Niche marketing is a strategy which premise is to target a subset of a market which can be of various sizes. Where a marketing strategy focused on the whole potential market used to be effective when mass advertising was possible. A niche marketing strategy can help position your brand more efficiently, nowadays.

Niche marketing also helps create more intimate relationships between the subset you’re targeting and the brand you’ve built.

While in the past, it was possible through mass marketing and mass advertising to reach a massive audience. With the advent of the web, it has become possible to target particular segments of a market with a laser focus approach.

For instance, instruments like Facebook or Google Ads enable marketers and entrepreneurs to target in utmost detail the specifics of the audiene they want to focus.

How does a niche market look like?

It can be broken down based on many specifics, things like:

• Geographic
• Psychographic (interests)
• Demographic (age, income level, gender, education)
• Behavioral
• Price
• Style
• Culture
• And more

For a complete guide on Market Segmentation check this out. 

In the short-term, we’re all starting from a niche market

Companies like PayPal, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Amazon, didn’t start right away as tech giants, ready to take over the world.

True, their founders did have (in some cases) a big vision. On the other hand, they started very – or relatively – small. Before Amazon expanded to pretty much sell anything, it was an online bookstore.

Before Facebook would become the largest social network on earth, it wasn’t the first player to come in (it was a late comer), but it had a very focused strategy, based on a staged rollout. Facebook made sure to open up, one campus at the time, and only when it had a waitlist that ensured high adoption, it opened up to the next college.

In short, before Facebook would become the social network for everyone, it was explicitly thought for specific campuses in the US.

Therefore, when you’re starting up, it makes sense to identify a niche market. This can be based on several factors, such as opportunity, understanding of the segment, passion, and more.

An excellent way to find a niche might be to mix all those factors:

A niche market is the best place to start for three primary reasons.

Niche Market = Strong demand

A niche market is usually unfulfilled. As large corporations take most of the market share of a broader market, they also tend to standardize service and product, at the point of leaving out a small segment of it. That is where the opportunity lies.

A large business operating in a large market can hardly accommodate the needs of all the niches within that market. Those unmet needs are where you can build a business. The search engine DuckDuckGo has built a company where Google could not.

Indeed, DuckDuckGo (DDG) started very late (around 2008), over a decade after Google. If Gabriel Weinberg (DDG’s founder) would have told someone he was creating a search engine, chances are none would have made sense of that move.

However, he started by looking at where Google was weak. And among those weaknesses, there was privacy. Google (now Alphabet) makes money primarily via advertising.

Therefore, the whole company business model still revolves around collecting people’s data and reselling it on its advertising network.

Thus, DDG revolved its business model around privacy, where Google could not, as this would have jeopardized its core business model.

Over the years, as privacy concerns arose, DuckDuckGo grew on top of that. In August 2018, DDG got another round of investing for $10 million. Thus, getting ready to scale up.

Niche Market = Low competition

For how much we love the mantra of competition, as Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal mentions in his book, Zero to One, companies that dominate markets and reduce competition, so-called monopolies, are also the ones that hide this fact for as long as possible as low competition enables them high margins and status quo.

For a company that is starting and it is niching down, a small segment of a broader market helps kick things off. Imagine the scenario where other larger competitors are already serving that segment that would require massive resources for the niche player, thus making it extremely hard to build a company in the first place.

Niche Market = High margins

Building a successful company and a viable business model is also about guaranteeing high margins. Part of those margins can be reinvested back into the business.

A niche market usually has a strong demand and lower competition, which makes it easier for the niche player to charge higher prices.

Finding your niche

The web enables you to look for your niche pretty much all over the world. A few thousand people looking for bread recipes, or raw food can be a good place to start.

Search volume for a keyword like “raw food recipes” across the US and other countries

The web enabled anyone to start a business with limited resources. On the other hand, you better understand what people in that niche are looking for, and you connect with them.

Thus, rather than just creating a business, you might want to build a community first.

Why? Tech companies like Google and Facebook have become pretty good in reaching out to any audience. This means that if you wish to build a company out of a niche, you can’t just be a company.

You better make sure to create a sense of intimacy with your community.

Where large brands can’t build this sense of belonging, that is where a niche player would be a way better option for that segment!

And the is where you have the opportunity to build your next business.

Additional business resources:

• What Is a Business Model? 30 Successful Types of Business Models You Need to Know
• The Complete Guide To Business Development
• Business Strategy: Definition, Examples, And Case Studies
• What Is a Business Model Canvas? Business Model Canvas Explained
• Blitzscaling Business Model Innovation Canvas In A Nutshell
• What Is a Value Proposition? Value Proposition Canvas Explained
• What Is a Lean Startup Canvas? Lean Startup Canvas Explained
• What Is Market Segmentation? the Ultimate Guide to Market Segmentation
• Marketing Strategy: Definition, Types, And Examples
• Marketing vs. Sales: How to Use Sales Processes to Grow Your Business
• How To Write A Mission Statement
• What is Growth Hacking?
• Growth Hacking Canvas: A Glance At The Tools To Generate Growth Ideas

Case studies: 

• How Does Facebook Make Money? Facebook Business Model In A Nutshell
• Tesla Business Model In A Nutshell
• How Amazon Makes Money: Amazon Business Model in a Nutshell
• How Does WhatsApp Make Money? WhatsApp Business Model Explained
• How Does Google Make Money? It’s Not Just Advertising! 
• The Google of China: Baidu Business Model In A Nutshell
• How Does Twitter Make Money? Twitter Business Model In A Nutshell
• How Does DuckDuckGo Make Money? DuckDuckGo Business Model Explained
• How Does Pinterest Work And Make Money? Pinterest Business Model In A Nutshell
• Fastly Enterprise Edge Computing Business Model In A Nutshell
• How Does Slack Make Money? Slack Business Model In A Nutshell
• Fastly Enterprise Edge Computing Business Model In A Nutshell
• TripAdvisor Business Model In A Nutshell
• How Does Fiverr Work And Make Money? Fiverr Business Model In A Nutshell

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