OK, “Master of ALL …” is certainly a bit of a stretch, but let’s talk about “NICHING DOWN” for a moment.
It’s sound advice that I often share with clients and peers, yet I don’t entirely follow it myself.
Let me take a step back for a moment.
When I graduated from University in 1996 I read numerous business articles describing “the ideal employee of the future” as someone who would be “MULTIFACETED”.
I liked the sound of that because the thought of doing one thing for the rest of my life didn’t appeal to me. I had a diverse range of interests and wanted to pursue them all.
The advantage of niching down is pretty straight forward: It allows you to define precisely a specific product or service, targeted to a clearly defined target audience. If all I talked about was “Video Search Engine Optimization (SEO)”, or better yet; “video SEO for financial services”, it probably wouldn’t take long to become the “go-to-guy” for anyone working in financial services who wanted greater visibility for their videos.
The problem I have with niching down is one of “putting all your eggs in one basket”. What happens if the search engines change their algorithms and my tricks don’t work anymore? What happens if another business shows up in the same niche and is simply better at it than me?
I’m not making the argument that niching down is a bad strategy or even that offering a diverse skill set is better.
I’m simply conveying my experience that at the age of 45, having developed a wide range of skills (I can write, host and build websites, manage SEO, produce/perform/edit audio and video, and promote it all on multiple social media platforms, and more), I feel as though I’m entering the prime of my career; with confidence that I’m a well-rounded marketer. And I find I’m now being recognized as a marketer with “game”. I’m able to understand the big picture of my industry, adapt to new developments, and feel respected by my clients and peers for this.
I’m still able to “niche down” in the sense that I can run targeted campaigns for a specific service and direct traffic to the appropriate service page of my website. But I’m sticking with 360° of marketing as what I do, and I’m comfortable with that.
If you’re someone who struggles with the idea of offering a singularly focused product or service for a singularly targeted audience, I’m here to tell you; that’s OK too! Diversification isn’t necessarily a bad thing!