Niche products are products that appeal to specific customers with particular tastes or preferences. These include products that fit with people’s hobbies and lifestyles, such vegan food or gear for battle reenactments. They also include products for people with specific requirements, like clothes for those with disabilities or tools for left-handed people.
Niche products also involve different types of technology, whether that’s replacement parts for discontinued cars or accessories for civilian drones.
The internet really expanded the availability of niche products, and these avenues continue to open up as global markets grow and evolve.
Health, beauty, and baby products retain strong growth in markets like China as well as India, where more and more people are shopping online for the first time and niches are likely to emerge. Because niche markets come with small audiences, it’s well worth it for vendors to seek out customers in new markets.
Another reason niche markets are so attractive to vendors is that when consumers are passionate about a product, they become less price sensitive. That’s why Lolita outfits are so expensive, and why there’s a market for handmade chainmail clothing. Passion lowers price sensitivity, and customers will pay more for the exact item they want.
Fortress of Inca is tapping into the fair-trade market by partnering with some of the best shoemakers in South America, who make products from natural materials and manufacture their products in fair-wage factories.
Despite the highly specific nature of these products, it isn’t always easy for vendors to understand their buyers. Luckily, niche audiences often generate their own content to explore topics of interest to them. This includes online discussions in subject-specific chat forums, or more general topics in forums like Reddit or Quora. Check the chatter on social media via Twitter, YouTube comments, and more. This will help you better understand what your audience is exploring and what problems they are trying to solve.
You can also engage directly with your audience, such as at live events or in online forums.
These are all great ways to gain a better understanding of your audience and what they’re looking for. Segmentation is critical to making the most of your niche product.
Understanding your niche product is all about understanding what your unique value proposition is and how to convey this to your audience. Just because a market is a niche market doesn’t mean there isn’t competition. In fact, in a tight product space, competition can be even more intense because of its small pool of buyers.
Search optimization
Refining your search activities can really help you reach your niche audience. Since the search volume will be small, you need to get your search strategy just right in order to appear in as many related searches as possible.
Start by researching keywords to identify what your competitors are doing to reach the same niche audience. Conduct your own web searches for a range of relevant keywords, and be sure to check competitor domains in SEMrush, Moz, Raven, and Ahrefs to see what keywords rank for them.
People who search for niche products online are more likely to purchase from smaller retailers outside their home market. But this doesn’t mean they will drop their guard completely.
It’s important that these consumers trust your company and platform, and feel confident about your purchasing process. They will still strongly favor information in their own language, and prefer details like product size in a format they recognize.
Localize your offer
Although niche products may share a small audience across many markets, your audience doesn’t necessarily share the same values and expectations across all markets. Take, for example, the audience for men’s drag fashion and makeup.
Although the UK and US both have thriving drag scenes, the approach to selling related products is different for each market. The US approach is more polished than the UK’s, and there’s more emphasis on pageantry.
The UK scene uses more snark and satire, and is influenced by pantomime. Although both markets share commonalities, the same marketing approach won’t necessarily work in the US.
Marketing niche products isn’t the same as marketing commodities with a wider audience. It requires you to take a different approach when it comes to spreading the word about your product. Choose your channels carefully, because a scattergun approach won’t work for niche audiences.
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Facebook Custom Audiences allows you to target ads to people based on identifiers such as their children’s age or personal interests (meditation, pet ownership, etc.). You can also follow communities of interest and participate in discussions via takeovers, AMAs, or sponsored content.
The most important part of marketing to niche audiences is listening to them. Although true in any type of marketing, niche audiences tend to have more passion and stronger opinions about specific products and brands. Very often the solutions to your marketing issues lie with niche audiences, who are experts in your field.