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Focusing on a niche market rather than the broader market?

garysvpagarysvpa subscriber Posts: 10
edited December 2015 in Marketing
Hi,

We are a start up just building our website and are considering whether to focus on a niche market or to sell to the broader market.

Does anybody have any experience of being in a similar dilemma and what was the outcome of your decision?

Did you decide to target a specific niche?

And if so, are you happy you did so?

All advice and suggestions will be well received.

Comments

  • OnchieOnchie subscriber Posts: 11
    If you are on the start up phase, I think it would be best if you are going to limit your target first. That way, you will be able to focus more on the tasks easily. If ever the time comes that you can now cater to a bigger market, then you may accept bigger challenges.
  • UnfoldAtelierUnfoldAtelier subscriber Posts: 1
    This is so related to my post today. The thing is simple: a niche approach will bring you more clients immediately while for a broad approach you will need time to study the big market, target the clients, lots of money on advertising, build a complex website.
    Keep it simple. This will translate in a simple website too, that will not eat all your money when you most need them. Have a read about it: http://www.unfoldatelier.com/journal/ho ... eally-cost
  • edwardmasonedwardmason subscriber Posts: 0 Member
    Hi garysvpa! I think is more important to pay attention to your niche market rather than a broader one. This way, your target will be more specific and it would be easier to create strategies that will effectively take your business to a great start.
  • seanaherne142seanaherne142 subscriber Posts: 0 Member
    your question is pretty vague. I think the answer would depend on what kind of product you are selling.
  • AberitAberit subscriber Posts: 64 Bronze Level Member
    There are obviously products that are usually sold for broader market and the ones that only one niche can be interested in.
  • QTechDQTechD subscriber Posts: 0
    I think Onchie and UnfoldAtelier are spot on. Starting with a single niche market and having a well developed strategy to target that audience is probably the best way to generate immediate traffic and sales.

    Your plans should always be evolving and adapting as your business grows. In time you can always add additional target markets to your strategy when you feel it's time to expand and tackle more.

    Joe Pulizzi wrote a good article a couple months ago that may help you out. http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/20 ... dy-nobody/
  • HumanBehaviorHumanBehavior subscriber Posts: 0
    Hello,

    2 sources for you to consider:

    1.) An interesting 'Integrated Product Design' lecture by Dror Benshetrit (video: https://vimeo.com/94416902), Dror makes a unique claim of the benefit of being a generalist in a specialist's market. At the end of his lecture during the Q&A he compares niche marketing to broader marketing by building a skyscraper versus a shopping mall:

    If you market to a specific niche (skyscraper) people will be able to see you much more quickly as you develop a reputation for yourself, whereas going broad will cover more ground, but will take a lot longer for people to notice who you are and what precisely you do.

    2. The owners of 'Snask,' a Swedish creative agency did a funny presentation for CreativeMornings (video: http://creativemornings.com/talks/snask/1) also make the argument for going niche.

    Hope that helps!

    ---
    Joshua Smith
    http://interviews.humanbehavior.solutions/
  • DPanoDPano subscriber Posts: 0
    <blockquote><strong><a href="/community/profile/garysvpa">garysvpa</a> said:</strong><br />Hi,

    We are a start up just building our website and are considering whether to focus on a niche market or to sell to the broader market.

    Does anybody have any experience of being in a similar dilemma and what was the outcome of your decision?

    Did you decide to target a specific niche?

    And if so, are you happy you did so?

    All advice and suggestions will be well received.
    </blockquote><br />

    Hi garysvpa,

    Sounds like you are on the verge of launching an exciting online venture. Re: Niche vs Broader Market...
    Even the Broader Market oftentimes can be regarded and treated as a niche , making the smaller market a sub-niche...right?
    In your case, and I'm sure for most other online businesses, the niche or sub-niche was the focus of all their marketing efforts. Why?
    In the mass market or broader market model, gross margins tend to be very slim.
    Companies that fall in between the mass broader market and the smaller niche or sub-niche market struggle due to feature and price competition; e.g. Amazon, where the price competition is intense. Pricing changes occur at an extremely higher rate on Amazon due to this on a daily basis.

    On the other hand, a specialized niche or sub-niche which would make for a smaller customer base has lower competition but with higher margins. Simply put, if yours is the only widget of its kind or if your competition is very slim, your pricing can be higher on your product or service.

    Hope that helps.
  • RetoWolfRetoWolf subscriber Posts: 0
    Hi There...

    The key thing for me is that you answer the below 3 questions BEFORE you spend any marketing $$$ niche or broad. For me the common mistake when it comes to marketing is that a lot of business owners often jump to execution mode too early. You should aim to answer the below in as much detail as you can. This will help you distil who your audience is and what matters to your audience and with that probably highlight where you should focus your marketing energy on.

    1.) What Problem do you solve? (80% of businesses fail not least because there was no market opportunity to begin with! If you solve someone's problem they will be happy to pay you)

    2.) For whom are you solving this problem? (The key here is to define your target audience and less is definitely more in the beginning! The more narrow you can be, the more specific you can talk to them. You will also be in a much better position to address the problem you are solving for whom this matters the most. We often make the mistake at trying to appeal to everyone. But unless you've got unlimited funds Jack of all trade and master of none is marketing suicide! So I suggest you go as granular as you can.
    3.) How are you solving this problem better than anyone else? (Unique selling propositions are a very rare thing these days. If you've got one - well done! But even then within a few months typically your competition has caught up. Once your product/service has been commoditized you have to win on superior customer experience! So do your research and find out what it takes to be better than your competitors. If someone already owns the broad market and spend loads of cash, you might be forced to go niche)

    Let me know if that was helpful... I've also written a guide 'Free marketing tools to help you define your target audience' you might find useful. Feel free to check it out at http://mightyacornmarketing.com

    Message me or get in touch on twitter if you have more questions.
    Reto
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