Choosing a Niche for Your Stationery Business

If you’ve got big dreams of starting your stationery business this year, congratulations! The stationery industry is such a fun way to express your creativity, designs, and make a living.

One of the things that can help you the most as you’re starting your business is choosing a niche. This helps drive clarity as you figure out your product offerings and even helps you know how to market your business (and who to market to). But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s talk about what a niche is.

What Is a Niche and Why is It Important?

Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes niche as “a specialized market” or “a place, employment, status, or activity for which a person or thing is best fitted.”¹

Finding your niche before you launch your business can be helpful for so many reasons. It provides clarity, it gives you a clear purpose and understanding of how to communicate your brand to others, and it helps narrow down your ideas and product offerings.

One of the biggest mistakes new stationers often make when they launch their businesses is that they try to offer too much, too soon. By trying to be everything to everyone, you may end up confusing your potential customers (and yourself) in the process.

For example, let’s say you start your business and decide to offer greeting cards, wedding stationery, custom invitations, embroidered napkins, and want to offer graphic T-shirts as well. Phew, that’s a lot of products to keep up with, right? Not only that, but your customers might also feel a little confused as they browse your site. Wait, invitations and t-shirts?

How to Choose a Niche for Your Stationery Business

1. Start small.

What is that one idea that seems to keep you up at night? What is the idea that gets your heart racing and is something you can’t keep yourself from talking about? Maybe it’s wedding stationery or maybe it’s letterpress. Whatever that one thing is, go with it! Also, if you’re not excited about your own idea, it’s safe to say that when business gets hard, you may not be passionate about it enough to push through.

2. Do your research

Are people looking for what you have to offer? Is your idea going to meet the needs of those around you? You don’t want to start a business selling something that no one wants. This is why doing some preliminary research is so important.

What is the market like for your niche? If you’re the most passionate about brides being able to have customized invitations, start looking into it. Are people searching for custom stationery? Do you know any newly engaged couples that you could ask? Research can be looking into other businesses in your area (or online). It could also be sending out a survey to your followers on social media or asking your family and friends for their opinion. It’s hard to make decisions when you’re only thinking about your own opinions, so this is where you want to invite people in.

3. Get acquainted with your future customer.

Who is he or she? What does she like to do? What kinds of stationery does she reach for again and again? Is the perfect invitation important to her? Does she like to send greeting cards?

It’s important to get to know who your future customer is so you know how to speak to her, how to talk about your brand and offerings with her, and ultimately to know what kind of products she would be interested in and how your business could help. When you have your ideal customer in mind, it’ll be easier to market down the road. It also helps you know what products will work best in your business.

If you’ve had a business for awhile and you’re realizing the importance of finding a niche, that’s great. You can use your current customers as your research pool. But if you’re just starting your business for the first time, maybe start your research by asking your social media followers or other circles of influence. What do they like? Where do they spend their time and money?

4. Test out your ideas.

It never hurts to test your new product ideas on a small group of people. Like we said earlier, making decisions in a vacuum doesn’t get you too far. Use the people you have around you: what do they think about your design? Do they like it? Would they use it? Do they think others would buy it? Let people tell you their opinions without fear of hurting your feelings. This way, you can get an honest review before your product goes “live.” It will save you money and time and a lot of heartache later.

5. Just go for it.

Sometimes, the best way to choose a niche is just to dive right in! If you’ve found your ideal customer, know what makes you come alive, and know that your product has some good potential, the only thing left to do is go for it! Let the market tell you whether it’s a great idea or not. Just make sure you shout it from the rooftops with a good marketing plan as well.

Growing and Scaling Beyond Your Niche

Choosing a niche for your business doesn’t mean you have to stay in that lane forever. It’s just a great way to start small as you’re building your stationery brand. Not only does it keep you focused on making sure you’re offering the best designs and products out there, it also provides clarity for your future customers as they’re shopping. It also helps you market your brand with clarity.

Many stationers that start with a niche find that they’re able to grow intentionally and scale their business from there, even expanding and growing beyond their original niche. No matter what you decide, we’re here to help you each step of the way! If you’re looking for a printing partner to help you bring your beautiful designs to life with quality and consistency, we’d love to work with you. Fill out an application here and let’s get started!