Influencers are content creators who have the power to influence or alter the decisions of others. That power is multiplied exponentially for influencers who operate within a specific niche.
Table of Contents
- Influencer Marketing: A Brief Introduction
- What Are Influencer Niches?
- List of Influencer Marketing Niches
- What are the Major Influencer Industries and Niches?
- Influencer Niches Examples
- Why Are Niche Markets Important in Influencer Marketing?
- What Does Working With an Influencer in Your Niche Mean For Your Brand?
- What Can Influencers Do For Your Brand?
- What are the Best Niches For Social Media Marketing?
- How To Find Influencers In Your Niche
- Pick a Platform
- Conduct Hashtag Research
- Review Brand Followers
- Peek At Your Competitors’ Followers
- Google Search For Influencers
- Work With an Influencer Marketing Agency
- What Does Working Within a Niche Mean For Influencers?
- Why Should an Influencer Focus on a Niche?
- How Much Money Can You Make as a Niche Influencer?
- What are Some Influencer Niche Ideas?
- What is the Most Profitable Instagram Niche?
- How to Find Your Influencer Niche
- Should You Work With an Influencer Marketing Agency?
- Frequently Asked Questions About Influencer Niches
- What Can Influencers Do For Your Brand?
- Is a Niche Influencer Campaign Worth It?
- How Do You Run a Niche Influencer Campaign?
- Why is it Best to Hire an Influencer Marketing Agency to Run Niche Influencer Campaigns?
- Working with Niche Influencers: a High-ROI Strategy
In the context of influencer marketing, a niche is a highly-specific segment of the market. Whatever that niche is, be it beauty, fashion, travel, or sports, the content creator will share photos, captions, and sponsors only related to this niche.
Landing a partnership with a niched influencer or a brand that fits in the desired niche can be far more profitable than that same brand with a generalized influencer. Today, we’re going to take a deep dive into the top influencer niches and how they can impact any marketing campaign.
Influencer Marketing: A Brief Introduction
Influencer marketingis a subcategory of social media marketing. Rather than paid ads, this strategy involves collaborative brand partnerships and product endorsem*nts. The creative content is provided by respected and trusted creators who are thought leaders and authority figures in their market.
What Are Influencer Niches?
If every influencer always talked about the same things, they would have very little true influential power. They would simply be another commercial.
Their niche is their superpower. If a sports enthusiast with 200k followers suddenly started talking about home cleaning products, it probably wouldn’t have the desired effect.
But if a stay-at-home dad blogger shared his favorite cleaners and home products, it would fit quite well. Why? Because it’s a natural fit and his audience knows what to expect from his content. They trust what he recommends and could easily see him using it at home.
An influencer niche is when the content creator “stays in their lane” and serves images, videos, products, and captions that connect with the audience they’ve amassed. They know their people and how to speak to them in a genuine, authentic manner. This is what makes them a powerful ally for brands and a profitable channel for product and service marketing.
List of Influencer Marketing Niches
There are niches and sub-niches and one for everything you can think of. Not all are created equal and will have varying levels of followership and engagement potential.
Here we’ll cover the top niches and how they impact the market.
What are the Major Influencer Industries and Niches?
Even small niches can be profitable, especially for an engagement-driven marketing campaign, but let’s look at some of the most popular niches in the industry.
Fashion
By far one of the most popular niches, fashion encompasses everything from apparel and accessories, shoes and jewelry, to eyewear and luggage. On its own, fashion is a more generalized niche that any one influencer may touch on from time to time.
However, influencers who are dedicated to fashion as their primary topic will still show niche variations in style and labels as well as price points.
Beauty
Another highly popular and profitable niche is beauty. This type of content will focus on cosmetics, skincare, hair care, and styling, and other personal care and hygiene-related themes.
A successful beauty influencer will be someone who can create a deep and authentic connection, as personal beauty is often a vulnerable topic. Within the beauty niche, there will be varying emphasis on sustainability, boldness, as well as natural and organic beauty.
Travel
Travel influencers have one of the more complex and exciting jobs of them all. In order to produce travel-related content for other travel enthusiasts, they must, in fact, travel. Often.
