Finding a profitable market niches can shape the future of a business or lead to the creation of a successful one. And although you may think that everything is invented, here we tell you how online marketing is your best friend to detect unique business opportunities.
What is a niche market?
A market niche is a small part of a market segment made up of people who have common characteristics and very specific needs that are not covered by the general offer of that market segment.
We could say that market niches cover very specific needs. That is why there are businesses that, when they find their niche, find the goose that lays their golden eggs. However, there are other companies that, despite discovering this vein, are not prepared to offer such a specialized product or service or it is not profitable for them due to the costs involved.
Characteristics of market niches
- Consumers in a market niche have more specialized needs than the rest of the people who buy in that same market segment.
- Market niches are made up of smaller and minority groups, precisely because they have such a specialized demand, something that tends to make their products or services more expensive.
- For a market niche to be profitable, it must be made up of a group of people who, even if it is small, must be enough to offer profitability to the business.
- A market niche must be planned and developed in a free competitive market so that it can be considered as such.
Let’s take an example: one market segment is women’s shampoos. Within the great offer that exists, anti-dandruff shampoos are a variety demanded by those women who have that specific need. Now imagine that a brand decides to launch a shampoo that, in addition to being anti-dandruff, is special for repairing dyed hair. Well, we would be facing a specific market niche, the one formed by women who buy shampoo + anti-dandruff + repair dyed hair.
Online marketing to detect possible market niches
Now comes the million-dollar question: how do you find a profitable niche for your business? It is evident that the professional experience of each company, brand, and person is a great source of ideas for the knowledge acquired.
Surely every salesperson has come across a customer who tells him that he would buy his product or service “if he had …” or “if it were also …”. Turning those “and’s” into reality can be the way to turn a business upside down and expand it to a specific new niche.
The Dropbox case has a bit of this. Its founder forgot a USB memory stick at home and as it was a forgetfulness that he had already discussed with his clients on some other occasion, he thought it was necessary to create a platform to have the files on the network without having to carry a memory with him. That happened in 2008. The rest of the story is known to all.
In addition to the experience of the niche marketing strategies and sales teams, online marketing is an excellent partner for brands to detect and understand trends in consumers that can lead to a new profitable market niche.
Here are some of the online marketing tools you can use when looking for new ideas to expand or turn around your business.
- Google Keyword Tool Planner
The colloquially called Google word planner is a great tool to analyze the traffic of the terms most used by users who search for a product or service on the net. Sometimes these searches reveal very specific needs that users have that can lead to new business opportunities for a company.
- Google Trends
It is another of the great allies that this search engine puts at the service of marketing teams. This tool allows you to analyze trends and trends on the Internet, taking into account the volume of searches you are having in this search engine. In addition, Google offers this information in graphs with statistical data that allow us to see the evolution of each trend to know which passing fads are and which are recurring themes by users.
- Trends of social networks
Like Google, social networks also offer detailed information on what topics are generating conversations among their users. For example, Twitter offers you in its “searches” tab a summary of what is trending in your city, in the capital of your country, and in your country.
In most cases, these trends have to do with the current situation in the country (political, economic or sports news) but something that may surprise and be related to your business always creeps in. And if your brand has social profiles, their statistics offer invaluable information to know which topics you share are most interesting to your community and are generating more conversations around your brand.
- Google Correlate
Google’s latest tool is one of the most comprehensive for detecting trends and discovering new profitable market niches. When you enter a keyword in its search engine, it shows you the terms related to that word that are trending upward or, at least, have a growing trend in recent months.
For example, when introducing the word creativity, we see that there are a series of terms that are often used when carrying out a related organic search: “example creativity” or “description creativity” are some of the terms that are most searched.
When the search revolves around a brand or a product or service, its results may contain terms that reflect a specific need of users or something that is being highly demanded by them at the moment. Or what is the same, a market niche?
- Semrush and similar payment tools
Tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs allow you to carry out an analysis of the competing companies of your business that can give you clues about what is interesting to the consumers of your products and services. They are a great tool to know what the competition is doing in the online environment but also to see what leads users to them, thus detecting possible market niches to be exploited.
6.Other specific web pages
Both because they are specific pages to identify keywords and analyze trends, as well as because they are publications with a variety of topics, these pages can be a great source of ideas to rethink a business, give it a twist or expand it towards a profitable niche.
TRENDS 21:
It is a website in Spanish that can provide you with a lot of knowledge and trends with topics related to technology and science. A source to know what topics related to these areas is in fashion among users.
AMAZON
Amazon is the perfect place to find a “hot” niche by analyzing your products with the highest demand. The easiest way to find market niches is in the “departments” tab in the upper left area to display a list of categories or niches.
BUZZSUMO:
Another great help for marketing teams, especially those looking for influencers within a niche market. But at the same time, this tool gives the opportunity to know what topics they are talking about and the best social platforms for that market niche.
UBERSUGGEST:
It allows you to get keyword ideas by showing your results from A to Z based on what users are looking for in relation to that word. If you have doubts about the popularity of a market niche, enter the word that best describes it in this search engine and observe the words that the tool throws at you. The resulting search phrases can also be sub-market niches to be exploited.
ANSWERTHEPUBLIC
A tool very similar to the previous one that is very useful for discovering keywords and detecting trends. The results, with a very original aesthetic, are made up of expressions entered by users in search engines that include your keyword.
VERY INTERESTING
This well-known magazine is a great source of inspiration for ideas, and it can also open your mind to news that you were unaware of. Taking a look at this magazine, TV shows for entrepreneurs or the salmon pages of national newspapers can be the way to get your lightbulb on and you have a great business idea. You may not take them into account because they are more conventional but not less useful for that.
In any case, each business must find what sources and tools can help it discover new profitable market niches. Especially if you sense that there is a product or service that can be a success or if you have realized that a variation in those that you already sell can be key to take you to stardom. Use them for more information.
