What you can do to choose and sharpen your niche
Every successful travel agent has a niche. Whether you’re looking to sell cruises or all-inclusives, deciding on the type of travel you want to book for your clients is an important part of the laying the groundwork for your business.
Having a niche is crucial to your business’ success. You won't get anyone effectively if you try to reach everyone at once. In business, you can build greater loyalty, improve your marketing results, and ultimately see greater profits when you have a niche within the travel industry.
In figuring out your niche, narrow your services and audience to a specific group so you can create targeted marketing and focused services to offer EXCEPTIONAL services to that group.
You might be wondering: If you narrow your niche any further than just “travel,” will there still be enough clients or are you limiting your options?
The answer? Yes. Remember, there are plenty of clients and no lack of available profits. If you aren’t seeing those profits, you probably aren't looking in the right place. Instead of widening your search to capture more profits, you'll see better results by personalizing your marketing further and hyper-targeting your niche group.
Here’s what you can do to choose and sharpen your niche.
List Your Strengths and Passions
What are you most experienced in? What do you do well? What are you most passionate about?
If you were locked in a room with strangers and were asked to talk to that group for three hours about a single topic, what would that topic be?
Your niche should align with what you do well. It should also be something you're passionate about so you don't burn out from that niche and are willing to invest hours into it.
Specifically, look at locations you are most interested in covering. Are you most passionate about U.S. travel or world travel? Tourist locations? Off the beaten trail travels? Do you love cruises or are you more of an airfare type person?
Also, look at what group of people you can relate to the most. You might connect best with businesspeople, couples, families, singles, retirees, or a mix of several groups.
Research Popular Niches
Once you know what you are most passionate about, look online to see what niches exist in your interest area.
For example, if you have a group you like working with, like young couples, you might check out what types of travels young couples like booking. You may see trends emerging like romantic getaways, adventurous getaways, overseas vacations, and more.
You can find these niches in online communities on social media, Reddit, and travel blogs. These communities will give you a general idea of how big your potential market is and how passionate your audience is.
For example, there are travel suppliers who have huge and loyal followings and are brand-loyal to that particular supplier. If that happens to be a supplier you enjoy and relate to, there’s a scenario where you could center your business around selling that supplier’s products.
Furthermore, you can also perform research using Google Trends to see what common searches your audience performs. These searches can point to a popular niche.
For example, a search for “Vacations for couples” reveals related searches that can help spark your imagination and further refine your niche.
• Cheap vacations for couples
• Vacations for couples in the USA
• Romantic vacations for couples
• All-inclusive vacations for couples
• Relaxing vacations for couples
• Cheap exotic vacations for couples
This isn’t to say all of these results are guaranteed profitable niches. In fact, a few of those are probably too narrow to be profitable long-term. However, those results can provide a starting point for coming up with your focus.
Identify Common Problems
Another way to identify your niche is not just asking what people WANT but also what people DON'T want.
That can mean identifying pain points or challenges among travelers to help identify needed niches.
Here are some common traveler pain points and opportunities you might offer to address them:
• Some travelers dislike crowds: Offer off-the-beaten-path adventures.
• Some travelers have small budgets: Offer budget-friendly travel.
• Some travelers have young kids: Offer family-friendly vacations.
• Some travelers have no time for planning: Offer done-for-you, stress-free vacation packages.
• Some travelers love to travel, but don’t have much vacation time: Offer weekend getaways.
Check the Competition
There is no need to begin pulling out spreadsheets to input competitor data. You aren't doing any detailed competitor analysis yet.
At this point, your primary goal is to see how saturated your niche is. If there are too many other travel entrepreneurs in your niche, you’ll have a very hard time tapping into the market, unless you have a fantastic unique selling point.
For instance, if you want to plan romantic getaways, perform a Google search for travel entrepreneurs who already offer those services to your audience.
Even if there are many competitors, you can still tap into a niche if you have a unique direction or twist on your offering.
Once you have an idea of your niche, write it on your paper in that first bubble. It doesn't have to be word-perfect, but it should be defined enough that you feel good moving on to the next step of getting your business off the ground and on your way to making your first booking.