Image by viZZZual.com via Flickr

[Editor's note: As we near the beginning of a new year, I thought it would be good review some of the basics of niche marketing. Today's guest article takes a look at niche marketing - what niche marketing is and how you can use niche marketing to drive traffic back to your web site or blog. ~Scott]

By Valerie Lombard

In today’s internet world, the number of your competitors is increasing day by day. Especially if you are dealing with services, products or internet marketing, it is relatively simple for anyone to set up a website and the barriers to entry are very low. But in order to continue to succeed if you are an established business, or even if you are just starting out as an Internet Marketing newbie, you need to have a new way of thinking. You need to have a stealthy niche marketing strategy – a way to zoom in on untapped niches.

A niche market is one that primarily focuses on a specific product or service aimed at satisfying specific market needs. So, what niche should you look for? Unlike traditional marketing which is getting more and more obsolete by the day, a niche marketing strategy requires special tools and criteria to reveal highly-profitable undiscovered niche markets that have been overlooked by the masses. These strategies mostly boil down to using user-friendly niche market research tools, and up-to-date internet marketing techniques to help you find the most profitable niche market, improve customer loyalty with the least competition.

It is an art to capture and draw profit from a small market segment. Those who have exposure and have spent many years of their lives in mainstream marketing fields cannot really understand how to proceed in these new online niche markets. And, they will fail without the proper niche marketing strategy. Therefore, you need precision niche market research that can show you how to find a niche. Whether they realize it or not, every profit-seeking website on the internet uses this fundamental marketing strategy. The key to finding your niche is basically twofold: Divert and Convert:

Step 1 – Divert traffic from one location (Point A) to another (Point B).

Step 2 – Convert the Diverted traffic from Step 1 into profit.

There are many different ways of diverting traffic, including:

• Pay Per Click
• Ezine Article Marketing
• Press Releases
• Links From Other Websites
• Affiliate Promotions
• Email Lists
• Blogging

… just to name a few.

• Likewise, there are many ways to convert this diverted traffic into profit, including:
• Promoting Affiliate Products
• Hosting Content Network Ads (like Adsense)
• Building an Email List (which you can then use to promote products)
• Selling Your Own Product
• Pay Per Action
• Pay Per Lead

… plus many more.

There are almost an unlimited number of combinations of diverting and converting techniques that you can use to find a niche market that will make a profit. You just need to figure out a winning combination, and then it is guaranteed that you will make money. And, there is a powerful niche marketing strategy tool that will easily show you how to find a niche market under-the-radar, without much competition.

I am somewhat new to internet marketing. But, I have purchased many internet marketing products and services over the past few months. I have been looking for a way to start my own business from home. Like a lot of people, I have done the rounds, bought products here, e-books there, but in the long run only ended up going in circles. You see, finding “the right information”, training that you can trust can be the most challenging part of it. So many people are selling information that is worthless these days.

Now you can use powerful, top-of-the-line niche market research to create multiple streams of income online. If you want to get the jump on the competition, then watch these 5 newly filmed videos explaining 5 different niche marketing strategies at: http://website-marketing-strategy.org

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Valerie_Lombard

http://EzineArticles.com/?Niche-Marketing-Strategy—Find-a-Niche-Market&id=4143858

Related articles

• Niche site marketing tips – using Unique Article Wizard | iarticle.org (iarticle.org)
• When to Target High Paying Niches & Low Paying Niches (cash-bandit.com)
• Article Marketing Strategies That Give Results (ronmedlin.com)

Technorati Tags: article marketing, marketing, Marketing strategy, niche market, niche marketing

Image via Wikipedia

By David Hale

Today, people who frequent Twitter and LinkedIn expect to locate market leaders in their markets. Your customers expect to see top-level content on all of your profile pages when clicking on links within the social networking search engine tools. By providing them with valuable content you will attract more and more customers who eventually purchase your products and services.

As an Internet marketer you need to incorporate all of the social networking sites you have optimized profiles on, into your marketing channels. You can do this by first placing social media icons on your website and blog. What this will do is encourage readers and visitors to your site to click on the icons which will link them to your social pages.

Here is where relationship building comes into play, or relationship marketing as it is called in the business world. This will allow people to get to know you and pick your brain. Give your viewers, customers, and subscribers a reason to check out your pages by offering them some freebie such as an e-book, manual, or special report. By giving them free valuable content, when the need arises that they need a product or service within your niche market, you will be the first one that comes to mind.

