Know your niche
When you first launch your brand the temptation is to take a mass marketing approach, trying to appeal to everyone, after all you want to reach the largest possible audience with your new brand. But the danger is by trying to appeal to everyone, you actually appeal to no one. By selling to a niche you can stand out from your competitors and become an authority in your chosen area, which will ultimately attract a bigger audience.
Benefits of a niche approach
By targeting a specific sector of customers you can focus all your resources there, attracting customers who have a real need for your product, and if it solves their problem they will become loyal advocates for you in the future. All businesses started small, even the well known global brands of today. By starting with this small group you will encourage positive reviews and word of mouth which can carry you into larger and more profitable markets.
Finding your niche market
So how do you go about identifying your particular niche? Firstly identify what particular need or problem your business solves, how can you provide value to customers? Research your competition, what are others doing in the market, is a particular need being unmet or just not serviced well, that presents a gap you could fill? Try interviewing customers of competitors, what are they unhappy with, which of their needs are not met.
Is it profitable
Before going all out on your niche you need to assess if it can provide the profit you need. Some things to consider in determining this are: demographics – are customers in your niche market likely to have the income necessary to buy from you?; competition – are many other companies selling something similar – this could dilute your profits; price point – can you price your product in the market at a level to gives you the profit you need?
Test first
Before fully launching some simple testing will give you feedback to know if your onto a winner or not. Create a landing page for the new product or service and offer free trails or samples. This will let you know if interest is there before fully committing. If the results are disappointing it’s not necessarily back to square one, it maybe a case of tweaking some key areas. Do further research try to identify weak points in your offering and try again.
So when you come to market your product or service remember to know your niche.
