Free-Reprint Article Written by: Erin Ferree See Terms of Reprint Below.
***************************************************************** * * This email is being delivered directly to members of the group: * * [email protected] * ***************************************************************** We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you. This article has been distributed by: http://Article-Distribution.com Helpful Link: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- Article Title: ============== How to Determine Whether You've Chosen a Good Niche Article Description: ==================== Choosing a niche--a small, focused target market--for your services can be very beneficial to your business. It will help your clients to focus on and identify the services that you offer, and it will help you to develop deep expertise in a single area--and "niching" will help you to raise your rates and create a successful business. Additional Article Information: =============================== 635 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2006-07-12 11:00:00 Written By: Erin Ferree Copyright: 2006, All Rights Reserved Contact Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more free-reprint articles by Erin Ferree, please visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Erin_Ferree ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= TEXT Copy-and-Paste and HTML Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/f/have-you-chosen-a-good-niche.shtml#get_code If you use this article on your website or in your ezine, We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let us know where you have used this article, and we will include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.com: http://thephantomwriters.com/notify.php?id=3156&p=load --------------------------------------------------------------------- How to Determine Whether You've Chosen a Good Niche Copyright © 2006 elf design, All Rights Reserved Written by: Erin Ferree Elf Design http://www.elf-design.com/ Choosing a niche--a small, focused target market--for your services can be very beneficial to your business. It will help your clients to focus on and identify the services that you offer, and it will help you to develop deep expertise in a single area--and "niching" will help you to raise your rates and create a successful business. But to maximize the benefits you'll get, you want to make sure that you choose a good niche. To niche well, there are several questions to consider: 1. Can potential customers in your target market afford your services? If you're offering a high-ticket item to a target audience that doesn't have much money, then you can run into trouble. Or if your target audience doesn't control the buying decision or isn't authorized to meet the cost of your product or service, that can also lead to trouble. In these cases, you might explore packaging your services in a more affordable way, creating payment options, or choosing a new targeted niche market that will be easier to sell to. 2. Do they put value on your services, and will they be willing to buy? Do they think that they your services? Even if your target audience is able to afford your services, they have to also feel that your services have value to them and that they need those services. If they think that your services would not improve their lives or businesses, then they're unlikely to make the purchase. Likewise, if your customers think that they can do it themselves, or that they don't have a need that your services will fill, then they won't make a purchase. 3. Do they understand your services? If your target audience doesn't understand what you do if it's too technical or esoteric for them to even understand what you're selling or why they might want or need it - then you'll have a very tough time making any sales at all. Make sure that your target audience can at least be taught to understand your products or services and the benefits they provide. 4. How hard is it to find the people who are in your target market? If you can't find the people who will make up your target audience, then they likely cannot find you and your offering. For example, the easier it is to find networking groups or mailing lists that have large populations of people in your target market, the easier it will be to market to them by speaking at events and sending out direct mails. 5. Are there a lot of other competing providers in your niche? If so, is there enough market for you? If the target you're marketing to is served by many other providers, then it might be difficult to capture enough market share to sustain your business. 6. Is this niche within your abilities to deliver, and are you credible in it? Do you have experience serving this niche...or can you get that initial experience easily? Some ways to do this include through pro-bono work, discounts, or aligning with a professional organization to offer discounts to its members. You might also be able to read about the industry you're planning to market to, to learn more about the specific problems and challenges they face. 7. Is the niche big enough to sustain your business? Are there enough potential customer companies or enough need in that industry that you plan to serve? If you choose a very specific niche, you might find that there are just a few companies that you could serve. If that's the case, you might want to widen your niche. If your niche fits these criteria, then it's likely that you've created a great niche, one in which you will make more sales and grow your business. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Erin Ferree, Founder and Lead Designer of elf design, is a brand identity and marketing design strategist who creates big visibility for small businesses. Erin helps her clients discover their brand differentiators, then designs logos, business cards, and other collateral materials and websites to reflect that differentiation, as well as to increase credibility and memorability. To learn more about defining your difference, check out our eBook, Stand Out, at http://www.stand-out-branding.com . For more information about elf design, please visit: Logo design at http://www.elf-design.com --- END ARTICLE --- Get TEXT or HTML Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/f/have-you-chosen-a-good-niche.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links should point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained with articles. You can change where the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests within the article. * You may not use sentences from this article as an input for any software that steals sentences from others in order to build an article with software. The copyright on this article applies to the "WHOLE" article. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Erin Ferree can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Stillwater, Oklahoma USA. The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Erin Ferree http://www.elf-design.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Check out the new improvements in Yahoo! Groups email. http://us.click.yahoo.com/6pRQfA/fOaOAA/yQLSAA/FGnolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* To have your article appear in this distribution list, you must absolutely be a client of thePhantomWriters. We offer a paid article distribution service, and this is one of the more than 60 groups where we submit our client articles. To learn more about our program, visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/x.pl/tpw/index.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thePhantomWriters/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
