Using the methods listed above, you have probably found a potentially profitable niche market. But how do you validate that decision? How do you know you aren’t wasting time and money on an idea that doesn’t offer enough financial viability?
One way is to head back to Amazon. You may have a passion for Alaskan Husky breeding. However, a recent search in all of Amazon showed only 5 results for “Alaskan Husky breeding”. This can quickly tell you if you have a viable marketplace or not. On the other hand, a search for German Shepherd breeding turned up 50 results, meaning it is probably a better market than Alaskan Husky breeding. In most cases you would prefer to see at least 1,000 results for a particular term or phrase.
Additionally, you can once again harness the incredible data mining powers of Google. Type your prospective niche phrase into Google, surrounded with quotation marks. What you will see is a list of all the web pages which contain that exact phrase, in that exact order. A recent search for “keyword search tool” return 401,000 results! You want enough results so that your market is viable, but not so many so that you are fighting a lot of competition. A good target zone is roughly 25,000 to 100,000 results.
You can also use social media to validate your idea. Creating groups on Facebook is free. The same is true on LinkedIn and other social media sites. Build a group page on the topic you are thinking about marketing. Write a few blog posts, refer to important articles or websites in that field, and see what type of response you get.
There is another way to use social media sites to find out whether your niche market is viable or not. Type your keyword phrase or niche market name into the search engines of the biggest social media websites. Is there a lot of interest? Are there conversations, groups and events taking place or being created? Social media is where people talk about things that are important to them, so this information can be invaluable in determining the possible success of your business endeavor.
If you have some money to spend, you could even set up a short free report, a landing page and some Facebook ads to get people to sign up to your mailing list in order to receive your free report. You’ll soon see whether there’s any interest in the niche and whether it’s worth delving in any deeper!
Is Your Niche Big Enough to Grow?
This is an important question – any niche you enter should have potential to grow in future. If you start out with one product, for example, you probably eventually want to add more. You’ll also want to make sure there’s enough scope to keep creating new blog posts and content!
Unfortunately, it is sometimes hard to determine exactly. Take the buggy whip business. Before the invention of the automobile, people got around in horse-drawn buggies and carriages. The person piloting the vehicle used a whip to lightly strike the rump of the horse when it needed a little motivation.
Buggy whip salesman were doing a booming business … before Henry Ford automated automobile production. Virtually overnight, they went the way of the dodo bird.
Basically, you want a niche market that is small enough to dominate, while still allowing room for growth. For example, MySpace used to be the largest social media site. It became such an overnight success that hundreds of competitors popped up. The creators of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest all realized that social media was in its infancy at the time, but still had plenty of room for spectacular growth.
You can do this in your own market by watching relevant trends. If you plan on blogging about smoking as a healthy pastime, you are about 50 years too late. On the other hand, blogging about how to stop smoking once and for all is probably a topic that has plenty of room for growth, as human beings have become more health-minded in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Again, the keyword research you did earlier can help out a lot here. If your main keyword phrase returns just 20,000 or 30,000 results, you could be looking at a burgeoning niche market that is about to explode. You may also be staring at a market which has been slipping the last few years.
Keep an eye on technology. Learn everything there is to know about your niche market. Join forums and chat rooms applicable to that field. Use social media to monitor your marketplace. These are all simple ways to feel the pulse of any niche market, and gauge whether there is room for growth, or whether you are riding a sinking ship.
What If My Idea is Already Being Done?
If your idea is already being marketed, that is great! It means that there is definitely a market for your product or service. Now all you need to do is “steal” the hard work that your competition has already done.
Join the email lists of websites and blogs that are marketing a product similar to the one you intend to offer. Check out their websites. Read their blog posts. Order their products and services. If they have a forum, join it, and see what their customers and potential prospects are talking about. This is incredible information, and is all free of charge.
Then take that information and use it to make a better product than your competition is offering. Price your product lower, add more features, deliver a lifetime warranty, make it bigger or smaller, faster or slower, and longer-lasting. Deliver a better value and let everyone know about it.
You can also differentiate yourself through marketing. Remember the clothespin example from earlier? The innovative clothes pin manufacturer had a hard time selling his product at first, even though it was superior. When he began to market it as a clothespin “that doesn’t roll”, sales exploded.
Come up with an eyebrow-raising, humorous, clever, shocking or bold way to market your product and your unique approach will overcome bland competitors selling virtually the same product or service.
Is It a Bad Sign If My Niche ISN’T Being Done?
On the flip side, you might worry if your niche isn’t being done by anyone else. Sometimes this can be a sign that your niche is too small and that there isn’t that much of a market. However, it might also mean that you can be the one to start something new
Many niches have started that way – new diets, new health trends and so on. They are often based within a very broad niche – like healthy eating – but then take it into a completely new sub-niche.
Whatever happens, remember that it is always possible to tweak your niche if you don’t get the results you expect!
Understanding Your Ideal Audience (to Help You Stand out in Your Niche)
The best way to stand out in a niche is to have a very specific, ideal audience in mind. Why? Because there may be hundreds of blogs already about how to achieve a flat stomach. However, if your ideal target audience is new, vegetarian mothers then they will always come to you over other sources!
The key is to define your audience and then get really, really clear on what they want. This can help you come up with some amazing niche, content and product ideas!
Think about the answers to these questions:
- What problems are they having?
- What is the one area where they are not being serviced?
- If they could solve just one problem tomorrow, as it relates to your niche market, what would that solution be?
A lot of successful entrepreneurs, online and off, got that way by solving their own problems first. Chances are the issues in your life are being experienced by a lot of other people. If your niche market applies to your own life in some way, you may just need to answer your own problems in order to understand the needs of others.
Once again social media comes to the rescue. Remember those groups that you made on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms earlier? Talk to your audience. Simply ask them what they want. Ask them what features or characteristics a product or service would have to have for them to switch from their current provider.
Always remember to think from your prospect’s point of view, not your own. Don’t think about building products. Think about offering solutions. And never forget that every single purchasing decision any human being makes is based on one of 2 subconscious factors:
1) Avoiding Pain
2) Providing Pleasure
When you decide to eat something, it could be that you are avoiding the pain of hunger, and eventual starvation, and also that you are providing the pleasure of tasting one of your favorite foods. When talking to your audience, focus on the pleasures they are trying to attain, and how they are trying to alleviate pain.
When you think about your niche market, imagine a single, specific person. Identify the age, demographic, gender, intelligence level and all other applicable metrics that make up your “perfect customer”. Market to that single individual rather than an audience, and your niche marketing efforts will be successful.
Conclusion: Don’t Forget About Passion
Lastly, remember that you should be passionate about any niche you choose. Unless you plan to outsource the whole thing, this is something that you could be involved in for many years to come.
Running an information-based online business means constantly coming up with new content ideas on the same topic. Things are a lot easier when you actually enjoy what you’re writing about!
