We hear the words “niche” and “niche-ing down” a lot in the world of online business. It’s an important principle from business that becomes even more important once we consider the millions of people using the internet. Understanding what your niche is and how to solve the problems that exist within it is essential to your business. So, let’s not waste any more time. Let’s figure out what a niche is, why it’s important, and how to define your own niche.

“Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone.” – Fairfax M. Cone

What is a niche?

Your niche is the defined space within your market that you and your business occupy. Any market or audience can be divided up into smaller groups of audiences, based on a number of factors. Sports fans can be divided up according to sport preference, but also according to other things like real-life, e-sports, or fantasy sports.

When we think about a niche in a market, we talk about a small section of an even larger group. This section shares many common things with the main group, sports for example, but has its own preferences that make it unique when compared to other general sports fans.

Niche encompasses the style and look of your business, the way you communicate with your customers and clients, the various forms of social media you use, and even what products you will sell.

Ask yourself; Who is my message for? Who am I talking to?

How can you find your niche?

Think about questions like;

• Who is my product for?

• What are the main problems I am trying to solve?

• What does my ultimate customer or super fan look like?

You may have noticed these are very specific questions, and that is the theme of finding your niche. That is what it means to “niche down”. It’s all about finding a limited group of people who all share common traits, preferences, likes & dislikes, and even buying habits.

Take a look at your own habits online and see what niche your general interests fit into. You may follow a lot of baking posts on Instagram or watch cooking videos on YouTube. Now, you might be thinking, I like all kinds of pastries (and who doesn’t?) but you will more likely find some sort of trend. Something you gravitate to more. A particular style you like more than others. Maybe you like watching the act of cooking itself, maybe you like cakes, maybe you like cookies. The thing is, there are business and content creators out there to serve every niche (no matter how small).

So for your business, think a lot about who is going to be interested in your product and how you can convert them from merely interested to a loyal customer. If you are a health and diet business, what specific area do you excel at more than others? What are your customers looking for? Do they want budget healthy recipes? Do they want keto? Do they want help with planning and scheduling their meals? Each of these is a specific niche and, at least at the beginning, cannot be catered for all together.

Are you sure you can’t market to everyone?

This is something you hear beginner marketers and businesspeople say. Their product is for everyone, or they want their product to change the world.

These intentions are all well and good, however in practice it’s really hard to go from zero straight to this point. No-one starts from nothing and goes to household name in an instant. Save that for the movies!

If you are trying to make a product for everyone, you are effectively making it for no-one.

You want people to see you as the expert in your particular field. Meaning that when someone has a problem in one area, they know you can help them. However, if you are busy trying to cover as many corners of the market as possible, you will not be seen as the leader in any of them.

You need to focus on that one stand-out person who will be your ultimate customer; your avatar. The one that buys all your products and goes to all your events. If you want more help finding your avatar or ideal client, check out my blog here.

Ask yourself, can I specialize any further? As we saw above, the general health food market is already flooded with products, businesses, and gurus. You need to “niche down” to have success in your business. Look at something that makes you unique and sets you apart from the rest. You may think that having a super-focused niche will reduce the quantity of people who will see your business, but what it should do is increase the quality of each customer that stops by.

Why is it important to have a niche?

So now we’ve established what a niche is, and that you can’t market to everyone. Why is it so important to have a defined niche? Only then do a lot of business strategies and tools become available to you.

• Using targeted advertising and keywords, you can direct the right traffic to your website. You can unlock the power of internet marketing.

• It will be easier to establish yourself as an expert and leader in one particular niche.

• You will be able to create a product for people who are likely to purchase it.

I have written an article here, about the importance of having a niche and how to find one.

“If everybody is doing it one way, there’s a good chance you can find your niche by going exactly in the opposite direction.” – Sam Walton

How to define your own niche?

We’ve already covered some questions to get you started. What problems have you identified in your community? What unique skills and life experiences can you offer, which others would benefit from.

Do you have insider knowledge from a previous industry? Can you help other practitioners within that same space reach their goals?

With your unique set of skills, knowledge, and experience you can set yourself apart from the crowd. Think about how your product or business sits at the intersection of various needs. For example, EQBIZ Academy coaches you how to run your business better. We are also very enthusiastic about all types of online marketing strategies. Lastly, due to her own business experience Dr Raja Yasmin knows how empowering it can be for women entrepreneurs to run their own business and so this is also a focus for EQBIZ Academy. Follow the link here to register for Dr Raja Yasmin’s newly updated Personal Coaching & Mentoring Package.

Also remember that niche is related to the kinds of products you offer as well. You don’t need to offer all the services under the sun. Simply by having a select number of products you offer, not only will you be able to concentrate your energy more, but you will also be working to defining your niche.

When you are looking to define your niche, you may not always be the best judge. Sometimes we think a niche exists, but maybe it doesn’t. Maybe no-one wants the product we have to offer. So it’s important to come from a perspective of serving others and providing them with solutions. We can’t ask people to buy into our services or products. Therefore, it’s always important to remember the buyer first and make sure you get to know your audience.

Dr Raja Yasmin is the founder of the EQBIZ Academy. She has both real life experience running businesses as well as 20 years of teaching experience. Now Dr Raja Yasmin is ready to help women become empowered through business. If you would like to receive a free marketing resource for your business, sign up here.