Finding your interior design niche is an important step in growing your own business. It can be difficult to decide what area of interior design you want to specialize in, but it is worth taking the time to find the right fit for you.

However, finding the right niche might not happen overnight, and often it should not either – many designers practice for years before committing to a specific niche.

In this article, we explore

• what niching down means
• how you can niche down
• why you should (or should not) niche down
• how to find your perfect niche
• how to start the niching down process and grow your business

Let’s dive in!

What is The interior design niche?

The interior design niche is your specialization in interior design work; the type of services or products you want to specialize in, and what essentially makes you stand out from the competition.

There are many different niches within interior design, so take a look at some of the options below and see which one speaks to you. Once you have found your niche, start developing your skills and networking with other professionals in your field.

The more experienced you are, and the more knowledge you have, the more successful you will be as an interior design business owner. This, of course, applies to all types of businesses.

When it comes to business, one size definitely does not fit all. This is especially true when it comes to marketing and selling your services. You may have heard the term “niche down” – this simply means that in order to be successful, you need to focus on a specific market or group of potential customers.

When you niche down, you can better cater to their needs and wants, which makes them more likely to do business with you.

So, should you niche down your interior design services?

The answer is most likely yes – there are several reasons why focusing on a specific market can be beneficial for your business.

interior design Niche Examples

An interior designer can have a niche in any number of areas, but some specialties are more popular than others. Your niche can be a specific style, a specific type of client, a certain budget range, or a combination of multiple factors. Below are some examples of niches: 

• Color Consulting & Expertise
• Professional Organizing
• Virtual Design
• Feng Shui Design
• Aging in Place Design
• Floral Design for indoors
• A specific style, such as the Scandinavian Style
• Window Treatments
• Retail Store Design
• Open-Concept Office Spaces
• Bachelor Homes
• Outdoor Kitchens
• Vacation Homes
• Upscale Hotels and Resorts
• Low-Cost Home Offices
• Biophilic Design
• Pool Houses
• Kids with Special Needs
• Remodeling Old Homes
• Attics
• Home Staging

Ways of niching down Your Interior Design Services

You can niche down in several ways, such as:

• based on the specific client base. Maybe your perfect client is a family with at least 2 school-aged children, double income, and living in a detached house with a garden.
• based on your specialty. Maybe you fly across the globe to do small stores and cafés or only take on commercial kitchen design jobs.
• based on your signature style. Maybe you only do certain types of interior styles, but the client type doesn’t matter.
• based on a location. Maybe you only work with people who have second homes in a lake resort area.

Or maybe it’s a combination of many factors, such as your client profile and your signature style, which often is the case for successful designers.

Does niching limit your customer base and decrease your business?

There has been a lot of discussion in the business world about the concept of niching. Some people believe that by narrowing your focus and targeting a specific niche, you can limit your customer base and decrease your business potential.

Others maintain that niching is the key to success, as it allows you to become an expert in a specific area and attract customers who are passionate about what you do.

To determine whether or not niching is right for your business, it’s important to consider both the pros and cons. On one hand, targeting a niche can help you to build a loyal customer base who is passionate about what you do. On the other hand, if you don’t have the right products or services to appeal to this niche, it can be difficult to expand your reach beyond them.

Defining Your Interior Design Niche helps you create marketing that works

Creating a niche for your business can help you create marketing that works. When you know who you are targeting and what needs they have, you can create messaging and products that appeal to them.

This means that your marketing is more likely to resonate with potential customers and result in conversions. Additionally, a niche also allows you to focus your resources on a specific group of people, making it easier to reach them with your marketing efforts.

How to turn your business into a niched interior design firm?

To turn your business into a niched interior design firm, you need to first understand what this means. A niche market is a focused target market with specific needs that your company can meet. When you specialize in a certain type of design, you can hone your skills and better serve these clients.

Identify what your passion is

There is no one right way to approach finding your interior design niche, but there are some key tips to get started. First, think about what you love and are interested in.

