Monday, March 31st, 2008

How To Identify, Exploit, and Profit From Niche Markets

Tip! Build and promote your web site – to develop a profitable web site for your niche product you need to create a number of informative pages that will not only attract visitors from the search engines, but inform and move them to purchase from your site.

There are two basic approaches to advertising or lead generation… the shotgun approach… or the rifle approach.

There is only one cost efficient way… the rifle approach.

By carefully selecting specific niche markets, or market segments, and presenting a compelling message directly to that audience, you will begin to reap the real profit rewards of direct marketing.

First let’s define a “niche” market. I define it as: “Any homogeneous market in which the members of the group have similar occupational, interests, or lifestyle characteristics… those characteristics being ones which would make them an excellent prospect to benefit from your services… and/or consume your products.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF TARGETING OCCUPATIONAL MARKETS FOR A “WELLNESS” NICHE…

Some of the niche markets are obvious:

* Chiropractors

* Medical Doctors, Nurses

* Health Food Stores

* Fitness Centers

* Spas, Health Retreats

* Acupuncturists, Massage Therapists, etc.

Tip! Another great way to get content online though, is to join membership sites like Nicheology and Push Button Health. These sites give you a steady flow of rough draft content for one set price each month.

* Veterinarians, Pet Clinics, Pet Shops (wellness is not limited to humans)

NICHE LIFESTYLE AND DEMOGRAPHIC RELATED MARKETS…

=> Senior citizens or “baby boomers”

=> Specific Disease Sufferers… cancer, diabetes, arthritis, ADD, Lupus, etc. (Remember, we can make NO claims.)

=> Pre-natal, Pregnant Women, Babies, Parenting

Audio Niche Automator. Cash In By Converting Old EBook(R)s Into Great New Audio Products.

=> Sports participants and enthusiasts

=> Health & Fitness Buyers

=> Vitamin, Supplement, Remedy Buyers

=> Etc. Etc.

HOW TO TARGET THE NICHE…

Regardless of how you intend to approach the niche with your marketing message… print advertising, broadcast, direct mail, e-mail marketing, etc. … you have to identify resources that can supply the targeted pathway for your message.

Latest IProfit: Niche,Template, EBook(R. Profiteering From Quality IProfit Niche, Template, EBook(R), And Software Packages With Master Resell Rights.

The first place to look… and a pure qualifier for whether you have identified a real niche in the first place… is to look for magazines and other print media (newsletters) that are targeted specifically to that defined market… and that can supply you with targeted mailing lists (snail mail or opt-in email) , print advertising vehicles (magazines, newsletters, newspapers, trade journals, etc.), to cost effectively reach the niche.

Jason Profit Moffatts Niche Browser. Your Customers And Visitors Will Love You To Death.

Where do you find these resources? The easiest and fastest way is to do a search at Google (or your favorite search engine) for terms that closely identity the target audience.

Tip! Test a smaller niche product first.

For purposes of example let’s use the occupational niche of Chiropractors:

Searching Google for “chiropractic magazines” will show us a link… http://www.chiro.org/LINKS/journal.shtml … which will in-turn identify several publications which show promise:

* Chiropractic Economics

* DC Products Review

* Dynamic Chiropractic

* Today’s Chiropractic

Once you have identified several publications that serve the niche market, your next step is to contact each publication and request a “full media kit” from the advertising department. The publications ad department will send you a copy of the publication, advertising rate card, and other marketing materials touting the advantages of advertising with them.

SELECTING MEDIA…

Study the contents of the media kit carefully. Especially look at the ads which could be considered competitors for your product. If you are lucky enough to live near a large university or public library here is a trick used by many savvy advertisers… go the library and see if there is an old copy of the magazine in question. Go back at least a year or two. If you find the same advertisers in the old publications you can safely assume that the publication is pulling a profit for their advertising. This is not fail-safe… but it is a good indicator.

Niche Property Developing Secrets Uncove A real way to wealth Secrets that a small elite group of people keep to themselves. Any one can be a Niche Property developer A.

