Introduction to Niche Marketing – Part 1

A ‘niche’ is defined as: “A special area of demand for a product or service”.

‘Marketing’ is defined as: “The things to do to make sure opportunities to buy or sell are turned into actual purchase”. Put the two together to answer the question…

WHAT IS NICHE MARKETING?

“Niche marketing” means “The things to do to make sure opportunities to buy or sell are turned into actual purchase in a special area of demand”.

All that really means is that a product or service is being sold to the people who are most interested in that particular product or service and not to the world in general.

Often times, big businesses use niche marketing. For example, a company that makes computers and computer accessories might advertise all-in-one copy/printer/scanners to the home computer user while at the same time advertising single function machines to large businesses.

One of the things that make niche marketing so attractive to sellers is that their advertising budgets go further. It costs less to advertise to a specialized market than it does to advertise to a broader market.

Niche marketing must be designed to meet the unique needs of the targeted audience. Niche marketers must tailor their product to meet those unique needs.

If, for example, you have designed a product to make it easy for Honda cars owners to maintain their vehicles easy, those who own BMWs will not be interested in your product. Those who own Mercedes Benz cars or Toyotas couldn’t care less. If you have written an e-book that will explain how to start and succeed at an online business, those who are looking for that information are your niche market. Those who are happy doing what they are doing are not interested at all.

Niche marketing is a very effective and cost efficient way to advertise and sell specific products or services to a specific audience or, hopefully, buyers of that product or service.

WHAT NICHE MARKETING REALLY IS

It is just one of those hard, cruel facts of life that the big boys have all the money they need to advertise and sell their products and us little guys are on advertising budgets that are so small they probably don’t add up to what the big boys spend on paper clips in a month. Competing with the big boys isn’t feasible…or possible, for that matter. So what are we little guys supposed to do?

Niche marketing is our answer. We can’t advertise our products and services to the world at large but we don’t have to be able to do that to be able to make a pretty decent living….thanks to the Internet.

Niche marketing is selling specific products or services to a limited audience. One person with a computer, an internet connection and a good idea can go into business for himself on the Internet and target the people who would be most interested in what he has to sell and do all of the above on a very limited advertising budget.

Finding the right niche for what you have to sell isn’t really all that difficult. Just think about whom the people are who would be most interested in what you have to sell. For example, if you have concocted a shampoo formula that will take chlorine out of a person’s hair, you can’t compete with giant companies that sell shampoo but you can narrow your market down to a niche and target sales to those who have swimming pools. You buy a domain, get a server, and build a website to advertise your product JUST to people who have swimming pools.

In essence, niche marketing is selling a product or service to those who want or need the product the most.

I’d continue in part 2. Stay tuned.

Cheers