Finding Niche Markets to Serve

If you are going to change direction- in this case to become a successful internet entrepreneur from wherever it is you are now- then you need to find your niche markets first. What's a niche market?

For instance, my friend is a doctor but so what. There are so many other doctors around. If I am having a flu, I can go to any clinic for treatment. But what if he's a doctor who specializes in treating heart ailments. If I am having a heart disease, I have to go to a cardiologist or heart specialist to seek the best diagnosis.

Get what I am on about? That's what niche marketing is all about. Your 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 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 these prospects.
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 only serve niche markets? Obviously, you want to serve everyone, to never say no to a customer, to be in ever more markets, to be a broad market player. That's the problem most internet home based businesses have. They think that serving a broad market is incredibly profitable but that is rarely the smart choice. Today's competitive advantage is more about making the smart choices of which markets to compete in, and which not. This is likely to have much more impact on your bottom line.

Being a broad market player requires knowledge: a deeper knowledge of your existing markets, the relative value of different customers. But markets themselves are pretty unstable- constantly changing in shape and size, as well as composition- and tend to blur with others. Hence, you could drown in the rush to do everything, or in your desire to serve even the most unprofitable customers.

But focused niche markets enable 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. This help customers to buy from you. This is because customers usually prefer products or services that suit them perfectly.

For example, I am looking for a book on how to make money from the stock market. I found two web sites promoting books with the following title:

Broad Website: Book 1- 'How to make money in 90 days'

Niche Website: Book 2- 'How to make money from equities in 90 days'

If I am keen to make money from the stock market, which book do you think I should choose? The answer is quite obvious- I will buy from the niche website selling book 2: 'How to make money from equities in 90 days'. It fulfills my needs which is to learn how to make money from the stock market. Book 1 is just too broad. See what I mean about targeting your sales message with greater precision? You have to do this exercise if you are to forge ahead with the rest of the moneymakers. Questions to ask:

1. Is my niche market specific enough that I can develop sales messages so sharply focused that prospects believe I am talking specifically about them?
2. What is it that my current or prospective clients have in common?
3. How am I different from my competitors?
4. What is different about the services or products that I offer?
5. What are the 'extras' that I offer to the market?

Personally, I think you should know the answers to all the questions above. Write them down. Then,analyse them like a hawk and you should be able to define what your niche markets are.

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