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Developing and Marketing Niche Products
Niche marketing is one of the fastest growing marketing approaches today.
By William Dupree
In today’s business world conventional and online business markets are so competitive that many business persons are turning their attention toward developing niche products where the competition from very large firms is not nearly as large. You can find ideas for niche products by going online and conducting a search on www.Google.com. You can conduct a search by finding the root word of the business that you want to search for (in this example we will use “1970’s eclectic fashions"). Type the word followed by the word “articles" in the search box (“eclectic fashions articles"). By combing through the directories that you will see listed you can find articles and information on eclectic fashions. They are websites that you can use to gain information on the business that you are trying to start, like, www.MyGoals.com and www.ehow.com.
After you find your niche you should conduct market research to find out who is in the market to purchase these products. After you gain this information you can expand your product line horizontally. You should not rely on that one product to carry your business. For example let’s use the 1970’s eclectic fashions niche. If you were to start and online store selling these eclectic fashion clothing you could add accessories to your product line like jewelry, hats, shoes, or other related products that would compliment the clothes that you are selling.
Now that you have expanded your product horizontally you should now look to expand vertically. This is done by taking one of the related products and making it a niche product itself. An example of this would be taking your jewelry line and selling it as the niche product with the other products that you are selling complimenting your jewelry line. The jewelry line would now have related products to expand its market base. This will give you the ability to sell your entire line with a great amount of diversity.
Now that you have created these products and determined who is your target market it is time to market them. You should create a website with an online store showing all the products that you have to offer. The related products and accessories that you have gives you the option of packaging products together for special promotional sales which will allow you to offer more options to your prospects. These special promotions should be developed with the needs and wants of your target market.
Your website should offer your prospects information on the products that you are selling. You should provide links to related websites of the same era, for example, books, music, antiques, and other related products of the era. You should provide articles on the period, and point your prospects to where they can find more articles, information, and where they can find a discussion group related to their interest. Your articles should provide links back to your website, and your online store. If you have a store at a location you should provide its address and what offers are available at the location store.
You should provide an opportunity for your prospects to communicate with you about special concerns that they may have. You can also use an auto responder to answer questions that prospects may have. An auto responder will give you the ability to get information to your clients immediately. Email can also be used to communicate between you and your prospects. You can use the email to develop a mailing list for new products that you will carry in the future.
You should look for joint ventures with other niche businesses. You can trade mailing list and advertise on each other sites. This will also give you the ability to offer more related products and package promotional sales and options. It will also allow you to expand your product line horizontally and vertically if you create new products in response to the increase that the joint venture gives your business.
Disclaimer: All information on this site is
provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice
provided to you by any health care or other professional or
organization.
