How to Identify and Reach Niche Markets for Your Business

Niche markets are core groups of people within your larger target audience who have similar occupational and/or lifestyle characteristics that you can target with excellent results. To identify niche markets, break your demographic audience into as many subcategories as you can and see if you find specific subgroups with similar needs and interests.

For example, if you manufacture products for babies, new mothers would be a niche market within the larger parenting market. In marketing a product to new mothers, you would look to have your product information available in birthing and early childhood classes, pediatrician's offices, stores that sell baby supplies, and even in photography studios. You might survey new mothers first and find out where they shop and what attracts their attention. The better you know your niche market, the easier you can reach them.

Once you have identified your niche market, you need to grab their attention by highlighting what is beneficial and important about your product or service. All marketing materials need to use appropriate language, while avoiding lingo. In this case, you might share the joy of new motherhood alongside mentioning its inherent new responsibilities. You could demonstrate, for example, how your product might give the new mother more time to focus on her baby.

You could then look for publications that new mothers might read, such as American Baby or local parenting publications. Pitch them a story or advertise in those publications. Small magazines with limited but targeted circulations can be inexpensive for advertising and potentially easier to land stories than in magazines read by a larger population, many of which may not be part of your niche market. For almost any special interest, you will find magazines, Web sites, and even groups or associations that you can target. Browse the Web for relevant sites or look for periodicals in reference books such as the Writer's Market and Bacon's Newspaper Magazine Directory.