Dabbling in Niches

Niches Vs Demographics

Nobody wants to be a demographic... Everybody wants to be a Niche

Advantages of Niche Marketing:

• Niches driven traffic has higher conversion rates
  
  
• Niches decision making transcends budgets and commodity pricing. Niches appeal to identities and passions.
  
  
• Niches always offer upsell opportunities

Demographics: Statistical Data about a person based upon populations

Niche: A distinct segment defined by a persons interests, intentions or purpose

Three Step Niche Marketing Process

Three Step Niche Marketing Process:

1. Create Serious Niche Content
   
   
2. Use PPC and Organic SEO
   
   
3. Locate and utilize Niche enthusisasts site
   
   

Step One: Create Niche Content

Niche Focused Content is the Starting Point

• Create your homepage and website to appeal to you "demographics"
• Use Landing Pages, Niche Content pages and Microsites to attract and close niche business

• Tip: Blogs are a great "microsite" opportunity

Goal: Make the niche buyer believe you are as passionate about their niche as they are.

1. Employ photos that speak to your niche
   
   
2. Write copy dedicated to your niche
   
   
3. Employ compelling specials and packages to close your Niche sales
   
   
   
4. Utilize links and references to Niche Authorities
1. Tip: don't be scared... if you love someone, set them free.
   
   
   
   
5. Share videos from Niche… maybe podcast, mapping, google earth, etc as well.
1. This is high-quality content that is of great interest.
2. Example of including a fly-fishing video and Dog-Sledding Video in a website in order to really pique interest in a Niche
   
   
6. Include Reviews and Testimonies by Niche Users
1. They speak very loudly to interest-driven consumers.
2. Here is an example from a Dude Ranch that lets people post comments:
   
   
7. Quality content will demonstrate like-minded dedication to the prospective Niche buyer
   
   
8. Ensure your employees understands the niche and can speak the niche language
   
   
9. Implement a system for users to share experience, photos, videos etc about their experience.
   
1. The Niche customer is passionate and wants to share their experience with like-minded people.
2. Here is an example using Flickr Photo Sharing to let guests share photos:
   
   

Step Two: Search

Use Pay-per-Click and Organic Search Optimization to drive Niche traffic.

Niche searchers employ longer and more precise phrases in their searches.

Examples of Precision costing less:

• California Wedding is $1.10 in PPC
• Northern California Wedding is $.35 in PPC
• Mendocino Wedding is $.21 in PPC
• Mendocino Coast Wedding is $.10 in PPC
  

PPC lets you target your niche like a laser.

• Make sure you have niche landing pages.
• Niche PPC buys are typically “pennies on the dollar”… but not always.
• The PPC ad lets you write extremely compelling titles and descriptions that appeal to your niches and make it easy for you less-expensive ads to get clicked.
  
• Niche PPC campaigns usually utilize a large selection of targeted phrases.
  

Quality niche content, properly optimized, will attract highly qualified visitors with free search.

Look for CPC or PPC opportunities for deep linking and niche markets like Zango or Vamoose

Step Three: Presence in Niche Sites

Niche sites typically deliver smaller amounts of traffic, but have dramatically higher conversion rates and ADR (average daily rate)

Find Niche Sites through research. Pay attention to:

1. Blogs about your niche.
   
1. Blogsearch.google.com and technorati are two good places to research.
2. Wikis.
1. There are many general wikis that have niches within them (wikipedia and wikitravel) and even more niche-specific wikis that welcome you materials.
3. Websites supported by magazines
1. Most niches have entire websites dedicated to them.
4. Small niche sites are OK and valuable to use.
5. Press Releases work

Miscellaneous Niche Tips

1. travel.yahoo.com lets you create "trips" which are an opportunity to feature an entire trip around your niche. Here is a two day wine-tasting trip that is quite popular with visitors:
   
   
   
   
2. Local.Yahoo.com lets you create "Collections" which are a good way to create and support a local niche. Here is a Collection of Vineyard in Napa and Sonoma:
   
   
   
3. Tripadvisor.com gives several niche-marketing opportunities. Their Forums let you answer forum questions and their TravelGuides (a wiki) let you write about your niche. Check out their Go-Lists which let you create travel itineraries for your niche. Here is a wine country go-list:
   
   
   
4. Two others sites that are fun to create lists are Squidoo and 43places.