Every entrepreneur, big or small, needs to know what is a niche and how to find one specific to their business, in order to develop a steady stream of revenue and establish a loyal audience.
In this article, we’ll explain what is a niche, how to find the right niche market for your business, what are niche marketing strategies and tips, as well as give examples of niche ideas for print-on-demand (POD) businesses.
Learn everything there is to know about finding a niche and leading your business to success.
Niche
noun
/niːʃ, neesh, nich/
A specialized market segment for a particular kind of product or service.
Synonyms: subdivision, vocation, place, specialty.
What is a niche market
By definition, a niche market is a focused, targetable portion of a larger market, selling specialized products or services. Niche markets have their own demands, preferences, needs, and identity.
Establishing a niche market helps businesses gain competitive advantages. Refine a niche based on many factors, such as:
- Geographics – residents of a specific city, country, or neighborhood
- Psychographics – attitudes, values, interests
- Demographics – age, gender, education, or income level
- Price – discounted, moderate, luxury
- Level of quality – economic, handmade, premium
The key to establishing a market niche is research. Study the current markets to determine what special segments already exist and what new sections could be evolved. The trick to capitalizing on a specific niche market is to develop or find a segment with accessible customers, dominant competition, and room for growth.
What are the benefits of niche marketing?
Targeting a niche market has several benefits:
Reduced Competition. One of the best things about working with a niche market is the reduced amount of competition. If you provide niche products or services to a specific audience, there’s a high chance that there will be fewer or no competitors providing the same offer.
Target the right consumers and provide something the competitors cannot.
Establish Brand Loyalty. Niche marketing is a great tool that helps businesses build brand loyalty. Niche markets provide engagement with a smaller audience, allowing business owners to focus more on the quality of customer service.
When catering to the specific needs of a customer, your business acts more as a partner than a supplier. Develop and nurture the relationship to keep them loyal to your brand.
Expertise. By having a more focused practice to a specific niche in the market, your company is positioned to become an expert or thought leader in a specific area. Customers tend to appreciate expertise over the size or name of a brand.
People want products and services from businesses that have the most knowledge and expertise in their field. By becoming an expert in a specific niche, your company will gain customer trust and brand recognition.
Stand out by being an expert in one thing, rather than blending in with the crowd in a wide-ranging market.
Higher Profit. With less competition, the pressure is low, allowing businesses to sell their specialized products or services at higher prices and earn high profit margins.
Since the offers of a niche market are exclusive, consumers are willing to pay higher prices, as these products or services are not available elsewhere. Profitability is one of the main factors of niche marketing.
The marketers know their target audience so well that they meet their needs better than competitors who casually serve niches.
Spend Less on Marketing. When it comes to catering to a niche market, there is no need for huge general ads to gain the attention of the largest possible crowd in hopes of attracting a purchase.
Marketing to a niche audience helps your business save money on marketing costs. Niche marketing requires less investment in advertisements, due to the need to produce limited goods for the specific niche market.
Once you visualize the exact audience, create targeted sales messages specifically to them. Know the buyer personas and succeed with targeted and cost-effective marketing strategies.
5 Examples of niche ideas for Print on Demand
Picking a niche market for in-demand products can sometimes be tricky. First, it is necessary to know what is in demand. The tricky thing about trends is their inconsistency. Trends come and go, so the niche market has to be adjusted to the current situation and needs.
To help with ideas, we have selected 5 random niches for a POD business. Let’s look at some popular trends and how to narrow them down to niches specifically for your brand. Choose one of them, customize it, and succeed with print-on-demand.
1. Food
The overall interest in food is constant year-round. We spend more time at home and explore our inner culinary experts, trying new things in the kitchen. Since people will always love food, it is a great trend to break down into specific niches.
The food category offers many opportunities for print-on-demand merchandise. Slap a simple and cute avocado on a shirt and people will eat it up in no time. Or, pick smaller niches such as veganism, funny, cute, or healthy food topics for your designs.
Another great example of a food niche is pizza. Pizza is one of the most popular and loved foods in the world. From children to the elderly, everyone loves a greasy slice with cheese stringing from the table to our mouths. With its ongoing popularity, pizza is one of the best things to use in a design. Appeal to food lovers everywhere with unique and mouth watering designs.
2. Activism
When it comes to finding a niche, it’s critical to know the buyer personas and what’s important to them. Activism is a great example, as it is something forever popular, important, trendy, and with a meaning.