You need to make sure that your LinkedIn profile page is optimized by including all of your relevant market keywords and phrases into your content. This will enable your profile to be ranked within your industry focused environment. Also, make sure that you have your blog URL listed on your LinkedIn page so it will be frequently updated. This will also have your name and link to your page listed on the update reports your contacts receive.

Twitter now has a very powerful and useful search tool which is present on every profile page you look at. This search tool is a very strategic device to incorporate into your information gathering strategies. By consistently using your keywords and phrases in your tweets your information will be more likely to be listed higher on twitter search results along with Google Social Search listings.

By incorporating the above techniques into your social networking strategies you’ll start to attract more customers by treating your social media sites and search engines as marketing magnets.

If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about social networking.

Want to discover more valuable Internet marketing and social networking strategies?

For more information on Internet marketing and free training, go to http://www.drdavehaleonline.com

Dr. Dave Hale, The Internet Marketing Professor, is one of the country’s leading developers of Internet marketing and social media curriculum for businesses and universities and specializes in online marketing communications.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Hale
http://EzineArticles.com/?Social-Networking-Strategies—How-to-Attract-Customers-Through-Social-Media-Search-Engines&id=4616677

Related articles by Zemanta

• 6 Ways to Maximize Results Using Social Networking Strategies (e-commerce-marketing.suite101.com)
• 5 Best WordPress LinkedIn Plugins (wpjedi.com)
• Social Media Optimization On Facebook Part 1 (convonix.com)
• Social Media Optimization on Facebook Part 2 (convonix.com)

Technorati Tags: business, LinkedIn, marketing, social media, social networking, Twitter

Image via CrunchBase

Social media sites are quickly becoming powerful tools for the niche marketer. Facebook has recently announced reaching 500 million users. YouTube is now streaming two billion videos a day. Twitter is expanding at a faster and faster clip.

These, and dozens of other social media sites, have turned the social media experience into a boon for the savvy niche marketer. How? Each of these social media sites have “search function” capability. This allows marketers to focus and follow conversations within their niches.

Keeping current on the latest trends, releases, and topics is powerful in itself. But, the real power lies n the niche marketer’s ability to interact, to comment, and to respond to the stream of information in which they are competing. This gives the astute niche marketer the edge by creating opportunities to be seen and heard by prospects.

If managed correctly, the niche marketer can be viewed as an authority, or expert, in their chose field, and this positioning can drive traffic back to a home page.

What does all of this mean for you? Quite simply, if you are not engaging in social media to help sell your products and services, you are leaving lots of money on the table.

Today’s tip: figure out who your target market is and use social media to connect with them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The rise of social media niche sites (teachstreet.com)
• How To Win At Facebook In Three Weeks (socialmediabiz.com)
• 10 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Page Following (socialmediaexaminer.com)
• How to Start Social Media Marketing for Your Site (smashingbuzz.com)
• How to Use Niche Social Networks to Spread Your Message (e1evation.com)

Related videos:

Social Media Revolution

Social Media Revolution: Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore. This video is produced by the author of Socialnomics.

Niche Marketing: Finding Hot Markets

NicheTrends.net If you’re stuck trying to find niche ideas for your niche marketing, here are some free tools that I use to find hot trends that may help you as well. You can also download a free report of the hottest niche marketing trends of 2008 a…

Niche Marketing: Niche Market Research

NicheTrends.net The key to niche market research is finding the needs of your target market. Watch over my shoulder as I dive into market research for a niche. Need more ideas? Download a free report on hot niche trends on http

Technorati Tags: business, Facebook, marketing, social media, Social network, target market, Twitter, youtube

Image via Wikipedia

Twitter is one of the “new kids on the block” in the Social Media or Web 2.0 world. It has some fantastic social aspects and if used correctly it can be a great tool. You can use Twitter for market research, which should be one of your core internet marketing strategies. The best thing about using Twitter is you get the research done quickly-and for free!

Broad audience

One of the best aspects of Twitter from a marketing perspective is the broad reach you have. You can touch millions of people around the world. At any given moment there are literally millions of people twittering away.

You put a tweet out to the Twitterverse…asking a question and you will get short, spontaneous answers…these tend to be direct and not calculated because they are spontaneous. The Tweeple don’t take time to think about their answers…tweets are flying by too quickly for that…so they just answer!

You can either put out the questions manually as in “What is your favorite flavor ice cream?” or you could use one of the applications and create a poll or survey giving them specific choices.

After you get your initial results, you can even tweet the outcome giving people a chance to respond and further refine or clarify your research!

Eaves dropping

You can also conduct market research by listening in on other people’s tweets. You can find out for free what people are buzzing about, what they are looking for, problems they are encountering, solutions they wish they could find…or just info they are seeking.

