Starting From Nowhere Part 4 - Knowing Your Customer

Niche Marketing - Who Is Your Customer?

To talk about niche marketing makes it sound very high-tech but the phrase "niche marketing" is about avoiding the temptation to be all things to all people. Trying to market everything to the whole world is much harder than trying to sell one item to one person. Actually it's not just harder, it is downright impossible.

Different types of people have completely distinct interests. Think about pet owners. Forget for a moment, the people who create a mini-zoo at home because they just love keeping pets. A niche marketer would not try to target "all pets", it is just too wide to be successful. There are definitely "dog people" and "cat people" in the pet owning world but you would not be best advised to try to market to both types at once.

Having identified dogs as a niche you will need to dig deeper and look at possible narrower niches, for instance: puppies, guard dogs, miniature dogs, one particular breed of dog, dog toys, dog shampoo, worming treatments, dog insurance, dog travel baskets, dog leashes, dog collars, flea powders, dog training, poop-scoopers, dog breeding, dog psychology, dog feeding, weight loss diets for dogs, curing doggy flatulence, dog chews, dog beds, furniture protectors, dog hair resistant car seat covers, dog clothing, dog wardrobes, etc. You can see how this works, so I'm sure you don't need me to provide a list for cats.

It makes no difference whether you are a website owner or a shop-keeper, you must find your niche and market it to the right section of society. Think about niches as if they were shops. If you were trying to sell high-priced designer garments, you would be more successful if you were to market them through an exclusive boutique than if you had them on show in a shop alongside low-cost, low-quality attire. The consumers who will be interested in the two types of product are two entirely different sets of people and by trying to cater to both, you will attract neither.

Your customers must be able to see at a glance exactly what you are selling, otherwise they will move on to a store where the message is clear. The products you display should identify you as an expert in a particular field: eg you are either an expert at haute couture or at bargain basement clothing. You cannot establish credibility if you try to pass yourself off as an expert at too many diverse things and, if you lack credibility as a marketer, people won't come back to make further purchases.

Think about buying gifts. It is much harder to choose a gift for someone you hardly know. You don't know what they like, what they hate or if they are allergic to anything. The best you can do is go for the blandest possible item and hope not to offend. The chances of you hitting on something they will really want are so remote as to be non-existent.

Now think about buying a gift for your partner or a close friend or relative you have known for years. You know exactly what their tastes are and you can, almost without thinking, pick out a gift they will accept with pleasure.

Your niche marketing should be like giving a gift to someone you know well, it might be your partner, your brother, your girlfriend or even yourself; it doesn't matter as long as you know who you are marketing to and offer them something you know they will want.




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