The copywriter’s step-by-step guide to choosing a writing niche, presenting yourself as an expert, and winning higher-paying work.

By Justin Hammond

Welcome to the world of freelance writing, where words have the power to captivate, persuade, and sell. As a copywriter, you possess a unique skill set that can turn ordinary text into compelling content that drives results. But in a crowded market filled with copywriters vying for attention, how do you set yourself apart? 

How do you gain that elusive "copywriter's edge" that makes clients take notice and choose you over others? The secret lies in finding your writing niche – that sweet spot where your skills, expertise, and passion converge to create a powerful personal brand. 

This article is broken into two steps.

First, I’ll walk you through why determining your niche matters and how it can give you the competitive advantage you need to thrive in today's competitive copywriting landscape. 

Next, you’ll download the accompanying worksheet here to follow the exact steps I outline in this article to define your own freelance writing niche and upskill into an expert within it.

But first, who am I?

I’m Justin and I’m a freelance copywriter that helps SaaS tools drive user acquisition and reduce churn with a unique blend of copywriting and customer-led growth strategies.

And since entering freelance writing, I’ve been fortunate enough to sell my first copywriting project for $5,240 USD, hit a steady 5K USD/month in the first 30 days, and get to 12K USD/month in my first year.

Yet, I don’t have a public portfolio, and my website is a simple one-pager.

Ultimately, my success (and yours) boils down to how well you market yourself, consistently network, and engage new leads as a niche expert. 

What is copywriting?

Copywriting is writing that helps a company sell something. It's most frequently thought of as website copy, but you get all different breeds of copywriting in digital marketing. 

Your goals as a copywriter may differ. Depending on what kind of digital marketing your client wants, you may be driving email signups, free trials, purchases, engagement, or any other kind of positive customer feedback. 

Why bother niching down?

If you're a freelance writer, you should niche down for these 3 main reasons:

1. Standing out from your competition

With a specific copywriting niche, you can become known as an expert freelance writer in that particular area. At the same time, you'll be much harder to compete with. 

2. Increased profitability: 

When you specialize in a copywriting niche as a freelance writer, you can charge higher prices as the value provided is difficult for others to replicate. Profit increases, and high-value customers are willing to pay a premium for your specialized offerings.

3. Focused marketing

Niching means clear, targeted marketing campaigns that resonate with your ideal customers, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.

Warning: Don’t niche too early

As a beginner freelance copywriter, you shouldn’t jump straight into a copywriting niche for these three reasons:

1. You’ll limit your pool of freelance clients.

Practice doing paid jobs, build up your client base and referral opportunities and practice problem-solving the inevitable dilemmas as you build your knowledge base.

2. You don’t have the work to back up your ‘expertise.’

In order to land high-paying jobs, you need case studies, results statements, and work examples. If you niche down too soon, you run the risk of writing yourself into a niche that doesn't allow you to showcase your skills. You'll be stuck at a lower-paying niche bracket.

3. You don’t know what you like/dislike yet.

Zulie never thought she wanted to niche down into writing about freelancing. On a whim, she wrote an article that resonated with her audience. She loved it and carried on. If she'd stuck to her earlier niche, she never would have discovered her love of writing in that topic.

If you focus on a writing niche or type of copy before you’ve had the chance to expose yourself to the industry or complete several jobs of that copy type, you just might find it’s not your cup of tea and inevitably have to re-niche again.

You can niche down later once you have 3 good project samples in a particular niche and are certain it’s an area you’d like to build your expertise in. 

These three dangers hold true for regular writing, copywriting, content marketing, and many other brands of freelance writing. 
Determining your niche

It’s detrimental at this point to slow your success by overanalyzing your niche. Success is progressive. Determining your writing niche will largely be based on niches and industries you’re familiar with, the market’s needs and desires, and skills you have or can acquire.

CRITERIA 1: FAMILIAR NICHES

It’s tempting to dive right into financial, crypto, and pharmaceutical niches after reading about how skilled copywriters earn big bucks in them. 

