One of the most common mistakes found on the internet today and mostly in the marketing arena, is marketers and small business people charging to sell a product or service to a niche they did NOT research properly in the beginning.
Some people are prepared to trust their hunches but I warn you this can most often be a fools game. Especially when the alternative is so easy.
If you take the time (which isn’t really much) to undertake a small survey, even just for several days, you can have more confidence in the next step of your promotion.
Time Wasters
There is little worse than creating a report, an eBook or stocking up on a product to sell on the internet (or in the real world for that matter) and finding out that all your time, money, communication and website preparation has all been for nothing.
Why Niches are Different
Some people want to just get regular information for interest only. Others have a passion for their hobby, need a partner, want to learn music, train their beloved dog or simply make money. It’s the people who are passionately interested in their hobby or interest you should be persuing.
Breaking Down the Niche
Some times you need to break down the niche even further to find those who are keen to purchase information or goods. Take the theme fishing. There are areas of passionate interest here that differ to other sub themes for fishing. An example would be fly fishing and deep sea fishing where there is a keen following to succeed in comparison to beach fishing where the audience is less likely to spend oodles of cash. It isn’t always the case but more likely most often the case.
The Marketing Survey
You can quickly upload an easy to prepare questionaire and either send it to your list (if you have one) or use adwords or Yahoo to drive a short burst of traffic to the survey to get the information you seek. You could for instance ask if they would like any questions answered on the topic of the intended eBook, guide or report you about to release. To increase interest in leaving some comments, you can offer a copy of what ever it is you’re going to provide the market. You can then use some of the information for sub headings and chapters within the report or eBook.
The Value of Internet Surveys
You now have information from real people and who have an interest in your proposed niche. If you don’t get any response, you can safely bet that either you haven’t got a really good opportunity on your hands or something is wrong with the wording in the survey. If people reply with lot’s of various input and advice, this is most likely worth taking further.
Market Research Follow-up
If you proceed with your product or service, make sure you send a copy to those who contributed to your marketing survey with a request for their thoughts or testimonial on the item(s). You can then make them available on your site or mailing list later. Make sure you get their permission.
Try surveymonkey as a good starting point for internet surveys. There’s a free version and a Pro version for a pittance per month.