Activism means being a part of something. It involves emotions, values, and symbolism, a trend that always sells. Activism can be narrowed down to niches such as environmentalism or patriotism, which gives plenty of opportunities for merchants to get in on sales for the 4th of July, Memorial Day, and more.
A patriotic niche is based on the location and values of the people who live there. They love their country, its history, and values. And they want to show it off. Flags, colors, or symbols that are meaningful to the specific location serve your niche market.
3. Humor
Money is no joke. But you can earn a lot with gags, in any shape and form. Humor is a never ending trend. People enjoy it to get away from everyday life, relax both mind and body, and simply have a laugh.
Customers enjoy merchandise with funny and humorous designs to crack them up, look chic and different, or simply lighten the mood in any situation and setting. Humor is a great trend to narrow down into various niches for your POD business.
Wordplay, observational humor, sarcasm, or simply absurd parodies are only some of the more specific niches in the trending humor segment. Study your target audience and appeal to them with the right type of design. Earn POD income by selling laughter.
4. Fitness
Custom sportswear is in demand worldwide, all year round. While seasonal and global impacts affect the demand a little, activewear is a trend that never goes out of style.
Fitness is a highly competitive market, but narrowing it down to specific niches can boost your sales and business among the competition. Appeal not only to those who already love working out, but beginners and people who appreciate comfort wear as well.
The Athleisure niche is currently trending high. People wear activewear while going out for coffee or simply being at home. It’s comfortable and stylish at the same time.
Accommodate buyers with fitness merchandise for niches such as home gyms, yoga, outings, moms, women, men, or a stylish session at the local fitness club. From apparel to accessories. POD offers it all.
5. Pet owners
There are millions of pet lovers who love to spoil their furry little friends. That’s why pet merchandise is in high demand all year round. This trend provides merchants with great opportunities.
Narrowing pet owners into specific niches can not only be simple but fun as well. There are so many directions you can choose for your designs. From custom cat bowls and dog collars to cat print shirts for pet enthusiasts. Focus on your target audience, their interests and needs, and dig deeper to adjust the merchandise.
Good niche examples are cat or dog owners. Specify your niche designs for black cats, white cats, tiger cats, big dogs, small dogs, pugs, labradors, goldies, indoor cats, outdoor cats, cats & dogs in general. Or, appeal to the owners as cat moms & dads, dog lovers club, and more. The options are endless.
What can you learn from these niche market examples?
Basically, every market and every industry can be narrowed down to a specific niche and target audience.
For example, the pet owner niche. The starting point is a large and established market – the pet industry. To find a niche, think of a way to appeal to a small but engaged audience. You will be able to sell premium products by offering something nobody else has.
For the right kind of pet owner, a product or service like this is not only appealing, but worth paying for.
Pick a small segment from a larger market and target consumers with exclusive niche goods.
Make it happen today!
How to find a niche market for your business
Knowing the target audience and buyer personas is the most important part of starting a business. Deciding on a niche, however, isn’t always easy.
Most business owners are often tempted to go for the general approach, including all customers in their plans and marketing strategy. But that can result in misleading campaigns and irrelevant messages being directed to the general audience.
While trying to sell to everyone, you will most likely sell to no one. That’s why it is important to find the specific niche market for the business.
Step 1: Pinpoint your interests and passions.
Do some soul-searching. It is crucial to find something you’re genuinely good at and enjoy doing. Running a business already has its ups and downs, but if an entrepreneur has to manage an area they’re not interested in or passionate about, it will be hard to stay motivated and encourage others to root for the brand and the product.
Your market niche should develop naturally from personal interests, goals, values, and experience. So ask yourself:
- What special skills do I have?
- What do I enjoy doing?
- How do I spend my free time?
- What would I love to do, even if I didn’t get paid for it?
- What problem would I like to solve, for myself and others?
- What would I do, if I had all the time and money in the world?
The key to finding the perfect niche is defining what you enjoy and are already good at.
Step 2: Assess potential ideas and markets
Once an idea pops into mind, it’s time to do some thorough research to find out if it will do well in the world of sales, or flop. Use multiple tools and procedures to research the market and ensure success and sustainability for your specific niche.
- Google trends and searches. When it comes to finding a niche market, keep in mind such factors as quality, positioning, price, and features. Search the ideas on google and check current demands, relevant topics, and queries around this niche. Get an insight into the current demand and where the searches are coming from.