But the reality is that all copywriting niches are quite lucrative and profitable -- if you position yourself as an expert. 

Think about what you’re legitimately interested in; it will make a huge difference when you have to deliver work. 

In the accompanying worksheet, we’ll identify the niches you’re already familiar with and interested in

CRITERIA 2: THE MARKET’S NEEDS AND DESIRES

Don’t overthink this. If you want to become a billionaire, you’ll need to solve a problem that hasn’t been tackled a hundred times before. But if your goal is just getting to 5K/month, you don’t need to come up with something original. 

But, you do need to solve real problems for clients. 

If you want to work with pet-food companies, send LinkedIn messages to 10 pet-food company owners. Invite them to a 30-minute chat and ask them what they’re currently struggling with when it comes to marketing their business. You can pay them for their time with some free copywriting advice, of course. 

Not to sound sacrilegious, but this is a simple “ask, and you shall receive” scenario. 

You can solve the same problem that’s already been solved in the market, just solve it better: 

• Be easier to work with and communicate better than your freelance competition

• Be that person who knows how to Google something before asking. Can’t find it? Then ask the client. 

• Be more professional, build a strong brand, and be willing to invest in your own learning and upskilling. Improvement never stops. 

• Review proposals with clients over the phone to address hesitations instead of emailing your proposal to them and ending with “Let me know if you have any questions”. 

• Don't be afraid to be opinionated. If a potential client wants a white paper, but you know they'd be better served by a blog post series (and that's what you happen to be good at), go ahead and make your case. 

It’s unbelievable how poorly most freelancers conduct themselves, and thankfully for you, it’s incredibly easy to outperform 95% of other freelancer writers who are consistently dropping the ball. 

CRITERIA 3: SKILLS YOU HAVE OR CAN ACQUIRE

Take an honest look at yourself and what you’re good at. It doesn’t have to be related to copywriting. I have a really strong background in design and always leveraged that to help solve bigger problems for clients with my work, even though as a copywriter I didn't have any strength in that field. 

Your next steps …

Now that you’ve got the theory down, let’s put that into practice and help you select and define your profitable freelance writing niche. 

Download the accompanying worksheet here. I’ll walk you through how to list out the skills you have with examples and show you how to make an upskilling plan to acquire the skills you’re lacking. 

Your niche will help you become a more successful copywriter

Hopefully this guide has helped you understand what is the best niche for copywriting. Ultimately, it's not a question of the most profitable niche, or the biggest niche. It's about your strengths, talents, interests, and where you fit into the wider gap.

Let's cover some FAQs.

Does this process work for other kinds of freelance writing?

Yes. No matter if you're in website copy, digital marketing, B2B copywriting, SEO copywriting, copywriting, content writing, email copywriting, or email marketing, this niche selection strategy will work for you. 

Zulie, for example, isn't even a copywriter. But she independently came up with the same Venn diagram process to identify the best content marketing niches for herself and others. 

What else should I keep in mind as a copywriter?

One thing I've always found helpful to remember is that your clients are human. When they hire you, it's not because they've checked you against a rubric and decided you're the exact match. They hire you because they like you, you came to them at a time of need, and they are impressed by your ability.

It's also worth remembering that a client in the hand is worth two in the bush. If you're a freelance copywriter especially, treat your clients like gold dust so they retain you. I spent half of my first paycheck on courses to make sure I could really satisfy my first copywriting client. And he went on to write me one of the best testimonials I've ever received. 

Does the content creation process matter?

Yes. Once you've picked your profitable freelance writing niche, the battle is half won. Because you've positioned yourself appropriately in a specific niche and you're going to earn a competitive amount of money, you can really dedicate yourself to the process of writing truly good copy.

This is true no matter whether you're a B2B copywriter or in technical writing. You need the positioning of a niche to command a high earning rate, which allows you to have space and time to develop quality content.

This content then goes back into the flywheel – your client is impressed, you're hired again, they tell their friends, and so on.