Niche to meat you

Niche to meat you


If there is one thing established and new businesses have in common, it is the importance of identifying your target market. It probably sounds obvious, although many new businesses suffer from a lack of market clarity, as they try to please every consumer. When the brakes on your car need to be changed, are you going to a general garage or a brake specialist? And when you eat out, aren’t you a bit suspicious of restaurants that list every type of food on their menu?

Theses business might still break even at the end of the day, although the “shoot in the middle’’ approach is the guarantee to a slow growth. Why not consider the consumer type more likely to buy your product, and focus all of your services and marketing on him? This is called niche marketing.

If your business focuses on filling a need, clearly defined by a group of potential customers holding the same demographics, you are hitting a niche market. The more outlined your market is, the easier to craft an advertising message that will reach your audience personally.

Most of the times, the big mainstreams companies are using the approach “let’s sell to everybody”. They need the profits, so they engage in massive sales transactions. The smaller groups with specific needs are too small to serve them profitably. They will leave theses small groups (and the profits that goes with them!) to the smaller businesses.

The faster you will be able to identify your niche market, the faster your new venture will start to make sales. This factor is often overlooked, since a key success factor of a new business is the time it will take to start bringing in the money.

Also, rumours go fast within interest-oriented Internet communities. Once the word get out your company is filling a special need unique to this precise group, word of mouth will propel your product through all corners of the Internet.

So just how do you define your niche market?

1. Profile your user: What are his characteristics? What are his dominant emotions? Put yourself in his shoes and see if you can think like him.

2. After you know who he is, you need to know where to find him. Does he frequent specific web sites? Which newsletters does he read? If you can’t find any discussion board that share the same interest as your market, maybe you can create one.

3. Finally, you need to circulate your message and expose your brand. You can rent ads in a newsletter, or become a regular contributor on a discussion board. You can also offer free samples of your product. In other words, show who you are, and what you can do for them.

The next time you will be thinking about launching your next business, aim for a big chunk of a small market, instead of the opposite. Your customers will reward you for it.