Product – Nicole Munoz Consulting

Why Pursue a Niche Market?

Every product has a market. It may not be a big market but there is someone who will buy what you are offering. Niche marketing determines where those markets reside. Most advertising campaigns are drawn in broad strokes for greater appeal. With niche marketing, your advertising can be more focused and directed since you know that everyone in your audience will be interested in the product.

Everything you do has a customer in mind. The feel is more personal for the customer as if you are talking directly to them and know their needs. Every customer wants to be appreciated for their business and with niche marketing this is possible.

Fewer dollars are wasted to draw business in. If your target group doesn’t read the newspaper, there’s no reason to advertise there. If they don’t redeem online coupons, there’s no sense in wasting energy to create and send them. Use those extra dollars to offer added perks to your loyal customers. Also improve your website with varied media like podcasts and streaming video.

Niches offer hundreds of thousands of dollars in untapped market opportunity that goes unclaimed. This money could be in your pocket. Bigger corporations aren’t going to waste their manpower on smaller markets that want specialty items.

In business, everyone is clamoring for position. With a niche market, you can be the first and set the pace for others to follow. Besides, you are satisfying a need that others have failed to meet. You can feel good about that.

Finding your niche in society is to find a place where you belong and can grow and thrive. To find a niche in business is to find a market that needs something you want to be able to provide. Niche marketing helps you to find smaller pictures within a larger one.

And, once you tap into a market, expand your business to increase profits. There is enough room to move around amongst niches that everyone can make some money.

What is a Niche Market?

by Nicole Munoz

The world of business has changed and evolved over the years as technology has created new ways for advertisements to reach customers. The end result is hopefully increased profits for the business owner, since the main goal of business hasn’t changed.

Marketing strategies have grown more sophisticated as well. Every business is in search of the right customer for their product. Large companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year developing new products and conducting market research.

Small businesses also need to know where to market their products or services. With considerably less money than a big corporation, successful marketing strategies can mean the difference between staying afloat and taking a nose dive.

One tool in the marketing arsenal is niche marketing. The principle strategies of this tool make niche marketing adaptable to the small business owner looking to turn a profit and the larger corporation that wants to increase their market share. Every customer is looking for something and the trick is to find out what that is and provide the product or service for them. In today’s economy, no one wants to waste their money. But, they will spend money for the items they want and need.

What is a Niche Market?

Have you ever perused a store looking for something to solve a problem? It could have been a stubborn stain in your carpet or a bothersome cold. You know what you need but have a hard time finding it. Sometimes you simply wish someone would create exactly what you are looking for. You’d even invent it yourself if you could. That is where niche marketing can be of great help to the customer. What if someone were to provide what you needed?

A niche market is a smaller group of individuals that have a specific need for a product or service that hasn’t been met. To take advantage of the opportunity to reach this specialized group of customers is the goal of niche marketing. But, you must identify what the group needs before you can strive to provide it.

While there are many niches that remain untapped, all of them are not profitable. You can promote a stain remover for stubborn carpet stains but if only 100 people need that remover, you won’t make much money. So, simply identifying the niche is not the end, but the beginning. Studying its viability is also important.

This group of individuals can be linked in many ways. How they are linked is the key to discovering a new niche market. The want of the product is not the niche but social class, race, economic level, background, gender and religion to name a few.

Once you have found the customers, it is your job to provide a quality product or service to them. Meet their expectations and you’ll begin building a solid customer base. What any business wants are customers who will stick with them through thick and thin. A loyal customer is a customer for life.

Why do niche markets go untapped? Part of the reason has to do with perception. Niche markets are small and well defined. When most business owners think of small they envision shrinking profits and that is not the way they want to go.

The thought here is akin to how old fashioned fishing boats would cast their nets. If you cast a large net over a wide enough space, you have the opportunity to catch more fish. A product that appeals to a broad market is more feasible than putting time and effort into pinpointing the exact location of one school of fish. Do you get the idea?

A larger business might not see the logic of going after a more specialized market. That is great news for you as a small business owner because what falls through the net is free for the taking. A small business owner could do quite nicely on a million in sales from a newly discovered niche market.

How to Set Up a Sales Funnel Checklist

by Nicole Munoz

Creating an effective sales funnel and supporting marketing system helps you earn profits around the clock. Use this handy checklist with ten key steps to help you identify and complete the essential tasks of a profitable sales funnel.

#1 Have you made a list of all the products and services you will be offering, including the price points and promotional price points? Have you created a system to organize your products/services and relevant prices. You can use the following to improve the process:

Spreadsheets
Mind map
Flowchart
Notebook

#2 You need to identify:

the problem that needs a solution
the target audience
the benefit each product or service provides.

