A general definition of a niche market is the subsection (small market segment) of a larger market that a specific product falls into.
Then focuses on satisfying the specific needs in that market.
This includes everything from price range and production quality to demographics and location of the consumers that it’s intended to impact.
Niche markets can vary by geography, culture, gender, ethnicity, etc.
No matter the target group, niche marketing direct its efforts to figure out what that market wants and gives it to them.
This method requires a lot of research but it can save you a lot of time, money and effort in the long run because it allows you to create marketing campaigns that target the specific needs of consumers.
This helps you keep up with consumer demand, and make sure that the products and services you offer are sought after in the marketplace.
Here are a few typical steps that are required for a solid niche marketing campaign:
– Find a profitable niche
This is perhaps the single most important part of the process. If you don’t take the time to find a profitable niche then your chances of success will be very slim.
This requires a lot of research on many different niches, in order to uncover one that gets a lot of monthly searches online but has with very little competition.
– Build a niche website
It doesn’t have to be elaborate. It just has to get the job done!
If you don’t have a lot of money to spend to hire someone to design your website, then you can do it yourself with a little bit of know-how and a WYSIWYG builder or blogging platform like WordPress.
– Create content
Provide your visitors with interesting and informative content as bait.
This is what will attract people to your offers so make sure you pay close attention to content flow of your webpages.
It needs to be highly focused around the types of products and services you are promoting.
– Decide on how you want to monetize your site.
If you opt for affiliate marketing, then choose products from Amazon, Clickbank, JVzoo, Commission Junction, and others that match your niche and have high marketability.
Pay-per-click is also a good way to earn money in a niche market, and AdSense is an excellent choice for newbie Internet marketers.
– Search engine optimization.
You can use SEO techniques such as guest blogging and article marketing so you can get backlinks to your site.
Aside from this, work on your keyword campaign and make sure your website is properly optimized, too. There are many SEO techniques that work.
The key here is to find the techniques that work for you, and once you have found them, “rinse and repeat.”
– Promote your site
You can do this through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms.
You can also use Pay-per-click advertising and other methods like video and email marketing to drive massive traffic to your website.
There are many ways to segment a niche in order to reach a specific consumer group.
For example a mass market would be marketing to everyone who shops for consumer electronics.
A niche market would be consumers who are looking for computers a tiny niche would dig down even deeper and target groups within that niche link people who want laptops or tablets.
– Finding a profitable niche
A profitable niche is one where people are ready, willing and able to spend money.
There will be some competition, but not so much that you will have to spend all your time and money fighting for consumer attention.
One of the biggest mistakes made by beginners is thinking that a good niche shouldn’t have any competition. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If you find a niche doesn’t have competition then chances are it doesn’t have any customers either which also means there is no money to be made.
This is where research becomes very important because there are some niches where you will find a lot of people talking about things and asking questions but they just aren’t willing or able to spend money.
To make a profit you want a niche where there is a lot of interest and people are willing and able to spend money.
The same is true for competition.
If there’s too much competition, it’s probably better to stay out of that niche or target a smaller (tiny) segment of it, at least in the beginning. You can always expand your market share as you gain traction.
A good place to start is by seeing how many competitors there are in the marketplace. If there are already some people selling in the niche then it’s a good sign.
You can also read through online forums and social streams to learn about your target consumer base.
Amazon.com is a great place to find what types of products your target audience is interested in.
As you are researching take notes and keep track of the types of products your audience is interested in, the various price points of goods being sold in that market and the top sites where they can find information on them.
By analyzing this type of information, you can get a good idea of how profitable the niche will be.
Marketing to tiny niches at its best helps to solve real problems that real people live with every day.
If you find a small market that has disposable income and can come up with a product or service to promote that helps people in that niche solve their problems then indicators are good that it is a money maker.
The things people view as ‘problems’ provide an endless supply of possibilities for niches marketers.
People have problems and they are always looking for ways to help to solve them.
As we discussed before, good way to find out what people consider a problem is to read online forums and social streams where people in the niche you are exploring gladly talk about anything and everything.
They discuss subjects that they wouldn’t talk about with their best friends for the simple reason that they can remain anonymous if they choose to do so.
They look for solutions online for the very same reason.
By visiting forums and taking note of what people are most concerned about you can search the Internet for products and services that will help them solve those problems.
An additional way to use forums to reach a specific niche market is to join related forums, identify the problem being discussed most often and then participate in the conversation by posting questions that will solicit responses.
