Developing and Marketing Niche Products
In today's business world conventional and online business
markets are so competitive that many business persons are
turning their attention toward developing niche products where
the competition from very large firms is practically non
existent. You can find ideas for niche products by going online
and conducting a search on www.Google.com. You can conduct a
search by finding the root word of the business that you want to
search for (in this example we will use "1970's eclectic
fashions"). Type the word followed by the word "articles" in the
search box ("eclectic fashions articles"). By combing through
the directories that you will see listed you can find articles
and information on eclectic fashions. They are websites that you
can use to gain information on the business that you are trying
to start, like, www.MyGoals.com and www.ehow.com.
After you find your niche you should conduct market research to
find out who is in the market to purchase these products. After
you know who is in the market to purchase these products you can
expand the line horizontally. You should not rely on that one
product to carry your business. For example let's use the 1970's
eclectic fashions niche. If you were to start and online store
selling these eclectic fashion clothing you could add
accessories to your product line like jewelry, hats, shoes, or
other related products that would compliment the clothes that
you are selling.
Now that you have expanded your product horizontally you now
should look to expand vertically. This is done by taking one of
the related products and making it a niche product itself. An
example of this would be taking your jewelry line and selling it
as the niche product with the other products that you are
selling complimenting your jewelry line. The jewelry line would
now have related products to expand its market base. This will
give you the ability to sell your entire line with a great
amount of diversity.
Now that you have created these products and determined who is
your target market it is time to market them. You should create
a website with an online store showing all the products that you
have to offer. The related products and accessories that you
have gives you the option of packaging products together for
special promotional sales which will allow you to offer more
options to your prospects. These special promotions should be
developed with the needs and wants of your target market.
Your website should offer your prospects information on the
products that you are selling. You should provide links to
related websites of the same era, for example, books, music,
antiques, and other related products of the era. You should
provide articles on the period, and point your prospects to
where they can find more articles, information, and where they
can find a discussion group related to their interest. Your
articles should provide links back to your website, and your
online store. If you have a store at a location you should
provide its address and what offers are available at the
location store.
You should provide an opportunity for your prospects to
communicate with you about special concerns that they may have.
You can also use an auto responder to answer questions that
prospects may have. An auto responder will give you the ability
to get information to your client immediately. Email can also be
used to communicate between you and your prospects. You can use
the email to develop a mailing list for new products that you
will carry in the future.
You should look for joint ventures with other niche businesses.
You can trade mailing list and advertise on each other sites.
This will also give you the ability to offer more related
products and package promotional sales and options. It will also
allow you to expand your product line horizontally and
vertically if you create new products in response to the
increase that the joint venture gives your business.