The growth of Influencer marketing in India has been remarkable, the market scaling up at an estimated $75-150 million a year. With each passing year, brands across the spectrum are recognising the potential of Influencer Marketing and allocating dedicated funds to it. Influencers are flourishing in every industry, from healthcare and wellness to fashion, travel and e-commerce. Being a successful influencer can open up an ocean of opportunities for you; collaboration with brands is just one of them. When you create a unique identity for yourself, your audiences will be loyal to you and will follow you and support you in your upcoming ventures. But to do that, you need to do one important thing – find your niche.
A study by Morning Consult reported that nearly 86% of the youngsters worldwide aspire to become influencers or earn their living through content creation on social media platforms. There are millions of influencers out there, some are already established and some attempting to gain a foothold as an influencer. While you are contemplating a career as an influencer, finding your niche will give concrete direction to your efforts. It will also help in future collaborations with brands, guiding content creation and building unique, long-lasting relationships with your audience.
Being a successful influencer can open up an ocean of opportunities for you. Creating a unique identity for yourself means audiences’ loyalty and support in all your upcoming ventures. But first, you need to find your niche. Click To Tweet
But first, how do you stand out from the crowd and make the crowd stand by you, follow you, and listen to you? How do you figure out what resonates with your target audience? Here’s how you can pick your niche –
Start: Introspect & ask questions
Let’s start with an example. Rohan Chakraborty is an artist, an illustrator with a passion for wildlife. Combining his skills with a cause he deeply cares about and adding a unique brand of humour, he creates comic strips under the pen name Green Humour. Over the years, he has become one of India’s most thought-provoking cartoonists. He has collaborated with numerous conservation organisations, and his Green Humour works have appeared in many renowned publications.
As an influencer, your primary job is to influence your ‘audience’ and inspire them. Rohan’s work does just that. What adds to his appeal is that he’s not a typical armchair cartoonist; he travels to wildlife reserves to learn and experience. That is why his audience finds him relevant.
To be a successful influencer, you should also focus on building an authentic connection with your audience. And to do that, your niche should sprout from your interest, a unique skill, or training that you have. So take the time to introspect. Ask yourself these questions:
- What are your interests?
- What do you do for fun?
- What are your skills, your knowledge base?
- Are there any personal pain points that can be an inspiration for your content?
This will help you understand where your passion lies and help you shortlist a few areas of interest you could get active in.
As an influencer, your primary job is to influence your ‘audience’ and inspire them. To build an authentic connection with the audience, your niche should sprout from your interest, a unique skill, or training that you have. Click To Tweet
Continue: Get into the specifics
Influencer marketing is a booming sector and there are thousands of already established influencers in every field or industry. People on social media are exposed to a wide range of influencer-generated content every day. This means if your content is generic, it will become white noise in no time. Nobody will pay any attention to it. To get genuine traction and to create impactful content, you’ve got to narrow things down to specific interests within the broader industry you’ve selected.
Consider lifestyle influencer Marie Kondo as an example. Organising and tidying was something that she had picked up at a very early age. By recognising that this personal habit is a niche, not only she became a tidying expert, her revolutionary de-cluttering technique called the KonMari Method™️ is a widely accepted concept. What did Marie do differently from other home decor and lifestyle influencers? She identified the fact that there was a gap she could bridge while also keeping her specific personal interest aligned.
Generic content will not garner any attention from the audiences. To get genuine traction and to create impactful content, you’ve got to narrow things down to specific interests within the broader industry you’ve selected. Click To Tweet
How can you do the same thing for yourself? Time for some more questions:
- What’s missing in your area of interest?
- Is there a gap you can bridge?
- What values can your content add?
- What problems can you solve?
- Are there some untapped areas of interest within a larger genre?
Now, draw a rough outline of your scope and narrow down your options. This will help you understand the market, decide the audience demography you want to target, the type and direction of your content, and the channel or platform you choose to place your content.
Dive Deep: Research further
At the outset, most content creators may have simply chanced upon being influencers. Do you remember Lily Singh when she first started with superwoman on YouTube? It was a personal battle that she wanted to overcome. With the originality and reliability of her content, combined with humour, attracted audiences, she became an influencer organically.
But things are not the same or just as easy today. Just identifying your passion or a personal pain point may not be enough to establish yourself as an influencer. You have to carefully evaluate your ideas and look for the most sustainable option. Doing robust research will come in handy here. You have to figure out what kind of content receives a good response from the audience, understand where your audience is active or which relevant and trending keywords and hashtags gain traction. Evaluate brands in your segment that are using influencer marketing techniques. Research ways to establish a connection with your audience and try to figure out what can drive engagement and interaction.
However, your research shouldn’t stop at browsing a few websites or blogs. You will need to have an understanding of the market and for that, you can seek answers outside too –
- Reach out to experts, join consumer forums, participate in discussions
- Interact with marketing professionals, ask questions
- Track brands and their influencer marketing activities and strategies
- Talk to agencies, find out what works for whom
- Keep a tap on how your fellow influencers and bloggers are creating content
The stronger your research, the easier it will be to pinpoint your niche. But, don’t dismiss any thought that comes to you in the process because sometimes the simplest of approaches work where brilliant ideas do not. Chances are that the robust research you’ve done will ease the next steps for you.
Just identifying your passion or a personal pain point may not be enough to establish yourself as an influencer. You have to evaluate your ideas and look for the most sustainable option. Doing robust research will come in handy here. Click To Tweet
Launch: Start somewhere and keep at it
Success may not come to you overnight. But, your speciality will attract attention in due time. Once you have your house in order, it’s time to begin and test the waters truly. Start with a few trial posts; consider running a couple of ads to boost your content. But be prepared – not all feedback will be encouraging. You may come across negative responses, or at times, no response at all. Analysing the feedback will give you a real-time assessment of what your audience segment seeks. You can then look for ways to tweak your presentation style, test new ideas within your niche, or refine your content. You can also collaborate with other influencers to get yourself a kickstart. And as you grow, brand collaborations will follow too. And that would be just another feather in your hat!