Selecting a Niche: Some Starting Points

Before we start searching for your new niche, lets review how the niche marketing process works.

•    Step 1 – You need to pick a viable niche.
•    Step 2 – You need to study and understand the niche.
•    Step 3 – You need to create and/or find a product to promote to this niche. (This is where you provide a solution to them)
•    Step 4 – You design your campaign, copywriting, and drive traffic to your niche website.
•    Step 5 – You generate nice niche profits.

In my next couple of posts we will discover a number of free tools you can use to assist in this process of selecting a niche.  But before we go into depth on using these tools lets start deciding what niche we want to research and develop.

There are 3 main themes that are highly lucrative for niche marketing, that you should be aware of. They are: –

1.    Health
2.    Wealth
3.    Relationships

You can never really go wrong with these as starting points when selecting a niche.  There are always people having problems and desperately looking solutions in all three.

However, these 3 categories mentioned here are very broad. So what you need to do is to use the tools, that will be demonstrated later, to dig deeper into these broad categories before selecting a niche to exploit.

That way you can become the “expert” to provide specific solutions to your new niche easier, faster and better.

In addition to these broad categories you may want to think in terms of broad motivations that people may have within a category.

For example, think of ‘people in transition’. If someone has just lost their job, they are more likely to be searching for solutions and willing to take action when an appropriate solution presents itself.

Another example would be a wife filing for a divorce. This is also a transitional period where the couple may be looking for a specific solution for the family or solutions on how to move forward with their relationship.

Sometimes one side of the couple may even be seeking out advice to get back together with the spouse or partner.

So people in transitions are normally ‘hungry’ because they are desperately in need to get out of their current chaos.

Another lucrative type of market is the ‘in the news trends’. While these may or may not be long lived niches, they can be highly profitable while they are prominent in the public’s mind.

In the news trends are often just a quick dash or sometimes a prolonged situation. Often it’s a wave that needs to be caught. An example of ‘In the news trend’ would be the recent retrenchment and unemployment news.

News stories about the current recession and high unemployment rates are all over the news. These people are currently in chaos. They’ve lost their jobs and need to find a solution as soon as possible to sustain their lifestyle and their monthly commitments.

While this may always be the case to some extent, when you are in a major trend it’s wise to use effective marketing to capitalize on the situation.

Another example might be ‘celebrity diets’.

News about the latest celebrity diets are evident in gossip magazines, TV channels, and on various trend indicators as we will discuss. When you see a trend capturing the media’s attention, it is ‘hot.’   People will very often craze about it during that period of time.

Again it takes some nimbleness, but niche marketers who are prepared to catch and ride on these waves can generate extraordinary niche profits.

So when thinking about effective marketing for a new niche consider not just what niche, but whether you can identify some “moving force” that might motivate people within your new niche to take action.

Niche Market Research Objectives

Market research is the foundation and key to all successful niche programs. It is important to identify and research an appropriate niche before you decide which product or products to sell.

The first step is finding your niche. You want a target audience that is hungry for a solution to a problem they have. And that are willing to pay for a proper solution.

This second point is important. There are hungry niches that are not willing to pay for a solution, particularly where the solution is information. Now there are many niches where people will be willing to pay for quality information but not all. You want to avoid a niche that doesn’t already have competitors selling to them because the odds are they aren’t buyers.

Once you have found a new niche, you want to understand their problems, trends and behaviors. This means you will need to spend some time learning about the niche, listening and discussing issues that affect them, and research the existing products and vendors that are active in the niche.

The result of your market research and analysis should be a thorough understanding of the niche, so that you are an actual expert in the niche. This doesn’t mean you need be the most informed person, but clearly the better you understand your new niche the better.

As part of this new market research you will examine the existing products and services offered and determine there strengths and weaknesses. As you gain familiarity with the niche you will want to do trend research to see where the niche is going. To the extent their is a trend you clearly want to get in front of it and become its leader.

Where there is no trend you will need to focus on what’s missing? What subset of the niche is still having a problem that’s not being met.
If such a subset exists, you have found a new niche.

Perhaps the dominant product is the best product for the time being. Will you be able to market it better than it is now, now that you have a clearer understanding of the niche.

Each journey into finding a niche and creating niche profits is different.
But each successful niche marketing research project seeks to:

  • Identify Specific Market Needs
  • Identify Price Range of Existing Products in the Market
  • Evaluate the Quality and Effectiveness of the Existing Products
  • Focus on Understanding the Demographic Base of the Niche

When you are done with your research, you should be able to identify your specific audience, and know exactly what they are looking for.  You should be clear on how you can help them meet those needs and have a specific solution to their problems. And finally you should be able to establish a solid case for why they should listen to you, when you offer them your solution.