Niche Product Marketing

Niche Product Marketing: Embracing Innovation in the Social Era

Foreword Before search engines came in, reaching out to prospective customers was an expensive affair.

Fresh products were a relative rarity because few businesses could afford the marketing

expenses to fight the incumbents. Small businesses could at best fight the bigger players at the

local level. Specialty designer boutiques survived on lower volumes by setting relatively higher

margins per sale and catering to exclusive local clientele. Other

smaller businesses survived in regions where large players had

not yet made their presence felt.

The coming of Google changed everything. Finally businesses of

all sizes could fight alongside each other for consumer

attention, based purely on the merit of their products- not capital. Genius overtook corporate

bureaucracy almost overnight. All you had to do was build products that consumers needed

and they would seek you out. Search engine optimization and adwords became necessary

knowledge tools for the online marketer. And the marketing world forgot all about “need

arousal”!

But what about the niche players in unborn

categories? How would you optimize your site to

sell a product through search if nobody even knows

the category yet?

The newer startups offering niche products in unborn categories are being convinced by the

‘SEO gurus’ to boost hits by broadening their content. The result? A gradual dilution of the

niche! Ambitious products are steadily evolving into generics attempting to claim the rabbit’s

share of the lion’s market.

But now the niche is making a come-back. The era of search is now getting replaced by a more

powerful one- an era that brings people and minds together, reshaping marketing thought. The

era of niche businesses in niche markets- the era of Social Media!

“I have an 85% bounce rate… my

SEO says I must write content to

match the popular keywords”

“I don’t want to be a

small fish in the ocean.

I am the ocean!”

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Copyright © GoJeeno 2010 | Niche Product Marketing | http://www.gojeeno.com

Table of Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................ 1

Introduction ........................................................................................................ 3

Niche Products and Game Changers ................................................................... 3

The Failure of Search .......................................................................................... 3

The Long Tail of Search .................................................................................... 4

The Relevance Paradox .................................................................................... 4

Reaching Your Customers ................................................................................... 5

Identifying the Key Customers ......................................................................... 5

Empowering with the Right Tools .................................................................... 6

Driving Passion through Personalization .......................................................... 6

Plugging the Holes ........................................................................................... 7

Maximizing the Passion Chain .......................................................................... 7

About the Author ................................................................................................ 8


Introduction The greatest advantage of game changing startups often becomes their first hurdle- they are

NOT mainstream. The advantages of having a unique product, monopolizing a niche market are

many. But that comes at a price- nobody is looking for you!

Niche Products and Game Changers An increasing number of startups are providing products and services targeting a highly focused

customer niche. To quote Guy Kawasaki, the art of innovation

lies in developing unique products that provide a high value to

consumers.

A decade ago nobody was actively seeking a touch-only mobile

phone with just one button. So how do these niche products

and services break the initial inertia?

The Failure of Search Search engine marketing has been a blessing for small and medium business over the last

decade. Content and quality have allowed SMBs to fight and steal market share from larger

businesses.

The success of search

engine marketing is limited

by keyword focus and the

number of search queries.

By loosening the focus of keywords, you could get displayed on a larger number of queries.

However, this would be less meaningful to a consumer, and therefore result in lower

conversion rates. A highly focused keyword set implies a lower reach, but higher conversion

rates.

Search engine marketing is therefore invaluable for low capital mainstream

players. With a huge market size, even a negligible share of the total market

could make ends meet.

Unfortunately, this mindset breaks down with niche product offerings due to two major

reasons:

Nobody wakes up in the morning wanting to buy a robot

made from household appliances.


The Long Tail of Search

The long tail effect refers to the property that a disproportionally higher majority of something

occur at a large number of low frequency ‘events’. Search volumes are intrinsically

characterized by the long tail, resulting in two observations of interest to the niche business

owner. First, while the search volume for niche products as a whole is greater than generic

brands, the demand for each particular niche

is low. Second, since a consumer searching

within a particular niche is more focused in

that domain, advertising across niches results

in poor clicks and conversions.

In a final attempt to win more hits and

audience, the business owner is forced to

follow the advice of SEO gurus- target high

frequency keywords and effectively dilute

the essence of the product. To make matters worse, the actual customer base that was initially

targeted gets alienated and the super unique product idea becomes a ‘me-too’ player in the

congested market place.

The Relevance Paradox

The relevance paradox refers to the fact that people only seek

information that they perceive as relevant to them. With access to

instant information, thanks to today’s search engines, consumers

interested in a particular product- say an IPhone application would go

ahead and search for that. Again, search works great for products and

services that easily fall into an existing domain or category. Niche

products and category breakers are not as lucky. Since such a category

did not even exist

before the unique product was born,

consumers who are unaware of the

product would not even feel the need to

seek it out. What’s even more paradoxical

is the fact that if they knew such a product

existed they would have probably been interested enough to seek it out!

So how does the niche business owner reach the target audience?

“Your customers won’t look for you until they

know you exist… But if they knew it, why

would they look for you in the first place?!”


