Sue O'Hora: "Finding the Nerve to 'Niche Down'"

Photo: Silvan Arnet at Unsplash

​Note: My fellow IABC DC Metro board member, Sue O’Hora, wrote the following article for her LinkedIn newsletter, “Video for Communicators.”  I found the piece extremely valuable, and I wanted to share. Sue is a writer, producer and director at Rising Night Productions, a video production company in Washington, DC.

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By Sue O'Hora

A few months ago, I stumbled upon an article about “niching down.” There are lots of articles out there on the topic (I’ve linked a couple at the bottom of this post), but the basic gist is that a service provider simply can’t serve everyone. You need to be able to narrow down your target market to the people who are a perfect fit for what you offer. This clarity helps you become more efficient, more effective in your messaging, and ultimately more profitable in your business. Video production skills are incredibly flexible and can be applied to an enormous number of creative challenges, but I’m starting to become a true believer in the idea of “niching down.”


​The Value of Knowing Your Audience

At the beginning of every video project, I ask the client to describe their audience. Whenever someone answers “everyone,” I know that we have work to do before we’ll be able to start production. Even if you were making a video about ice cream sundaes, you would need to think about whether your audience is made up of foodies who want information about the lovingly-crafted ingredients that make the very best sundaes or shoppers who might be looking for ways to step up their family’s home sundae game. Just as it’s extremely difficult if not impossible to make a video for “everyone,” it’s very difficult to market your business to everyone.

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