Seasoned entrepreneurs know one thing to be true: Operating and growing in your niche can result in more success. Although a niche might mean a smaller audience, focusing all your efforts on a well-defined target audience means better efficacy in your marketing efforts. For event planners and companies, we have gathered all the important information about how you can find your event planning niche.
A niche market is defined as a specialised market that meets specific demographic criteria, making it unique. It benefits entrepreneurs to have a niche market because they usually have less competition than others, less defined markets. This also has stronger brand loyalty and the market can be targeted more effectively.
So where can you find your niche market? Here are a few factors to consider.
Factors to Consider When Finding Your Niche
There are a few factors that any business owner should consider when finding their niche. Below these factors are unpacked.
Market Demand
One of the first things that you need to consider as an entrepreneur and aspiring event planner, is the size of the market. The market you operate in doesn’t need to be gigantic, but you need to be sure that there are people who will want to use your services. You also need to factor in what the market demand is in your area. If you are based in Cape Town, it wouldn’t make sense to have a business that is only popular in Pretoria…
You should also consider the needs of your customer: what is your ideal customer looking for?
Desired Income
Before settling on your niche, you need to calculate what your desired monthly income will be. Your business needs to be lucrative to survive. Thus, you need to investigate how much you can charge for planning certain events, how many and how frequently you will have business and if it is enough to make a profit. How many events will you realistically be able to complete in order to meet your quota?
Passion
Money, although vital when running a business, is not the end-all and be-all. You have to consider how passionate you are about your business idea and industry. Since most of your time will be spent working on specific types of projects, you need to enjoy what you are doing. If you dislike working with corporate clients, that is probably a good indicator to rather focus your attention on niches such as weddings, birthdays or showers.
Unique Selling Point
Every business needs a unique selling point, even in a niche market. This is what makes your business stand out or what entices customers to employ your services. A few ideas about your unique selling point can be your price point, aftersales service, quality equipment or products that you source, add-ons to your business, or more interesting approaches such as bouncy houses for adults, or discounts on equipment and service above a certain amount spent.
For corporate events, you can include marketing of events, trade shows, expos and conferences as a unique value-added service included in the price so marketing doesn’t need to be outsourced.
A List of Event Planning Niches
There is an extensive list of events that you can plan. Finding your niche entails focusing on one or two areas in which you develop a unique selling point according to the needs of your market.
Here is a list of events that you can specialise in as an event organiser.
- Weddings
- Surprise parties
- Progressive parties (events at more than one venue, usually involving transportaÂtion from one location to another, such as tours or scavenger hunts)
- His and hers showers, both wedding and baby
- Theme parties for children or adults
- Mall events (fashion shows, store grand openings, department-store promotions)
- Meetings and conferences
- Awards events
- Fundraisers
- Corporate retreats or picnics
- Trade shows
- Expos
- Product launches and business openings
Within each of these categories, you can further specialise your nice such as outdoor weddings, or bespoke conferences.
Niche markets that are well-utilised show that a business owner truly understands their market. Armed with this, you are now able to start your own event-planning business and find clients who appreciate the uniqueness you bring to their events.
