Are you having trouble finding a niche? In order to build a successful online business, one must first define the business. Niche market research shouldn't be made more difficult than it has to be, but don't rush it either. Here are some proven methods to finding a niche market that fits your business.
First of all, what is a niche?
When it comes to ecommerce, a niche refers to a specific segment of the market that has high demand and low supply. The success of any ecommerce venture is highly dependent on solving the problems that a market within a niche has.
You know you need to choose a market niche for your business, but it is holding you back. This is tricky: You can list all of your interests and passions, but you may not feel as if you have discovered the singular thing you must do.
It may be paralyzing to place such a high level of pressure on yourself to choose precisely the right niche.
It's important to do your due diligence when selecting a niche business opportunity, but it's better to get started than to wait. By doing so, you'll be able to test out ideas, enter the market faster, and learn from your successes and failures. Also, if your first venture doesn't succeed, you can always use the lessons you've learned from previous attempts to come up with new ideas.
Below are five steps to finding your niche market.
1. Identify what interests you and what you are passionate about.
What do you like to do in your free time? What hobbies or activities bring you joy? Do you enjoy traveling? If so, then perhaps you could start an online travel agency. Or maybe you love music, and you'd like to sell MP3 downloads. Perhaps you're passionate about cooking, and you want to open a food delivery service. Whatever it is, there is something you enjoy doing. It might even be something you've done before.
There is no better time than now to try some of these things! Amazon or eBay are great places to start. You can sell a few products through them. Once you have built up a customer base, you will know if this particular line of nice products is profitable enough to pursue.
Most likely someone else also enjoys doing what you really enjoy doing. Maybe they might pay money for your services. See what other people are offering their customers, and see what you can offer that they aren't.
Also use Google Trends to help identify popular search engine queries. Keep track of these popular search terms and monthly search volume. Using this information will provide you with business ideas to develop your niche product for your target customer.
2. Identify the current problems in your industry.
Once you have identified a niche, take a step back and consider the current issues facing that niche. We will use a physical business as an example. Consider the following if you were opening a clothing store:
– There are many competitors?
– Are the competitors prices is too high for the local market
– See if their customers are dissatisfied with the quality of the products.
– Is the variety of products inadequate.
– See if their customer service is lacking.
It is possible to make a great deal of money if you can solve any of these problems.
Now do the same to identify an online business niche, it works the same way.
Talking to potential customers about your product or service will allow you to identify problems. Ask them what they don't like about the products or services they currently purchase. Then ask them how they would improve the situation. You can do this in online forums and groups and sites such as Reddit and Facebook.
Understanding your target audience's problems will aid you in creating solutions.
3. Make a list of all the ways you could help solve those problems.
Now is the time to brainstorm all possible solutions to the problems you have identified in your niche. Try to think outside the box. You could charge more if you're concerned about the low prices of the competition. It may seem counterintuitive at first glance, but think about it. If the competition charges less, why should you?
Additionally, you should consider how you could provide value to your customers. Offer a discount to your customers on ebooks, for example, if you sell books. Alternatively, offer discounts on clothes if you sell them. Be careful not to compete solely on price, as you will be on a downward spiral.
4. Study the competition.
There is nothing inherently wrong with competition. It may be an indication that you have found a profitable niche for your business. However, you must do a thorough analysis of competitors' sites. Take note of all the competing sites you can find in a spreadsheet.
Afterward, make a determination as to whether there is a chance to stand out. Does your keyword still have a chance to rank? What can you do to differentiate yourself and offer a unique offering? There are several signs you can succeed in a niche even if others are serving it already.
Poor-quality content. In a niche where other business owners are not creating high-quality, detailed content, it's relatively easy to outrank your competition.
Limited paid competition. There's definitely an opportunity for you to upset the market if you've identified a keyword that has a high search volume, little competition, and little paid advertising. Take note the competitive keywords they are using in Google Ads for your niche segments. Develop a SEO Strategy with the keyword search data with a tool like RankIQ
Poor transparency. By creating an authentic and transparent presence in a niche where other sites are faceless and overly corporate, many online entrepreneurs have disrupted entire industries. People do not trust business owners who want to hide from the public.
5. Test out your niche idea.
Having already conducted some market research can be helpful, but testing the market in real-time can reveal whether you're on the right track. This starts with niche marketing to locate your ideal customers.
An easy way to test your niche before you build an entire website is to create a landing page that offers a free info-product related to your niche. If you need help creating it content creator to assist you or better yet check out our article on lead magnets.
Once the landing page is live, use Google AdWords to drive traffic to it. You can use the data to determine the level of interest in your niche and/or product – both in terms of traffic and downloads. You may be getting lots of traffic through AdWords, but not many conversions, which indicates that your landing page copy is the problem, not the niche.
You can find out more about your target market by conducting a survey from your potential customers. What are the popular products they buy? Are they loyal customers, if so why? What they like most about it and what they like least.
Make sure you promote your survey anywhere you have contact with your target market: on your blog, in industry-related groups, on social media, via Google surveys (pay Google to promote these for you), etc.
Based on what you learned from your PPC testing and surveys, you should know if you feel confident about setting up your niche website and social media sites.
Conclusion
Start developing a full-fledged website once you've determined a niche's viability. Boost your revenue and scale up your business by learning how to create a blog and generate more traffic to your site.
However, keep in mind that finding a niche isn't an exact science. Doing your homework is important, but if you become stuck in the planning phase, you'll never get around to actually doing it. Entrepreneurs must become good at taking action to become the next great business owner.