5 Reasons You Need a Niche PLUS the 4 Types of Niches

One thing I’ve noticed myself repeating a lot lately is, “If you try and market to everyone, you’ll market to no one.” It’s probably an ode to “if you try to please everyone, you’ll please no one,” and I like it.

If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Just as you’ll never make everyone happy all the time, you’ll also never interest everyone with your content marketing. If you did, it would probably be so boring it wouldn’t be worth reading.

That’s why it’s so important to choose a niche.

I love a good anecdote, so let’s try this one: let’s say you own a BMW and you need a mechanic. You don’t just want a mechanic, you want a car mechanic. You don’t just want a car mechanic, you want a German car mechanic. You don’t just want a German car mechanic, you want a BMW mechanic. Why? Because they’re much more likely to know the most information to be able to help you. The more specialized someone is for your situation, the more likely you are to use them.

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5 Reasons Why Choosing a Niche is a Smart Decision

For those of you who may not be totally convinced that you need a niche, or if you’re worried about restricting yourself to just one type of client, let’s talk about 5 reasons why choosing a niche is a smart decision. Then, we’ll go into the 4 types of real estate and mortgage niches (and give you some examples of each).

1. It Gives You a Competitive Edge

Think of our anecdote above. The BMW mechanic is going to win more business than his competitors because he is specialized. He knows the most about BMWs because it’s all he works on. Comparatively, if you are the de facto person for home improvement loans, you’ll get more home improvement loan business than your competitors. You’ll likely even get referrals from them! (I’ve seen this happen firsthand.)

2. It’ll Be Easier to Find More Referrals

You’ve heard the saying, “birds of a feather flock together,” right? Well it’s so popular because it’s true. It’s a societal fact that people hang out with like-minded people. So, if you do a great job selling your client’s downtown condo, chances are they’ve other friends who also enjoy the urban lifestyle and will likely recommend you.

3. It Makes You the Expert

When you are dealing with more generalized topics, everyone has an experience they can relate, and everyone has an opinion they can share. However, when you start to get more specialized, the more people turn to experts for advice and help (and the less likely they are to disagree with you). When you niche down, you’re establishing yourself as the expert in your niche. Clients will easily turn to you for your expertise and be much more apt to follow your advice.

4. It Helps Strengthen Your Marketing

Search engines and people alike love a website that’s all about a specific topic. The greater amount of information you have on your niche, the more search engines will come to know you as an expert in that topic, and the more likely they are to serve up your website for search terms related to you. Each page on your website helps reinforce every other page, bringing up the relevancy of the entire site. Even better, if you’re giving your clients a one-stop-shop for all information about your niche, the more likely they are to reference it, share it, and ignore other sites.

5. It Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Work with Anyone Else

The biggest fear I get from people when I bring up marketing to a niche is that they’re worried they’ll peg themselves as a certain type of loan officer or Realtor. First off, it’s kind of the point and it’s actually not a bad thing. But secondly, there’s nothing that says you can’t still help people who aren’t in your niche. Every one of you should still be marketing to your past clients, regardless of whether or not they are. And if your marketing brings in a client who ends up not being from your niche, lucky you! You can even go after 2 niches (though this is a ton of work and only recommended for the advanced). I’ve never met a client who was targeting a niche who didn’t also work with other clients.

4 Types of Mortgage and Real Estate Niches

Now that I have you properly convinced that having a niche is a good idea, let’s move on to actually picking one! Most niches can be broken down in one of four ways: by geographic location, by loan/house type, by personal demographics, or by personal circumstance. Let’s take a look at each and drum up some specifics in each type.

1. Geographic Location

Marketing to a niche based on geographic location is probably the most well-known type of niche, especially in mortgage and real estate. Real estate is local, after all. Let’s take an example: if you’re a Realtor based in Portland, don’t think that your niche is “Portland Real Estate”. That’s too general. You and everyone else wants to be the “Portland Real Estate Expert”. A better niche is “North Portland Real Estate” or “Hosford-Abernathy Real Estate”. Can you imagine if I were a client looking in that neighborhood and I found a website dedicated just to Hosford-Abernathy? Do you think I’d rather work with the “Portland” expert or the person who’s an expert in “Hosford-Abernathy”? (PS, the answer is the latter, hands down!)

Examples of Geographic Location niches include:

• Cities (If you’re in a small area)
• Neighborhoods
• Boroughs

2. Loan/Property

The next type of niche is the Loan/Property niche. This is more about the product itself. This involves positioning yourself as the “FHA Loan” expert or the “VA Loan” expert. A good option for real estate could be the “Downtown Portland Condo” expert. Once again, you may not be going small enough with this type either. A great way to find out is to do some Internet searching of your own and see what comes up. If there are a ton of “Portland FHA Loan” experts in your area, think about becoming the “Portland FHA Condo Loan” expert instead. The goal here is to niche down until you’ve found something with less competition but enough business.

Examples of Loan/Property niches include:

• FHA, VA, Condo Loan
• Condos, Luxury Homes, Waterfront Properties

3. Personal Demographics

The third type of niche is the Personal Demographics niche. This is about focusing on the characteristics of the client. Typically demographic information includes age, gender, income levels, personal interests, occupation, and more. This is one that I think you can really have fun with because there are so many different combinations!

Examples of Personal Demographic niches include:

• Physicians, Teachers, Police Officers, (Any occupation!)
• Veterans, High Net Worth, Self-Employed

4. Personal Circumstance

The last type of niche is closely related to Personal Demographics but is less about the person and more about their situation. These niches can be more delicate to deal with, but are nonetheless niches with mortgage and real estate needs.

Examples of Personal Circumstance niches include:

• Newlyweds, Divorced Couples, Family Death, Empty Nesters, Growing Family
• Foreclosure, Short Sale, Low Credit Score

Conclusion

As you can see, there are LOTS of different ways that you can set yourself apart from your competition and be the expert to specific clients with specific needs, also known as a niche. When you do, you’ll establish yourself as the expert for that specific topic and you’ll beat out your competitors every time. And remember, it also helps your search engine rankings.