Niche Marketing Explained
Do you want your business to be the next Coca Cola or Google? We love it when clients think big, but we’re also endlessly encountering businesses that are finding success targeting sectors that appear to be small.
Creating a leading search engine, or an incredibly popular soft drink that can be sold to the masses, certainly provides one route to success. But there’s a lot to be said for being a big fish in a small pond. If you can dominate a smaller sector, then you can often produce dramatic results. Indeed, it can be surprising to see just how profitable some niche markets can be.
Defining “niche marketing”
Let’s begin with a simple definition. When we refer to niche marketing, we mean:
“Marketing activity that is aimed at promoting and selling a product, or service, to a specific segment of the market.”
A niche can vary in size. If you sell electronics, then you’ll find yourself in direct competition with a large number of retailers, many offering a full range of products. If you narrow down your targeting to a specific niche (USB cables, for example), then you may feel that you are limiting the sales that are available to you.
Often, however, the opposite is true. Although you may not be able to stock a wide range of electronics, it’s perfectly possible for you to supply a great variety of USB cables. This makes it relatively easy for your online store to become the “go to” place for those cables, if you get the marketing right.
USB cables: a niche area to target?
Digital marketing
When we think specifically about digital activity, we can see that there are clear advantages associated with targeting a niche. If you wish to run a Google AdWords campaign, for example, and bid for positioning on the search term electronics, then you’ll discover that the cost of advertising will be high. Although you’ll be able to attract large volumes of visitors, few will actually purchase because you will be receiving clicks from many people who are looking for products that you simply don’t have.
But switch to targeting USB extension cables (to take a particular example) and you’ll see conversion rates surge, if you’re able to supply an appropriate product range. Based on the data available from Google, 4,400 people in the UK search for USB extension cables each month. So you can see that there is a market there to aim for. That’s even before you start to think about associated terms, with the data below showing monthly searches (just in the UK) for a few more examples:
- USB to USB cable: 2,900
- Micro USB cable: 3,600
- USB 3.0 cable: 1,600
- USB to Micro USB: 1,300
- Printer USB cable: 720
- USB lead: 1,000
That’s more than 10,000 searches per month being carried out on just a few keywords within a very specific sector. As you may imagine, that same pattern is repeated across thousands of niches, even when thinking purely about targeting the UK market.
Niche marketing in the UK
Looking specifically at how advertisers use AdWords, we’ve been approached by many businesses that tell us that “AdWords doesn’t work” for them. More often than not, we’ve found that targeting within their AdWords accounts is all wrong: they are frequently wasting money on positioning that isn’t delivering sales. It’s not that AdWords doesn’t work, it’s just that it’s not being used properly.
If you have an AdWords account that doesn’t seem to be working, then we may well be able to turn things around.
If you’ve not yet launched your advertising campaign, then don’t make the mistake of wasting money. Start out with a highly targeted campaign and you will receive better results. Once again, we can help.
About us
We are a Google Certified Partner agency and have been assisting clients with Google AdWords campaigns, SEO, content marketing and social media engagement for more than 10 years. With extensive experience running niche marketing activity, both within the UK and on a global basis, we can help take your business to the next level. Contact us today to find out more.
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