How To Find Micro-Niche
What do you mean by a niche and what is the importance of micro-nice in a business? How exactly the concept of a niche further breaks down into micro-niches? What if you ask, do micro niches actually exist, or they are mere theories, not being relevant in the market world?
No sooner does the topic of niches arrive than these questions start flooding your mind. As one may say, she is well aware of her area of expertise, knows her passion absolute straight, and has already set some goals to achieve. But, she is not sure which goal needs to be reached first. How to begin right away?
Understanding the basics of a micro-niche.
Note, if you are just starting your business, discovering your micro-niche is the first step you take, in the long e-commerce journey that will follow.
Let’s take an easy example. A couple of months back, a friend of mine came to me and said that he was all prepared to launch his own coaching programs. As a digital marketing consultant, my first instinct was to ask, what his coaching programs were specifically based on. According to him, he specialized in management courses, mainly leadership training, public speaking, and NLP. So, he planned to put together coaching products and organize workshops on all three. His mindset reflected that by doing so, he would earn threefold the money. I was completely shocked at how big a mistake he would do if he started his business, venturing into all three at the same time. I relayed him an hour-long discussion. And at the end, he realized that a person must proceed with one particular area of expertise, as he sets on the first stride of the journey. Fortunately, he drilled down to NLP.
And you know what, this was how he found his “micro-niche”.
Always start your business with a micro-niche.
1) You have definitely heard about BYJU’S, the Indian educational technology, which provides online coaching to students from various academic curriculums.
Initially, BYJU’S had started with only the MBA courses and moved to CAT, sometime after. If we say, in 2011, it simply worked on its micro-niche, and as it progressed, it spread its branches further into the other broader niches of education.
2) Xiaomi, a Chinese electronics company, sells all types of electronic goods in its native land.
But when it was setting foot in the Indian soil, some 6 years back in 2014, it kicked off its business in the market with an exclusive sales tie-up with Flipkart for smartphones Mi 3.
Even in 2014, it had the manufacturing potential of many products. Still, it pitched only the smartphones to the Indian market to get started.
Over the span of the last 6 years, it has established a robust demand for its products in the market, capturing the attention of thousands of Indian audiences. I am concerned about the tension at the Indo-China border.
But, we cannot deny the brilliant approach of Xiaomi in finding its micro-niche and achieving monumental success in a short duration of time. Now, Xiaomi has even expanded the range of products, it sells in India.
So, we guess, after going through the above examples, you must have understood the fundamental concept of micro-niches and its significance in the business world, especially when you are about to enter one.
So, what is a niche?
Do you know what niche you are working in?
An area of expertise, which a company is majorly focused on, or a particular field on which a business runs, is known as a niche.
A significant component of a niche is the audience, whose demands are satisfied by the company or the business. The audience, forming members of a single niche, share some characteristics, which causes them to buy the same products from the very company or the business.
It’s obvious when you get into the business, you will have to choose a specific niche to work with. However, a niche is wide-ranging in terms of the various products and services that can come under it.
For example, let’s say, Clothing and apparel is a big and popular niche, and it can be easily differentiated into its several sub-niches. Some including women’s clothes, men’s clothes, kid’s apparel, etc.
Now, if you take any of the sub-niches, and suppose you go with Women’s clothing, it still represents a broad area.
What if, you choose to run further down the sub-niche line and select particularly, the market of traditional clothing, involving sarees and salwar suits, etc. Then, you are entering that part of the market, where you will face lesser competition (because of the compression of niche), and enjoy good conversion rates.
When you deal with large niches at hand, you can expect a lot of visitors to your websites. As, whenever they type in to search for something related to your niche, you show up in their results. So, you may get good click-throughs or a real high bouncing rate on the content you put online.
But, the conversions will be poor. Moreover, you will not get qualified customers, visiting your website. It simply means, those customers may not be looking for the products or services, you offer.
