Advertising
Business Niche or Customer Pool: What’s Important?
It is growing every minute, every day and night.
It is impossible to accurately judge the exact size of any audience as it constantly changes and customers are entering and leaving the ranks of each niche market every day.
I believe that there are profitable sized markets for every information business if the owner understands how to hold and “convert” prospects to finely targeted customers.
But size alone is not the only criterion upon which to judge the customer universe.
Just as important as size, in my mind, is the amount of passion the customers have for the subject.
Where there’s lots of passion, there will be ready and willing buyers.
Look for market niches where the customers are fanatical, maniacal to a point, where their thirst and hunger for specific products within the niche is nearly unquenchable!
When you find a niche where the customers can’t wait to get their hands on every new product that comes out, you will have an audience ripe for your offerings.
I’d rather have 1,000 very passionate customers willing to give me $1,000 annually, than say 10,000 customers paying me $100 each per year . . . or worse yet . . . $10 each a year.
Also, I think it would be much better to be the only serious business in a very targeted but rather small space, as opposed to one business in 100 that occupied a broader space with 100 times the prospects.
Now some will say that you must be in a niche where there is lots of competition. The argument is that many competitors in a niche proves that there is money to made and lots of it to go around. Maybe that’s true to a point.
But the pie in any niche is only so large. And the more ways you have to slice it, the smaller the share for each person.
You can “own” a targeted audience if you provide a one-of-a-kind experience or product and it is exceptional! So I say, even though there may be others in your niche, you can still be unique and reduce the number of direct competitors you have by doing things that are not being done by your competitors.
You do that by being deeply, deeply focused, very narrow in your declared expertise, and with products that others can’t provide or copy.
Specifically, we are talking about those products that are created as a result of the person you are.
Your knowledge, insight, and life experiences can’t be duplicated by anyone! The products you create or the services you offer can be uniquely developed or deployed so as to make them truly one-of-a-kind.
So my advice to you is to not be too concerned in the beginning about the size of the prospect pool.
Instead, focus your attention and effort on discovering your distinct advantages and strengths and how you can add value, interest, utility, insight, and wisdom to your chosen subject matter.
Remember, the Internet audience is huge and growing by leaps and bounds.
Chances are excellent that there will be many others online that want to share your subject knowledge and passion if you strive to rise above the other mediocre and boring businesses in the niche.
You’ll be able to reach your audience if you stay very focused and stick to the things that you’re good at.
Most of all, find out exactly what your customers want and give it to them in quality and quantity over time.
To your online business success,
Steve Browne
www.stevebrownedirect.com