8 Ways Brokers Niche and 1 Example to Tie It All Together
Sam Panetta walks through eight ways to define your target market, then builds a first home buyer niche to show how they fit together.
Demographics, geography, industry, deal type, property type, borrower type, job type and interests. Pick a handful and you have a clear target market.
1) 1. Demographics
Demographics covers age, sex and status. For first home buyers that might be 25 to 45-year-olds. Status could be singles, couples or families.
- Age.
- Sex.
- Status: singles, couples, families.
2) 2. Geography
Geography is popular with brokers. Target investors Australia-wide, a city like Sydney, a local area like Sydney’s Northern Beaches, half a dozen suburbs, or a regional town.
- National.
- City.
- A handful of suburbs or a town.
3) 3. Industry
Lots of brokers niche by industry. Healthcare can run from surgeons at one end to nurses or admin staff at the other. Construction, law and teaching are other options.
- Healthcare: surgeons to nurses and admin.
- Construction, law, teaching.
4) 4. Deal type
You can define your niche by the deal itself.
- First home buyers.
- Property investors.
- Refinancers.
5) 5. Property type
You might work mainly with residential homes, commercial real estate, or rural property and farmland.
- Residential.
- Commercial.
- Rural and farmland.
6) 6. Borrower type
Borrowers can be individuals, like a first home buyer buying in their own name. They can be businesses, needing asset finance, business loans or tax debt lending. Or they can be structures: SMSFs, trusts and companies.
- Individuals.
- Businesses.
- SMSFs, trusts and companies.
7) 7. Job type
Self-employed is a great example. You could also target government workers, or PAYG employees by full-time, part-time, casual or permanent.
- Self-employed.
- Government workers.
- PAYG: full-time, part-time, casual.
8) 8. Interests and communities
A niche can form around shared interests: the automotive sector or a car club, sports and fitness, or culture. That could be a local church or a cultural community such as Indian, Chinese or Italian.
- Cars and car clubs.
- Sport and fitness.
- Culture and community.
9) Example: a first home buyer niche
Start with the deal type: first home buyers. They’re individual borrowers, likely aged 25 to 45, perhaps young married couples. They’re in Sydney, buying residential property. Industry and interests don’t matter much for this niche.
- Deal type: first home buyers.
- Borrower: individuals, 25–45, young couples.
- Where and what: Sydney, residential.
10) Pick a handful, not all eight
You don’t need every lens. Pull a handful of items from the list and you can create a clear target market. The eight aren’t exhaustive either: there are plenty of other ways to cut it.
- Choose the lenses that matter.
- Add your own.
The simplest version of the playbook
Use the eight lenses to describe one ideal client, combine just the ones that matter, and let that profile shape your marketing and messaging.
