Niche Marketing: Best Practices And All You Need (+Free Research Tips)

As far as marketing strategies go, niche marketing strategy has been around longer than you imagine. Over the last century, it’s been one of the most effective kinds of marketing, once we’ve engaged in unconsciously without the slimmest idea. But while you wait patiently for a definition of Niche Marketing to help you fathom where I’m headed, you should know that you’re about to get hit with tons of information that would change the course of your marketing career. I am talking about niche marketing strategies, ideas, example, market research tips, and so on.

Well enough with the promises, let’s get on with the real deal, starting with a definition of niche marketing.

Niche Marketing Definition

A very simple and direct niche marketing definition was given by the popular business newspaper EconomicTimes. It defined niche marketing as; channeling all marketing efforts towards one well-defined segment of the population.

Niche Marketing Definition by EconomicTimes

So basically, a marketing strategy of focusing and directing marketing campaigns towards a particular group of people in a demographic is what niche marketing is all about. The strategy involves picking out a section of the crowd, after carrying out due market research. This is with the intention of focusing marketing campaigns that are unique and exclusive to them.

For example, a company that produces anti-aging cream will consciously focus its product offering on the aging demographic instead of focusing on all age brackets. This system will ensure that those people seeing the marketing campaigns are those people who are showing both signs of aging and those on the verge of joining the group.

Why Is Niche Marketing Important?

Niche marketing according to itallows brands to differentiate themselves, gain authority and market share while aligning themselves with a distinct set of customers. Rather than joining the bandwagon of brands offering the same type of product and service, a brand can use niche marketing to stand out, become valuable, reach its growth potential faster and gain a stronger connection with its targeted audience.

A niche market could stand apart from others because of the following reasons:

Race
Geographical location
Profession
Culture
Behavior
Age
Gender
Needs and so on.

Example For Niche Marketing

Niche markets are often segments of a larger market. Here is some example of Niche marketing. They are basically brands that have been able to identify their target markets out of the larger market. Consequently, they’ve also created products that resonate well with these unique classes of customers, directing ads to them. Let us look at some of the example of niche marketing below.

#1. Menstrual Pads

According to international statistics on the world population, there are approximately 3.88 billion women in the world. We are talking about a percentage of 49.6% of the world’s population.

It’s no news that every month, these women pass through what is called a menstrual cycle. A period when their bodies undergo some form of change for a short duration of 3-4 days.

Now with the unique products from companies like Always, LadyCare, Molped, ladies no longer have to through the conventional discomfort they experience.

Amazingly this niche marketing example can be found in the closet of every female experiencing the menstrual cycle.

Furthermore, product manufacturers have gone as far as creating varieties of this product to suit the different age grades within this niche. They are also constantly creating advertisement campaign to help educate young girls on the best use of this product.

#2. Children Toys

Toys play a significant role in the development of a child. With over 1.98 billion children in the world, which is constantly increasing, the toy industry is surely aiming to meet the high demands.

However, the global toy market is expected to grow by $8 billion dollars, with an overall C.A.G.R (compound annual growth rate) of 5%. Hence, toy companies like Atlas, Clementoni, Goliath Games, Hasbro, etc are constantly coming up with different products to dominate the market.

In addition, the comprehensive range of toys present in the toy market includes entertainment and educational toys. They aim at teaching and reinforcing STEAM skills among children. The fact that STEAM toys are one of the fastest-growing categories in both the global toys market and the toys market in Europe, makes it a perfect niche marketing example. They teach coding, logical, analytical, and language skills. These also include advanced scientific and mathematics concepts.

#3. Anti-Ageing Creams

This niche marketing example is designed for people that are approaching the twilight of their age. This particular demographic features individuals who have started experiencing signs of old age (40 years and above).

On that note, product manufacturers have designed special products to help slow down the aging process. Some of the best include products like Olay, L’Oreal, NEOCUTIS, Differin Adapalene Gel, etc. They contain some of the best active ingredients for this purpose.

Niche Market Research

As a budding entrepreneur looking to start up a business it is pretty vital that you understand your target market. More like the most important aspect of starting out on the right foot. This segment of the market are termed your ‘potential customers.’

So carrying out a proper niche market research will help you develop unique products that will satisfy the needs of these people. This is in contrast to pushing out your product into the open market.

Niche Market Research Guide For Your Target Audience

#1. Identify Your Target Audience

One costly mistake we make starting out as entrepreneurs is carrying out researches on products instead of niches (target market). It’s the singular reason why our marketing hardly yields any conversions. Well, here’s a permanent fix …

Rather than focusing on what products to sell, start by identifying who your target customers are.You need to know what makes them unique from the others.

So when you choose a niche audience, take all the time you would need to understand their needs deeply. This opens a whole new world of options to you. You literally switch from struggling to find ideas for products, to instantly knowing exactly the types of products you should be promoting. This is because you will be in tune with their needs.

#2. Survey Your Niche Research Target Market

After identifying who your target customers are, the next step is identifying what kind of product they really want. This gives you more insight and sparks more inspiration in offering better products and services.

A step in the right direction will be joining online discussion groups. The aim is to help you know what questions they are asking and what problems they are experiencing.