The information you gather from this type of interaction can be a huge resource for your quest to find a profitable niche.
It will also help you connect with consumers in that niche which can definitely be beneficial in the long run.
The concept behind building a website for your niche is fairly simple.
After you have done the research and selected a small niche to focus on it is time to start thinking about your marketing strategy and how you are going to attract targeted consumers for the products and services you are promoting.
Building a website that is highly focused around the products you’re selling is a great way to do that and finding the right keywords in that particular market is the best place to start.
For this part of the process you want to choose the words that your potential customers will be using when they search the Internet.
If you choose the right keywords for your market, you may find that you will start getting a lot of traffic to your website.
Inevitably, your website will rank higher on Google as well as other major search engines, bringing even more traffic and business to your niche.
For example, users are more likely to search for a term outdoor paint than for a brand that sells it.
In other words, they will search for an item by typing in search phrases like “buy outdoor paint,” “outdoor paint for sale,” “best outdoor paint,” etc.
So by targeting keywords that are highly targeted and used frequently by your consumers you will be able to attract more visitors to your site.
While the process sounds easy enough it is often a very time consuming job because not only do your chosen keywords need to have enough interest to generate traffic they must be distinctive enough to rank higher than your competition on major the search engines.
Once you have flushed out a good list of keywords it’s time to start building your website.
You’ll want to create your main pages like a home, about and contact pages as well as a page dedicated to each of the keywords you are targeting.
These pages will be your search engine bait and will be used to attract visitors and drive them to your offers.
Of course there is a little bit more to the process but that is a quick overview of what your site should include.
You will also need to think about how you are going to build your site as we discussed before, you can use a WYSIWYG builder, a blogging platform like WordPress or you can hire a designer.
There are many options available and the one you choose is completely up to you.
Generating a tidy profit from your selected niche market can be a bit challenging at first but if you did your research and set everything up as we have been discussing in this article then you should start seeing some results relatively soon.
One way you can help ensure the success of your new venture it to start building an email list as soon as possible.
This will give you the ability to market to your site visitors on a continuous basis.
It will help you maximize your visibility, give you an opportunity to connect with your visitors, build a following and keep interested consumers informed about your latest products and services.
Gathering email addresses from your website can be accomplished in many different ways. There are a wide variety of services, scripts and software that you can use.
The most common route is to use a service like Aweber, Getresponse or Active Campaign because they can provide you with all the tools you need to set up optin forms and landing pages designed to attract subscribers.
They also provide tutorials and support which can help make the process much easier.
You also want to think about advertising. There are many ways you can do this as well. Some are free and some will require an investment.
The good news is if you set up your site using the keyword methods we discussed in you previous lesson you will naturally get some traffic from the search engines.
The bad news is that usually isn’t enough to start generating income that is why you have to incorporate other methods in your plan.
Let’s go over a few:
– Social media
Social marketing is a hot topic and if you take the time to learn how to use it effectively then you can take full advantage of the massive amounts of traffic media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest receive every day.
By sharing relevant content on these social platforms you can leverage their popularity and use it to increase visibility for your website, products and services.
It is also a great way to build your brand and grow email list.
– Video marketing
Almost everybody likes video. That’s why sites like YouTube and Vimeo are so popular.
If you can create short, interesting videos that will appeal to your target audience, upload them to YouTube and the link them to your website you can tap in to a lot of traffic and direct it to your site.
The search engines pay close attention to video content so this strategy can also help increase your search engine rankings when used correctly.
– Online forums
There are a lot of forums online where you can sign up for free and connect with people in your chosen niche.
While this method isn’t as popular as it was a few years ago it is still a very viable way to gain exposure.
Much like social media, becoming active in these online forums and helping other members you can build a solid presence simply by providing advice about topics closely related to the products and services you offer.
This helps generate interest and brands you as an expert in the industry.
Because you in many cases are allowed to share a link to your website in your signature participating in forums also provides the opportunity to generate free traffic.
– Paid methods
Paid advertising is a surefire way to help speed up the process of generating income from your tiny niche. Again there are many methods you can use.
One of the most popular is pay-per-click ads on networks like Google AdWords, Bing, and Facebook advertising can be a very valuable resource when used correctly.
Just be careful because if you don’t take the time to learn how to use them you can waste a giant chunk of your advertising budget very fast with little or no response.
You can also us banner ads, email, and Craig’s List as well as more traditional offline methods like newspapers and magazines.
Here’s a powerful program to find your ultimate niche:
