How to choose a niche market for your future startup: 6 steps to follow

For a business project to be successful, it is essential to choose the right market niche. Knowing your potential customers’ characteristics and unsatisfied needs will allow you to create tailor-made marketing campaigns in which you send relevant messages that actually lead to an increase in sales.

It all sounds complicated at first, but this article will show you that there is nothing to be afraid of.

First of all, what is a niche market?

A market niche is a market segment composed of consumers with similar characteristics whose demands and needs are not fully satisfied by the current offer of the leading suppliers in the sector.

Generally, this segment of consumers has more complex needs than the average, so you will need a higher degree of specialization to satisfy them. However, they also tend to be willing to pay more for these customized solutions, which could generate a higher return for your business. To help you choose a suitable niche for your startup, here are the 6 pieces of advice that may simplify your endless quest for it:

1- Determine the problems you can solve

Before you start looking for interesting niche markets, determine what your skills and talents are. If you already have a business, focus on its strengths and resources, which can be identified through SWOT-analysis. By looking at what you are good at, you will be able to determine what problems your potential customers have that you can solve. To discover their unmet needs, you can use social networks and specialized forums, where people often share their concerns, needs, and preferences.

2 – Research your competition

Finding an untapped market niche is the Holy Grail of every entrepreneur. However, the presence of competition is not necessarily a negative thing. On the contrary, it may indicate that you have found an interesting and profitable niche. In that case, the first step is to identify the leading competitors.

The Internet is an excellent tool for researching your competitors. It allows you to analyze the characteristics of their products and services or discover the keys to their marketing strategy. This will allow you to see if there are any neglected needs that you can satisfy. For example, if you see a phrase like “write my essay” among the top searching trends, the demand for this kind of service is likely high.  It is also essential to try to predict how your competitors will react when you launch a new product or service.

3- Estimate the profitability of the niche market

Once you are clear about the niche market you are interested in, you need to analyze its profitability. It is especially important for startups, as high profitability can return your investments more quickly. Platforms such as Amazon will help you understand what is available in the market, its prices, and its features. Sometimes, not finding competition can indicate that other entrepreneurs have not managed to monetize that niche.

Consider the production and marketing costs to see if you can set competitive prices that leave you an interesting profitability margin. Calculate how much it will cost you to enter that market and the additional investments you will have to make. Also, ask yourself how much these consumers would be willing to pay to satisfy their unmet needs.

4 – Analyze the future of the niche market

Some niche markets can be very interesting, but they are short-lived, so you will have to ask yourself whether they are really worth pursuing, especially if they require considerable investment or represent a high level of risk.

Analyze the likelihood that the niche market you have found will dry up or stagnate in a short time. With Google’s trend analysis tool, you can check the interest in certain products or services over time and, with a bit of luck, determine whether it will be stable in the future or whether you will have to refocus your business in a few years.

5 – Test your idea

Before you choose your niche market definitively, it is advisable to test your idea. Yalex.jensen42@protonmail.comou can, for example, set up a pre-sales page for the product or service you are developing and drive paid traffic to it to see how much interest it generates. Another option is to set up a campaign on sites such as Indiegogo or Kickstarter so that you can validate your product while raising funds to finance its launch. The idea is to create a minimum viable product to reach potential customers and sound out their interests without having to invest too much time and resources.