- Create mind maps. After some extensive research, it’s time to visualize your ideas and put them on the board. Use online tools like LucidChart or MindMeister. Add images, links, terms, whatever comes to mind, to create a visual representation of these ideas.
- Do keyword research. Take a few ideas and terms that stand out the most from your list and check their demand. Use Google AdWords Keyword Planner to analyze each term for their monthly search volume and competition. If some of the keywords have a substantial search volume and low competition, they could result in a potentially profitable niche.
- Research common problems and questions. Use valuable sites like Quora to see what kind of questions people ask regarding your potential product or service. What are the questions? How many are there? How big is the interaction with each question? This research allows exploring the problems and questions consumers have and coming up with solutions that will benefit the people and the business.
Discover unique niche ideas with Printify’s AI Niche Generator
Printify’s Niche Generator is a game-changer, simplifying the overwhelming complexity of choosing a niche in the dynamic eCommerce industry.
With its chatbot-style interface, it swiftly generates unique niche ideas based on your hobbies and interests. This easy-to-use tool eliminates pain points such as time constraints and the risk of selecting overly narrow or competitive niches.
By offering tailored suggestions, it’s fueling your entrepreneurial spirit with ideas that are both personal and profitable.
How to use our Niche Ideas Generator:
Head over to your Printify Dashboard and find the suggestion to try our Niche Generator. It’s big and bold – you can’t miss it.
Click the Try it now button, then Generate niche to open a sidebar, allowing you to interact with the Generator.
Using the information you provide, the Generator will suggest:
– A potential niche for your store.
– The possible target market.
– Customers’ potential needs.
– A potential store concept.
Read more: What is the Niche Suggestion Generator, and how can I use it?
Step 3: Test your idea
Once you’re well-armed with all the necessary information and establish that there is a niche market for the specific product or service, the last step is to validate the idea and see if people are interested in the offer.
A simple way of doing this is by creating a landing page with tools like LeadPages to promote the idea. Or set up a crowdfunding campaign on sites like Kickstarter to validate the product and maybe collect some upfront money for funding the business.
Reach out to friends, family, colleagues, or acquaintances to gain their feedback and opinion on your new niche.
An excellent low-cost option in collecting feedback and measuring interest in the product is dropshipping. It allows refining the offer before the official launch of the product. If a couple of sales end up fulfilled, it’s an excellent validation of the niche market.
Niche marketing strategy
Developing a niche marketing strategy takes a couple of steps to do full research and analysis on the market at large, the competition, and all possibilities this industry can bring you and the business for the ultimate success.
1. Know your competition
Succeeding in niche marketing is impossible without scoping out the competition and doing thorough industry research. There is a need for a solid understanding of what the competitors are doing, offering, and how you can improve on and do it better. It is crucial to identify your unique selling proposition.
What do you do differently that makes the consumer choose your business over another? What are the reasons they come or should come to you? Are there any buyer groups that are underserved? What problems does your business solve or could do better than the competitors?
2. Do market research
In other words, go where your customers are. Gather valuable information about the target audience, their habits, interests, values, and more. Although it is already known who your buyers are, doing solid market research is helpful in finding out their shopping habits and experiences.
How do they find products? Where do they shop? What influences their shopping decisions? If the target customer spends a lot of time scrolling on Instagram, you most likely won’t use email campaigns in the niche marketing strategy. Research the market and target audience and get the best results for your marketing efforts.
3. Listen to the people
Everybody has different problems that all need solutions. And you can be one of them. Learn opinions on certain products or services and use the opportunity to fill in the gaps. Here are some useful tools to do customer research and satisfaction:
- Google Analytics. It is one of the most widely used web analytics tools on the internet. Use it to get to know your customers, current trends, likes, and dislikes.
- Customer surveys. Surveys are a great way to find out more about your customers. There likes, demographics, dislikes, and literally anything you need and want to know.
- Old-fashioned conversations. A personal, one-on-one, in-depth conversation helps to understand customers better than anything else. Call them, interact with them, talk to locals, friends, and family. Get a deep insight into their problems and the potential solutions.
- Social media. Leverage social media to your advantage by checking likes, comments, and feedback on the offers and marketing campaigns. Online reviews are the best way to collect comments, praise, and complaints.
In conclusion
When it comes to finding the right niche market, research is key. Choose a larger mass market and narrow it down into various possible niches until you find one that best suits the business. Brainstorm ideas, inspect search trends, remain flexible and continue to make adjustments along the way to build your way to the perfect niche market.
