Niche Marketing - So What is All the Fuss?
There's an awful lot of talk these days in the internet income opportunity world about niche marketing.
It's time someone stood back from this and took the time to explain exactly what niche marketing is and why it is so important to your profitability.
The concept of niche marketing is as important to offline businesses as online marketers.
I see everyday new business people with a dream about owning their own business.
They have a great idea for a business so they borrow from the bank and set up a brick and mortar shop.
Before they know it they have big overheads and no or very little income coming in.
Within 3 years or sometimes as many months they are out of business, bust, lost everything they worked for.
So where did they go wrong? They will probably tell you that the rent was too high, or the local taxes were horrendous, or you can't get good staff, or the shop was it the wrong location.
If only they had been able to afford to rent in prime location rather than back street.
Do you buy any of this? Of course you don't.
The business was doomed to fail from the very start.
The owners failed to conduct proper market research.
They had absolutely no idea whether there was any demand or how much demand there was for their products.
Not only that they had no clue to the strength of the competition they were facing.
Niche research is market research on steroids.
It is about putting the horse before the cart not the other way round as in the story above.
The real lesson here no matter how fantastic your idea or product don't go out and find a product and then build a business around that.
First step is to find what people want and are searching for.
Then find out how much competition you are up against.
Only promote products or services where there is a good level of demand and an acceptable level of competition.
This is what is at the heart of niche marketing.
It is gloriously suited to an internet or online business.
Online you have none of the huge overheads the offline business owner faces.
You can be in and out of niches quickly at low cost.
You can test the market.
You may not get it right every time but you can afford to get some wrong.
Ignore market research at your peril.
For the online business there are a large number of free resources online that you can use.
Have you tried the Google keyword tool for keyword research for instance? This will show you exactly how often any particular word or phrase is searched for.
This is giving you a strong indication of demand for your product.
Look at forums, magazines, research eBay, Amazon.
Find out what sells.
Don't try to be a trail blazer.
Find a proven model and follow it.
Go with the trend, don't try to swim against the current; you'll drown.
I struggle to see why any new small business owner today would want to start an offline rather than an online business today.
But if you really must I strongly suggest you use the tools available on the web to do your market research before you put all your assets on the line.
If you are starting an online business or trying to take one to the next level taking on board the concepts here will save you many years of struggle, frustration and ultimately failure.
Just like the offline line world online marketers who ignore this principle are likely to fail.
It usually just takes them longer.
It's time someone stood back from this and took the time to explain exactly what niche marketing is and why it is so important to your profitability.
The concept of niche marketing is as important to offline businesses as online marketers.
I see everyday new business people with a dream about owning their own business.
They have a great idea for a business so they borrow from the bank and set up a brick and mortar shop.
Before they know it they have big overheads and no or very little income coming in.
Within 3 years or sometimes as many months they are out of business, bust, lost everything they worked for.
So where did they go wrong? They will probably tell you that the rent was too high, or the local taxes were horrendous, or you can't get good staff, or the shop was it the wrong location.
If only they had been able to afford to rent in prime location rather than back street.
Do you buy any of this? Of course you don't.
The business was doomed to fail from the very start.
The owners failed to conduct proper market research.
They had absolutely no idea whether there was any demand or how much demand there was for their products.
Not only that they had no clue to the strength of the competition they were facing.
Niche research is market research on steroids.
It is about putting the horse before the cart not the other way round as in the story above.
The real lesson here no matter how fantastic your idea or product don't go out and find a product and then build a business around that.
First step is to find what people want and are searching for.
Then find out how much competition you are up against.
Only promote products or services where there is a good level of demand and an acceptable level of competition.
This is what is at the heart of niche marketing.
It is gloriously suited to an internet or online business.
Online you have none of the huge overheads the offline business owner faces.
You can be in and out of niches quickly at low cost.
You can test the market.
You may not get it right every time but you can afford to get some wrong.
Ignore market research at your peril.
For the online business there are a large number of free resources online that you can use.
Have you tried the Google keyword tool for keyword research for instance? This will show you exactly how often any particular word or phrase is searched for.
This is giving you a strong indication of demand for your product.
Look at forums, magazines, research eBay, Amazon.
Find out what sells.
Don't try to be a trail blazer.
Find a proven model and follow it.
Go with the trend, don't try to swim against the current; you'll drown.
I struggle to see why any new small business owner today would want to start an offline rather than an online business today.
But if you really must I strongly suggest you use the tools available on the web to do your market research before you put all your assets on the line.
If you are starting an online business or trying to take one to the next level taking on board the concepts here will save you many years of struggle, frustration and ultimately failure.
Just like the offline line world online marketers who ignore this principle are likely to fail.
It usually just takes them longer.