Operating in a niche market

Like fishing in a well stocked smaller pond.

Niche Marketing Explained.

Niche marketing is a manifestation of how much internet marketing has evolved in recent years.  Niche marketing is based on a real world model, that is, it is a business strategy that is focused on real people with real needs and with real money to spend.

Niche marketing is a technique that seeks to conquer small and usually unattended markets that are fuelled by a strong passion for a particular interest.  The benefits of cornering these markets are enormous.  First, you will encounter little competition.  Second, the market is driven by enthusiasm and they will continuously support a product that they like. 

To illustrate, five years ago, internet marketing strategies focused on general markets.  “I want to make money online,” one would have said, “so I’m going to sell products for dog enthusiasts.”  But dog enthusiasts comprise a pretty broad market.  A lot of online businesses are already catering to their needs.

But today, internet marketing strategies are focusing on specific markets.  Instead of targeting dog enthusiasts, they target Sharpei owners.  This is niche marketing in a nutshell.

Succeeding in niche marketing isn’t as difficult as you might think.  Here are five simple steps that would guarantee your conquest of the niche you would choose.

1. Know what people are searching for online.  You need two important ingredients for this step: instinct and Overture.  You think you have them?  Let’s proceed then.  Point your browser to:

   http://www.inventory.overture.com

   This is Overture’s super powerful and useful keyword selector tool.  Type in any word and the system will tell you how many searches were made for it in a particular month.

   Now you will need your instinct, as the process is all trial-and-error.  Think of a field that not many people know about.  For the purpose of this discussion, let’s choose the word “widget.”

   By typing in the said word, Overture will tell us that 2136 people searched for “widget” in the month of April.  This would be a perfect niche market.  It’s not a popular subject, and you have 2136 people, less a few repeated searches, that are potential clients.
    

2. Determine the profitability of the niche.  Overture would have given you a list of keywords pertaining to your targeted niche.  Now it’s time to see if we could make money out of them.  Log on to Google Adwords and check out the pricing of the keywords.  The higher a keyword’s price is, the more profitable it can be.
   
   But you don’t have to rely on Google Adwords alone.  You could conduct your own research by reading books and newspapers.  Be on the lookout for particularized markets you could exploit.
    

3. Evaluate the potential market.  You could do this manually by running your own search and checking out the web sites that cater to your chosen niche.  Scout the competition!  This could take some time though, so a better option would be to invest in some useful tools.  One good software you could use is Word Tracker, which would provide for you a supply vs. demand.  Word Tracker would survey multiple search engines and pinpoint competing web sites.
    

4. Create your own product.  You do have to sell something, so you have to create an item that the members of the niche would want to buy.  Since you’re operating an online business, information would be the most ideal product that you could offer.  By packaging information in the form of electronic books, membership sites, software, subscriptions to newsletter or even streaming media, you’d have an offering that the target market would always have a need for.
    

5. Content is king.  You would want the members of the niche to visit your site, and the way to do this is by offering good, quality content that they can never find anywhere else.  As we’ve mentioned earlier, the members of a niche are fuelled by passion, hence they will always be searching for information on their particular interest.  If you provide this in your content, they will come to you, and you could expose your products to them.

Niche marketing is not difficult indeed, but you can’t be successful with it lying down.  Some effort is still required, as is the case with all viable businesses.  With steps outlined above, you will be able to corner the niche of your choice.  May it be very profitable for you!