Defining Your Niche: Cheers to Your Success!

It seems like everybody's talking about "niche marketing" these days. There is almost a sense of urgency about "finding your niche", "targeting your audience", “appealing to your viewers/readers”, “tagging according to your customers’ preferences”... How are you doing on any of these?

If I was to ask you to describe right now, in one short sentence, your “niche” market, would you be able to answer right away, without hesitation?

Most of new small entrepreneurs don’t really focus on a specific niche when they first launch their businesses. Many will start selling their handmade creations after family and friends suggested they open an online store or had had a couple of successful home party events.

But turning a passion or hobby into profits takes a little more than creation and hard work. In fact, it takes less work once you’ve figured out one thing or two about your potential buyers...

This week, we’ll explore the concept of Niche Market. I will describe what it is and help you to define your niche.

So what is a “Niche Market”?
“A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing on; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact.”

In other words, a “niche market is a relatively small and specialist, yet profitable, market."

Why is it so critical to define your niche market?
Because a niche market will give your business power as it will allow you to define who you are marketing and specifically selling/offering your goods and services to.

The most common misconception about selling online is that “if you build it they will come” or that having an online business will make you wealthy right away. The reality is that you have to find your niche market, offer a product or service that people are demanding and get them to come to you, in order to reach a level of financial success via the internet.

Let’s say you’re a dog breeder that decides to give a try at selling its cute and adorable puppies online. To be successful fast, would you choose to list under the “Dogs” advertising column or would you rather select the “Puppy Dogs” column? Why? Because you know people looking for a puppy will start their searches by screaning the "puppy" colomn. In the "Dogs" world, "Puppies" is a niche.

The same applies whether selling jewelry, clothing, art... or whatever. Making the most amazing yoga outfits for women and deciding to target the “Women” market will most likely bring less sales and success in a short period of time than offering them to “active women looking to wearing comfortable clothes”.

Is the concept of niche market a bit clearer to you now?

Let’s see if it is. I will now ask you to define your Niche Market. Simply answer these simple questions. Don’t think about them too much, just write down whatever first comes to mind. Once you've completed them, analyze the answers and it will be easy to define your niche market.

· What is it that my current clients have in common (age, gender, behaviour, location...)?
· How do I set myself apart from the competition (eco friendly, unusual, one of a kind...)?
· What need does my product-service fulfill/problem does it solve?
· What is different about the services/products that I offer?
· What are the "extras" that I bring?

Now bring it all together in a simple, short sentence. Voilà!

Have fun with this and test it. Include some of your finds in your products descriptions, shop profile, tags...

Next week, I’ll be discussing a little more about marketing strategies you can easily adapt to your niche.

Have a wonderful week and many sales,

Patricia Wood

VerreDesign

http://www.verredesign.etsy.com

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