Some businesses have a universal appeal. These include industries such as healthcare, food, home furniture and beauty.

Others may only appeal to a select market. This could include industries such as pets, skiing, plus-sized clothes or vaping. These more specific industries are known as ‘niche’ industries.

Niche industries can be just as profitable as more general businesses, however they often require taking a different strategy. If you’re thinking of getting into a niche industry, here are just a few useful success tips.

Be an expert in your field

When getting involved in a niche industry, it’s important that you have an in-depth knowledge of your niche. Certain niches may attract hardcore fans and fellow professionals who are likely to be very knowledgeable themselves. These customers will expect you to have as much passion and knowledge as they do – if not more. Becoming an expert in your field will help you to gain the trust of these customers. Taking relevant courses could help you to develop this knowledge.

Know your audience

It’s important that you have a thorough understanding of who your audience are. You’ll likely have to put more work into marketing to attract them and may have to use more specific strategies. Spend time doing market research to get an idea of who your audience are and what they want.

Know your competitors

The advantage of a niche industry is that you’re likely to have less competitors. This allows you to more easily keep tabs on your competition so that you know what they’re doing. Knowing your competitors could be important for developing your own USP. There may also be technologies, marketing strategies or products that your competitors are using that you can adopt yourself (just make sure that you’re not imitating them completely). 

Don’t think local

There may not be enough customers locally to maintain steady business. This could mean marketing on a more national or even a global level. For instance, if you’re thinking of setting up a comic book store, you may also want to set up an online store allowing you to distribute comics more widely. It could also be worth travelling to attend events such as trade fairs and conventions within your niche.

Personalise your products/services

Specific trades can attract customers with more specific tastes. Be prepared to meet the specific demands of certain customers. This could involve helping customers to source very specific products. It could also be worth getting to know your customers on a more personal level. This could allow you to make better recommendations.

Get the right business advice

When looking for advice on how to run your business, you may have to search a little harder to find the right consultancy. There are niche consultants out there such as cannabis business consulting services that may have a better knowledge of individual laws and requirements than a general business consultant. You can find these services by searching online.

Know when your business is too niche

It’s possible to go too specific with your products and services. If you’re struggling to secure a steady stream of customers despite all your efforts, it could be a case that there simply aren’t enough people out there interested in your niche. Some very specific niches can still survive by charging high rates for the fact that they are exclusive – this means that whenever you do get a customer, you’ll be making a large profit.