Specialising and defining a niche for your business is smart, but many WordPress professionals need help finding where they will focus their expertise and resources.
Not all niches are equal, and some aren’t even niches, creating confusion around defining a niche and using niche marketing.
Let’s ask the question.
“What is a niche and what is not in the WordPress world?”
What Defines a Niche?
A niche market is a specific segment of a larger market characterised by unique needs, preferences, or identities that distinguish it from the mainstream market. It usually involves a specialised offering targeted towards a specific audience with distinct characteristics.
Here are the components that make a niche a niche:
Specialised Needs: A niche market addresses a specific need or interest not fully served by mainstream providers. This need can range from a unique feature in a product, a specialised service, or a particular way of delivery.
Target Audience: A niche market has a clearly defined target audience. This group of customers shares common characteristics, such as age, gender, geographical location, interests, behaviours, or socio-economic status, and they have a specific problem or need that the niche product or service solves.
Limited Competition: A niche market often has less competition than a broader market because it targets a smaller audience. This lack of competition can be because the product or service is unique or because larger companies have yet to see the smaller market as profitable or worth their time.
Expertise or Specialisation: Niche markets often require higher knowledge or specialisation in the product or service. This expertise gives a competitive edge and helps establish customer credibility and trust.
Price Insensitivity: Customers in a niche market often are willing to pay a higher price for the specialised product or service because they value the unique benefits it provides, and it may have few direct substitutes.
What Is Not a Niche?
On the other hand, a non-niche (or mainstream) market refers to the larger market, which caters to a broad audience with diverse needs. These markets have multiple players, intense competition, and usually lower price points due to economies of scale.
Also, an industry title or category is not a niche. Your niche will ultimately be part of a particular industry category or vertical, but that is not the definition of a niche.
Examples of WordPress Non-Niche Services
Here is a list of some broad service areas that wouldn’t be considered a niche market in the WordPress ecosphere. These are mainstream markets where thousands of players and competitors battle against each other.
- WordPress Development
- WordPress Website Design
- WordPress Plugin Development
- WordPress Theme Development
- WordPress Consultancy
- WordPress Training
- WordPress Maintenance
- WordPress Audit or Health Check
If you offer these services, so do thousands of WordPress professionals. How do you stand out from the noise? Why should a potential customer choose you?
Examples of WordPress Niche Specialisation Services
The way to stand out from the crowd is to specialise. Here are some examples of service areas that start to bring in some specialisation.
- Specialised Theme Development: This could be designing and developing WordPress themes for a specific industry or purpose, such as real estate agencies, restaurants, or online portfolio themes for artists.
- WooCommerce Experts: Specializing in eCommerce solutions using WooCommerce for businesses that want to sell products or services online.
- WordPress SEO Services: Focusing on search engine optimisation specifically for WordPress sites, including using the right plugins, optimising themes, and improving site speed.
- WordPress Multilingual Site Developers: Companies that operate in multiple countries often require expert developers to assist in site structure, layout, UI and SEO for various languages. They usually have larger operating budgets too!
- BuddyPress and BuddyBoss Developers: Creating a bespoke social networking platform away from the big players like Facebook and Twitter and building a community is becoming a trendy request.
- Learning Management System (LMS) Specialists: Creating online course platforms using LMS plugins like LearnDash or LIfterLMS.
- Gutenberg Block Developers: With the introduction of the Gutenberg block editor in WordPress, there’s a niche for developing custom blocks that provide unique functionality and design options.
- WordPress Enterprise Automation: Understanding where WordPress fits into the enterprise model. Connecting apps and managing data flow between business systems like Salesforce, Datapine, Quickbooks, Stripe and Sage.
Once you step into specialisation, your pool of potential customers decreases, but so does the number of your competitors. Niche specialisation increases demand for your services; you can increase your prices with increased demand.
Niche Super Specialisation
If you see a market gap, you can narrow it further and get super specialised in your services. Some examples:
- WordPress Enterprise Automation for Fintech Startups
- Gutenberg Block Development for Enterprise Media
- LearnDash Expert for the QLD Mining Industry
- WordPress SEO for B2B Dental Providers
Suppose you can define and operate in a super niche specialisation. In that case, you will have clarity on exactly who your ideal clients are, their pain points and issue, and the solution you offer.
When defining your niche, ensure there is still demand for your services. It’s a delicate balance between becoming a topical expert dominating your niche and oversaturating your potential market.