Reaching Your Customers Niche businesses have one major advantage over others- their customers. Imagine the first few

customers buying robotic toys made from household junk. They are characterized by their

passion towards the product. In fact, these customers are almost as passionate as the business

owners themselves.

A passionate customer is the greatest

asset a business can have. First, as

human beings, we all feel the need to

‘educate’ others about the things we are

passionate about. Passionate customers

actively voice their opinions about you in

a related discussion, advising prospects

and recommending your product to

friends.

Second, a passionate person is able to bring people around her into a similar level of

excitement and passion. By nurturing a single passionate customer, a business can create a self-

propelling chain of excited prospects that actively spread word about

the product. Finally, passion attracts passion. That is the reason why

geeks stick with geeks, and most of our social circle likes to discuss

the same games and TV shows as us.

Niche products, consequently, have or target a set of consumers who

not only have the desire to talk and the capacity to make others

excited about their product, but also have the ability to do so through

strong social connections with similar people. So how can a business

capitalize on this passion to drive growth? How can businesses create the “Passion Chain

Reaction”?

The most logical solution is- by conducting a methodical Passion Audit comprising of three

stages.

Identifying the Key Customers

The first step in creating a passion chain reaction is identifying the key customers. The first trait

is passion. Businesses can readily identify this attribute in a customer from her activities within

support forums and the tendency to actively seek and provide information about the product in

social media.

Traits of the Passionate Customer

-lends voice to your problems and concerns

-spreads positive word of mouth about you

- breaks the paradox by talking to friends

-energizes your prospects with the ‘Need’


However, the key customer is not just

passionate. She is surrounded by people

who engage in discussions surrounding

similar product categories.

So once the business identifies the right

customers, how does it go about initiating

the passion chain reaction?

Empowering with the Right Tools

Social media is truly a heaven for the niche business provider. The right customer is already

eager to spread the word about the product. All the business has to do is empower the

customer with the capabilities to do so. At the least, businesses can add a Twitter and/or

Facebook button at the ecommerce store or website for customers to share product knowledge

with friends.

Businesses that can afford it may even

educate their customers and get them

active on social media by aggregating and

providing customers with the vast

amount of information on the subject

available online.

It would be ingenious for businesses to

allow customers to view and add opinions for each product. Businesses could create default

Twitter handles (like @robonerdreviews) that automatically aggregate and broadcast these

customer opinions.

Driving Passion through Personalization

Since consumers of niche products have a strong similarity in their preference,

it makes sense to foster social media relationships between them. Customers

and prospects would love connecting to like-minded people. By creating a

social network of people who like the product, the business eventually creates

a sense of brand identity among the

network members.

One of the ways to enable such inter-customer

relationships is by creating a social shopping

environment. In such an environment, prospects can

see what their friends think about the product.

“The best customer need not necessarily be

the one surrounded by a million friends-

they merely have to be surrounded by a

handful of similar people with similar

interests.”

How to create a Passion Chain Reaction

-Identify Key Customers

-Empower them with the tools to talk

-Drive Passion through Personalization

-Plug Holes and Sinks

-Maximize the Flow

“Internalize your customers.

Engage them. Don’t just

acquire customers-

acquire Patrons!”


Additionally, customers gain visibility into others who they might want to initiate a friendship

with.

Letting customers ‘in’ on your internal information makes them feel like they are a part of your

team. Post pictures of your Halloween night and ask customers to reply. Host a video or a photo

contest and display your customer’s pictures on your blogs.

By creating such an atmosphere, niche product consumers become one with the business and

spread positive word of mouth more actively.

Plugging the Holes

Every system tends to move towards a system of disorder. Loyal customers sometimes form

closed groups between themselves, or word of mouth just does not seem to

filter down to the prospective customers. Identifying the ‘information leaks’

and holes in the customer social network is imperative. Once identified and

validated, the business manager needs to identify the prospect’s interest

areas and craft out strategic content to impress the prospect.

Maximizing the Passion Chain

The final step in driving the passion chain reaction is maximization. Without periodic watering,

even the most passionate customers are bound to eventually lose interest and move

elsewhere. However, with the limited resources available, small businesses cannot make sure

that all customers remain permanently excited. It is therefore crucial to undertake periodic

passion audits and maximize the overall passion levels.

Nurtured customers become evangelists. An evangelist stimulates the passion chain reaction.

The chain reaction is the tipper your business needs to explode into exponential growth.


About the Author Vikram Bhaskaran is the co-founder and Director of Products at GoJeeno.

He holds an undergraduate degree in engineering and a Masters in Marketing, with a

specialization in marketing modeling and social network analytics. Vikram is the winner of

numerous awards and honors, including the prestigious Google & WPP Marketing Rewards

Award in the year 2010. He is also a Certified Expert in Customer and Brand Management.

Before starting GoJeeno, Vikram worked as an engineer, a marketer, analyst, researcher and

consultant in various organizations.

You can get in touch with Vikram through his Linkedin Profile: http://linkedin.com/in/markalive

or through Twitter: @vkrm20

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California, 94105, USA.

http://linkedin.com/in/markalive

Niche Product Marketing

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