In a crowded media landscape, standing out is more challenging than ever.
There are millions of blogs, podcasts, newspapers, independent journalists and others all competing for the attention of an audience.
So, how do you make your voice heard? The answer lies in finding your niche.
Once you can identify and focus on a specific, zoomed-in field of knowledge or interest, you will already be ahead of a large portion of those in the game. Not only does this approach help you build a loyal and engaged community, but it also helps you stand out above the noise.
media update's Joreke Kleynhans explains why finding your niche is a game-changer when trying to grow your audience.
Differentiating Yourself from the Crowd
First and most obviously, differentiation is a natural consequence of choosing and sticking to a niche. The media landscape is filled with incredibly generalised content and, in such an environment, niche media thrives.
Now, to be clear, finding your niche doesn't mean becoming someone you aren't. It also doesn't mean seeking out the weirdest type of content to create even when you don't resonate with it or following the exact same content recipe every day.
It can be done by simply zooming in a little further on your unique circumstance, knowledge or interest!
For instance, if you have a gardening blog, focus on the unique bits of your gardening process that are already there. These can be things like:
- climate
- garden size
- sustainability practices you adhere to, or
- the type of plants you grow.
Instead of Lizzie's gardening tips, you suddenly have a blog that can be called Sustainable Legumes with Lizzie: Urban Farming Insights.
Is it just me, or does that automatically sound more intriguing? Now, your audience can easily identify what content you provide and why they should follow you over another gardening blogger.
Establishing Authority and Expertise
In order to establish yourself as an authoritative figure in any particular field, you're going to need — wait for it — to be attached to a particular field!
When you can centre your content creation and distribution around a specific topic, you build a reputation as an expert on that topic.
Over time, this nurtures the audience trust that is crucial to maintaining the audience you have, as well as expanding it further. It can also impact engagement and the rate at which your content is being shared, which also contributes to the growth of your audience.
With a positive reputation and a reason for people to be interested in you, high-quality and engaged audiences will be attracted to the content you put out into the media field.
Building a Loyal Audience
In cases where audiences have more specific interests in what a creator or publication provides, they are often also more loyal than the audiences of more general media providers.
When a person finds content that truly resonates with a part of their identity, interests or needs, they are more likely to return and engage consistently. This loyalty spills over into engagement rates, shares, personal recommendations and many other factors that increase audience growth.
Niche content ensures that your audience will eagerly await new releases. Excited readers share your content with other people in their community or circle that they know can also appreciate the value of that content, so this is a double win for you!
Building Better SEO and Discoverability
In the digital age, online visibility cannot be overlooked when you want to grow your media audience; SEO plays a key role in online visibility. Niche content will rank much higher in search results because of how it targets very specific, low-competition keywords.
It is much easier to include keywords that your audience is searching for often when your content is also targeted. For example, a blog about travelling solo to South Africa is much more likely to rank highly in search engines than a regular travel blog, because it addresses more specific questions the target audience might have.
With the rise of the digital age, media has become much more competitive. Finding your niche is no longer an optional add-on but rather a necessity to catalyse sustainable growth.
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Speaking of growth, if you want to grow your social media platforms, our article, How to grow your Instagram in 2024, is the perfect next read for you!
*Image courtesy of Canva.