Before you create your sales page -- heck, even before you create your product -- you need to know who you will be marketing to. You need to understand your niche.http://www.trcb.com/en-Us60Sat, 26 May 2012 01:24:53 ESTCopyright 2012 Carma Spence, TRCB.com All Right Reservedhttp://www.trcb.com/sales-and-marketing/marketing-basics/define-your-niche-and-improve-your-bottom-line-22977.htm<p>Who is your target market?</p><p>Did you answerwith "people" or something similar? Then your business probably won'tlast long. As someone wise once said, "If you market to everyone, youmarket to no one."</p><p>Before you create your sales page -- heck,even before you create your product -- you need to know who you will bemarketing to. You need to understand your niche.</p><p>Now, niches comein all sizes. For example, "horse lovers" is a niche, but a very broadone that might be difficult to market to. However, "horse lovers whofollow dressage" is a much more targeted niche. So, what is a niche andhow do you define one?</p><p>First, what is a niche? A niche, withinthe context of business, is a tightly targeted market comprised ofpeople who hold specific characteristics in common that are related tobuying behavior.</p><p>There are several ways to define a niche. Butyour first step needs to come from within. Who do you want to spendyour time working with? What kinds of people do you enjoy helping? Whatkinds of people do you care deeply about and want to help grow andprosper?</p><p>Remember, you'll be building your business around yourniche, so you don't want to build it around a niche you don't like. Forexample, I'm not too keen on working with arachnocologists (people whostudy spiders, scorpions, ticks and other eight-legged bugs) -- not tosay they aren't nice people, I just find spiders and other arachnidspretty darn icky. So, I'm not going to build a business for that niche.</p><p>Thislittle exercise might not give you a very narrow niche, but it is agood start. For example, lets say you love working with horse lovers.That's good! Now you need to narrow that down a bit, at least for yourfirst line of products and services.</p><p>So, how do you do that? Well, how can you divide horse lovers into smaller groups?</p><ul><li>How about geographically: horse lovers in the upper north west U.S.</li><li>How about by gender: women horse lovers</li><li>How about by age: horse lovers over the age of 50</li><li>How about demographically: horse lovers with an income of at least $75,000</li><li>How about psycho-graphically: horse lovers who follow dressage</li></ul><p>Do you see what I'm getting at? By using severaldifferent criteria, you could come up with a very targeted niche, suchas teen horse lovers from the Midwest. Now you've got a niche thatshould be easy to communicate with. You can understand their needs anddesires and can market to them in a way that they can identify with.</p><p>Thisis the key to improving your bottom line. Better sales copy that istargeted to your niche will convert at a higher rate. If you product orservice is niched enough, you might even be able to charge more for it!</p>Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:41:23 ESThttp://www.trcb.com/sales-and-marketing/marketing-basics/define-your-niche-and-improve-your-bottom-line-22977.htmTRCB.comSales and Marketing / Marketing Basics