person for

11:00  

This is going to be really important for those of you that are just starting out are really focused on growing your audience. Because when you can be that go to person for something, your audience is going to be loyal, they’re going to follow everything you do and say, they’re going to share you with their friends. anytime anyone talks about something that your subject matter is, they’re going to say, Oh, you need to go follow Erica, because she always talks about this, and she has the best advice. So when you can really become the go to person for something that is going to be huge for you guys. So I really want you to think about what do I want to be the go to person for because when you’re passionate about the subject that you’re the go to person for, you’re going to do a lot better in that than if you’re the go to person for something that you don’t really care about. And that’s just how it works out with everything we do when we’re passionate about it. We put a lot more effort into it. So I really want you to think about what you personally want to be the go to person for. Okay, the next question is

12:00  

What are your passions, hobbies, or interests. So kind of like I just said, if you’re passionate about something, or if it’s your hobby, or you’re super interested in it, you’re going to probably want to talk about it a lot. And you’re going to have a lot to say about it. So these are going to be things that might be your main niche. Number three, what would be products or services that you would love so much that you would literally work for free for them? Now, this is important, because if you’re thinking about being an influencer, and what brands you would want to work with, well, there’s products that you would literally be willing to work for free for them. That’s probably because you’re super passionate about it. So these are a lot of these questions are going to have some overlap, but it’s just different ways to think about these questions that might give you some different answers. Number four, what is your expertise in? Now this might not have anything to do with your main niche or what you actually want to talk about. But as you guys will hear, we can have side niches or other things that we

13:00  

Talk about besides our main niche, and if you’re an expert in something like your job or whatever career path you’re in, that might also be something that you introduce into the mix of your content. So again, these might be all over the map, but this is really going to help us figure out what we’re most interested in and what might be our main niche or sub niches in our side niches so it’s okay if they’re all over the map. Number five, what do people ask you for help with or about, this is a good one because if people are asking you questions all the time about a specific subject or a specific thing, that’s probably because they see you as the go to person for that. So for example, randomly I get asked about my eyelashes all the time, and I literally use TP eyelashes from Walmart, they’re glue ones but people love them. And so because I know that I get asked about that a lot. I know that people are interested in like the makeup or the way I do my makeup and that I should probably talk about eyelashes multiple times. You know

14:00  

on repeat on my page, because people are curious about it. And that’s also something that I have a highlight on. Because if I get asked about it, I can say, hey, just head on over to my highlight called eyelashes. And I can tell you all about it. So if you get asked a question a lot, that’s always something to note down, because that’s content that you probably need to produce for your audience because they’re curious about it. Question number six is, what would your friends describe you as or come to you for? And for this one, I would actually say, ask them. And honestly, you can go to your friends or your family or your significant other, and ask them all of these questions as well. Because sometimes it’s a lot easier for the people in our lives to see these things in us than it is for ourselves to see it in us. So I would say go ahead and go ask all these questions to the people closest to you if you’re having a hard time really figuring this out. But your friends and family really do sometimes know you better than you know yourself. So ask them, what would be the thing that you would describe me as and what would you come to me for

15:00  

In terms of advice, or see me as the person the go to person for number seven, what are the problems that you can solve? Generally this will relate back to what your expertise is in. So, for example, I used to be a fitness page and I talked all about fitness. So the problems that I could solve back then, and the thing that I was the most passionate about, was helping people lose weight, helping them get more fit, teaching them how to work out, guiding them on their process to competing since I competed before. So just think about the types of problems that you could help people solve. Number eight, what is actually needed right now. So this is a good one. Because, you know, as I’m recording this podcast, we’re still in the craziness of COVID. We have all kinds of things coming up. And, you know, I feel like what the world needs right now is compassion. And we need leaders, and we need people that aren’t just talking about products, but people want to see their influencers out