In this niche, there is a strong emphasis on high-quality photography and videography and content that inspires the viewer to desire their own similar experience. Travel influencers range from outdoor adventurers to five-star luxury resort hoppers.
Lifestyle
Unlike other, more specific niches, a lifestyle influencer is a content creator who shares the ins and outs of their life, usually in a curated and intentional manner. Their content will be slightly more nuanced but still, create a connection with one audience over another.
For example, a homeschooling farm mom will appeal to an entirely different audience than the hustle and bustling NYC mom. The difference between anyone on social media sharing their life and a lifestyle influencer is in the level of impact they have on the decisions of their followers.
Celebrities and Entertainment
These are your mega influencerswho have amassed their following and their influence outside of social media. People like The Rock, Selena Gomez, and Kylie Jenner are examples of celebrity influencers.
In some cases, as with Huda Kattan, Caspar Lee, and Jeffree Star, their status changes over time. Their influence and audience grow to be so strong that though they started out as social media influencers, they’re now bonafide celebrities in their own right.
Sports
Sports content is a category that ranges from soccer, basketball, and football and extends to smaller markets like skateboarding, rugby, surfing, snowboarding, boxing, yoga, and even cricket.
What makes the sports niche unique is that athletes and enthusiasts are often quite particular about the gear and equipment they work with. This is great news for brands interested in an influencer marketing campaign!
Animals
We all love our furry friends. We especially love them dressed up, happily running, playing fetch, chasing their tail, and being generally adorable. What’s not to love? It’s often the drop of endorphins we all need to brighten any day.
Photos and videos featuring pets and animals are some of the most loved content on social media. Content creators in the animal niche are influencers who care about them as much as they do humans, if not more. They share with enthusiasm about the products both they and their pets love.
Gaming
If you’re not a gamer, this may never cross your mind as a niche but make no mistake, it exists, and it’s incredibly popular. Twitch is a platform nearly dedicated to live-streamed gaming content such as commentary, gameplay, and tournaments.
In the first quarter of 2022, Twitch surpassed YouTube by more than five times the hours watched for streamed gaming content.[1]On Twitch, as well as YouTube and Facebook Gaming, there will be sub-niches of the type of games being played as well as individual game selection.
Health and Fitness
The beauty and success of health and fitness influencers are wrapped up in their ability to practice what they preach. Followers can see their success and failures as the content creator shares their own journey along with other helpful content.
Influencers in the health and fitness niche could zero in on any one element such as gut health, weight loss, yoga, bodybuilding, cardio training, as well as healthy eating and nutrition.
Family and Parenting
Its own version of lifestyle content, a family or parenting-focused account, will have a strong mix of children’s content and faces, as well as practical tips for the viewers behind the scroll. These influencers specialize in a raw and authentic approach to life.
Even still, the family and parenting niche can take several paths. The family with multiple adopted children, the farm family, the city family, and the single parent, would all have their own take on niched content for their community.
Business and Technology
The business and technology niche spans the market from tech tutorials and product reviews to DIY entrepreneurial endeavors and finance experts. These are typically influencers who are already making a solid income from what they specialize in.
This means their expert status is already well established, making them a strong match for influencer marketing campaigns.
Influencer Niches Examples
Now that we’ve taken a bird’s eye view of the top niches let’s break down our shortlist even further into popular sub-niches. Take a look at these live examples.
1. @iconaccidental
As the name implies, Lyn Slate came by her icon status quite by accident. She didn’t see herself represented in the market and how this “granfluencer” is making bold statements with stunning fashion and dreamy lifestyle content.
2. @ballerinafarm
Hannah is a Julliard ballerina turned Utah farm mom of seven who has collected more than 1 million Instagram followers who want to share in her journey. Her content ranges from homegrown recipes and animal husbandry to her Miss Utah status and life raising seven kids. Hannah’s story is a remarkable one to follow.
3. @thetravellinggays
Doug and his husband Sanjay are a London-based couple who share their busy and adventure-filled life as global travelers, with their adorable daughter Arya in tow.
Why Are Niche Markets Important in Influencer Marketing?
People have varied and diverse lives and interests. They want to see and engage with content that reflects those same lifestyles and hobbies. Not every creator’s content will appeal to a wide audience.
