Do You Need a Niche? Maybe Not.
If you are a part of a practice-building community or read about digital marketing, you've probably been told that you need to specialize or create a niche to be successful.
That's not entirely true.
A niche is just ONE of many strategies that could support your goals. It all depends on what your goals are.
For me, narrowing my niche helped me reach my goal of improving my health. I was dealing with burnout and health problems from a large caseload, but I needed to make more money. More income meant I could decrease the number of clients I saw and support my health needs better. I decided to narrow my scope to a very small demographic (in my case, adults with life-altering medical conditions) to really target my marketing.
I don't compete with the massive pool of generalists in my area; I only compete with therapists within my niche. When my practice went entirely online during the pandemic, this specialization helped me even more. I could market to the entire state of Washington without competing with every single therapist in the state.
As my practice grew, I terminated the low-paying insurance contracts, raised my rates, and lowered my caseload. Now my small caseload and higher income support the kind of lifestyle that keeps me healthy. My mental wellbeing is improved too. As I started working with the most passionate clients, I enjoyed my work more.
Niching helped me meet my goals. But what are YOUR goals?
Go ahead and take a moment to think about this. What do you want your practice to be about? What kind of work do you want to do? Is there a population, problem area, or approach that you're super passionate about? How can you continue to support your deepest core values as a business owner? Think about your health, psychological wellbeing, family, finances, future, etc.
Now that you're thinking about what you want for yourself and your business, you can decide if specializing or niching might help you reach your goals. Here are some situations where specializing could help and where it may not be needed.
When a Niche or Specialization Might Support Your Goals
If you want to ditch insurance contracts. If you don't want to deal with low rates and the administrative hassle of insurance contracts, establishing a narrow focus will help you attract clients to your practice.
If you want to charge premium rates. I don't believe that a generalist shouldn't charge premium fees. Still, clients are more likely to pay higher prices when they feel like they're getting something special or unique.
If you're passionate about a focus area (or want to be). A focus area could be a problem you treat, a population you serve, or an approach you use. Doing more of the work you love will prevent burnout and overwhelm.
If your practice is located in a saturated area. If you are having difficulty standing out from the crowd, specializing makes it easier to land your website on page one of online search results because your keywords are not the same as the other therapists or coaches in your area.
If your practice is entirely online. Just like the above example, having an online practice places you in a much larger pool of therapists vying for page one search results. Your competition is now state-wide, a much larger geographic area than your local community. Unique keywords will separate you from the pack.
If you live in a small town and don't want to run into clients at the grocery store. I figured this one out accidentally. When my practice was in a large city, most of my clients were local, but the city was so big that I rarely saw them in my community. When I moved to a small town, I was afraid I'd run into clients constantly. However, my specialization is rare enough to attract clients from all over. Only a couple of clients live in my town, so the chances of running into them are very slim.
If you want to drop old-school outbound marketing strategies. Suppose you're not into networking, handing out business cards, sending brochures to referral sources, etc. In that case, an online digital marketing strategy might be just the ticket. A good niche strategy, along with a high-performance website, will have clients coming to you, not the other way around.
If you plan to turn your service into a product. Do you want to create an online course or write a book? Making money off of an un-niched product is considerably more difficult.
If you'd rather collaborate with your colleagues and not compete with them. I discovered this one by accident also. I mentioned above that the more general your practice is, the more people you're competing with. My practice was pretty broad in its early years. I felt the fierce competitiveness of my colleagues, and it was stressful. Once I specialized, collaborating, networking, and befriending other therapists was easier. When they met my ideal client, they naturally referred that person to me. And I did the same for them. We all worked together for the good of the whole, which supported our businesses' growth and our health and wellness.
When a Niche or Specialization May Not Be Needed
If you don't have one and it's working just fine. If you're already meeting your goals without a niche, then you probably don't need one.
If your practice is located in an area with little to no competition. If you don't have much competition as it is, a niche may not change anything for you, at least in terms of keeping your practice full.
If you're still figuring out what you're passionate about. Here's the truth: most successful business people didn't pick their niche upfront (even if they say they did). That's because niches are uncovered over time. The same is true of passion and purpose. Both are cultivated, not found. And you can only connect the dots looking backward.
If you don't want to scale your business. A niche will help you scale your business, but you can probably skip the niche if that's not your goal.
If you'd prefer to rely on insurance contracts. Sure, we all know that insurance contracts can limit us in many ways. Still, for some, the drawbacks don't outweigh the convenience of not having to market your practice. Insurance companies don't care what you specialize in, so if all your clients are coming through those networks, then a niche won't help you.
You have a solid and sustainable referral network, or you're well connected in your community. If you're already well-known and you trust that your referral sources are in it for the long haul, then a niche may not add anything to your practice.
If you want to keep your work diverse and varied. Perhaps you get easily bored and like change. Keeping your focus more general may give you more opportunities to go after whatever interests you at the moment.
When you are the brand. This particularly applies to celebrities and bloggers, but it could also involve therapists and coaches. If you are the brand, people will buy from you because of who you are, not your niche.