What makes you happy?

Once you know that, start narrowing down your focus by researching different categories of interior design and looking for events or conferences related to your niche.

Is there a market for your interior design niche?

When starting any business, it’s important to do your research and assess the potential market for your product or service.

Can this niche be profitable?

When you are niching down your services or products, you might need to do another market research because now you don’t only try to calculate the total marketable audience that might be interested in interior design, but the specific niche that you are planning to become an expert within.

Run a few campaigns and see what works

If you already have marketing channels in place, you could run a few campaigns to test your niche. This is crucial to be before you niche down, both to make sure there is an interest and also to make sure your current customers won’t jump ships.

You still might need to have other types of projects too while you’re in the process of niching down, just like when you started your firm you most likely needed to have additional income sources before your business took off.

Which clients and projects do you enjoy working with the most?

After running your business for a while, you will have your favorite client type or types, and also, a pretty good understanding of what kind of clients you do not want to work with.

This is difficult at the beginning of your journey as an entrepreneur, because how do you know? Well, you don’t.

At the beginning of your journey, you most likely take any project, any budget, and any client. Right?

When taking your business to the next level, when niching down makes sense, you will need to start removing the ones you don’t want to have as your clients and start focusing on bringing in more of the ones who you truly love working with.

At Avenue, our growth consulting & coaching company, we call this the MIC (Most Important Customer) phase, during which we identify the ones that were a great fit. After that, we continue attracting more of the same.

Redesign your Interior Design marketing message

At this stage, you need to redesign your marketing message. What is a marketing message? A well-designed marketing message answers this simple, but not always the easiest question:

Who you help with what results and why they should care. For example, at Avenue, our marketing message is this:

We help premium and luxury service, product and location brands in the design and wellness industries grow without sacrificing quality and wellbeing.

What does this mean? It means that

… we work with experts offering services, speaking, programs…

… and product companies that want to go international…

… that know they want to become well-known brands in their industries…

… mainly in the industries we know well and love very much…

… and they want to grow and scale. This means that we only work with brands that actually have the intention to grow bigger companies, so freelancers who want to remain solo entrepreneurs and work only with 1 or 2 clients, or product brands that are not going international are not our type of clients...

… what’s in it for them? Well, we know sustainable growth can be achieved without sacrificing your world, life, family, and health, so we focus on building businesses that do not make our clients sacrifice those important things in life.

Redesign your Interior Design Marketing Assets

The last part of your transition to a niche interior design firm is to actually redesign all your marketing assets. This means that you go public with your new message and your intention, and let the world know about it.

This will have some people leave you. Some people will not love your new direction. They might not understand. You might need to do a lot of explaining at the beginning.

But, you have made your choice, and that choice was based on your research on your true intention, your passion, the realistic market and demand for your services, and your past experiences from working with your MICs (Most Important Customers)… go be bold and elevate your new niche interior design business!

Sharpen your toolbox

Once you have decided what kind of a niche you want to go into, it’s time to sharpen your tools and learn everything there is to know about your niche, so you can become a true expert in it.

Continue learning and growing as a niche interior design firm by attending various industry events and taking courses that will help you further specialize in your field.

Take classes, join conferences, and participate in different industry happenings to keep updated on the trends.

Focus on niche marketing

Niche marketing is a marketing methodology where you focus only on the specific types of clients you have, and the job of your marketing is to become seen as the go-to expert in that specific area. There are multiple avenues to do this.

Read also: Is Content Important For Your Interior Design Business?

Should you focus on finding your interior design niche?

There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to finding your interior design niche, but there are a few things you should keep in mind. If you truly want to become seen as the first choice for your dream clients, you need to niche as an interior designer: an expert in the particular need or desire that have.

And then create a signature client experience that makes you stand out!

Niching down your interior design business is tough, and you will doubt your decisions along the way, but once you have completed your transformation journey and only attract the types of projects and clients you love working with, you’ll find it was worth it!