Have You Found Your Niche?

Last  week during the first week of my 90-day Marketing Makeover journey, the focus was on updating my business plan and marketing strategy.  Did you do that for your business as well? Did you find that you had trouble creating your marketing strategy? Or did you notice that the one you had in place isn’t working for you anymore?

If so, the problem is most likely that your target market isn’t clearly defined or your original niche market has changed.  This is crucial, especially when planning your internet marketing strategy to achieve optimal marketing success online.

Perhaps in the beginning you thought that all you needed to do was to build a website and people would automatically be drawn to the site with credit cards in hand to buy your product or service. The hard truth is that in order to reach some level of financial success on the internet, you have to do all you can to get your message in front of your target market and get them to even notice you in order to buy what you are selling.

By definition, “target marketing”, or “niche marketing” as it is also called, is the strategy of identifying your  potential clients by segments, such as age group, geographic area, business industry, etc., and gearing your marketing efforts to one or more key segment.

To refine your niche market, you need to ask yourself a number of questions including:

·     Who is going to buy my product or service?

·     Are my clients limited to a certain industry or demographic? Or can anyone be a potential customer?

·     Does my business appeal to residential or commercial consumers? Or both?

·     Is my business limited to a local geographic area?

·     What is unique about the services or products my company offers?

·     How is my company set apart from my competition?

Once you have clearly defined your specific target audience, you’ll realize a number of benefits.

·     You’ll be able to maximize your marketing budget. You’ll know where you need to focus your efforts to find your niche customers. 

·     You are able to tailor the content of your website specifically to your target market. Using keywords pertinent to your niche, the content can then be optimized for search engines so that your potential customers can easily locate you online.

·     You’ll also, in turn, be able to search for blogs and related sites that are catering to your market.

·     You are able to develop new products or services that focus more directly on the needs of your refined group.

And now that you know who your marketing efforts are directed toward, you will be able to better develop your company brand.

NEXT BLOG POST: Branding Your Company