Thursday 20 February 2014

What is Niche Marketing? Definition, Examples, Advantages & Strategies

Some businesses have the tendency to market their products and services to general markets, thinking that targeting everyone is more efficient, and that they score more sales this way. They’re wrong. In fact, it’s among the biggest strategy mistake business owners can make.

The thought of catering to the general market alone is enormous, and wastefully expensive as well. It would mean you would have to invest more money than you have expected for your regional, national, and even international marketing campaigns.

You’ll likely end up with a great imbalance that won’t do your business any good. Focusing on a smaller niche market instead is not only realistic and feasible; it’s the right thing to do! The demands of today’s very dynamic and hyper-competitive online marketplace are never simple.

To become successful in this venture, you are better off focusing your business and online marketing campaigns (especially with a small given budget) on a small and specialized niche market.

 

Niche Marketing: Definition

Niche marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on developing an effective marketing campaign that functions to target a specific market segment. Niche marketing concentrates all the marketing efforts on specified and well-defined population segments.

Niches do not really exist, but they are created or identified through the population’s needs, wants, and even requirements poorly addressed by general firms. As a smart and practical business strategy, experts see niche marketing as like a big fish interacting in small ponds, instead of the other way around. Niche marketing is also known as micromarketing in other cases.

Niche marketing produces various applications for all products/services sold by different business types, however. While the small online retailer deals only with a limited target niche marketing requirements, global brands everywhere utilize various niche marketing campaigns just to promote the same products targeted at different market sectors.

With the way the Internet functions in catering to our needs, niche marketing is able to fuse in with online business models smoothly as consumers are now able to search for any products and services online via specific keyword choices with ease. Niche marketing also involves the following:
  • The development of products/services intended for niche audiences.
  • The development of internet strategies and specific websites intended for niche marketing purposes.
  • The segmentation of your marketing campaigns into specific niche areas that bring about highly-targeted and effective campaigns.
This should allow the targeting of audience share.

 

Internet Niche Marketing - Popular Strategies for Success

Every successful online niche marketing strategy starts with identifying your niche market. Basically, we recognize two stumbling blocks before we can ever start our online marketing campaigns: finding and targeting a profitable niche market, and then narrowing the focus just enough to exclude seductive, yet distracting opportunities.

Business entrepreneurs that are paralyzed with the paradox of choice are seemingly in a much better position due to the available options. Having no idea where to get good ideas on the other hand, proves to be simply discouraging. There’s no reason for such discouragement, however. There will always be plenty of fishes to catch in the wide market sea.

You simply need to know how and where to look. Feasible niche markets always satisfy these three known factors:
  • Sufficiency of search traffic to signify the presence of demand.
  • Proven online buyers.
  • Access to it in terms of the competition involved.
Another winning strategy you must consider would be to win big time simply by “thinking small.” Start with the long-tail phenomenon. This is where you sell your products/services, or rather a wide range of such goods in smaller quantities.

The goods must be designed to resonate with the preferences of consumers as well. And it’s not surprising that many businesses have already embraced such strategy. It enables them to work around the intense competition that defined the mass markets.

Accessible information online has also made this particular niche marketing vital in all essence (especially in the fact that information stimulates and encourages comparison shopping), not to mention it’s much easier to do.

Showing your customers that you listen to them and take into account their inputs is another niche marketing strategy that also goes a long way in building and nurturing your business relationship with your customers. This is best achieved with online consumer-generated content (ratings, reviews, etc), rewarding you with immediate and constant feedbacks. With this already on the table, you can now listen closely so you can react quickly and get the most out of the situation.

 

Examples of Niche Marketing in Action

Niche marketing works because it allows you to search and target specific market segments that need your products or services. This means you can now identify and target a group of individuals who will benefit from what you are offering to them. Focusing on this group brings you lot of benefits, among them is the ability to engage them and nurture the business relationship you have started with them since you are able to focus your efforts on them.

 If you look at everyday products, you would definitely feel the long-tail blue print; if we were so used to wearing Levi’s, or Lee, we now enjoy other great options coming from different design houses. Hundreds of breweries on the other hand present a whole wide array of craft beers that suit every taste.

If you happen to be a tri athlete, a weight lifter, or a simple dieter, you can simply take a look around for a nutrition bar that fancies your eyes and taste. Everything works in great marvel these days. Facebook is another niche marketing concept that exploded in the market, spreading and reaching out to other niches exponentially. It started as an Internet forum designed for university students so they could have access to online content and share them with other online users.

The Facebook website, in its initial phases was marketed exclusively to college students before it spread like wildfire all over societal and cultural landscapes all over the world. Always remember that simply identifying market niches and targeting is never enough. Hordes of unique and attractive consumer products have failed in capturing the consumer’s imaginations all the time, which tells you there is no guarantee in guaranteeing such failures. Extensive market research should help better your chances.

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