The internet is pretty crowded these days. With over 4 billion internet users, it’s safe to say that every corner of the web is packed with potential customers.
This abundance of customers might seem like a good thing for any brand trying to make a sale, but it actually complicates the conversion process. How do you spend time and effort on the types of people you know are most likely to convert?
If you’ve ever heard the term “niche marketing,” this is what it’s all about! Finding your niche can make all the difference for a small business, but it’s not always easy to know how to go about it. Fortunately, you can identify your niche audience in no time at all if you follow these five simple steps.
1. Identify Your Talents and Passions
To figure out where your ideal niche is, you’ll need to spend a little time brainstorming about yourself. Where do your talents and skills lie? Do you have experience within a specific field or industry? Do you love working with a specific group of people or on a particular type of project? Jot down some ideas or make a list, because you’ll need it in the next steps.
2. Find Problems You Can Solve
With your list in hand, try to identify any items that could extend into problems you can solve. After all, even if you have all the talents in the world, you’ll never generate revenue if you can’t provide something your target audience actually needs. What are your customers’ motives for buying? How can you provide value?
3. Research the Market
Once you’ve identified potential areas where you have sufficient skills and an ability to provide solutions, it’s time to do some research. First, research your potential competitors. Is the market already saturated with similar businesses? Does it seem like there’s a viable market for what you’d be doing? Once you have a better understanding of your market, you may find the need to narrow things down even further. Acting as general business coaching, for example, isn’t the same thing as coaching specific to executives or HR teams.
4. Decide How Profitable Your Niche Is
With the information above, you should be able to analyze your niche’s profitability—which means more research! Analyze your average potential customer, including their demographics, hobbies, needs, location, and values. From there, consider the type and quality of your potential product, as well as the price point.
5. Do Some Testing
Last but certainly not least, it’s time to test things out in the real world. All of this planning won’t help unless you make time to experiment! Luckily, that’s easy to do these days: try setting up a landing page that offers pre-sales, free samples, or product information. Tracking the traffic and downloads can give you a good idea of how successful your targeted niche might be.
Whether you’re a digital nomad, a lifestyle influencer, or a marketing guru, finding your niche can help you streamline your efforts and convert more customers than ever. The steps above are quick and easy to start—at least until you get into in-depth testing—and they’ll tell you a lot about how your campaigns might perform with your new niche audience. Don’t forget to pair this tactic with other key strategies, like better market segmentation, for better results!
