Finding a Niche Market: 5 Tips for Entrepreneurs

find your niche concept on blackboard

The number of new small businesses started every year is about 400,000. If you’re ready to join those ranks, one of the first things you need to do is pick your niche.

Whether you’re developing a product, starting a blog, or creating an informational product, finding a niche market helps you better target your audience.

It’s easy to think choosing a broad niche helps you attract more customers because of the wider net you cast. But a narrow niche helps you hone in on a specific segment of consumers who are more likely to want your product, service, or information.

How do you narrow down the options? Take a systematic approach, evaluating yourself, your potential customers, and the market.

Use these tips to help find your niche.

1. Consider Your Expertise

Brainstorm the areas you know well and enjoy talking about and researching. You’ll spend a lot of time working in the niche, so make sure it’s something you want to do long term.

Being knowledgeable is also important in developing products or information that’s valuable. You can research and learn a new niche, but you’ll have a headstart if you’re already familiar with the topic.

2. Look at Problems and Solutions

The most profitable products solve a problem for the consumer. You don’t have to solve a major problem like poverty or war. It can be as simple as making someone’s morning routine a little easier or saving them money on their grocery bills.

Brainstorm the problems the average consumer has within the niches you’re considering. Think about what those consumers want and how they want their lives to be different.

Another way to think about it is by looking at current offerings in the field. How do those options fall short, and how can you make them better?

3. Think About Your Target Audience

When you imagine your ideal customer, what do you see? Think about the type of people you want to serve with your product or information. When you know who your customers are, you can better figure out what they need and want.

Get specific with your customer profile. Saying your target is women or adults is too vague and doesn’t help you narrow your niche. A specific target audience might be female executives between the ages of 45 and 60 or single moms with toddlers.

4. Research the Market

You might be an expert in a field, but if there’s no real market for the product or information, you don’t have a profitable business niche. Check out other businesses or bloggers in your desired niche to see how they’re making money.

Keyword research for words related to your niche gives you insight into how many people are interested in your topic. You can also see the cost per click for different keywords. If advertisers don’t pay much for those keywords, it may be a sign the niche isn’t very profitable.

5. Set Yourself Apart

Narrowing down your niche to something specific helps you set yourself apart. Instead of choosing the health and fitness niche, you might choose men training for marathons or weight training for new moms.

Even within that narrow niche, you’ll likely have plenty of competition. Find ways you can separate yourself from others in your field. Lola My Love sets itself apart in the crowded pregnancy and baby niche by offering unique Mexican Rebozo products.

What unique perspective do you have? How can you put your own voice to your business? How can you improve on something that’s already offered in your niche?