PITFALLS TO AVOID WHEN STARTING OUT IN NICHE MARKETING

October 12, 2020

ARE YOU MAKING THESE 5 MISTAKES WITH YOUR NICHE?

The majority of marketing campaigns should either succeed or fail at the testing phase. If you choose to forge ahead anyway with a particularly unprofitable campaign—even if you get every step right—your results will always be lackluster.

A key component of any campaign is your niche. Make too many mistakes here and your entire strategy comes crumbling down. This post is all about avoiding those mistakes and approaching niche marketing the right way.

1. You have no idea what is actually considered a niche.

Niche marketing is simple; it’s tailoring a product or idea to a group that shares a common interest and then selling it to them. Yet, along the way, many newcomers to the ecommerce space seem to get it wrong.

For example, “parents” can be a popular topic but it’s simply too broad. Try focusing down one more level to “new mom,” “new dad,” or even “soccer mom.”

Broad topics like “parents” have a huge potential audience but that comes with a lot of competition, and therefore defeats the purpose of niche marketing in the first place. Your goal should be finding niches that are as specific as possible.

2. You’re only in it for the money.

Should you build around a topic that you care about or the one that looks more lucrative? Most experts will guide you towards the direction of your passion, but that word can be misleading.

The intention of steering you towards your passion is because you’ll be more interested in it and your knowledge about it puts you at an advantage. If we simplify this piece of advice, it’s more akin to “follow the niche that you’ve got some interest in because you’ll need to stick with it for a while.” It’s important to simplify this advice because you can’t blindly follow a passion that generates zero interest or similarly get into a topic that you know nothing about.

3. You’re building your strategy on a product, not a problem.

Even if you manage to make a few sales here and there, focusing your business solely on product is not sustainable. That’s because you’ll never understand the needs that have driven the purchase. Failing to understand those needs means you will fail to meet them as they change.

Niche marketing will work if you can address the interest and the problems of a specific group. Find a problem or need that people want a solution for, then create content that offers solutions and share it with the community. Along the way, you’ll also find opportunities to promote your products that are aligned with those solutions.

4. You rely too much heavily on Google Search.

Google Search can act as a good gauge on the popularity of something but it shouldn’t be your only indicator. According to a study by Statista and Parse.ly, only 31.8% of content is found through search engines. The rest comes from a combination of social networks, emails, referrals, and direct sources.

This means a niche isn’t necessarily too popular or unpopular by Google’s indicators. Many successful marketers regularly use social networks, forums, and other traffic sources to find their niche.

5. You’re looking for an easy win without putting in the work.

Every niche requires work to turn a profit. Granted some require more than others, the point remains the same: you cannot make money with zero work—nevermind doing it for a long time.

In order to rise in the ranks and remain competitive in a niche, you must offer more value than competitors—whether it’s through creating more helpful content or building a more engaged community.

‍