Also, there are prominent brands full-fledged operating in broad niches, and usually, their products rank higher on the search engines. So, it will be difficult to stand out among them, and gain favorable projections from the market.
As you start your deal with a micro-niche, you will not get much traffic on the website. But, you get an efficient conversion rate. As the customers coming onto your website will be qualified and in need of services that you wish to offer.
We hope, the concept of micro niches is clear to you. It is basically the smaller segment of customers and clients from an all expanding market, with them having similar buying traits.
What benefits you get from working with a micro-niche:
1) You can create good-quality content in less time.
When you are involved in a broader niche, you have to broadcast tons of information on your web pages, for the different products you offer. The process gets jammed because you cannot produce this much content, all at the same time.
Even if you manage, the quality you put up starts deteriorating. You can’t know all the specifics about every subject.
Therefore, having a micro-niche can help you focus exclusively, on the area concerned with your business. You can give more time to the development of content, and work to improve it.
2) You provide more value to your customers.
When you have all your energy invested in a single subject, you can study all its aspects (sales, advertising, audience, etc.) extensively. You also understand the demands and needs of your target audience better.
Your customers have precise knowledge, as to what they want to purchase. If you pick up their problems and solve them the way they are expecting, it is more likely that they will buy from you.
3) You get to enjoy profits.
Micro niches are strategies, you can implement in your business to gain more conversions. They leverage your marketing and sales, allowing the favors to visit you often.
A customer knows that if she visits your website, she will probably get what she is in search of. And, a greater number of conversions lead to better profits.
4) You can engage with your customers often.
It’s a proven fact that people looking for specific products and services, engage themselves highly in researching about the same. They show great interest in knowing about the features, updates, or any matter related to the products they want.
Email marketing, by sending elaborate content, or the easy links to access the blogs on your websites, can be instrumental in giving your business a wider opening. It can also generate more leads for your websites, as they are dedicated to increasing the click-through rates.
How can you find your micro-niche?
Let us go along with a simple exercise, that will help you to identify your micro-niche.
We will be illustrating a few simple steps now, and asking you basic questions. You have to answer them most earnestly.
Get yourself a pen and paper, as you are going to need them throughout the process.
- First, write down the five fields you feel confident about, and in which you can provide value to the other people.
Out of the five, pick the top one that you feel extremely connected to, and one about which you have proficient knowledge.
That top one field is the niche you should be moving forward with.
- Second, write down the five pain points that you can resolve in the market or industry, about that one top niche. Or, solutions you can perhaps, provide to the various demands of that specific niche.
Those five pain points are the primary sub-niches you can opt for.
- Third, select the top 2 or 3 pain points from the previous step, (maximum three pain points).
Those three pain points shall act as probable micro niches for you, on which you can prepare your coaching programs or any other product you believe you can make.
- Fourth, you need to understand your target audience. Write down three certain sections of people, you can pitch your products to.
They can be corporate professionals, teenagers, or you can root for gender-specific products as well.
- Lastly, think carefully.
Take into account all the aspects of your top three pain points and the target audiences you have considered so far.
Research and analysis.
Finally, choose one top pain point that you can get started with right away. And, to which section of people it brings huge benefits to.
You have found your micro-niche and your target audience.
Then, what are you waiting for? Launch tight into the next stage. And, prepare your digital products or online coaching programs.
Micro niche, a stepping stone.
Be it any field, you have to form a solid foundation for yourself (primarily, for your brand) first. Pave the way for yourself, and allow your talent to gain some experience by working into micro-niches. After getting recognized in one specific subject, you can get hold of many opportunities to position yourself (i.e. your brand) well with a broader niche, later on.
You need to have two things sorted:
A target audience, and a high-quality product or service to offer.
To get a proper gripping on the concept of micro-niche, and further consultancy on the same, tune into this free online workshop, by registering on the link given below.
For almost 2 hours, we will both delve into in-depth discussions, and work strategically towards discovering your micro-niche.
Also read: Best books to build up your digital marketing strategy
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