Niche Marketing For the Online Business Owner – How to Find Your Niche Market
November 7, 2009 by Sponsord
Filed under Latest Articles
Susan L Reid asked:
You know who your niche market is and you have a great product or service to offer them. Congratulations! Now comes the rush of questions:
• How do I find them?
• What do I do once I find them?
• Where do I start?
These are powerful questions every online business owner asks when they’re ready to take their product to market. The bad news is, most online business owners don’t have a clue where to start. They fumble around hoping that someone, somewhere, somehow will find them.
That’s a recipe for online business disaster.
The good news is, you can save months of frustration, dead ends, and thousands of dollars in expense, simply by following these five key steps to effective online niche marketing:
Effective Target Market Research for the Online Business Owner
Here are five online places to go and things to do to get in touch with your niche market.
1. Begin your research by visiting the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) website. Here you will find an easy to use, comprehensive directory of professional associations call Gateway of Associations. Once there, type in your niche market (small business) or location (Oregon), then click “search” to find out who is where. When you find an organization that matches your niche market, navigate to their website and start networking.
2. Participate in online discussion forums or groups. To find out where your niche market spends time, go to Google Groups and type in your niche keyword phrase (small business). For forums, go to Google Community, click on “forums” and do the same. Explore the forums and groups, decide which best fit your niche market persona, then wait for someone to ask a question that you know the answer to and begin establishing yourself as a subject matter expert.
3. Join a professional online networking group, such as LinkedIn, and become a member of your niche market’s network. Can’t find a network? Perfect! Create one and welcome anyone who joins. This will set you up as a leader in your field.
4. Start and comment on blogs. Creating your own blog is a great way to market your business and attract your niche market. Commenting on other blogs read by your target market is a great way of getting your name out there and building in visibility. To find blogs of interest to your niche market, go to Google Blogs and type in your niche market (small business). To refine your search, add “+ state (Oregon)” and even more, “+ city (Eugene)”. Then get involved and add your voice.
5. Write articles with your target market in mind and submit them to reputable article distribution sites, such as EzineArticles.com. The key to effective article distribution is to write compelling content that your niche market wants to read, using your niche market’s keyword phrases in each article, and making sure your resource box has a call to action in it that will drive traffic to your website.
Once you figure out who your niche market is, the next thing is to figure out where to find them. Stop hoping that your niche market will somehow find you by following these steps to effective target market research. Once you do, you’ll be amazed at the amount of traffic that will come to your site.
You know who your niche market is and you have a great product or service to offer them. Congratulations! Now comes the rush of questions:
• How do I find them?
• What do I do once I find them?
• Where do I start?
These are powerful questions every online business owner asks when they’re ready to take their product to market. The bad news is, most online business owners don’t have a clue where to start. They fumble around hoping that someone, somewhere, somehow will find them.
That’s a recipe for online business disaster.
The good news is, you can save months of frustration, dead ends, and thousands of dollars in expense, simply by following these five key steps to effective online niche marketing:
Effective Target Market Research for the Online Business Owner
Here are five online places to go and things to do to get in touch with your niche market.
1. Begin your research by visiting the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) website. Here you will find an easy to use, comprehensive directory of professional associations call Gateway of Associations. Once there, type in your niche market (small business) or location (Oregon), then click “search” to find out who is where. When you find an organization that matches your niche market, navigate to their website and start networking.
2. Participate in online discussion forums or groups. To find out where your niche market spends time, go to Google Groups and type in your niche keyword phrase (small business). For forums, go to Google Community, click on “forums” and do the same. Explore the forums and groups, decide which best fit your niche market persona, then wait for someone to ask a question that you know the answer to and begin establishing yourself as a subject matter expert.
3. Join a professional online networking group, such as LinkedIn, and become a member of your niche market’s network. Can’t find a network? Perfect! Create one and welcome anyone who joins. This will set you up as a leader in your field.
4. Start and comment on blogs. Creating your own blog is a great way to market your business and attract your niche market. Commenting on other blogs read by your target market is a great way of getting your name out there and building in visibility. To find blogs of interest to your niche market, go to Google Blogs and type in your niche market (small business). To refine your search, add “+ state (Oregon)” and even more, “+ city (Eugene)”. Then get involved and add your voice.
5. Write articles with your target market in mind and submit them to reputable article distribution sites, such as EzineArticles.com. The key to effective article distribution is to write compelling content that your niche market wants to read, using your niche market’s keyword phrases in each article, and making sure your resource box has a call to action in it that will drive traffic to your website.
Once you figure out who your niche market is, the next thing is to figure out where to find them. Stop hoping that your niche market will somehow find you by following these steps to effective target market research. Once you do, you’ll be amazed at the amount of traffic that will come to your site.
