Using the Ideas of Niche Marketing to Survive and Excel in Internet Marketing
Of course the two are related. Internet marketing and niche marketing bounce off each other’s ideas to produce a product or service with better value and appeal. But how exactly can you use one to enhance the other?
Whether you are an experienced internet marketer or a newbie, you’ve probably heard that nagging voice deep inside you say that there’s more to internet marketing than meets the eye. And truly, there is. If you take the millions and millions of products and services being sold online, you’d be overwhelmed. The volume is simply enormous.
Is Internet Marketing Dead?
You’ve probably heard of this one or maybe you have gotten hold of a copy of this e-book which has taken the internet by storm. Should you be very afraid? Well, fear is relative and it’s one of our basic modes for survival. If you fear that there is nothing much left to squeeze out of internet marketing, then you can relax. There is more.
Internet marketing can be difficult and with the ridiculously high level of competition facing internet marketers, it can be downright intimidating. However, there’s one secret weapon that can make internet marketing look good again: niche marketing.
What is niche marketing?
Basically, niche marketing is producing a product or service for a highly targeted group of individuals with a very specialized need. It is an old trick, but a very useful one. It might be the good news internet marketers have been waiting for to breathe new life to a nearly stale internet marketing situation.
To illustrate how niche marketing can contribute to internet marketing, let’s take for example health food products, specifically health bars. Now we all know that more than 60% of health conscious consumers probably buy the more popular brands, but there is still that 40%. Is this your niche market? Yes and no.
That 40% represents the untapped market that has remained out of reach from the giant health food manufacturers. They are probably those who remain ambivalent to the big, popular health bar brands and stick to smaller ones, or maybe they are those who like to try new things. In any case, they have the big potential of being your niche market. So, yes, they are your niche.
However, to put it realistically, not everyone in this 40% of your potential market may want to do business with you. There may be those who won’t give your product the time of the day or those who simply don’t want to try it. In any case, expect to lose a percentage of this market for several reasons.
Zeroing in on your niche market
So how do you find your niche? Simple. Create a product that will address the particular needs of that 40% or a portion of it. In the above example, perhaps you can produce a health bar that will address the growing need of diabetic sports enthusiasts. There are many diabetics who actually engage in sports and most of them turn to health bars for nutrition and supplement. However, not every health bar in the market is specifically designed for athletes or sports enthusiasts who happen to be diabetic.
Once you realize that you have found your niche, then that’s the time you can actually perform research on your intended product and the market you are targeting. This is to make sure that you have a complete understanding of what your market needs and how your product can meet their requirements.
How niche marketing can enhance internet marketing
Niche marketing can provide products and services to people whose special needs are often not met or sometimes ignored by the more generalized approach that internet marketing uses. These needs don’t necessarily fall off the wayside, but these are often not addressed properly. It is this need that niche marketing can use to provide a more varied and focused product or service.
You’ve probably seen it – smaller businesses and one-of-a-kind inventories, products unavailable elsewhere, little online shops that don’t necessarily go head-to-head with the major companies, but thrive in an online environment that has enough room for marketers who were astute enough to recognize a need and fill it.
This is how niche marketing makes internet marketing easy. It goes where no one thought to go or simply because someone was just too busy to notice. This is how internet marketing can continue to thrive and provide fresh blood to new entrepreneurs as well as experienced ones.
