Niche marketing is a term used first in general business practices but expanded to include the Internet as the newest marketing frontier. Niche marketing comes from the idea of a person or company finding its own little corner in an otherwise crowded market. For an individual, “finding a niche” means determining what the person does best.
For a company, “finding a niche” means finding out how the company can best reach a small segment of a larger demographic group. Niche marketing in traditional marketing may be finding a way to reach readers of espionage thrillers among the thousands of books on the market. One book marketing company may become adept at getting this specific type of book into readers’ hands, and then the focus of this company becomes niche marketing espionage thrillers only.
When it comes to the Internet, the use of the term refers to the way in which affiliate marketers find their target audience. Affiliate marketers make money by signing on with companies selling products. Those companies then offer a small percentage of the sale price to the affiliate marketers who bring in the customer. Affiliate marketers practice the essence of niche marketing online. Rather than focusing on a larger group, these marketers are trying to find customers who will be interested in the very specific products they have available.
Niche marketing online means finding ways to connect with potential buyers interested in the products being offered. An affiliate marketer for a hardware website may decide to focus only on people purchasing power tools, for instance. The marketer then goes about finding places where people who purchase power tools go. The answer may be a blog about how to use various power tools or a site offering frank reviews of various kinds of tools. By using niche marketing, the Internet marketer is learning to respond to the needs of a specific group of consumers and tailoring articles and websites to that group.
The primary benefit of niche marketing, especially online, is that it levels the playing field for small-budget marketers. Rather than creating diluted messages, a niche marketing campaign can include a very specific message intended to appeal only to a small group of people. These messages can be tailored more specifically than general marketing messages, which means they will reach the target audience with a laser point. Doing that means the smaller marketer can spend limited marketing dollars in a smart way.
Another benefit to marketing to a small group is that when doing so, one can be candid in a way that isn’t possible with larger marketing. When it comes to non-mainstream environmentalists, for example, one can make fun of bamboo t-shirts and fancy recycling bins as wastes and in the process appeal to this very small group to purchase a book or other product that speaks to their specific interest. While the ad would not be appealing, and may even be off-putting to larger groups of environmentalists, it will work very well with this small slice of the environmental movement. That identification and connection is the key to successful niche marketing.
Keyword research can be a daunting task for someone new to niche marketing on the Internet. Once you have the basics down, however, this type of research will become second nature and will begin to guide all of your plans for your website.
Finding Good Keyword Tools
Various keyword trackers are available online. Some of them, such as Google’s keyword analysis tool and the basic version of Word Tracker, are available for free. Free keyword tools provide a variety of basic information. You can search for phrases and words related to your website and then plan niche marketing campaigns based on the results you get.
Paid keyword tools also are available. These tools tend to provide additional information. They often provide trend information, for instance. With trends, you can find out how many people searched for a certain topic last year at this time compared to now. For seasonal websites, these advanced keyword trackers make niche marketing much easier because you can pinpoint when people are most likely to search for the terms related to your site.
Using Keyword Tools Regularly
Keyword trackers are essential to knowing how to name blog posts, articles, and page headers. The words used in each of these places helps with the way search engines view a page, meaning your niche marketing plans are dependent on using the right keywords. Though it seems tedious at first, making it a point to track keywords before writing the first word of a content piece should become second nature.
Before you sit down to plan the next month’s editorial calendar, be sure to have a keyword research tool pulled up. Begin to search for narrowly-defined terms related to what you are considering putting up on your site. Don’t just assume you know what people are searching for. Look at the synonyms and related terms as well; you may find that more people use a related term than your instinct suggested.
Avoiding Keyword Obsession
The other side of the niche marketing world is that sometimes site owners can get too caught up in keyword usage. Keywords are important, indeed, but becoming overwhelmed is simple. Keyword research tools will give you scores, and sometimes hundreds, of results, especially if you start with a broad search term. One gut reaction is to plan to use every single keyword mentioned in your niche marketing campaign, but it is impossible to do so.
Instead you should narrow your search and focus on the ways in which you can use targeted keyword traffic. Begin with an idea of what you want to cover. Let’s say you have a basic site on football. Searching for “football” will lead to myriad results on both European and American football. Trying to incorporate all of these terms into a niche marketing campaign would be too much. Narrow the search to terms including “basics” or “how to” or other terms. Begin to focus on groupings of football-related terms and design your niche marketing plans around those terms.
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