Marketing Niches and Trends for Your Business Plan
Author : Dee Power
While the total market may be huge, it is not feasible for your company, especially if it is a start-up, to target the total market at once. How will you determine which niche or target within the total market to attack first? Is that niche easily defined? Is it easily approached? Does your company have certain advantages or benefits that would be preferred by certain niches of your total market?
Market Niche
Break a huge market such as skin care into smaller niches such as acne treatments and even smaller such as natural treatments for acne.
You can segment the total market by demographics which can include age, gender, nationality, education, income, occupation, physical location and lifestyles. If your market is business to business, you can select based on whether the company is a: manufacturing, service related, or distribution company, size of business by revenues or number of employees, geographic location.
If your company is web based, does your website appeal to selected niches more than others? Or can one niche be more cost effectively reached than another.
Once you’ve determined what the size of your potential market niche is, you need to determine how many of those potential customers you can reach on a monthly basis, or that you can entice to visit your website.
Market Trends
What are the developing trends or changes in the market that you can take advantage of? Are new markets opening? Being aware of what’s happening to your market allows you a competitive edge. You can develop a first-to-market advantage. Or you can establish a best-of-class solution. Timing is a critical factor.
Documenting the market trends are important. Use market research, quote accredited sources such as journalists, experts, and major respected publications.
When you have determined where you believe the market is going, make sure that the growth rate you have decided to use is reasonable. Shortfalls in projected revenues can result from an unrealistic growth rate.
Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make
The NUMBER ONE Fatal error: Using the “If the market is $10 billion and our company captures only 1% we’ll be wildly successful” logic
No segmentation of the target market with defined characteristics
Describing the market in too broad of terms
Guessing who the target market will be without supportive documentation and research
Including more than one major target market without details as to how the company will be able to address both.
Define your market niche, know the trends and don’t make these common mistakes in the marketing section of your business plan.
Dee Power is the author of several business books and ‘Business Plan Basics,’ on how to start a business. Her company’s website provides business experts and small business finance resources to entrepreneurs looking for capital.