Also, don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call an existing advertiser, or two–or ten, and ask them how the publication pulls for them. Direct competitors will be reluctant to talk with you about this… but non-competitors will usually respond with some good information.

Auction Inspector – Niche Finding Software for eBay New Product with Low Competition. auctioninspector.

Be alert to the difference between “circulation” and “readership”. Only make your advertising decisions on the basis of verified circulation. Readership is a figure that publications like to toss around to inflate the perceived importance and size of their audience. The only real measure worthy of your consideration is their “audited circulation”.

TESTING…

Only test one niche publication at a time unless you have very sophisticated ad tracking available to you. If the niche is unresponsive to your offer in one publication… there is a very good chance that it will be unresponsive in all the other publications which address that niche. Refine your offer… and test the same publication again. If it fails the second time with a completely different offer… then you might want to re-evaluate that niche.

Easy Niche Store Script The Easy Niche Store Script is a PHP script that PLUGS IN to your existing (PHP based) website or existing Ecommerce site to allow you to display Ebay products via RSS.

MAILING LISTS…

Make sure that you inquire as to whether or not the publication will rent you their mailing list.

Most will rent you a set of subscribers names for a one-time use. If you rent a set of names… do not attempt to copy and re-mail those names. The lists are seeded with trace names that will alert the publications of your re-use of the names. It is a violation of the terms-of-use agreement and there is much case law to support the claims of the publication. If you are caught re-using one-time-use rental names you will be subject to fines and penalties by law.

Tip! Define your niche market – do the necessary research to see if there is a market for your niche product.

Names are usually available by specific “sorts” or “selects”… that is, you can select names by such variables as zip code, gender, title, etc. If you are mailing to a niche market you may want to confine your original test mailing to zip codes which are close to your own… to make follow-up easier and less costly.

Become An Expert In Any Niche In 30 Days. Become An Expert In Any Niche In 30 Days Or Less.

Names which reflect paid subscribers are more responsive and of better quality than names which are “free controlled circulation” names… although in most trade publications you will find that “controlled circulation” (free) is the norm.

Another way to approach logistics of direct mailing is to contact a “list broker” or “lettershop” in your local area and begin a relationship with a knowledgeable staff person. Define closely what you are looking for in the way of target audience and the broker will use seek out and present options for you to select from.

Strategies To Dominate Any Niche. Devastate Your Competition By Getting Their Customers To Refuse Buying From Anyone Else, But You.

If you are dealing with email lists… make absolutely sure they are from double opt-in subscribers. Push the media reps for verification of this point and get guarantees to that effect in writing.

Opportunities In Niche Marketing. In Demand Products For Small Niche Markets.

You may want to subscribe to Target Marketing Magazine, Direct, DM News, Catalog Age, and other direct marketing trade publications… all are free. They are full of marketing resources, list brokers, and helpful articles that will educate and inform you on the field of direct marketing.

Plr Packages – Fresh Niche Content. Quality Articles With Private Label Rights.

Well, there you have it… a primer on targeting niche markets. The techniques described above will work to identify any niche. Targeting responsive niches will build your business quickly, profitably… and cost effectively!

(C) Copyright 2005… Thom Reece is the creator of Online Marketing Resource Center [ http://www.e-comprofits.com ] and the CEO of Online Marketing Group in Hawaii. Thom can be reached by email at: thom’AT’e-comprofits.com

Share and Enjoy:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • NewsVine
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • YahooMyWeb
  • Google Bookmarks
  • Yahoo! Buzz
  • TwitThis
  • Live
  • LinkedIn
  • Pownce
  • MySpace

2 Responses to “How To Identify, Exploit, and Profit From Niche Markets”

reece's Says:

reece’s…

I Googled for something completely different, but found your page…and have to say thanks. nice read….

Catherine Says:

Catherine…

I love your site. They really look very nice. The articles provided are long enough to provide great content but not so long as to be totally engrossing, if you know what I mean….

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.