A niche market is one that serves specialized interests and specific industries. If you’re a startup, probably the first thing you asked yourself was whether you wanted to focus on a small niche or diversify from day one.
There are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to this.
Some of the most successful and influential entrepreneurs of our time such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs began their journey with some very specific starting point, such as a particular interest, specialized skillsets, a hobby, a dream, or a calling.
Today, Amazon is no longer the niche marketplace it once was. It now covers every category you could possibly imagine including clothing, shoes, apparel, jewelry, hardware, electronics, computers, automobiles, and sports. It’s a dizzying array of goods; more like close to 600 million different products as of this writing.
But even Amazon, as big as it is now, started with one particular niche – books. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s CEO and founder, knew it would be difficult to achieve success in this type of business if he didn’t have a niche.
He needed a starting point that will allow him to do three things:
- Identify his customers;
- Isolate their specific problems; and
- Drive targeted solutions
The rest, as they say, is history. These five lessons I learned from Jeff Bezos are a the foundations for building and running a thriving online business. I am sharing them with you to help put you in the right perspective with regard to your niche and your target audience.
- You can set your price
If your niche is one which is well-defined and highly specific, you have much less to worry about in terms of competition or having your Amazon FBA listings hijacked from right under your nose. What this means for you is that as long as you are properly addressing your customers’ specific needs, you can pretty much demand your price. Your audience would be more than willing to pay for your services and products.
During Amazon’s early years, Jeff Bezos solved a huge consumer problem that has been unaddressed for decades. Before Amazon came to be, book buyers and collectors were scattered all over the place. Back then if you wanted to buy a number of different books, you have to go to various different locations to find them.
Jeff Bezos changed all that by creating a centralized bookstore that greatly simplified the proces. And take note that Bezos wasn’t too shy about charging a higher amount than conventional bookstores either. Consumers were more than willing to pay for that convenience.
- Most niche markets are below the radar of large companies
Big companies are mostly interested in businesses with a broad spectrum of products and services. It’s rare to find a big player that has the patience and time to fully focus on a tiny segment of its overall audience base.
That’s why if you’re engaged in a niche market, you’re insulated from the big players. This is particularly true if you are doing great in your niche. That can be for a couple of reasons:
- Big companies do not have the inclination to engage in a business with a fairly limited audience base, especially if that niche is beyond the range of their interest. Doing so would force them to change the way they handle and manage their business processes – a move that may be detrimental to a company’s long term performance.
- Big companies often do not have the time, resources, know-how, patience or agility to meet the needs of a niche market on a personalized level. This puts your small niche business way ahead of the curve.
- Allows for more in-depth customer profiling
Catering to the needs of a specialized market segment allows you to create a more accurate customer persona. Guided by your intimate understanding of your customer base, you can make marketing decisions that would put your brand and business in the best light.
With today’s technology, we have the ability to access social media and various marketing tools instantly. Leverage those tools for establishing trust and rapport with your audience. This will allow you to gain deeper insight as to what makes your audience tick, and then come up with real solutions that will build a long-lasting relationship with them.
- You already have a ready market
Brands that don’t have a niche often struggle to be heard. That’s because they haven’t taken the time to segregate and identify the kind of audience they want to reach. By contrast, a niche has : a customer base waiting for you to link up with their needs.
It’s impossible to cater to a wide base of customers in one go. It’s more effective to start small, and target only those who match your ideal customer profile. This will allow you to formulate marketing strategies to help maximize your returns with minimal effort.
- Higher conversion rates
The cardinal rule of niche marketing is do not pitch your business to a general audience. The key strategy is to narrow it down until you have a core audience that wants to hear your message. If you have thousands of visitors checking out your site every day, but none of them are buying, then all your hard work means nothing.
Targeting a specific group of audience, on the other hand, will generate sales for you, since these people are in your store with the intention of buying. They are there because you have something they want that they can’t find elsewhere.
Conclusion
It’s time to put your new knowledge to practical use. Start creating niche-specific content for your site to draw the attention of prospects. Engage them through social media. Tell them stories of your triumphs and failures. Relate with their pain and frustrations. Before long, you have a core group of followers who are convince you have the answers to their problems.
This is how you gain prominence in your niche and dominance in your market.
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