There seems to be a lot of confusion about what niche marketing is. In fact, this type of marketing makes a lot of sense.
If you are just starting out in internet marketing and want to get noticed, you have a much better chance of success when you target a small group of people rather than a mass audience that is already served by big players.
So, what is niche marketing about and is it really that important? Can you make money if you only specialize in targeting a narrow market segment or do you need to cover everything at the same time?
This post will look at both and once you understand the importance of niche marketing, it’s then time to choose your own niche for your online business. So, how do you find the best niche?
Do you go with your passion or do you follow the latest trends? You are about to find out all this if you continue reading.
What is a niche and niche marketing?
Let’s get started here with defining what is niche and niche marketing.
A niche is a small market segment that has specific needs, requiring highly specific, targeted products or services. You, as a niche marketer, can better address the issues of this small group of people, with your own expertise, than the general online providers. More on that here.
For example, a holiday market is a huge market.
If you narrow it down, you can find a lot of specialized niche markets within this market. Some of them can be “Caribbean cruise holidays for retired”, “African Safari holidays for families” or “Short European city breaks”.
These are all examples of niches and different niche markets.
They all have very specific needs and if you understand your target audience you can create tailored information and campaigns specific to their needs by being an expert in your niche.
An instant advantage over mainstream providers who try to be everything to everyone.
What About Niche Marketing?
From the above information, it’s easy to see that niche marketing is an important marketing strategy, allowing marketing professionals to target a narrow market segment in order to better satisfy their needs and expectations.
Starting a blog, you should adopt a niche marketing strategy, as it`s easier to reach your targeted audience than trying to reach everyone.
Niche marketing requires fewer funds for advertising, as you are targeting a small group of people.
Small business owners don’t have to compete with big brands if they find their niche, research their target market, understand their concerns and problems and provide unique, targeted information to this small market segment.
Some advantages of niche marketing
I think you are probably starting to get an idea why niche marketing is so popular and widely used by Internet marketers. But here, we will look into more detail as to why niche marketing is important? There are several reasons why online businesses adopt this strategy.
Better relationship with your customers
When you focus on a small group of people you can serve them better, offering customized and personalized service. You can become an expert and offer expert knowledge.
If you try to go too broad you may lose your direction and all your effort may get lost, not serving anyone at all.
For example, if you choose a weight loss category, that’s a great example of going too broad. There are hundreds of subcategories in this market.
- healthy diet plans
- men’s fitness
- weight loss pills
- weight loss surgery
- weight loss for women over 50
- fitness boot camp
These are only a small number of different niches you could target within the weight loss market. the more narrow you can get, the more specific your information can become, which is what these market segments are looking for.
People interested in fitness boot camp will not want to hear about general information about weight loss. They know what they want and if you can provide it for them, they can become your very loyal customers.
More profitable if you specialize in a niche market
You may be wondering how can this be more profitable if the market is small? Let me give you an answer. When people see a specialized business that can offer a better service than a more generic business they are willing to pay more for that service. Your potential customers will see you as an expert and specialist.
You don’t need a massive amount of customers or spend large amounts of money on advertising trying to compete with established brands. You need to know who your customers are, help them solve their problems, become an expert in your area, build trust and your business can be very financially rewarding.
Less competition
If your target market is too broad, you will inevitably have more competition. By specializing in a small market segment, you become more focused and can understand the needs of your audience better.
Apart from that, you will also find that researching and learning about a specific market segment is easier and faster than trying to understand a very broad market.
You can really become an expert in your field, making it harder for your competition to enter that specific market.
There are of course more benefits to niche marketing, but these should give you a good idea of what is possible when choosing niche marketing as your primary strategy.
How to choose your niche?
Now, that you understand why niche marketing is the right way to open the door to online marketing, let’s talk about the selection process for your niche.
Most people say follow your heart and passion by doing what you love. But there are also others, who are not so keen and will tell you that you need to find a niche with a growing trend and demand where you can make a nice profit.
So, which direction should you choose?
Passion
‘Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.’ – Oprah Winfrey
Many successful people will tell you that passion is the key to your success. So, there must be some connection between choosing a subject for your business and following your passion.
If you have a hobby you love and you are confident that you can offer something fresh and unique to your target market, then that’s a great starting point.
Maybe you are passionate about learning something new in your life. It is a great way to expand on your knowledge, learn about the subject and in the meantime create your online business around your new found passion. You can understand your target market quite well because YOU are your target market yourself.
Professional experience
Another piece of advice you hear people giving is to create your niche business around your professional experience and knowledge. But hang on a minute. Isn’t that a reason why you want to build an online business? To escape your 9-5 job?
Well, for some people this may actually work. You love what you are doing and you are pretty good at it. But you are just fed up with your boss, working arrangements, low salary and want to build something for yourself.
While others know they have reached their destination and won’t be able to get excited about the subject anymore.
Current trends
Now, let’s take a different approach.
What are the current trends right now? Is your niche subject on the rise or in decline? A great way to find out about current trends is by using Google Trends.
It is a free service and you can find very useful information about any niche you are interested in targeting. Type in your selected niche idea and you can instantly see growth or decline patterns over a long period of time.
Just an example here. You can see from the timeline that the “vegan diet” niche search is showing a steady increase in traffic over time.
You can also check the current hottest trends and maybe get some more inspiration as well.
Look at your competition
When deciding on your niche idea, always research your competition. Look at their website. I’ve already explained what to look for in your competition in another post. But to add to this, look at the quality of the website. Would you be willing to buy from them if you were a customer? Or do you think you can do a better job and serve your market segment better?
While I do believe that following your passion and interests is the right way to go, you need to consider other factors too.
Current trends and competition are some of the factors. If you have a niche you love and find out that there is a slowing trend for that niche and the competition is also very fierce than I would think twice of jumping in without further research.
Summary To Niche Marketing
I hope you now have a pretty good idea about niche marketing and why it should be the core focus of building your online business. Niche marketing has many benefits that can really help your business to grow, become an expert in your field and provide a better value for your customers.
Choose your niche wisely, do what you love because if you don’t have a passion for what you do, how do you expect others to have a passion for your business? But also, keep in mind and take into consideration other factors mentioned. How to check for competitors and keywords for your post.
I hope that I explained well enough that if anyone asks What is niche marketing about in the future, you`ll be able to explain it. I`m saying this because I could not get anyone to explain this to me in a simple and easy to understand so it really took me time to get it right.
If you do your research and you are absolutely sure that there is a demand for your niche and you can offer something better than your main competitors then go for it.
Please share your thoughts about niche marketing and how do you go about finding the perfect niche for your business.
Leave a Reply