Do you have a grasp on the potential niche your brand might operate within?
While niche markets are much smaller than broad ones, successfully tapping into them can be incredibly lucrative in the long run.
In this article, I will show you the value of moving into niche markets, and how to reach the target audience of your chosen one.
Short on time? Here are the key takeaways
- For brands with little reputation or awareness, niching down can be a fantastic way to get a foothold in their desired market by building a loyal customer base.
- Niche markets can be found by reviewing competitor behavior, as well as selecting broader categories and niching down from there.
- Niche markets may seem like a step back because they are smaller, but a loyal following is vital for any startup brand to gain traction in a broader market.
What is a Niche Market?
But first, I should start by defining what I mean by a ‘niche’ market. In simple terms, a niche market is a smaller segment of a much larger market. For example, the broader market could be male trainers, and the niche market would be Olympic-lifting male trainers.
The audience for these trainers is much smaller but also much more specific. Catering to this particular group of consumers means adhering to their specific needs and preferences, which in this example would be trainers with a flatter sole and a wide toe box.
When deciding whether or not you have identified a niche market, here’s a quick checklist you can use:
- What is the size of the market? Niche markets tend to be much smaller than broader ones.
- What is the target audience? For a niche market, you should be able to identify a well-defined group of customers with shared interests, characteristics, and needs.
- Does this audience show signs of brand loyalty? Customers in nice markets are often incredibly loyal to brands that cater to their unique needs.
Why Are Niche Markets so Important for Startups?
Now I know what you’re probably thinking. ‘Why on earth would I cut my target audience by as much as 75%? Surely, as a new brand, I should be trying to reach as many people as possible?”
Well, the truth is that if you take a generalist approach to your targetted audience, you will struggle to meet any of their needs completely, making it hard to sway them to change from their usual brand purchases.
Remember, as a founder, you are fighting a fun (albeit uphill) battle as you are competing with established brands, trying to convince their customers to jump ship and give you a try.
So, put yourself in your target audience’s shoes. If you are not meeting their specific requirements, why would they change their consumer behavior?
Instead, by focusing on fully meeting a select few’s needs, you stand a much better chance of turning them into loyal repeat customers, which can then set the foundations for your business to grow into a larger marketplace in the future.
How to Reach a Niche Market
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how you can reach a niche market.
Start niching down from broader categories
The best place to find a niche market is by starting in a broad one! Let’s say, for example, you’re interested in creating a new clothing brand. You can start by looking at male and female clothing and niche down from there.
For example, you could close in specifically on male and female sports clothing, and from there, you could niche down into specific clothing within specific sports.
You could become the go-to brand for brand-new golf trousers before venturing further into other golf clothing further down the line, and then other sports, and so on.
You may know Amazon as one of the biggest brands in the world, offering almost everything under the sun, but that isn’t how it started.
Instead, it started focusing on the niche market of selling second-hand books online and has gone from strength to strength since then.
Identify niche market keywords
Once you’ve identified your nice, it’s time to reach your target audience. Using our golf trousers example, you can then search for related golfing terms that will attract the right audience to your brand, writing SEO-friendly content that suits their needs.
Another benefit of going after a niche market is that the ranking difficulty becomes much easier.
Take a look at this data from Ahrefs, using the golf example once more.
Keyword term: Golf
Keyword difficulty: 84
Search volume per month: 81,000
Keyword term: Golf clothing
Keyword difficulty: 56
Search volume per month: 5,300
Keyword term: Golf
Keyword difficulty: 84
Search volume per month: 81,000
Keyword term: Golf trousers
Keyword difficulty: 5
Search volume per month: 7,500
As you can see from this snapshot of data, the term ‘golf trousers’ is much easier to try and rank for than ‘golf’ and still provides plenty of traffic potential for new brands.
As a new business, Google needs to see that you are a legitimate company before providing you with what’s known as a high ‘Domain Rating’. Without a high DR, it doesn’t matter how great your content is; Google won’t rank it highly in the results.
However, that issue largely disappears for low-competition keywords, and as more customers come to your site from these sources, purchase from you, and leave reviews, your DR will increase, and then you can tackle larger terms.
Identify potential groups on social media
Another way of reaching your niche market is via social media, either by creating content they want to see or even by DMing them directly. It’s a tactic several of our founders have used to build hype and expectation before brand launches and to great success.
Engage with your target audience in a friendly manner, and try not to be too pushy or ‘salesly’ in your messaging. This can be a big turn-off for potential customers, as they are often bombarded by brands trying to get their attention.
Track competitor performance
Lastly, a great way to identify and contact your niche market is to track competitor performance and behavior. Identify brands in your niche, find their social media profiles, and note down their followers.
As your competition, you know these followers are already interested in the product or service you provide, so reaching out to them is likely to be much more successful.
Found Your Niche? Now it’s Time to Grow Your Brand
If you’re seeking advice on how to plan a marketing strategy or need a personal coach to discuss the best business practices for growth, consider Foundr+. By signing up for just $1, you gain instant access to over 30 courses and more than 1,000 lessons led by top experts, including multi-millionaire Gretta van Riel. Sign up here.