This is where niche audiences and niche-focused content comes into play. As they say, if you’re selling or marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one. Content related to a new face cream isn’t likely to appeal to the extreme athlete, whereas it may be a perfect fit for the classy working woman.
True influencers create content that resonates with their target market. It’s focused on stories, causes, tips, and products their audience cares about.
The audience of the tech influencer trusts his web camera recommendation. But if it were coming from the sustainable gardener, it wouldn’t have the same impact.
Knowing who holds the keys to what audience, and likewise what brands and products are a good match, is the driving force behind a strong influencer marketing strategy.
What Does Working With an Influencer in Your Niche Mean For Your Brand?
An influencer who has the attention and trust of a niched audience has the power to drive more than simply brand awareness and engagement. They’re far more likely to drive conversions, sales, and growth.
It is also an effective strategy for increasing credibility and trust among your ideal customer base. A niched influencer who agrees to be the face or representative of your brand is someone who already has their heart and confidence.
A brand or product’s social media account could never hope to achieve the same level of faith. The customer expects you to believe in your product and they expect you to try and sell it. Brand accounts can often be viewed as just another commercial.
Most niche influencers are deeply selective about the brand partnerships they take on. Working with a strongly niched influencer proves that others value your products enough to put their name behind them. It’s an authority figure’s stamp of approval.
What Can Influencers Do For Your Brand?
A content creator, guided by an official creative brief, will create their own original content that promotes a brand’s product or services. This can start a conversation about the brand in question and generate engagement online.
This is a highly potent method of shining a light on your product from a new perspective. Something a whole team of marketing advisors and managers could never produce: raw, authentic content crafted for a specific persona.
Niched audiences trust their influencer’s opinions and recommendations. They’re more likely to want to learn more or may even be ready to buy based solely on that. Let’s look at some examples.
Isaac Smith Fit
Isaac is a UK-based fitness TikTok influencer who shares workout and fitness tips with over 348k followers. In this first image, from his @isaacsmithfitaccount on TikTok, Isaac is about to unbox a product from My Protein in a promo video. Inside this fun and colorful box was protein powder, a shaker, and the shirt he’s wearing in the second image.
With over 20k views each, these posts show a mix of clearly sponsored content and more subtly promotional content. He’s sharing the journey of receiving the goods, showing off the cool packaging, and then revealing it in action with a workout shoot.
Kalyani Priyadarshan
Kalyani is a fashion and beauty influencer as well as an actor. She shares incredibly beautiful photos of exquisite fashion in luxurious and exotic locations for her 2.9 million Instagram followers.
In this photo from @kalyanipriyadarshan,she’s promoting Vilvah’s tinted lip balm. She’s happily showing it off on her own face while wearing a matching outfit. More than that, she shared why she loves the product and her favorite scent, even mentioning a secondary product line.
These small and intentional gestures go a long way to inspiring confidence. She’s not just saying, “hey, buy this”. She’s sharing her own story. And proving she’s so familiar with the brand, she knows what else they offer too.
Clerkenwellboy
Clerkenwellboy is a London-based baker and food and travel influencer with 300k followers on Instagram. He shares delectably delicious and edible content such as recipes and menus. He also spreads the word about local and distant hot spots where one can have a meal to remember.
In this contest post from @clerkenwellboyec1, he shares a carousel of images with multiple samples and products that make up a luxury picnic hamper. This is a collaborative post that names other brands and requires participation in the form of engagement.
This is an excellent strategy to increase the online conversation around your brand, generate buzz, as well as increase followers. It also mentions where to buy the same hamper for the folks who don’t want to play the odds or who aren’t interested in waiting for competition results.
What are the Best Niches For Social Media Marketing?
With the right influencer partner, any niche can be a profitable one. However, there are a few tried and true niches that don’t seem to diminish with time or seasons.
Health and Fitness
This is a niche that lasts a lifetime. Who doesn’t want to be healthy and fit? There are niche influencers for every age and ability from young or spry to mature and steady.
There are also niches based on modalities, such as yoga, nutrition, HIIT cardio, marathons, keto or low carb, boxing, cycling, and more. Any way out there that you can work or eat your way to health and fitness, there is a niche for it.
Beauty and Fashion
On their own, these niches are hugely popular. However, when paired together, as they often are, they have a more complete, full-body impact.
With styles, labels, techniques, accessories, and products enough to match every possible niche, content creators range from luxurious peeks at a new “lewk” to practical how-to tutorials.
Animals
This may not have been a niche you were expecting but it’s one of the most popular. Who doesn’t love a corgi in a cape or a kitten in a carriage? Animal and pet content is happy content that makes viewers happy.
It is also some of the most shareable content online because they all have one thing in common: they make you smile. And people love to share smile-worthy content.
Travel
The travel bug hits most people at one point or another. It’s inevitable. There is always a road less traveled, an exclusive experience, culture and cuisine they haven’t explored, and a bucket list destination that incites strong desire in those who see it.
Travel influencers are in a unique position to share those unique encounters with their audience that create a strong sense of FOMO (fear of missing out). They’re peeling back the global layers of possibility and saying, “come along.”
These are powerful accounts that can share sponsored content that ranges from destination partnerships, restaurant promotions, municipal travel stimulations, transportation collaborations, and just raw wanderlust.
How To Find Influencers In Your Niche
Now you know what you want for your next campaign, how do you go about actually making it happen? Start here!
Pick a Platform
By now you should know what audience you want to target in your campaign, picking a platform is choosing where you want to reach them. This selection will help narrow your focus when choosing an influencer.
Search online for blog articles and YouTube videos on topics that will resonate with your target audience. Who created it? Are they a good match? Review previous content and sponsored posts to double check.
Conduct Hashtag Research
Get a clear picture of the current hashtags that would be relevant to your audience niche. Take some time to scroll through and follow all the rabbit trails you find.
What are the trends? Look for a mix of hashtags that are massively popular as well those in the mid-range. Use your company account to follow hashtags that appear to be a match.
Review Brand Followers
Comb through your followers. Review their accounts and content. Who are the following? Are there other influencers in their community? Find out if they follow your competitors. This is a laborious effort but an effective tactic.
Peek At Your Competitors’ Followers
Dig into the accounts that follow your competitors. Look for a targeted audience match and see who else they’re following. You’re not directly recruiting influencers who are partnered with your direct competitors but it would be wise to keep them in your view.
Google Search For Influencers
Create a list of keywords related to your niche. Add site-specific results such as “site: Pinterest.com” or “site: Instagram.com” before your keywords. The algorithm will only show results that include both the keyword and the website.
Add “influencer”, “blogger”, “content creator”, or “vlogger” to narrow your results even further. For specific geographic results, add nearby locations and see who has tagged hotspots in your area that your niche will recognize.
Work With an Influencer Marketing Agency
Companies who want to work with an influencer marketing agencyare looking to leverage their expertise, vetted talent, and concierge type iservices.
Full Service Influencer Marketing Services
An agency will have an established and proven process you can follow along and trust. From influencer partnerships and campaign strategies to content creation and management so you don’t have to learn an entirely new skillset.
Agencies Are Run By Industry Experts
An influencer marketing agency is compelled to stay on top of what’s trending. They’ve handled many successful campaigns and will know what approach is best.
Existing Influencer Relationships
When working with an agency, you get to take advantage of the existing relationships they’ve built with an army of qualified content creators. Niched and vetted influencers will be ready to take on your project seamlessly.
Handling Negotiations
They will take care of contractual negotiations, licensing, and compensation plans. This facet of influencer marketing is complex enough to be its own job.
The Ability To Scale
When the team and systems are already in place, your campaigns can scale more easily to meet or beat your marketing objectives.
Comprehensive Campaign Reporting
You need to know that your efforts are actually working, not just a glance at vanity metrics. An agency will offer a team of data experts and dynamic campaign analysis every time.
What Does Working Within a Niche Mean For Influencers?
Niche influencers have a stronger impact on their market and audience, making them a more desirable option for brands.
Why Should an Influencer Focus on a Niche?
An influencer builds an audience by creating content that is well received by their audience. Choosing a niche allows them to stick to their strengths and grow their influence by establishing themselves as a credible source on one or a few related topics.
