A niche market is a focused portion of the market or a small group of consumers, and by definition, a business that focuses on a niche market is meeting the unmet needs of a specific group of people.
For example, instead of offering general cleaning services, you could specialise in oven cleaning or blind cleaning. Would you like to find your own niche market?
So why might you look into a potential niche market? The advantage of being a niche service provider is the lack of competition and the unique selling points. The only way to capitalise on a niche market is by accessing the customers who would find your service of interest and you would do this through your marketing techniques. You must remember that you cannot meet everyone’s needs whatever business you’re in, and this leaves the space needed for these niche services.
When it comes to niche marketing, these are the main points you must remember:
1. You Must Have A Marketable & Wanted Product or Service
There are plenty of things or ideas that can be conjured up when it comes to business, but you must ensure that you meet the needs of consumers in your niche, otherwise you will be conducting a losing battle. You can determine the demand for a product by conducting market research, or of course, the much harder, more costly, and often fatal way to find out would be to see how you get on using a bit of trial & error!
2. Your USP
To be successful in niche marketing you must ensure your product or service is unique. Hopefully by establishing uniqueness, competition should not be an issue. An easy way to identify unmet needs or to find niche services and products is to look at the fine detail - the services which are not being addressed specifically. The example used above is for an oven cleaning specialist – no one really likes cleaning their oven, and some will pay for the service and others won’t, but the consumer may only want that service instead of an entire general clean, and cleaning companies probably wouldn’t be interested in such a small, particular job, so it is ideal for a business to address this need.
3. Avoid Saturated Markets
Niche markets are generally much smaller and therefore the demand of potential consumers is potentially limited. You must use your research to identify how large the potential consumer base is and how well the competition is doing. Remember that it is a lot harder to establish your self around competition, particularly when consumers may have no reason to use you as oppose to their existing provider; this sort of competition more often than not leads to a price war.
4. Marketing…!
Marketing is essential in any business, but particularly for niche businesses, because this type of business or service will be largely unknown, and success or failure relies on creating awareness in the right market and location. Consumers will rely on you clearly stating what you offer, why it’s of interest or beneficial to them, and how to find you.
Once you have made a sale, it’s always advisable to keep regular contact so that when they need your services again, you will be remembered.
If you remember the above points then you will be well on your way to understanding niche markets.
Many are afraid to pursue a niche market because they believe that by decreasing a potentially wide target audience that they will in-turn limit their earning potential. You will find, however, that if you try to address too many needs to any prospect, you will struggle to market your business; there would be just so much to say & no easy way to present it, unless you list your services – and that doesn’t do much selling!
Your niche will give your marketing a defining focus, and although you may target a potentially small group of prospects, you can often charge a little more with specific services, particularly if there is a lack of alternatives and competition.
Get Your Niche Profits Bible to start investigating your own successful niche market right now. You can also get your hands on hundreds of successful marketers’ top tips that you can implement into your own business today!
{ 1 comment }