16:00  

Talking about world problems and what’s really important. And so that might be something you note down. Now it doesn’t have to be about, you know, the world or the problems going on. But you know, different times in our lives are going to call for different things that people in our audience needs right now. So that’s something that you could, you know, fill in, or even, you know, I think about when COVID first started, what we needed was more people online entertaining us because we literally, were all just sitting at home. So just think about what’s going on right now. And what is needed, you know, online, what could people look to you for? Number nine, what is trending or working right now. So kind of on that same subject when COVID came around, things that people were looking for online or a lot different. So we were looking for stay at home attire that was super comfy, but maybe super cute. And I know that joggers and loungewear were super huge, right when COVID struck and the numbers for sales on that stuff was

17:00  

So hi. Another thing that I can think of would be creating an at home workspace, a lot of us had to switch to working from home. And some of us didn’t have a desk at home. So when you can think about what’s trending and working right now, and flow with that, that’s going to be really effective. And that’s just really you tapping into what do people need from me right now? Number 10? What type of content do you actually like to consume? Now this one can be super helpful, because if you love watching, like fashion influencers or people that talk about this or that, then that’s probably something that you actually are interested in. And maybe that’s what you want to talk about, and something that you would be really good at. Generally, the type of content that we consume is the type of content that we would actually really enjoy creating ourselves. And last but not least, number 11, my favorite number, look at your analytics and browse through your top posts. And then what I want you to do is look at what you were actually talking about or sharing what was the topic

18:00  

And really analyze why did these posts do so well. And that’s a good indicator that your audience likes that. But of course, if this is something that you’re not really interested in talking about, we don’t want to go that route. But your audience is very important. And it’s important to understand the type of content that they really like to see. So once you’ve answered all these questions, I want you to write down what type of niche do all of those answers fall into. And remember, you can have a main niche sub niches and side niches, you don’t have to stick to one thing and only one thing and I encourage you all to have a few. So now I want to go over what is the sub niche and how can we figure those out. So sub niche is actually a smaller portion within your main niche. For example, if my main niche is fashion, my sub niche is actually affordable everyday fashion. I’m not the kind of girl you’re going to come to that has designer stuff all over her page. That’s just not me. And that’s not really what my audience

19:00  

likes, I’m the girl that has all of the Affordable everyday fashion, you guys know, my favorite store is forever 21. I’m a writer die with them. And I just love affordable fashion. That’s just who I am. So that’s my sub niche within my main niche of fashion. Now the next thing I really want you to think about when you’re thinking about your subnet, is to really think about something that sets you apart. And you can even go even further down within your sub niche and come up with something that is going to set you apart within that subnet. So this is going to be really important, again, for those of you guys who want to grow, because when you can set yourself apart and find something that makes you super unique and the go to person for that thing, you will see growth. So for example, my niches fashion, my sub niche is affordable fashion. And something that sets me apart is that I find a lot of dupes for designer items. So like I said, You’re not going to find me talking about designer stuff. Maybe every now

20:00  

And then there’s something that I just like have to have because it’s designer. But something I do like to do is find dupes for really expensive items. For example, if you follow me, you know that I’ve been talking all about these Lululemon align dupes and Lululemon aligned pants are like $90 a pop and I just think that’s ridiculous to pay for, you know, workout clothes that are going to get sweaty, but I will say it’s worth it because they are really nice, but I found a dupe for them on Amazon, they cost anywhere from 20 to $30. And they feel and look exactly the same. So you guys have been loving those. And that’s clearly something that my audience likes. So this is something I’m going to continue to do because I enjoy it too. I love finding things that are the same quality as something that’s really expensive, but being able to find it at a lot more affordable prices. When you’re thinking about something that sets you apart. This could also be combining two things together. So here’s a good example. Maybe your main niche is

21:00  

Something like fitness. And one of your side niches is autoimmune diseases. And if you guys follow me, you know, I have a lot of those. So your thing that sets you apart could actually be a combination of those two things. It could be fitness for people with autoimmune diseases, because I know a lot of people that have certain autoimmune diseases have a lot of chronic pain. So maybe the way that you create these fitness plans go around that or they’re maybe low impact, so you’re not hurting your joints. So if people have arthritis, which is an autoimmune disease, you know, they’re not hurting their joints. So low impact is like the thing that you’re talking about. That’s super niche down, and it’s something that’s really going to set you apart. Now, if you can’t decide what this thing is that sets you apart, don’t stress out, try a few things out and just see how they go. See how you like it. See how your audience takes to these different topics. And really just test things out. You don’t have to figure these things out right away. This can absolutely be something

