Identifying your niche isn’t pigeonholing you, it’s helping you! I want you to identify your niche within the industry so there is no confusion about what you are providing, whether you are offering a service or product. If you are an influencer, this opens the door for ample opportunity. It’s important to identify your niche so the helpful tips you offer can be someone’s go-to resource. If you are all over the place your message can be overwhelming, contradictory, and makes your audience wonder why they should be following along.

Your Core Four are essentially the extensions of your niche. They embody the direction of your identity with association to your brand. So what are four things that can all be tied together to reach one goal and highlight your niche? Thus, making you an identified brand and value to your audience. 

STEPS ON ESTABLISHING YOUR CORE FOUR

A fun example, or a metaphor per say, because if you know me you know I love sports. 
Former New York Yankees baseball players Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Mariano Rivera were known as the Core Four. Each member of the Core Four was a key contributor to the Yankees’ late-1990s and early 2000s dynasty that won four World Series championships in five years.

Let’s take it one step further. For example, that your Core Four as an Influencer would be centered around your love and knowledge of fitness. Well then your Core Four would be providing resources about fitness, health and/or recipes, workouts, and fashion (athleisure/shoes). I have attached a helpful outline on how you might curate your Core Four to have the best approach at being a resource!

According to Shopify, a niche market is a segment of a larger market that has its own unique needs, preferences, or identity that makes it different from the market at large (Sheehan, 2021). Identifying and capitalizing on your Core Four is the most sustainable way to be a resource for your audience. Understanding where your expertise, business, and craft align to make someone’s day easier, more affordable, more stylish, etc. is the perfect way to establish yourself as a resource.

Not only does identifying your Core Four help your audience understand your message, but also helps you plan out your own content. Digging deeper into your Core Four will help you brainstorm several different topics and ideas for content and your marketing strategy in general. For example, a fitness influencer preparing for a fitness competition in a few months can create aligning content such as workout routines, meal prepping, activewear favorites, fitness transformation, etc.

As you are evaluating and determining your Core Four, a way to track interest in your subject areas is through Google Keywords. You can research which keywords/topics are trending and how many searches it had. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to track your analytics and interpret them against the larger macro trends.

When you define your niche, you understand the nuances of your ideal client or customer. Where is your ideal client located? What online platforms do they use? What are their buyer behavioral patterns? Are they online in the early morning before work or are they late night scrolling? All of these small details make for a cohesive brand and marketing strategy that all begins with your Core Four.

Understanding where the macro trends and where your audiences’ trends merge together is critical and informs your marketing strategy. For example, if your ideal client is 18-25, female, and interested in fitness then TikTok would be the natural platform to focus your efforts on. One in four TikTok users is under 20 and nearly 50% of users are under 30, with 57% of all users being female (Howarth, 2023). With that information, you can craft a strategy that aligns with your message and where your audience is. Knowing how your Core Four and the analytics behind platforms and other marketing facets is pertinent!

PART ONE

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Your Core Four are the 4 key associations to your brand. Think of it as branches that are the extensions to the tree root: your brand and business. What are the adjacent subject areas that align with your brand? For a fitness influencer it could be: workouts, health/recipes, fashion, and classes/coaching.

PART TWO

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What are the key contributors to your brand? Within the Core Four major points, each of those sections can be explored and expanded. For example, a fitness influencer’s Core Four value of workouts can be broken down into: how-to videos, workout routines, proper form advisement, equipment needed, and more. At this point, the content calendar will essentially write itself! To understand why it’s important to generate a content calendar, be sure to check out my blog HERE!

I hope this gave some more insight on establishing your Core Four and the benefits that correlate with doing so. As always, we want you to be looked at as a resource in this industry and I love sharing every bit of knowledge to aid in making that possible! For other helpful tips and business advice, be sure to check out some of my favorites here:

• Creating Content That Converts

• The Art of Monetizing Your Business

• Importance of Having a Newsletter

CAPTURE.BRAND. ENGAGE.

All opinions are that of my own, All Images are owned and copyright property of Audrie Dollins. All Images are captured for Samantha Rey Blog by Audrie Dollins.

Works Cited

Howarth, J. (2023, January 13). Tiktok user age, Gender, & Demographics (2023). Exploding Topics. Retrieved January 18, 2023, from https://explodingtopics.com/blog/tiktok-demographics

Sheehan, A. (2021, April 11). What is a niche market? 9 examples + products to sell (2023). Shopify. Retrieved January 18, 2023, from https://www.shopify.com/blog/niche-markets