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TARGET MARKETING STRATEGY -- FIND YOUR OWN NICHE MARKET
Copyright 2000 By Bob Leduc
(reprinted with permission)
What is your target market? When I ask business owners that
question I usually hear something like...
* Small Business Owners
* Opportunity Seekers
* Doctors
* Homeowners
Do you define the targeted market for your business similar to one of these? If you do, you're working
harder and spending more money than necessary to promote your business. And you're enjoying only a
fraction of the sales you should be getting.
Most business owners recognize the value of targeting a market. But when you target a broad audience like
those listed above, you're only targeting prospects who CAN use your product or service. You have to
narrow your focus if you want to target prospects who are LIKELY to use your product or service. One of
the best ways to do this is to find a niche market.
WHAT IS A NICHE MARKET?
A niche market is a narrowly defined group that includes all of the following:
- Individuals in the group have the same specialized interests and needs.
- They have a strong desire for what you offer.
- You have (or you can create) a compelling reason for prospects in the group to do business with you instead of with someone else.
- You can easily reach individual prospects within the group.
- The group is large enough to produce the volume of business you need.
- The group is small enough that your competition is likely to overlook it.
WHY YOU MUST NARROW YOUR FOCUS
A niche market enables you to target your sales messages with great precision. The more narrowly you
define your niche market the easier it is to cater to the specifically defined interests of people in that
market.
For example, some businesses describe their target market as "opportunity seekers". But this is a broad
audience. You cannot cater to specifically defined personal interests of individuals in this group because it
may include all of the following:
* Executives who want to get out of the corporate environment and start their own business
* New mothers who want to start a home based business
* Students who want to generate some extra income
Any promotional message to this group would have to be very general. But people don't respond to general
talk. They respond only when they feel you are talking directly to them about their individual needs.
SPECIAL ADVANTAGE:
A highly defined, small niche market can
insulate you from competition. Other small businesses are likely to overlook it. Large businesses will find the market
segment too small to bother with.
HOW TO FIND YOUR OWN NICHE MARKET
One way to find a good niche market is to evaluate your existing customers. Can you uncover a segment of
customers with similar characteristics?
For example, I recently talked with an MLM distributor for a health products company. About a year ago she
noticed that many distributors in her downline were health or physical education teachers. She now has a
lot of success targeting a niche market of female physical education teachers who are
married, have children and are members of the same professional association.
Another way to find a niche market is to work backward from the benefits you offer. Start by listing all the
benefits provided by your product or service. Then list some of the characteristics of prospects whose
current situation can be dramatically improved by those benefits. You should begin to
see a narrowly defined group emerge as a niche market.
IT'S YOUR BOTTOM LINE
How specific is your target market? Can you develop sales messages so sharply focused your prospects
believe you're talking specifically to them? If not, use the information in this article to help you find a niche
market of your own. Then tailor your sales messages to the specific interests
and needs of that niche market. You'll see an immediate increase in your sales and profits.
Bob Leduc retired from a 30 year career of recruiting sales personnel and developing sales leads. He is now
a Sales Consultant. Bob recently wrote a manual for small business owners titled "How to Build Your Small
Business Fast With Simple Postcards" and several other publications to help small businesses grow and
prosper. For more information...
mailto:BobLeduc@aol.com?subject=Postcards
Phone: (702) 658-1707 (After 10 AM Pacific time)
Or write: Bob Leduc, PO Box 33628, Las Vegas, NV 89133
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