22:00  

You figure out or you can even change it. So now I want to talk about side niches. So these are going to be other things you like besides your main niche. So if you’re anything like me, you’re multi passionate, and it is extremely hard for me to put myself into one category, let alone even to I’ll be honest with you guys. And so I do want to point out something first, though, before I get into this is that if you have a main niche, and that is all you want to focus on, that is totally okay. My Instagram used to be only about fitness. And that is all I talked about. And when that was all I focused on, that is who I attracted, I attracted other people that were super passionate about fitness and health. Now I have since completely changed my niche and that’s totally okay too. You might lose some followers when you change your niche, but that’s okay, because you’re gonna gain new followers within your new niche. So always do what makes you the most happy and you know, I might turn into a total mommy blogger one day when I have kids who knows

23:00  

This isn’t something that you’re locked into for life. So I feel like a lot of people come to me and they don’t know their niche. And they’re super stressed out because they feel like they have to figure it out. And that’s the thing they’re going to do for the rest of their life. And like I said, try things out, see how it feels for you see how your audience likes it, and it is completely okay for you to change it. It’s completely okay for you to focus on one thing and one thing only. And it’s also completely okay for you to focus on a few different things and have a bunch of side niches. I just wanted to point that out real fast, because I do know that we’re all on different pages here. And so what might work for one person isn’t going to work for another and that is absolutely okay. Getting back to the questions that we answered. When we’re looking at our niches, you probably got a variety of different niches that you fell into as you’re answering your questions. And so I want you to go through those and really think about which ones you’re most passionate about, or which ones you really want to talk about on your page. So to give you guys an idea about my personal story,

24:00  

For me, mine would be autoimmune diseases and healthy lifestyle changes. And that’s really big right now because I’m going through a big change in my life all about that. Another one would be beauty. So while I talk about fashion a lot, I’m also super into beauty. Another thing that people love that I do on my page is I have a lot of life hacks and hacks for different things. And so as I you know, think of one I share with my audience and people absolutely love that, especially when it’s a hack that saves them money. Another thing that I talked about a lot and this is more recent, now that we have some Airbnb properties, is home decor and real estate. And I’ve taken my audience along on our house hunting experiences, and people absolutely love that. And I’ll also say one of the biggest stories that I got the most response from was actually the story of our very first Airbnb guest at one of our new Airbnb s. It was a total nightmare. She literally ruined our place and I just shared that story.

25:00  

With my audience, and people absolutely loved it. So sometimes the most random things are going to be a huge hit. But you won’t know unless you try it. And like I said, if you’re multi passionate like me, you’re probably going to be talking about all kinds of things that happen in your life. And so one other thing that obviously is all about me is entrepreneurship and influencer marketing. And while I do have a completely separate page for my business, and for that subject, it obviously bleeds over into my personal page, because it’s a huge part of my life. And I want to share that with my audience on that personal page as well. So the best way to incorporate multiple topics and niches, is to be sure to rotate them. So I want to go ahead and wrap this episode up. I hope that those questions really help you guys figure out the things that you really are interested and passionate about. And I hope that you guys can now really figure out what your main niche is, what your sub niches and what your side niches might be. And if you don’t have sight

26:00  

niches remember, that is absolutely okay too. Because all in all, it’s important to have direction and focus. But for influencers, it’s most important to be authentic and connect with your audience. And that’s going to look different for every single one of you guys. And I also want you to remember that this isn’t an end all be all, but I hope that this helped you really kind of narrow it down and figure it out a little bit better.

26:26  

Thank you so much for listening. If you liked what you heard, it goes a long way if you could take 30 seconds and leave me a five star review and share this podcast with your friends. All righty, guys, I’ll see you on the next episode.

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