Twitter has a search function built in so you can find people talking about a specific subject. You can also use different search applications to find comments. The hashtag is a popular way for people to identify a topic they are interested in.

So if I want to find out what people are talking about regarding ice cream, I could type “ice cream” in the search box, or “#icecream”. The # will return tweets by people who have put that exact phrase #icecream in their tweet.

So I could ask my question so I catch both groups-”what is your favorite ice cream flavor? #icecream” And I still have 91 characters left!

By getting this input, you can then direct your next project to solve a problem that you know exists! This is one of the classic offline and internet marketing strategies: find a need and fill it! This research might lead you to promote a different product than you had originally intended. Or maybe it gives you clues on how to write the sales copy to make your product more appealing. It might inspire you to create a new product or improve an existing product-or to provide a service that fills a need.

Learn fast act fast

Another one of my internet marketing strategies is acting while a market is hot and Twitter really helps here! Because you got the research quickly, you can also act upon it quickly.

So by using social media, specifically Twitter, you are able to implement at least three of your internet marketing strategies-market research, filling a need and acting quickly.

Tellman Knudson is CEO of Overcome Everything. He and his team at The Listbuilding Club are passionate about teaching others the ins and outs of list building and other internet marketing strategies. To learn more about using Social Media in your internet marketing business, visit http://ListSpeed.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tellman_Knudson

http://EzineArticles.com/?Internet-Marketing-Strategies—Conduct-Market-Research-Quickly-Using-Twitter&id=2285537

Related articles by Zemanta

• Great Resources for How to Use Twitter (stephenpickering.com)
• 10 Ways to get Yourself Unfollowed on Twitter (myventurepad.com)
• How to Use Twitter Hashtags to Search and Create Community in Social Media (wordsellinc.com)
• 50 Power Twitter Tips (chrisbrogan.com)

Technorati Tags: hashtag, market research, marketing, search, Twitter

Image via Wikipedia

By Scott Spooner

In 1971,  British rock group, The Who, released their seminal album, Who’s Next, which featured a song titled Going Mobile. This was a song about a guy who decided to give up his rooted existence and go on the road.

39 years later, it looks like he’s got lots of company.

Recent research indicates that, on a daily basis, more people are accessing the Internet via their smart phones, than there are people emailing. That’s an astounding figure considering that smart phones weren’t even around a decade ago.

So, “mobile” has arrived and while not all pieces of the mobile landscape have been figured out, the smart business owners are already looking to mobile marketing strategies in an effort to get ahead of the curve.

What can you do to begin the process for your own business? Start by making sure that your web site is formatted for mobile devices.  If you are running a WordPress blog, it is a fairly simple process of installing one of several available plug-ins. I use WPTouch, but you can choose whichever one suits your tastes.

If you are running a web site, you will have to get into a little more programming. Contact your web site administrator and talk with him/her about adding some code that will allow the site to be formatted for mobile devices. Be aware that you will mostly likely have to set up an additional hosting service for the mobile site (I will cover this in another post).

Whatever you do (or do not do), understand that “mobile” is not only here to stay, but will most likely be the dominate platform of the near future.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Why mobile why now (slideshare.net)
• 8 ways to increase sales using mobile marketing (slideshare.net)
• What We’re Going To Do With Mobile Now That We Own AdMob (businessinsider.com)

Related Videos

Part 1: Introduction to Mobile Marketing

Mobile is now finally beginning to deliver on its promise to advertisers. The mobile marketing industry has long predicted the arrival of broadband mobile internet and rich multimedia phones in mass, and we are now seeing consumers understanding, int…

Mobile Marketing:: Good Morning Marketers:: thunder::tech

thunder::tech’s first episode of Good Morning Marketers, our new monthly morning show dedicated to the latest marketing trends. This month’s topic is mobile marketing and how smart phones are changing the communication landscape. For more information…

How to Make Mobile Marketing Work for your Business

One of the main reasons the mobile platform is gaining momentum as a marketing tool is because of its enormous growth potential. The number of mobile phone users is almost double that of PC owners — and growing exponentially every year. Mobile market…

Technorati Tags: marketing, Mobile, Mobile Marketing, Mobile phone, Scott Spooner

Here’s a short video that discusses the importance of surveying your customers as part of an overall market research strategy.

Related articles by Zemanta

• 10-Point Checklist for Questionnaire Design (questionpro.com)
• Grapple Shows That Customer Research Can Be Fun (questionpro.com)
• Webinar: 10-Point Checklist for Questionnaire Design (questionpro.com)

Technorati Tags: market research, marketing, Online Surveys, research