It is vital for freelance workers to become experts within a niche so that they can connect with their target audience. But, this leads to the question: How specific should your niche be? Here’s a guide to help you decide on how narrow your niche market should be, so that you can create content for that group.

When In Doubt, Narrow Your Focus

Narrowing your focus is key to the success of your content creation. A person might have an idea of promoting a product to ‘people who like yoga’ for example. This won’t work! This target audience is way too general.

The content for this market would be all across the board: you might have content about a cutting-edge yoga studio in Brooklyn, NY, alongside a content piece about a traditional yoga training center in India. This broad focus will confuse your audience, and you will have trouble developing a loyal following.

Instead of targeting a broad group, narrow your focus down. You can do this by adding more criteria. In our yoga example, we could start with “people who like yoga’ and add in the following two parameters: ‘live in New England’ and ‘are passionate about the environment.’ By narrowing down our niche, we now have the opportunity to create highly specified content pieces our target audience will find valuable.

Imagine Your Ideal Client

If you’re having trouble narrowing down your niche, picture your ideal customer. Imagine what they look like, what kind of music they listen to, where they live, and what kind of clothes they wear. Ask yourself about this imaginary customer’s educational background, interests, and where he or she spends time. These insights may help you develop your niche.

For example, an eco-conscious cosmetic company might envision a client who is in her twenties, eats vegan food, and hangs out at animal-rights websites and forums. This ideal client gives the company insight into their niche in the industry: vegan cosmetics.

Avoid Physical Locations

Can you ever drill down so much that your niche becomes unprofitable? The answer is yes; if you add a physical location to your niche. For example, you may specialize in something highly specific, like how to live with a particular disease or condition. If you add in a physical location to your niche, you will drastically cut down on the audience that you are appealing to.

For example, there may be millions of people over sixty living with rheumatoid arthritis worldwide, but only fifty in your targeted area. Instead of making a niche that is too narrow, consider segmenting your audience so that you can give them the right content.

Remember, the internet can reach around the world. You can get very specific with your content without ever capping your audience unless you add in a localizing element. When in doubt, narrow your focus. This will ensure that you are delivering content that your readers are interested in.