Niche Marketing Means

    Niche marketing is a marketing approach focusing on a specific market sector by providing customized products or services for targeted consumers. It is used to define a marketing strategy that focuses on the interests of a particular market niche. Niche marketing generally aims to attract customers within a particular field of interest or group, such as the age group. For example, it could be a lifestyle marketing approach that creates a brand identity and builds consumer loyalty through identifying and targeting a segment of the market, such as the Lululemon yoga clothing brand.

     Niche marketing includes more specific needs, interests, and desires that a customer might have in a particular industry or field. A niche market is a segment of the market with characteristics and needs that are different from the characteristics and needs of other market segments. A niche market can also be established and managed by a company to reduce risks and promote growth. An example would be the market segmentation of a company that has not yet attained a global market share.

Niche Marketing Strategy

       A niche marketing strategy is a marketing strategy that is designed to meet customer needs in a specific area of business. It is also referred to as a niche market or a specific business area of marketing strategy. This strategy is designed to target specific customers rather than the mass market. The strategy is designed to fill both a need and a demand in the market. It is used when the market can be segmented and divided into several markets or categories of the product or service. It helps to reach a limited number of customers, who are more likely to purchase the product because of the uniqueness of the product or service that suits their personality and desires. Niche marketing is a subset of a broader market strategy.

     The key difference between a niche market and a mass-market strategy is that the customer's needs, interests, and desires are more specific and narrow. Therefore, niche marketing is less expensive in comparison to mass marketing. If your niche marketing strategy fails, then you may lose your marketing strategy. In other words, a niche marketing strategy is very risky.

How to avoid Niche marketing Failures?

1)    Avoid limited demand niches

     You don’t want to build a business around a demand that doesn’t exist or isn’t big enough. Unfortunately, this is precisely what so many online marketers do. They create a business, trying to chase consumers that are too far between. You spend a tremendous amount of time, effort, and money looking for these customers, only to end up with little to show for all your efforts. You would have been better off doing something else. Please understand that just because you think an idea is hot doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true. Sure, you’re excited and pumped up, but your passion may not translate to actual market demand. A little market research can go a long way toward saving you from unnecessary tears and heartaches.

2)    Don't choose a saturated niche

      It’s very easy and simple to get on a bandwagon. For example, when the fidget spinner craze hit America, it seemed like everybody was selling fidget spinners. I can’t say I blame them. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Everybody wants fidget spinners. It was the hottest thing. It was a trend. The problem is, you don’t want to be the last guy to get on the trend. You don't want to be the online business owner who puts up an online catalog listing all the fidget spinners you can get your hands on at precisely the time the consumer public has fallen out of love with that gadget. Unfortunately, people do this all the time. They look at what’s hot and come up with a business to capitalize on that trend. I’m not saying this is wrong. What is problematic is the timing. You want to hit a trend before it peaks. You don't want to be the guy who starts a business after a trend has passed its peak. You lose out in the end. It's incredibly easy to choose niches that have already reached their peak popularity and are slowly dying if you don't have a niche selection mechanism. The problem with this is that they look very healthy at first. You don’t have any idea that the bottom is about to fall out of the niche you have built your business on.

3)    Avoid low-value commercial niches

      I’ve seen this a lot in all my years as an affiliate marketer. I would find a niche that has a lot of demand and is far from peaking in popularity. A lot of people are marketing in that niche, but the competition is still manageable. There are all sorts of advertisers selling in that niche. What’s not to love, right? Well, look more closely. Sure, there are lots of products and services in that niche. The problem is, when you go to those websites selling those products and services, it turns out that they’re not charging much money. This is a serious problem. You don’t want to pick a niche that has low commercial value.

     Considering what you’re up against, and I’m not just talking about the competition, I’m also talking about all the costs and effort needed to put up a viable business, the return on investment might not be there. You have to understand that when you’re building a business, it takes some time to get it to produce a profit. What do you do before that point? Unfortunately, if you are targeting a niche that has low commercial value, you’re not going to earn as much as you need to earn to make your venture worthwhile.

4)    Stay away from too much competition

      Many niche marketers get excited about how much money they can earn with each sale, how much demand there is for their niche, and how far away their niche is from peaking. They're all enthusiastic about their chosen field. This is all well and good until they realize that they simply have too much competition. It turns out that everybody and his dog have heard of this niche, and they’ve already built their websites, created their software, or mobile apps. Whatever the case may be, there’s simply too much competition.

