Niche Marketing: How to Find The Best Niche Business

Now, to find your niche we need to really focus and seek a targeted group of people within the larger market. This is how we can find your niche market.

The definition of a niche market could be described as ‘potential customers who are

searching the Internet for a solution to their problem’ That is, a solution they are failing to find in the search results.  It could be a big challenge to find a real niche market if you are not focused enough.  The danger is that you will identify what you think is a niche market but in fact it is part of the huge general market in which there is far too much competition for you to be successful. Obviously if you put ‘Natural Healthcare Products’ into a search engine you get millions of results (over 24 million in fact).  ‘Natural knee pain relief ’ narrows it down to around 2 million but to find your niche market you have to drill down even more.

Look for the problem

If you’ve carried out your research as suggested in previous posts and have been listening to what people want — the questions they are asking and the problem they are coming up against you may already have found your niche market!

Describe your niche market using the following phrase:

My niche market is people who are (action) + (your area of interest)

For example:

My niche market is people who are (trying to find) (1974 Chevy Camaro)

Finding a niche market is about identifying a specific and focused group of people who are looking for something on the Internet that they can’t find very easily.  If you can describe your niche market like this you’re on your way to finding a successful product.  Focusing on a small niche market gives you lots of advantages:

a) There’s a lot less competition

b)  It’s much cheaper to advertise to a small market

c) Small markets are much easier to dominate so you will become the main source for your product or service online

d) Niche markets are often small groups of people who may be able to spread your reputation by word of mouth.  Always the best way to grow your business.

e) You could more easily gain customer loyalty, giving you more opportunities to offer follow-ups and related product sales.

Remember that people go online to find information and solutions for problems — not necessarily to buy a product or service.  If you think like a potential customer you could offer a solution to their problem.

How many people share this problem?

But hold on — before you find your specific product or service you need to make sure the market is big enough to support your business.  Is the problem you’re trying to solve shared by a large enough number of people?

Is your research accurate? 

Inaccurate information can be costly.  Talk to people and find out if you’re information is correct.  Ask questions, conduct surveys, chat to people online:

1. How big is this problem for them?
2. Would they be willing to pay for a solution to it?
3. How much is the solution worth to them?
4.  Is anyone else currently offering a solution and how much are they charging?

Do customers want a product or service?

There may already be a lot of products in this niche but there may be a gap for a service.  For example there may be a need to teach people how to use various products or compare the benefits of the products available.  There may already be software solutions for problem that are not user-friendly — perhaps a ‘how-to’ guide would help?

Look at the price range of other products or services in your area of interest
Get an overall view of prices and you may be able to offer a price advantage.  Watch out for competition with price — if there is too much competition with price drops and sales etc — your competitors are obviously struggling!

Who are your potential customers?

Are they male or female?  What income level do they have?  What level of education do they have?  Where do they live?  These are all useful questions to determine how lucrative your market will be and will help you pitch your product correctly.

What motivates them to buy?

You may have already discovered this from your research but telephone or online surveys and blogs might reveal some useful information.  Do customers react quickly to a sale or drop in price?  Is price all-important or are there other considerations?

By now you should have a good idea of the market and whether or not you’ve discovered your niche market.  Keep looking to find the answers.  Any research is worthwhile and will help you towards finding a successful product.  Don’t be discouraged, it could take time but the efforts will payoff in a big way!  Look for that gap in the market otherwise you will have a difficult time.  Once you’ve found your niche you’re well on the road to success!

Check the competition

Once you’ve found a niche market you need to make sure that nobody else is offering products or services to this particular market.  If there are a lot of sites that seem to address the problem and offer solutions, the market is probably already saturated.  However if there are only a small number of sites, there may be some space for you.  This could be crucial to your success.  Check your competitors’ sites and study the sort of products or services they offer and the way they present them to the market.  How well do they address the problem?  Is there room for improvement?  If so, you could provide a better product or service than your competitors.

Once you think you’ve found your niche, double check using keywords and the search engines to explore the market.  Use Google Keyword Tool to research keywords related to your niche market and get as much information as you can.  Build a list of related keywords — this will be very useful later.

There is a great deal of competition in the woodworking market