Should UGC creators pick a niche?

What do you gain and lose by picking a niche?

A niche makes your work easier to place and your scripts faster to write, but it narrows the briefs that fit you, so keep it loose.

Start with the middle row if you are new, because it keeps your brand list wide enough while your samples still tell one story.

How do you choose product categories to work in?

Choose categories you already buy and use, because you can talk about those products honestly and film them in a real setting without staging it.

• Walk through your home and list what you use every week: the kitchen, the bathroom shelf, your bag, your desk. Each place is a possible category.
• Circle the ones you could talk about for a minute without notes. That ease shows on camera.
• Check you can film each one well where you live. A cooking niche needs a kitchen you are happy to show.
• Ask whether you would still enjoy the category after twenty videos, because a niche you get bored of shows in the work.
• Pick two or three that sit near each other, such as home cooking and kitchen storage, so one sample can support the other.

Once you have a shortlist, try one hook for each category using the guide to writing a hook. If the hooks come easily for one category and feel forced for another, that tells you which one to keep.

How does a niche change what goes in your portfolio?

A niche decides which samples you make first: one or two for each category, each in a different format, so a brand sees focus and range at once.

For a kitchen niche, that might be a problem-solution video for a storage product and a storytime for a pan. Two categories in two formats show more than four videos of the same kind. If you have no paid work yet, the steps for making samples before any brand hires you apply directly, and what a portfolio should include covers how to lay them out. Name your niche in one line at the top of the portfolio, such as home cooking and kitchen kit, so the reader knows where you fit before they press play.

What if a brand outside your niche asks to work with you?

Say yes when you would use the product and can film it honestly, because a niche is a focus for your samples, not a rule about who you work with.

Before you agree, ask yourself two questions. Do I use something like this already? Can I show it in a setting that looks like my life? If both answers are yes, take the job and read the brief closely, since you know the category less well. If either answer is no, a short reply keeps the door open: Thanks for thinking of me, [NAME]. This one is outside what I use day to day, so I would not be the right fit for [PRODUCT]. If you have anything in home cooking or kitchen storage, I would love to hear about it.

When should you widen or change your niche?

Widen your niche when a category stops bringing you briefs you want, or when you notice you dread filming it, and add one neighbouring category at a time.

• Keep a simple log of every brief you get and every pitch you send, with the category next to each, so the decision rests on what you have seen rather than a hunch.
• Add a neighbour, not a stranger. Kitchen storage leads to cleaning more naturally than it leads to fitness.
• Make one or two samples in the new category before you pitch in it, so you have something to show.
• Drop a category from the top of your portfolio once it no longer brings you work you enjoy, and keep its best sample further down.