Whether you’re a seasoned copywriter or a recent graduate, finding a copywriting niche can help you land better freelance gigs and higher earnings at work.
Here are just a few reasons to narrow your writing focus:
- You’ll have an easier time marketing yourself to clients
- You can grow your copywriting skills faster by focusing on one area
- Companies are willing to pay top dollar for specialized knowledge
What is a Copywriting Niche?
Before we dive into choosing a writing niche, let’s discuss what a copywriting niche is.
In short, a copywriting niche is an area of expertise within an industry or market. For example, medical writing, technology writing, and sports writing are all types of copywriting niches.
A niche is designed to cover one industry in-depth so you can deliver a more precise and detailed portrayal of that topic.
Every industry has its own share of complex, jargon-heavy information. Having specialized knowledge in one area increases your value as a copywriter because businesses want to feel their copy is written by someone who deeply understands the field.
How to Choose a Copywriting Niche
When looking for a niche to write about, reference your past work experience, your skills, and your interests. Even if you’ve never crafted a blog post or a page of copy in your life, chances are your experience can guide you to something you’ll enjoy writing about.
For example, are you someone who enjoys research and analytical topics? If so, you’ll probably enjoy writing white pages, or content surrounding technology, science, and academia.
Or, maybe you find dense topics a little boring, but you love helping people. Maybe how-to articles, (like home renovation, DIY, and education) are more your speed.
Or maybe you prefer the emotional side of writing. You like to engage and empathize with people and dig into the human perspective. You might enjoy creating content for people navigating the medical or legal fields or even sales and advertising copy.
Remember that a niche can and should be specific. Once you find a general topic you enjoy writing about, you should see if you can narrow down that field further. For example, if you want to write within the healthcare field, and you have a knack for SEO, you might consider SEO-focused healthcare writing for your niche.
You may be worried that your niche is too specific, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only does a narrow subject increase your value as a specialized writer, it also makes it easier for companies to spot you in a sea of other copywriters.
Scoping Out The Market
Before you commit to your newly chosen topic, it’s important to do some market research. Doing so ensures that there is in fact a market for your topic. It will also help you assess your competition to see whether or not you have a viable chance of breaking into the industry.
Start with a simple Google search on your chosen topic. Take a look at other copywriters in the field and note what they’re doing well and what you would improve on. You should also take a look at their example copy and jot down which subjects they’re covering and which ones they’re not.
Getting Started Writing
So, you’ve chosen a copywriting niche, narrowed down your topic, and scoped out the market. You’re (in theory) positioned to produce valuable and profitable copy as soon as you get started…but how does one actually get started?
It can be overwhelming to begin writing in a new industry, but if you take things one step at a time, it doesn’t have to feel so daunting.
If you don’t have many writing samples in your chosen field, now would be a good time to beef up your portfolio. You can write a few blog posts on your portfolio website, or if you don’t have a website, you can post articles on Linkedin.
It’s a good idea to start with topics you’re really familiar with and move on from there as your knowledge grows. Once you have a few great writing samples under your belt, you can start marketing your copywriting on LinkedIn or freelance websites like Upwork.
Even though it may feel overwhelming at first, you’re really only a few short steps away from having a bonafide copywriting niche!