Finding Your Business Startup’s Niche Market

Niche marketing
Bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to your startup’s target audience.

Narrowing your target market to a few niche audiences is a better bet than the blanket marketing approach.

Aim, shoot, win! This is the message we hear all around when talking about getting a business off to a successful start. Sounds straightforward, doesn’t it?

However, being able to define your target exactly in order to make your “shot” count, you will need to understand your mark (or market targets, in business terms).

Many entrepreneurs, believing that everyone can benefit from their products and services, set out to woo entire audiences. So they take a shotgun approach to marketing and selling, hoping something will stick if they cover enough ground.

Not only is this approach more costly and energy draining, but it’s also usually ineffective.

To create a more effective mark, you need to narrow your focus for maximum impact and returns. In other words, define clear niches within larger markets.

Start identifying target markets by looking at what you bring to the table in terms of expertise, passions, connections, or personal make-up and experiences. Naturally, you need to have a deep understanding of the challenges your prospective customers face. For example, if you are in the wellness industry because of your past battle with dieting, then narrowing your focus around the weight control industry would make a perfect fit.

If you rely entirely on just one target market, you could be setting yourself up for possible failure. By defining at least two, if not three, target markets at the beginning, you create a more sustainable business model in case an industry dries up or is affected by sudden changes. By initially pursuing a handful of markets, you will have a better chance of achieving some modest success, which you can lever into one larger market later.

Next you will want to prepare a thorough strategy around each niche market. This will include commonalities among them in terms of needs, challenges, demographics, and of course essential information on their preferred communication – where they hang out and how you can easily reach them.

Make a list of upcoming events and trade shows, and publications they might read. Now you can take a more careful aim at communicating with them and creating your company profile as the go-to expert.

To complete your targeting, you must create strong and tailored communications around specifically identified challenges or needs. This means content and sales scripts that will really hit the mark with connections in each niche.

Woody Allen once said that 90 per cent of life (success) is simply showing up.

If you “simply show up” by targeting all your communications and sales efforts on hitting one mark, you will set yourself miles apart from your competition and dominate a niche.