What is Niche Marketing About?
In the picture above, we have one white rubber duck that stands out amongst all the regular yellow rubber ducks.
That white duck is a niche rubber duck!
In fact, when I was looking for an image to represent niche marketing, I found photos of many different types of rubber ducks – these are very cute and popular toys for children and adults alike.
I expect there are people out there who collect rubber ducks and are on the lookout for unusual and specific variations – there’s a niche market right there!
Regular vs Niche Rubber Ducks:
How to Define a Niche Market
A niche market is a segment of a larger market that has a unique difference that sets it apart from the larger market.
Let’s take shoes for example.
We all need them so there’s always going to be a profit to be made from shoes. Shoes are a HUGE Market.
Right away, there are 3 LARGE market segments within the market for shoes:
- Womens Shoes
- Mens Shoes
- Kids Shoes
Let’s focus on Womens Shoes and break down this large market a little further into smaller market segments:
- Dress Shoes
- Casual Shoes
- Boots
- Sports Shoes
Each of these smaller market segments could also be broken down into even smaller segments – like stiletto shoes, mocassins, western boots and gym shoes.
You get the point.
These are niche markets. It looks like this:
So by focusing on a niche market segment, you are targeting those people who are specifically looking for the products in your niche.
This is niche marketing.
Remember that in Affiliate Marketing overall, your potential customer base typically already knows what they are looking to buy when they do a search on Google or in another search engine.
By targeting this specific group of people, you are aiming to gain search engine rankings in your niche so that when they do their searching, your content is listed in the results, they go to your site to read your content, and they make a purchase based on your recommendations!
A Niche can also be set apart by other factors
It’s not just the product itself that can represent a niche.
It could be a specific element of a product or service that sets it apart and defines your niche market. For example:
- Product Pricing – luxury, mid-range or discounted
- Product Quality – premium, handmade, economical
- Demographics – gender, age range, income, education
- Psychographics – personal values or interests
- Geographical – people who live in a particular place
For example, your niche market could be home gym equipment for seniors.
Or high quality, handmade furniture for people who live in your city or country.
Or affordable, eco-friendly products for the home.
You get the drift. By choosing a niche you get an advantage straight away – your market is not so crowded so your established competition will be smaller!
Don't be too broad with your Niche Market
When choosing your niche, you need to be sure it actually is a niche market, and not too broad.
For example, we went through the exercise of breaking down the market for shoes.
Shoes is a MASSIVE market and way too broad.
Womens Shoes is a LARGE market and also way too broad – after all you are not a shoe retailer here.
Boots is a smaller segment and possibly OK, but there would still be a lot of competition there with large retailers.
Western boots is a niche market and there would be potential here to target that specific audience of women who like to wear cowboy boots!
And just for the record – I am not in any way recommending these as a good choice for a niche market – this is purely an example of not being too broad when choosing your niche.
Make sure your Niche is potentially profitable
One trap you don’t want to fall into is finding out that there really isn’t enough of a market for your niche to make it profitable.
Whilst you might be really interested in a specific thing, you want to be sure there are enough other people in the world interested in or wanting that same thing so that you will actually get visitors to your website!
Some of this should really just be common sense, but do some research and see how many other sites are marketing your niche – and see if there are affiliate programs for your niche that you can join.
You might have found the latest and greatest of something that no-one else has found yet – and that would be fantastic!
Just be sure that there really is a genuine market out there, and that there are affiliate marketing opportunities for you to make money!
Become an Expert in your Niche
You are also going to need to become an “expert” in your niche so that people trust your content and they find it compelling to read.
Your purpose in niche marketing is to give your potential customers the information they are looking for, and for them to find your content interesting and helpful to them.
So it really should be something that you are genuinely interested in or wanting to learn more about yourself. Your niche has to be sustainable.
If you are going to run out of information for your niche after a couple of posts then I’d suggest you want to choose something else – we are in this business to build an income after all!
This is a great read on niche marketing. You really hit the nail on the head. I liked the fact you mentioned: “Make sure your Niche is potentially profitable” this is key. One way to determine the market demand is by using Google Trends. Once there you keep drilling down into the keywords it suggests to hone in.
Also, I like the fact you mentioned: “Your niche has to be sustainable” very true and “Become an Expert in your Niche”. Again you have to gauge the demand as well as potential searches. Plenty of ways to find that. Being the SME or “Subject matter expert” is vital to gaining authority
I liked the way with the diagrams you broke it down the shoe example in to from broad keywords to narrow it down to specifics, this just validates there is the market in this niche and many others. This post clearly demonstrates you are the authority on this subject!
Glad you found it helpful Muz – and thanks for the reference to Google trends too, I haven’t used that in ages and I should be!
Great read and insightful article on niche marketing.
The way you have drilled down from a very high/generic level of a market down to many individual niches is so simple yet so powerful. This exercise is oftentimes forgotten or deliberately skipped in everyone’s desire or perhaps impatience to hit the jackpot, which normally leads to failure.
We, of course, know that niche marketing takes a lot of effort, patience and focus. And we fully agree with your point that one’s choice of a niche market has to take into account its potential for profits, its sustainability and one’s own assessment of whether it is a topic he/she can be comfortable discussing as an “expert”.
Thanks a lot for sharing.
Thanks for your comments – my point here is that we must understand what a niche actually is before jumping in without doing any research!
I heckin loved this article!
It is insightful, in-depth look on what is a niche and how to choose it. I feel like, after reading it, I might have messed up with choosing my niche. My niche is doggos and how to pamper and take care of them.
I love that you mention “make sure your niche is sustainable” and “become an expert in your niche”, because it seems that, with those, even what seems like a terrible niche idea can be salvaged as long as these are met. Even with my really broad niche, I am able to pick off subtopics and create blog post series from them. Right now, I’m 16 posts in the topic, and counting!
I wish I found this brief, but thorough, article months ago in my affiliate marketing journey.
Hey Mike – so glad you found my article helpful. I think your choice of niche is fine, there are thousands of products and subtopics related to dogs – and millions of dog lovers out there searching for them too. Good luck with your website 😀
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What is Niche Marketing About? | Defining a Niche Market
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What is Niche Marketing About? | Defining a Niche Market
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What is Niche Marketing About? | Defining a Niche Market
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