    I understand what you’re thinking. You’re probably thinking, "Well, if the pie is really big, then there’s enough to go around." Everybody can come in. “That would be great if that were the truth. You have to understand that there is such a thing as a network effect. If you are the first in a niche and have a significant share of the market, it makes it more difficult for newcomers to break into the business. You can establish a network effect because of your dominant position. You tell your customers and prospective customers that you have something better coming or that you have related products. This has the effect of freezing out anybody else who would even think about coming up with a competing product. You are already a tried and proven option. Why would people take a chance on a newcomer? Do you see how this works?

      Competition can easily kill your business. It doesn’t matter how awesome you think your product is. It doesn’t matter how much time, money, and effort you spend on your business. If you have too much competition, it’s going to be an uphill climb. You had better be prepared to buy out your competition or come up with a true breakout product to break away from the crowd of competitors you’re up against.

5)    Avoid limited monetization opportunities

    There are some specific niches online that have a lot of demand and are worth a lot of money. They also have manageable levels of competition and are still a long way from reaching their peak. The issue is that just a few business advertisers are willing to advertise in that sector. This puts you in a difficult situation. If you can't monetize an otherwise amazing niche, it's not worth your time.

     Sure, there’s a high commercial value in theory, but the theory is not going to put food on your table. The theory is not going to pay your rent. You have to focus on actual monetization. You always have to keep your focus on converting online traffic into real revenue. Otherwise, you'll be wasting your time unless you have a clear notion of how to monetize your internet business. All those YouTube videos you created, your tweets, your Facebook shares, your blog posts, your content, everything, were a massive waste of time. Don’t be the last one to find out.

6)    Don’t fail to scale with your brand

     I can’t even begin to tell you how many websites out there are gold mines, but their owners are completely clueless about that fact. Unfortunately, this happens all the time. The owners of these websites are well aware that their online sites receive a lot of traffic and that they cater to a market that is in great demand and has a high economic value. They then add some AdSense advertisements and possibly a few affiliate links before calling it a day. I'm not arguing that they make no money from their blogs and websites. Maybe they're making four or five figures. The fact is that their brand has so much more potential. Why settle for four figures when you could potentially be sitting on a business that is worth six or seven figures every single year? Believe me, this happens quite a bit. I don’t know if it’s laziness or just a lack of vision. What I do know is that this happens all the time. Don’t be one of those people. Select a niche that can scale with your brand. Next, make sure it happens.

7)    Avoid having weak personal interests

     Have you ever come across a website that looks like a ghost town? When you check out the posts, a lot of them are high quality. You check out the dates on the posts and it seems like the owner was very active for some time and then, all of a sudden, the website is no longer getting updated. It’s as if they hit some sort of wall. Welcome to zombie website land.

       Trust me when I say that there are hundreds of thousands of zombie websites scattered over the internet. These websites are, for all intents and purposes, inactive. Don't get me wrong: they're not completely gone in the sense that you can't access them. The domain name for the website is still renewed by whoever controls it. That's how you'll be able to find them in the first place. But when it comes to actual content being published and engagement with visitors, there’s none of that. These websites are abandoned. The owner may be making money from these websites, but I’m also sure that they’re not making as much money as they could. This is because they may have created a website that they have simply lost interest in. I know you may be scratching your head. If a website made $2000, $3000, or even $10000 a month, wouldn’t the money make you care? Wouldn’t the extra income push you to be more excited about your project? Well, that’s you. Other people may not have had their heart in their project, to begin with. This is a serious problem. If you want a business that will truly live up to its fullest financial potential, you need to have a strong personal interest in the topic of your online property.

      Unfortunately, a lot of online entrepreneurs simply focus on trends. They try to build businesses on trending market demands. Maybe they’ve heard that a certain topic is very popular, so they build a website around it. They couldn’t care less about it, but they know that there is money to be made. These online publishers may be able to do well enough for some time, but eventually, their lack of interest in their niche is going to catch up to them. They’re not as motivated to update. They definitely couldn't care less about audience engagement. Sooner or later, their website hits a plateau. It stops growing. It can still make money, but it just stops growing. Eventually, it starts to decline. Don’t put yourself in this situation. Make sure you pick a niche that you are excited about.

      Keep the seven causes of niche marketing failure above in mind as you plan your business. Niche marketing is not a hobby, nor is it a joke. It can be a great way to make a living. Can you imagine going on extended vacations throughout the world and earning money at the same time? Can you imagine going to sleep and waking up to find out that you made a few hundred dollars overnight? This is not a fantasy, nor is it speculation. This happens quite a bit. Welcome to the world of online passive income. Setting up online properties that run on their own and generate money can provide you with a substantial passive income. However, you have to build them right. Niche selection is a crucial part of that process. I'd wager that whether you chose the right niche or not determines 90% of your success. Avoid the niche marketing failures I have listed above, so you can build your online business on solid foundations.