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How to Find Your
Best Niche Market
Copyright 2005 Bob Leduc
http://BobLeduc.com
What is your target market? When I ask business owners that
question I usually hear something like...
* Small Business Owners
* Opportunity Seekers
* Doctors
* Homeowners
Do you define the targeted market for your business similar
to one of these? If you do, you're working harder and
spending more money than necessary to promote your business.
And you're getting only a fraction of the sales you should
be getting.
When you target a broad audience like those listed above,
you're only targeting prospects who CAN USE your product or
service. Your marketing efforts will be considerably more
profitable if you target prospects who are LIKELY TO USE
your product or service.
One of the best ways to do that is to find a "niche market".
What Is A Niche Market?
A niche market is a narrowly defined group that includes all
of the following:
1. Individuals in the group have the same specialized
interests and needs.
2. They have a strong need or desire for what you offer.
3. You have (or you can create) a compelling reason for
prospects in the group to do business with you instead of
with someone else.
4. You can easily reach individual prospects within the
group.
5. The group is large enough to produce the volume of
business you need.
6. The group is small enough that your competition is likely
to overlook it.
Why You Must Narrow Your Focus
A niche market enables you to target your sales messages
with great precision. The more narrowly you define your
niche market the easier it is to cater to the specifically
defined interests of people in that market.
For example, some businesses describe their target market as
"opportunity seekers". But this is a broad audience. You
cannot cater to specifically defined personal interests of
individuals in this group because it may include all of the
following:
* Executives who want to get out of the corporate
environment and start their own business.
* New mothers who want to start a home based business.
* Students who want to generate some extra income.
Any promotional message to this group would have to be very
general. But people don't respond to general talk. They
respond only when they feel you are talking directly to them
about their individual needs.
Special Advantage: A highly defined, small niche market can
insulate you from competition. Other small businesses are
likely to overlook it. Large businesses will find the market
segment too small to bother with.
How to Find a Profitable Niche Market
One way to find a good niche market is to evaluate your
existing customers. Can you uncover a segment of customers
with similar characteristics?
For example, I recently talked with a network marketer
working with a health products company. About a year ago she
noticed that many distributors in her organization were
health or physical education teachers.
She now has a lot of success targeting a niche market of
female physical education teachers who are married, have
children and are members of the same professional
association.
Another way to find a niche market is to work backward from
the benefits you offer. Start by listing all the benefits
provided by your product or service. Then list some of the
characteristics of prospects whose current situation can be
dramatically improved by those benefits. You should begin to
see a narrowly defined group emerge as a niche market.
It's Your Bottom Line
How specific is your target market? Can you develop sales
messages so sharply focused your prospects believe you're
talking specifically to them?
If not, use the information in this article to help you find
the best niche market for you. Then tailor your sales
messages to the specific interests and needs of that niche
market. You'll see an immediate increase in your sales and
profits.
Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find
new customers and increase sales. He just released a New
Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast
With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a
newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll
find his low-cost marketing methods at:
http://BobLeduc.com
or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV
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