Just about every marketing "guru" tells us that the NICHE is the most important thing. They mostly quote the well known phrase "If everyone's your customer, then no-one is your customer". Find a small well defined niche and concentrate all your marketing efforts on it and success will surely follow they say.
The big challenge for most people of course is " How do I find that niche". Here are a few ways in which that can be accomplished.
The first question to ask yourself is "Who really needs what I want to sell? "
Thankfully, nowadays due to the power and reach of the internet, we can very quickly " dive into " conversations that other people are having that can provide vital clues as to their wants and needs. Forums and discussion groups are great places to start the research. Once you have chosen your area of expertise or interest finding such forums for discussion will provide a huge amount of information and insight into the needs and wants of people you want to sell to. "Tap into" these conversations to find out the answers to such questions as. What are people worried about? What keeps them awake at night? What makes them angry? Who are they angry at? What particular service or product do they have difficulty in finding?
Another way to find what people are really looking for is to study the conversations that you find in social media. People love to use their social media accounts to express their likes, needs, wants and more importantly frustrations about what affects them in everyday life. There are literally millions of these online "rants" posted every day. " Listening in " on these conversations and reading between the lines can again provide vital clues as to what people are really looking for.
Finding blogs is yet another way to learn about your target audience. Start by looking at the technorati website. This site provides a real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. It also provides popularity indexes.
Visit the bookstalls and look for the magazines that are on display and in particular those that are prominently displayed. Look at who is advertising in the magazines in your specialist area and how much space they are paying for. This is a good indication of a potential market. Remember the rule " what works offline, works online too " If your particular area of expertise or interest is say pets, then the fact that someone is advertising " designer pet collars and leads " shows that there is a market there. Similarly, look on the Search Engines and see who is using pay per click in a specialist niche. As a growth area, the pet market has shown very impressive growth over the past few years despite the recession. Another area that has proved "recession resistant" is weddings. People still want to spend money on their big day and on the honeymoon. Within this market there are numerous specialist niches that need to be catered for. Technical gadgets such as remote control toys are another popular area as people will spend money on their hobbies and passions.
If you are thinking of starting your own business in a particular area and are looking for a " ready made " business that can have you up and running straight away, why not take a look at http://www.yournichebusiness.co.uk
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