Niche Marketing Pros and Cons

12 October 2011

Although there are many ways to describe it as well as various terms given for it, niche marketing is one of the simpler approaches to marketing that there is in terms of understanding the concept. A niche is simply a segment of another market, its own little world within a larger marketplace, and it acts, by and large, with predictability.

Anyone thinking about getting into a web business has probably heard of niche marketing if they haven't seriously entertained starting a campaign. However, it is remiss to think that everything's positive with this marketing method.

Like everything in life, there are downsides to niche marketing. Sure, its one of the most successful ways to market online but its not successful for everyone, and it certainly has the potential for failure.

Before you decide whether or not niche marketing is right for you, you should first understand both the positives and negatives of this marketing technique.

Pros:

First up, niche marketing allows you to save effort by formulating a campaign that deals directly with potential customers. For instance: if you were going to market your gardening how-to books, you would look for a separate market within the whole gardening marketplace.

By finding a specific market that's smaller, you're finding potential customers and you're also finding that they're easier to market to than customers in a broad sense.

You can also save a lot of money with niche marketing. Unlike mass marketing, where you're marketing to everyone in a particular market, niche marketing allows you to streamline your efforts and focus only on one segment of the marketplace.

The Internet is also on your side for niche marketing. There are countless ways to find and to cater to the niche of your choice; and, if things aren't going well for you, it only takes a little bit of time and possibly at zero cost to redirect and/or refine your approach.

With niche marketing, you'll have bigger conversion rates than with mass marketing. Most of the customers you're bringing in are already looking for what you're offering exactly, so there isn't as much passing by if you manage to get them there.

Cons:

Its hard to build up a business brand and attract hordes of new customers through a niche. Since you're only dealing with a limited number of people, although they're more motivated to buy, your potential for new and repeat customers isn't as high with this method.

You may also have to readjust often. Not that this is a hard thing to do, finding different keywords and chasing down the niche, but it can get tedious if your niche suddenly shrinks and you find that you must locate a new niche.

Also, niche marketing isn't great for large businesses or businesses hoping to expand. If your business has to rely on big sales numbers or selling multiple products (as in bulk, for example), a niche might not accomplish this for you.