Do you have a marketable niche?

There’s a lot to be said about micro targeting your business but before you take the plunge on any particular audience it’s important to know if that audience will be able to sustain you financially. Before you spend the time and money it takes to build a powerhouse brand take the quick below to help you determine if yours is a market worth pursuing:

1. How often do you hear mention of your type of business in the news?
If the news media considers your subject area important enough to report on with regularity, it’s probably something quite a few people are interested in. Televisions, magazines and newspapers are looking for ratings, and they get them by drawing large audiences with the information they present. The broader the audience they feel can be reached with a topic, the more often they will seek to cover it.

2. How many providers are available in your market and what makes you different?
Finding out you have a lot of competition is not necessarily a bad thing. It simply means there is a community large enough to support you — and that is exactly what you want.

3. What demographic profiles do you seek?
So often I see people go after an industry that doesn’t have the money to buy from them. When marketing to children, for instance, you need to make sure the problem you solve is something the PARENT wants to have solved and can afford. If you have a great service or product, but a novelty, it takes some extra-special branding to gain momentum.
4. How fast would the right client jump at the chance to get what you offer?
How about your friends? Would you jump at a bargain if it related to what you provide? And how about the people you hang out with—your easy-to-reach target market? The sooner you can hook people into the urgency of your offering, the more likely your business will be profitable.

5. What are the tangible results that clients get?
People want to feel and touch what they invest in. Even when it’s not a tangible product that you’re offering you need to find a way to make it tangible. Being able to give you clients something to have and to hold will go a long way in making your invisible service stand out.

How did you do? If you answered “yes” to at least four of these, congratulations! Your business idea is marketable for sure! Proceed with confidence; you’re on the right track.