How Much Money Can You Make as a Niche Influencer?
This will depend on how many followers are involved and the reach potential the influencer carries. However, a content creator with 50k followers that has no clear niche will be less valuable to a brand than an influencer with 35k followers of the right kind.
Better deals can be negotiated for the influencer when they understand the value of their connection with a targeted audience.
What are Some Influencer Niche Ideas?
We’ve covered the most popular niches such as fashion and beauty, travel and lifestyle, health and fitness, gaming and tech, but how can you put your spin on those niches? Create a sub niche that fits authentically with your life.
- Economical travel vs luxury travel
- Traveling with a family vs traveling with a backpack and a satellite phone
- Sustainable fashion vs red carpet labels
- Organic natural beauty vs Hollywood glam
- Minecraft PC gaming vs Nintendo Switch gaming
- Yoga vs bodybuilding
What is the Most Profitable Instagram Niche?
Travel and beauty are the most profitable niches on Instagram. They appeal to a wide range of users, in a multitude of sub niches.
How to Find Your Influencer Niche
This is a highly internal question you must discover as an influencer. Consider what you’re passionate about and what interests you. Is there some way to connect what you love with a solution for a real problem people face?
Dig into your competition. What are they doing and how would you do it differently? Once you’ve arrived at these answers, clearly define exactly what your niche is and what it means for the content you’ll create. Put it out there and test it!
Should You Work With an Influencer Marketing Agency?
An influencer marketing agency will help you find brands to work with and hone your craft. You can make a go of it on your own but the path is straighter and less stressful under the guidance of an agency.
Frequently Asked Questions About Influencer Niches
As a content creator or a brand, how can you identify or become a strong influencer in your niche?
Fashion/ Beauty Influencer Niches
Do they know their market’s price threshold? Do they embody a clear style that resonates with the target market?
Travel/ Lifestyle Influencer Niches
Do they create enough of a dreamy vs real life balance? The idea is for viewers to picture themselves where the influencer is or with what they have. That’s not possible if it’s too unrealistic.
Celebrity/Entertainment Influencer Niches
Do their followers truly resonate with the brand’s values and message? Are they people who will buy or only engage?
Sports Influencer Niches
Will this influencer’s connection to the product be strong enough to be credible? An athlete must truly trust the products they use as they rely on them for personal and team performance.
Gaming Influencer Niches
Does the influencer truly understand what their gamer audience wants?
Health/ Fitness Influencer Niches
Can the influencer make strong connections while still being encouraging? Do they practise what they preach?
Family/Home/Parenting Influencer Niches
Is there enough raw and authentic content mixed with curated and sponsored? Is there enough of a relatable portrayal or does everything unattainable? Are they clear of controversy?
Business/Tech Influencer Niches
Does the influencer clearly understand the desires and obstacles of their market? Do they present themselves as an authority? Can they communicate clearly but still have an engaging personality?
What Can Influencers Do For Your Brand?
Influencers can enhance your brand’s visibility and awareness. They can help you generate engagement and buzz with quality content. An influencer can also drive conversions and sales by getting your products in front of the right audience.
Is a Niche Influencer Campaign Worth It?
Absolutely! As much as 60% percent of marketers believe influencer marketing offers a better ROI than traditional channels.[2]
How Do You Run a Niche Influencer Campaign?
This is a complex process but let’s break it down into bite-sized pieces:
- Strategize your objectives
- Choose your platform
- Select your influencer based on niche audience and make contact
- Work collaboratively to design a campaign
- Deploy content
- Measure the results
Why is it Best to Hire an Influencer Marketing Agency to Run Niche Influencer Campaigns?
An agency will have multiple suitable niche influencers who would be a good match for your brand. They will have a clear pathway to success and help you move through their strategic process without the headache of learning a new skill set and making avoidable mistakes.
Working with Niche Influencers: a High-ROI Strategy
Niche influencers are the present and future of influencer marketing. Don’t miss out on this profitable strategy!
Sources:
[1]https://www.statista.com/statistics/1030795/hours-watched-streamlabs-platform/
[2]https://www.statista.com/statistics/1201161/influencer-marketing-roi/