What my favourite middle-aged DJ can teach you about niching down
Photo by James Bold
As a business owner, you usually learn about useful things through books, articles, podcasts and other similar sources of knowledge. But from time to time, you get a business lesson from your day-to-day life. And these can be super fun as well.
You probably don't know this about me, but I am a rock'n'roll gal. Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Nick Cave and so on and so forth - this is the music that I love. Because of that, I don't really listen to (or know) DJs. Techno, rave, drum and bass, trance - it's all the same to me. But, I do have one DJ that I really like. He is a very unknown and local DJ and what he does is, he plays disco music. In his repertoire, you will find everything from Abba to Earth, Wind and Fire, Bee Gees & Boney M.
Whenever he DJs at a party, he comes in with two boxes full of records and starts playing some of the "greatest hits". When you go to enough of his shows, you realize that he plays the same songs every time, just in a slightly different order. But frankly, you don't care because it's fun, and you get to dance your heart out. And guess what, there's more! He even provides entertainment and animation for those who just want to stick to the corner and hide from everyone else.
Ok, I might have oversold him on this one, but it is somewhat true. There are two guys in his twenties (brothers probably) who come to his parties and dance. But not just groove-to-the-music kind of dance, no, they have a set choreography for every single song! And let me tell you, this has an incredible effect on everyone else. For some reason (probably just because they are hilarious to look at), you just start repeating what they are doing and pretty quickly, the whole dance floor dances and unison and not just during YMCA. Talk about a great client experience!
So what does all of this have to do with niching down?
Well, the man does only one thing - he plays disco. You won't hear any other kind of music from him. Not only does that differentiate him from every other DJ in the area, people who come to his parties (or hire him for their own), know exactly what to expect. That's why every time someone is thinking about where to find a DJ who plays disco, he/she will immediately think of him because that is what he is known for. They probably won't even consider any other DJs.
As a wedding photographer, you will want to achieve the same. I know that you are probably not shooting weddings only. Some wedding photographers do branding shoots, family sessions, boudoir or something else during their off-season. But you shouldn't do everything. When you don't niche down enough, people don't know what to think of you. You are not positioning as an expert in one specific field and that's why you're probably unable to charge what you're worth. Just think about it, if you have a Volvo car and it breaks down, you probably want to take it to a Volvo repair shop. Or if that is not the case, you will take it to someone who repairs cars, not one who fixes motorcycles.
It works the same in your industry too. When a bride-to-be is searching for a wedding photographer, she will probably feel most confident in hiring someone who is best known for shooting weddings. Not someone who also does maternity, fashion, senior portraits and corporate events too.
As a Pinterest manager, this is exactly what I'm doing too. I am niching down. Unlike a great majority of other Pinterest managers out there who are working with all kinds of businesses, I decided to specialise in working with wedding photographers only. That is not to say that a wedding photographer working with some other Pinterest managers couldn't get the same results. Not at all. My main goal by focusing like this is to get known amongst the wedding photography community as an expert in my field. Whenever a wedding photographer thinks about hiring a Pinterest manager for their business, I want for them to think of me first before anyone else.
To sum up:
Niching down enables you to become known as the go-to person for your specific area of expertise.
When you do one thing only, you get to differentiate yourself from your competition that is all over the place.
People put more trust into experts because they know what to expect from them.
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