Facebook is particularly useful. You can basically join groups where your target market is present and be a part of their conversations.

In addition, tools like Surveymonkey or Survey Gizmo makes it easy to create custom surveys without the need for complexity.

3. Research your Competition

You can either let your competitions put you out of market or use them to your advantage. By using them to your advantage, I mean running a background check on them

Basically, the level and quality of competition in a niche is a good indicator for measuring how lucrative it is.

But the goal here is to be able to leverage those gaps in the niche market that your competitions aren’t aware of. Something you may never discover if all you do is worry about them.

For the most part, gaps or loopholes in the niche market could be something your competitions have neglected, are ignorant of, or are yet to discover.

Identifying those areas and coming up with a workable solution makes your entry into the market less stressful.

#4. Research Industry Trends

Industry trends are patterns that occur within a specific industry. These trends provide insights into price, costs, consumer purchasing, and sales projections. Hence researching industry trends allows an entrepreneur figure out where the market is headed. A great free tool to use is Google Trends.
It provides full pieces of information concerning trending searches on Google. Furthermore, it gives insight into what keyword searches are currently popular or were trending during a certain period of time on Google search.

#5. Make a Decision whether to Enter into the Niche

At this point in your niche market research, it will now become clear to you whether the niche is worth getting into. Obviously it will be tough to break into the market as a newbie. Largely as a result of the fact that you’ll be up against established brands with large marketing budgets and reach. But the results of your research will either validate your plans or end it.
That not withstanding, the road to success is not a linear path, its filled with obstacles and challenges. So to succeed in any niche market, even with the best of research results, a bit of extra effort is required. You need to become creative to unlock the potentials that lies in the chosen niche market.

However, make all efforts to avoid using the copy and paste technique. Just discover what works for you and stick to it.

Niche Marketing Ideas

After thorough research, I came up with the following as some of the most lucrative niche marketing ideas.

#1. Travel

The travel industry is one of the world’s largest industries, and it’s predicted to reach almost $818 billion by 2022. Not only do modern individuals love to travel, but they also want to share their experiences on social media.

They basically love to research new places for inspiration with the desire to hear about people’s experiences.

That said, this is definitely a niche marketing idea you want to explore considering the number of travel freaks who would be waiting at the other end of the screen.

#2. Beauty

Social media has a great influence on the beauty industry. Today, 65% of teens discover and buy beauty products through social media and influences. Hence, it’s no wonder that 96% of beauty brands are leveraging the internet to sell their products.

Furthermore, modern users (a huge number of them if I might add) generally search for beauty tutorials, make-up hacks, and product reviews before making a buying decision.

#3. Fashion

The fashion niche is getting more and more popular by the day. According to statistics, revenue in the fashion industry is expected to reach $689,884 million in 2022. Tons of individuals are more interested in fashion than ever before.

As a result of this, brands are constantly coming up with new designs every year to feed the increasing demand of their teeming customers. On the other end, buyers are constantly on the lookout for new and updated fashion trends.

Literally, the fashion industry covers the design, manufacture, sales, and marketing of fashion items.

#4. Health And Fitness

With the increase in health issues around the world today, a lot of emphasis is been placed on maintaining a healthy hygiene and fitness. And the Covid-19 pandemic in play, more than never before, the health and fitness industry is receiving tons of patronage from clients seeking to keep up with health demands. Consequently, a lot of health and fitness companies, even hospitals will see their revenues surge higher, leading to a high demand in medical and fitness equipment across the globe.

#5. Music

The music industry is as big as the fashion industry with different sections under it. These include writing music, performing music, management of talents, music production, sales and marketing, and even promotion of musical content. There’s a place for everyone who looking into going into the music industry.

What Is Niche Marketing?

A niche strategy entails choosing your target market, identifying an unmet or underserved need, investigating your clientele, developing a business plan, and promoting your company to that target market.

What Does Niche Marketing Refer To?

The definition of niche marketing is directing all marketing efforts toward a certain, well-defined population segment. The concept of a “niche” does not actually exist; rather, it is produced by clever marketing strategies and determining what the target audience wants.

How Can I Expand My Niche’s Audience?

A tried-and-true method for expanding your audience and increasing your Instagram following is by using hashtags. You must conduct research to determine which hashtags are popular in your industry and appropriate for your brand and content.

What Makes Niche Markets Weak?

An industry group’s niche market is a specific subset of that group. Its potential to be too small and hence restrict your ability to expand is a serious drawback. As a result, it is imperative that you choose the market segment you want to target carefully.

What Exactly Do SEO Niches Entail?

A highly focused segment of a market or target audience is referred to as an SEO niche, and it is this segment that you should create and promote your website around. There are two categories for these niches: white and gray. Gray mostly relies on SEO, whereas white receives traffic from a variety of sources.

Conclusion

With these pieces of information in place, finding your path in the world of niche marketing shouldn’t be a bother. All that’s left is to take action !!

Meanwhile you can reach out to us if you need help with that.

What is niche marketing?

Niche marketing allows brands to differentiate themselves, gain authority and market share while aligning themselves with a distinct set of customers.