What is Niche Marketing? How to create a Niche Marketing strategy? This article will give you a better understanding of what niche marketing is, and how to create a niche marketing strategy, with four examples to help your business out.
Are you spending a lot of money on ads but seeing minimal conversions? The more might not be the merrier. Marketing to a mass audience was the way to win when billboards and TV commercials were popular. But thanks to the internet and wonderful algorithms, advertisements are now highly targeted. If you’re trying to find a way to market your product, niche marketing might be your answer.
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In this article, we’ll be talking about:
What is Niche Marketing?
How to find your own niche, with examples
How to create your own niche marketing strategy
Five examples of successful businesses that use niche marketing
What exactly is niche marketing?
Niche (Pronounced as neesh or nitch) Marketing is a form of advertisement catered towards a specific market. Your brand or product must target your specific, well-defined customers. Compared to the general population, customers in your niche market will have more specific needs. For example, the market for women’s clothing can divide into different niches: clothes for tall women, or short women. Marketing clothes for pregnant women, instead of all women would be much easier than marketing to all women, right? Why? Because your target audience is now narrowed down and highly specific.
Niche Marketing can be followed by all forms of advertising, whether that would be: sponsored posts, partnership deals, social media advertisements, campaigns, and the list goes on.
If you already have a product made for the general population, don’t worry! Almost every market can refine into a niche market.
How to find your niche
Promoting to a specific audience is much easier than trying to cater to everyone. Before you can find your niche, you have to find your target customer. Who is the person you are catering to? A very common way to narrow down your market into a niche market can base on the following factors:
Price (luxury, moderate, budgeted)
Level of quality (premium, handmade, economical)
Demographics (gender, age, income level, profession, education level)
Geographics (residents of a country, city, or neighborhood)
Psychographics (values, interests, attitudes)
Another example could be GPS collars for pets that get lost often. Marketing specific products that answer your customer’s particular needs. Because your product or brand is catering to a defined audience, your product answers the particular question that customers have. Another advantage you get from this type of marketing is higher brand visibility and brand awareness. Less competition, leaving more room for your brand to shine.
So you get a better idea, here are a few more examples of different niches your business can tap into:
Conscious Consumer
Mobile Gamers
Remote Workers
Holistic Healing
Personal Finance for Students
Productivity Apps for People with ADHD
Personal Trainers and Coaches
How to create a niche marketing strategy
We’ve covered a few factors that can define your brand or product’s niche, along with a few advantages. Once you’ve established your niche, here are a few steps you should take before creating your own Digital Niche Marketing strategy.
1. Research Your Audience
You have to know who your audience is. You have to research and understand your audience. Good thing we're living in the digital age where data is everywhere! There are many ways to get to know your customers, examples include:
Competitive Analysis: Check out your competitor's audience. Take a peek at their reach and engagement levels.
Develop a Buyer Personas
Using Social Listening Tools: Monitor the people's response to the brand, product, and services.
Knowing your audience can also help you understand their pain points. By understanding their problems, you can address their needs. This provides you with ways to strike up a conversation with them.
2. Know Your Competition
Before you can understand your unique selling point, you have to understand your competition. Useful information about your audience can be discovered through understanding your competitors. What are their weaknesses and strengths? What do you do differently, or similar to them? Knowing your competitors will help you in defining and refining your Niche Marketing strategy.
3. Create a Unique Brand
Okay, you’ve narrowed down your niche, and researched your audience and competitors, now it’s time to create your brand. A well-defined brand will attract the right buyers and clearly reflect your brand’s personality. It's very important that you create a unique and memorable brand, especially as a niche business. Remain true to your unique values, mission, and vision, and increase your sales with good branding.
4. Hang where your customers are
The key to increasing your brand visibility in your niche is where you advertise. Based on your market research, where do your customers tend to hang out? If they are usually on LinkedIn, marketing on Instagram wouldn’t make sense. It’s important to know your audience like the back of your hand.
5. Listen to your customers
Interests are evolving faster than ever before. There are constantly new problems that need new solutions. Staying up to date in your niche is important. Listen to your customers' opinions and thoughts, maybe there will be a new niche for you to conquer.
Niche Marketing Examples
Now that you have a rough understanding of Niche Marketing, it’s time to see some real examples. We have included a variety of examples so you get a clearer picture of what Niche Marketing is. Here are 4 examples of Niche Marketing that we think you’d love.
1. LUSH (Niche: Conscious Consumer)
Lush is outspoken about the movements they stand for. Lush is all about ethical business practices, eco-friendly packaging, and organic ingredients, which target conscious consumers. As a company, they have found its success through its core values. They have a loyal customer base who share similar passions. The brand found its success using influencer marketing techniques and partnership deals.
2. Shower Cat (Niche: Long Hair Consumers)
Those who have long hair will understand the shower struggle. How many times have you argued with your significant other about the hair in the shower drain? Or hair on the wall? Shower Cat caters to people who have long hair, and happen to have issues with their drain. Meet the team in this TikTok video!
The Shower Cats were invented by people with long hair, for people with long hair.
3. Pop Sockets (Niche: Phone Accessories)
Remember wired earphones? The founder of Pop Sockets actually invented his product because he was trying to avoid his wired earphones from tangling! Now it has evolved into a functional product for many users. Popsockets only gained its popularity and success due to their B2B customers. Businesses took an interest and started using them as promotional products. This also allowed Popsockets to fall into the hands of B2C customers too!
4. CatGenie (Niche: Pet Owners)
CatGenie is the world’s first self-cleaning litter box. The company directly addresses the struggles and inconvenience of traditional litter boxes, then provides a solution. Cat owners know how annoying litter box maintenance can be. From the smell to scooping, and keeping everything clean for your kitty. CatGenie gives kitty owners a refreshing alternative for the age-old problem. Finally, there’s a mess-free, convenient, odor-free solution for cat parents out there.
In Summary
Here’s what we’ve covered in this article.
Niche Marketing: is when you advertise to a very specific target market.
Different types of Niches, and how to find your own: Any market can be turned into a niche. General guidelines you can give yourself for establishing your niche include price, quality, demographics, geographic location, and psychographics. Examples of different niches could be holistic healing, pet owners, remote workers, or even mobile gamers.
How to create your own niche marketing strategy: When you are creating your own digital niche marketing strategy, you must include these four steps for a successful brand.
Research Your Audience
Know Your Competition
Create a Unique Brand
Advertising in the right places
Listen to your customers
Five Examples of Successful Businesses that use Niche Marketing
LUSH
SHOWER CAT
POP SOCKETS
CATGENIE