Do you feel like you are just another player in the deluge of SEO-generated blog posts targeting a specific industry? While all of the content published online is adding to the deluge, it’s your message behind the content, how genuine and unique it is, and the traffic you are targeting that will make yours different.
Breaking out of the mold of generic content blueprints can be frustrating, especially when you are seeking to target an over-saturated niche, like the topics I cover – health and wellness. Herein lies the most important part: You need to have a sub-niche.
1. Define Your Unique
You need to determine what makes you stand out. Knowing why you are different, and how that makes you desirable to your blog readers, and content-buying customers, is a key playing piece in your freelance business sales strategy. Once you know this definition, you can focus on creating content that highlights your stand-out aspect, preventing you from straying off the path.
Finding your “unique” may be challenging, but can also be fun! Ask yourself these questions as they relate to your sub-niche content:
-What am I most passionate about helping people with, or offering my unique services in?
-What do people already know me for, or where can I offer my expertise?
-Who can benefit from my unique services or knowledge?
From there, with some time, thought, and work, you can carve out your sub-niche in an already-flooded content market.
2. Target Your Audience
Now that you know what defines your unique content, consider who you are going to create it for.
The goal of creating unique content is multi-faceted:
- You want to sculpt yourself as an authority in your sub-niche, and a reputable resource.
- You want to provide value to your readers, and bring in potential clients if you are offering other services or products.
- You want to be of service, and create content that encourages action in your readers.
- You want to be able to bring the right traffic to your platform to improve your SEO.
3. Personalize to Build Relationships
Once you have identified your target audience, it is time to get to work on building relationships. Building relationships online needs to take on the same mentality that it does offline. You need to be genuine and honest, offer valuable information, and be efficient and timely in addressing their needs.
Furthermore, the more personalized you can make your content feel for your audience, the more it will resonate with them. Work to create content that makes the reader feel you are writing directly to them. Select appropriate language, speak in terms that your reader can understand, show that you care, and have empathy towards their needs and interests. Going this extra step already makes you stand out, and become a unique player in your field.
4. Retain Your Relationships
Unfortunately, though, simply building relationships isn’t enough. You need to do the work to hold onto them. And, whether you are in the business of selling your services or products, or simply trying to build authority, the main goal is always a forward, growth-based trajectory.
If you are seeking to hold onto the people you have cultivated as part of your community, who stem from the sub-niche audience you sought to discover, the content you create should indeed be very unique. In the process of getting to know your audience, you should know what content they enjoy the most, what they want from you, and what they actively engage in. From there, boost it up, and optimize it for your sub-niche:
-Make it Authentic and Honest
Be honest with your readers, creating relatable content that they can apply to their own lives. Share your own personal experiences to resonate with them.
-Give it Value
For every piece of content you create, ask yourself, “Does this provide a unique value and insight, and offer something that my audience can act on, or walk away with, after reading?”
-Focus on Customer Experience
You should always be focused on crafting an experience for your reader through your content. Without this added element, why is your post any different from the other thousands or millions available?
There are thousands of content-specific resources available online that your reader could choose. Entice them to choose yours, and then reward them for that choice. Do this consistently and you’ll craft a reliable sub-niche, a dedicated audience, and an authority in your industry that will continue to let you stand out among the crowd.
Do you write for a sub-niche? We’d love to read about it in the Comments box below! 🙂
RELATED:
- Lucrative Niches in Children’s Writing By Susan Sundwall
- Paying Mental Disability / Health Markets By Laura Yeager
- Writing Advertorials Can Be a Lucrative Freelance Writing Niche By John K. Borchardt
- Be The “Go To” Gal! The Importance of Branding Yourself in a Niche Market By Julie Donner Andersen
- Small, Niche Publications Are This Writer’s Bread And Butter! By Cindy Ladage
Laura Peill is passionate about writing and educating on health and well-being. Having recently expanded to creating marketing related health content, in addition to informative wellness resources, Laura writes for health professionals to help them better understand the role and value quality content has in building their business. You can find her work in other health publications and via her own site, which she updates between marathon training, teaching Pilates and running her business as a nutritionist.
HowMaster: The Writer's Guide to Beautiful Word Crafting
Author Linda M. Gigliotti draws from years of practice as a private
writing tutor in the guidebook that teaches writers how to format visceral
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and samples of published works how to craft writing that come to life in the reader's mind.
HowMaster is a wise choice for the writer who wants to weave words around the reader’s heart.
Author Linda M. Gigliotti draws from years of practice as a private
writing tutor in the guidebook that teaches writers how to format visceral
writing that pulls readers into their book. She explains with instruction
and samples of published works how to craft writing that come to life in the reader's mind.
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