#3 You need to create a content plan that is used to drive traffic and enter the prospects into your sales funnel. It includes:

Social media posts
Blog posts
Guest blog posts
Free reports/case studies
Videos
Interviews

#4 Next, you will need to create an opt-in offer and squeeze page to build the email list. Your opt-in offer is a:

Report
Newsletter
Video series
Tutorial
Ebook

#5 You need to create automated email messages that follow up with new subscribers with a thank you page and follow up messages to transition them to the first product in your sales funnel.

Establish a timeline that takes into consideration the most effective time to deliver each message.
Identify the format, goal, and call to action for each message.

#6 Create and schedule the email messages using an autoresponder technology. For example, Infusionsoft.

#7 Look at your product/service list. Have you identified opportunities to:

Up-sell – When, during your sales and marketing process can you offer the next higher priced product to your customer?
Cross sell – When, within the body of your sales funnel can you offer complimentary or supplementary products to your customer?
Create special promotions – Where in your sales process and funnel can you introduce special promotions to your customers to help them move through your funnel?

#8 Create sales page for each offer. It should include:

Attention grabbing headline
Compelling benefit driven copy
Proof
Motivation to act now, for example a limited number, or a limited time offer
Call to action

#9 Test all elements of the sales funnel process including email links, sales page links, and how each element appears on various browsers. The shopping cart system is integrated into the sales material and emails and everything is working perfectly.

#10 You should implement a system of analytics and evaluation – create systems to collect data about:

Email messages click through rates
Links and calls to action on sales pages
Email open rate
Squeeze page conversions
Sales and profits for each customer and offer

and

Schedule a time each week/month/quarter to review the analytics and make any necessary tweaks or changes to your existing sales funnel.

Tips for Writing Effective and Useful Product Reviews

by Nicole Munoz

More and more people are reading reviews before they buy online and offline. As an affiliate marketer, you have a unique position when it comes to providing people with the information that they seek. Here are some tips for writing effective and useful product reviews.

What are Product Reviews?

Product reviews are blurbs written about an item, right? Wrong. Those looking to read about the newest coffeemaker or the latest high
definition television are not asking for two paragraphs and a handful of stars. They want to know details.

A winning product review contains many elements:

Knowledge of the product being reviewed
Pros and cons of the product
Perspective (speak as a new user and also as someone who has used that type of product before)
Images that show the product
Accurate research on the product
Examples of product features

From a consumer’s perspective, anything less than that is simply fluff. If you aren’t giving detailed information about the product in question, then the content you provide is not useful. Visitors will begin to bypass your site in favor of one can offer an in-depth review.

What’s the Purpose of your Review?

The answer to this question will help when crafting the review. Sure, as an affiliate, you want to make money with your content.
Hopefully the reader will click on your affiliate link. Actually, this motivation will be secondary if you hope to gain a following from your reviews.

Some reviews are so full of affiliate links that people think they are sales messages. They learn more about how much they need to purchase the item instead of any real information about the product itself. Readers become suspicious of your motives and can learn not to trust your reviews as unbiased portrayals of a product.

Add your affiliate link to the review but do so at the end. Allow the person to read all the information about the product, forming their own opinion as they do so, and then wrap it all up by clicking your link.

Remember, the elements of a winning review are also some of the most common reasons people read reviews in the first place.

Become Acquainted with the Product

Buy the product before you review it. As an affiliate, you might be eligible for a discount on the product, so ask if that’s possible. Either way, become familiar with items you are writing about.

Be honest. Readers can see through a smokescreen. Think of it this way: If you are the only person not writing something negative
about the product, consumers will think you have something to hide especially if you are also an affiliate of the company.

Leave the decision whether to buy up to the reader. Yes, you can make a few sales with biased reviews but where will that put your reputation? Create quality review content and people will continue to read what you have to say and click on your links. Try to deceive them and go for the quick sale and risk losing your audience.

Craft your Content

How you deliver your review is just as important as what you actually say. Introduce the product through its features. List them in bullet form for easier reading. Make your content as visually appealing as it is informative.

Who will buy the product? Let your audience know who can benefit most from purchasing the item or others like it. Speaking of benefits, list the biggest value that customers can receive from owning the item. Don’t forget to list other advantages as well.

Answer the silent questions that everyone wants to ask: How much does it cost? Is there a warranty? Where can the product be purchased?

List the pros and cons of the product. Everyone knows that there is a downside to any product. Display both sides honestly. For some, what is listed as a con is negligible in light of the other benefits of the product.

Add your experiences. This isn’t a separate section. Sprinkle them throughout. For instance, as you describe the main benefit of the
product, remark about how that benefit has enhanced your life. Readers will realize that you also use the product, or have used it, so they can trust your opinion of it. It also shows that you have the necessary expertise to write the review in the first place.

Keep the language simple. Say what you have to say in plain terms so that everyone can understand it. The same goes for your affiliate link. Instead of a big button, link the affiliate URL to the product name with a strong call to action.

What do you look for in a product review? Those are the same things that your readers are searching for. Providing that information in an effective way produces a useful product review that will breed trust and bring clicks.