Why “You Don’t Need a Niche” Is the Most Niche-y Advice of All
Let’s get one thing straight:
Anyone telling you that “you don’t need a niche”…is using that exact angle as their niche.
I saw an email this morning that made my blood boil. It was confidently proclaiming that you don’t need a niche because …you are the niche.
There are 2 issues with this.
1. That’s not niching. That’s positioning.
2. The people selling you on this idea? They're usually targeting a very specific kind of person:
"women who don't like the idea of having to niche their audience, or who are afraid that if they niche they'll miss out on potential clients”
aka..a niche.
But this post isn’t a rant about niching. It’s about pointing out deceptive marketing advice because clarity, truth, and business integrity are important to me.
“You Are the Niche” Sounds Empowering But It’s just a marketing hook
Let’s break it down:
If someone is against niching, that becomes their niche.
If someone is teaching you to be the niche, that’s branding or positioning — not audience definition.
If someone is selling you on not niching, but their copy is clearly targeting those afraid to niche…you see where I’m going with this.
It’s marketing inception. And it works because it speaks directly to a fear a lot of entrepreneurs carry:
“If I pick a niche, I’ll miss out on opportunities.”
Totally valid fear. And a very clickable headline. But here’s what they’re not saying
Niching isn’t about squeezing yourself into a tiny, beige box.
It’s about building your business around the people you can serve best, with the work you love most.
When I was building target audiences for Fortune 500s back in 2003, we didn’t call it niching. We called it audience definition, segmentation, market clarity. But the concept? Same.
It’s about understanding who you’re speaking to, what they’re looking for, and how your product or services can help them.
Real Talk: Ethical Marketing Means Practicing What You Preach
What frustrates me most isn’t the messaging itself - it’s the disconnect.
If you're going to teach people to ignore niching, but you're actively using it in your own strategy? That’s not empowerment. That’s manipulation.
I’ll always choose transparency over trendy tactics, which is why I couldn’t stay quiet today.
You get to decide how you run your business.
You get to define your niche. Or not.
You get to lead with values. Or not.
But you should never feel like you have to use a framework by someone who isn’t following it themselves.
Because you can do business on your terms.
Even if that includes…a niche. 😉