We’ve all been there in the online business and blogging realm. When you’re multi passionate in a niche driven internet space, it’s easy to feel confused as to how you should go about creating content. I’m just getting started with how I want to show up on the internet. Initially, I wanted to focus on public health topics and after revisiting my business plan and doing research I decided that didn’t fit with where I saw my blogging business in the future. Once I figured out that I was wasting precious time trying to figure out what kind of content to create, I decided to go back to my business and branding plans to squeeze out a bit more productivity for the future. Confusion can be a drain on your other tasks.
You can reinvent at any time.
The most important thing to know about getting brand clarity is that your content focus can change with time. The more information and exposure you get, the more likely you are to find your space. It’s entirely possible that your sub-niche hasn’t been created yet. You get to create the future that you want.
Think about the subcultures you fall into.
What do you want to learn? What genres of books do you read? What do you want to discover and share with others? Think about other blogs in your proposed niche. What categories do they use on their website? Make a list of accounts from your market research. To the book genre point, I figured since I read mostly sociology and self-help books that I’d find a way to integrate one of those perspectives into my wellness content. Self-help fit the most since we already have a personal development/self-improvement niche in the blogging world.
Ask Yourself Some Questions.
Whose social media accounts do you follow religiously? Which categories do those accounts belong to? What hashtags on Instagram to you follow? When you look at these other accounts what are you inspired to include in your own content? What do you think they should’ve added theirs? What kinds of products do they create? Do you want to create similar ones or change a couple of things?
Gotta braindump.
Sometimes to get clarity you gotta get messy first. One option is to write down every keyword you want to associate your content with. Create a keyword bank of buzzwords you want people to associate with your content. For example, a few of my keywords looked like this: wellness, self care, health, beauty, productivity, goal setting, branding. Create a list of all the keywords that come to mind. Narrow down to 2-3.
Decide on 2-3 topics to focus on.
So, now that I want to focus on wellness and productivity doesn’t mean that I can’t work with the others. You just want to create a story with the other keywords to tie them back into your primary focus. I may not focus on getting weight loss or muscle building results like some folks in the fitness/health industry. But that doesn’t mean I can’t write a couple of blog posts on adding quick workout into your schedule or creating new habits for your self care routine.
It goes down in the DMs.
This is the best tip you could get for market research. If you don’t know what people will expect from looking at your content, just ask them. My strategy was to use Instagram stories to post interactive questions. Even if their responses weren’t directly related to the question, I would still redirect and ask them what they thought of when they hear wellness + productivity for solopreneurs. I thought I had to pick one or the other. But eventually, I got responses from people who found a way to combine the two themselves or just encouraged me to do the same. You can do the same with your own niche. Options 2-3: create Instagram stories to poll for which products they want or what blog post title they would read. Depending on the kind of content you’re looking to make, you could interview people in the niche to see what their pain points are and what they’re expecting from you. If you have a podcast you could be ahead of the game if you weave in market research questions.
Brand clarity is a living strategy. You’ll change things over the course of your business’s lifespan. These are the things I used to settle on a couple of topics for the time being.