Niche Market vs. Selling a Product

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A lot of times we think we’ve got the perfect “niche market” when what we actually have is a product we’re already selling (or would like to sell) … and now we’ve decided it’s a “niche market.” Derek Gehl said it perfectly when he said, “A niche market is a group of people who are searching the Internet for a solution to their problem - and not finding many relevant results.” Most people go on the Internet to find information … not to purchase something … so that’s what we need to give them.

Let’s use the vitamin and wellness business as an example. A representative who is selling these type products might think that their target market is … well … everyone walking the face of the planet because “everyone” should be taking vitamins. Well, they are going to have a very tough time being successful with that way of thinking.

In fact, ideally your online business would start this way:

1. Write down all of your hobbies, interests, and passions
2. Do key word research on all possible terms related to each and every subject
3. Look at the competition for the subjects that have a market
4. Look at forums and blogs for a hungry market (what is their problem and can you find a solution)

But, for this example our representative is already in business let’s see how we can back into finding them a niche market.

I would start by brainstorming every word that I personally associate with health and wellness. You want to use subjects that are important to you because it will be a whole lot easier to be passionate and stay interested in something that matters to you personally. For me that would be: healthy, sickness, allergies, back pain, joint pain, fibromyalgia, weight loss, fatigue, kid’s health, immune system … that’s a good start.

Now I would go to my favorite keyword research tools and plug them in one at a time. I usually keep a Word Doc open and copy/paste my results so I can compare my findings. If I find fibromyalgia has good traffic I would then do a Google search for fibromyalgia + forum and fibromyalgia + blog and see what I find. I would probably also go to Yahoo Answers and see what I find there. I’m looking for a common thread … what type of information are these people online looking for? What are the symptoms of fibromyalgia? How do you control fibromyalgia pain? What do you take for fibromyalgia? This will give me my niche market … my target market … people who want to “control fibromyalgia pain” for instance.

Now I can further research my key words and phrases, I now know what type of content I need, I have a marketing approach, I know where to hang out to help my target market … and I can help solve their problem … and in this case it would be with the supplements I sell that are known to help fibromyalgia.

Of course then you would want to “rinse and repeat” with allergies, weight loss, etc.

Do you have a niche market … or just a product? Share your thoughts … we’d love to hear from you! *SmiLes* Suzanne

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