A business niche is a specialized or focused area of a broader market that your business serves specifically. This guides the type of products you will focus on partnerships you will accept, content you will produce and customers you will try to attract.
A niche business is a hole in the current market where the business’s USP (Unique selling proposition) will be appreciated by a select group of customers or target audience. The target audience might be one that is currently underserved and has a large market potential.
Finding a niche is important for small business owners who not only want to create a steady stream of revenue but also establish a loyal audience.
Many niche businesses that fill a hole in the market that no one previously recognized quickly become essential. Your small business cannot do everything and compete with everyone. That is why finding a niche is so crucial to your online success. Another reason that finding a niche is so crucial to the success of a small business is that it make it far easier to describe to potential customers what you do and sell.
As an example, let’s look at Udemy. It is a platform where people can buy and sell online courses, with a wide variety of categories ranging from technology to business related courses. E.Educators is another online education platform but only sells Business related courses, by doing so they cater towards a niche that is focused on business education, unlike Udemy which not only has business courses but also creative and technical courses as well. What makes E.Educators stand out in this way is that it is easier for them to find an audience that wants to start a new business or grow their already existing one.
Whether you open a business in a unique industry or a saturated market, it is important to differentiate yourself from the competition to win over your audience. To do this, entrepreneurs should find a specific business niche to target and modify their market strategy
- Select your target audience:
To identify your niche, you can begin by selecting the general market. Your target audience can act as your north star, guiding your product lines, marketing, social media and content strategy on your website.
- Define an unmet or underserved need:
Analyze your target audience and identify gaps in the marketplace. Our methods of prioritizing market opportunities work because they are build around our solid understanding of what the customer need is.
- Research your customer base:
Customer research is conducted to identify customer segments, needs and behaviors. It can be carried out as a part of market research, user research or design research. It commonly involves doing desk research of online reviews, forums and social media to explore what customer saying about a product.
- Create your business plan:
The first step to creating a successful business model is finding a profitable niche market that you can successfully serve. Begin by analyzing the current marketplace and noting holes where needs could be better served.
- Market your business to your specific audience:
Just as your product or service is niche, your marketing efforts should be focused as well. Targeting a specific market does not mean that you are excluding people who do not fit criteria. Rather, target marketing allows you to focus your marketing dollars and brand message on a specific market that is more likely to buy from you than other market.
These steps can help you successfully serve your target audience. Hard work, good customer service and the willingness to periodically reassess your business’s market will put you well on the way to running a successful niche business.
Remember, try not to complicate your niche keep it simple and more importantly make sure you do the necessary research to help give your customers what they really want. This works for both, a product based business or a service based business.