Getting established online is a crucial part of successfully reaching the people who matter most when you’re looking to promote your business and showcase your work. An online presence is how your audience will discover you, see what it is you have to offer, and potentially become a loyal customer.
What Is A Niche?
One of the very first steps before you purchase a domain or launch a website for your new business is picking a niche. Niches are an industry or genre that you specialize in along with the types of products or services that you offer. Some popular niche markets in 2020 are alternative health and diets, environmentally responsible living, and the latest modes of transportation. Essentially, your niche is the specific market that you know well and can serve over and over again.
Why Finding A Niche Is Important
Determining your niche will help you strategically concentrate your efforts in one direction. If you’re clear on what you offer and who your audience is, you will be able to best determine how to entice them. One very common misconception is that your online presence needs to appeal to everyone. New businesses that attempt to market itself to the masses often fail because of a watered-down message. Small businesses and new website owners will have a better chance of success when they have a distinct specialty, and non-profits can seem more trustworthy when known for benefiting one specific cause.
How To Pick Your Niche
As mentioned above, picking your niche is something you should do before you go out and register a new domain name or begin building your website. Once you have a niche picked out you can begin to look for domains that are relevant to what it is you’ll be offering. Here are 3 helpful steps to picking your niche:
Explore The Possibilities – Start defining your niche by making a list of some possible ideas. Ask yourself questions like, What is my biggest passion or interest? Think about your hobbies and the ways you like to spend your free time. What problem can I help solve? You may want to review questions on internet forums to find what people are asking. If I won the lottery, how would I spend my days? Consider what you might find fulfilling if money was not an object (after the shopping spree and around-the-world trip is over).
Decide How To Stand Out – Pick your top three ideas and narrow them down by general interest and profit potential. It’s important that you know whether or not there is an audience out there that can benefit from whatever it is you will be selling. One way to gauge general interest and profitability is by checking the number searches done on relevant keywords. Generally, focus on keywords with at least 10,000 search queries in order to find a niche with a substantial audience. A high level of competition is not necessarily a bad thing, as competition means there is a market interested out there who is likely ready to buy. A low level of competition may mean that there are not many interested people out there.
Explore The Possibilities – After determining which topics have an interested market that will be large enough, it’s time to research the competition. Look at which keywords are associated with your niche and log all of the major competitors by defining the characteristics that make you stand out in the crowd. Key differentiators could be a variety of things including pricing, level of quality, and innovation of your product or service. One immediate way you can instantly differentiate yourself from others is with content and design. An expertly branded website with clear navigation and functionality can be the ultimate decider for a new customer or supporter.
