Niche marketing is when you focus your attention on a small but specific market.

Here is my example; for over twenty years I did bicycle sculptures. I focused on the bicycle market. I advertised in bicycle related magazines, exhibited at bicycle shows and rallies and wholesaled to bicycle shops.

Bicycles were my niche!

One day some people were in my shop and asked me if I ever did anything for postal workers? No I hadn't, and had never even thought of that as a market. They explained that postal workers had conventions and like to buy postal related items.

My mind started churning, what could I do for postal workers? Maybe some curbside mail boxes made out of copper, some rural mail boxes done in a folksy way, a bag that door to door postal workers carry on their shoulder - made out of copper.

I never did anything with these ideas because I was too busy crafting and selling bicycles. But, it does go to show how easily one can come up with a niche market.

If you want to find a niche market start looking at what people have a passion for. A passionate cyclist spend thousands of dollars on their bicycle, clothes and all the accessories that go with serious cycling. They want something in their home or office that speaks to this passion.

A niche market could be any sport, or something to do with antique automobiles, cooking, travel, the environment, politics, and on and on. You'll want to match a series of products that you can produce that fits a certain segment of the population.

I first started advertising in a bicycle magazine. The magazine had a relatively low circulation, compared to the top magazines on the news stands. I couldn't afford a small ad in let's say House Beautiful. Back in the early 80's, a small add cost $1500.00 per month. Also, I didn't realize that in order for an ad to work it had to be run consistently, month after month. A small magazine with a low ad rate that reached a targeted audience was perfect for me.

Never rule out serendipity!

When I placed my ad in the bicycle magazine, the woman in charge of advertising called me and said that she had a sideline business that sold gift items to cyclists. Furthermore, there was a national rally coming up in Indianapolis and she wanted to know if I would share a booth.

At that time I had about eight bicycle designs. People came up to me at the exhibit and asked if I would do a tandem bicycle? Then others came up and asked me if I would do another kind of bicycle. Then people came up and said that they sponsored a large ride and would I exhibit there.

Eventually I had over 60 designs, I’ve done shows and rallies from Des Monies Iowa to Chesapeake Bay and From Madison Wisconsin to Key West Florida. In other words it just grew and grew.

In 1986 Bicycling Magazine, the largest cycling magazine in the country ran one of my pieces in their new product section. This is advertising that you can't buy. When one of your pieces is in a national magazine as a new product it is almost like an editorial endorsement.

The ad rates for a display ads in Bicycling Magazine were way beyond my budget, but the piece in the new product section brought in over five hundred requests for information. I had color catalog sheets of my pieces and a price list I mailed in answer to the requests. I remember that I sold over 200 of these pieces which is an outstanding return on mailings.

Today I could do much better with my domain name in the magazine. Then people could go to my web site for information and order online.

That same piece was also selected as a Christmas gift to customers from a company.

This was the Day in the Country, a country fence, a pump and bucket, a tree, sign post and three bicycles. On the sign post I had a stick on brass plates from a trophy shop with the name of the company. I remember that they ordered 123 of these pieces. I cut the price some, but not much.

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Corporate gifts can be big business for you.

Nabisco, the shredded wheat company wanted a metal sculpture covered wagon. They wanted 500 hundred of them. At that time I was doing a copper covered wagon and sent them a sample. I was excited, this would be some serious dollars at a time when I really needed the money.

Long story shortened, I never heard from them. Later someone who knew more about the corporate gift market told me that large companies will get a number of submission and make a decision. Since they are large companies and order in great numbers people are anxious to send them samples.

There are some markets that I have no business competing in and this is one of them.

But back to bicycles; I was also selling bicycle sculptures in my retail shop and since most everyone has had a bicycle at one time or another in their life, the bicycles were popular.  Also I was wholesaling to gift shops.

That’s over twenty years of sales from one small segment of the population.

In the last five years I've had numerous requests for bicycle wedding cake toppers. Usually a tandem bicycle or two single bicycles, one with a boys frame and one with a girls frame. This led me to think about a niche market in just wedding cake toppers.

"Love Bikes" below

"Mid Sized Tandem" with a heart

Not limited to bicycles, but any sports activity that I could think of. Couples today often enjoy the same activity or met while kayaking or riding bicycles. This makes the wedding cake topper that much more applicable.

A niche market on a web site that only offered wedding cake toppers would attract attention.

I sold the "Love Bikes" above to a woman in Seattle.  She was buying it for her daughter's wedding cake.  After she received it she emailed me how much she liked the bikes and that I was way underpriced for a wedding cake topper.

All one needs is a little research on what you think would be a good niche market. Get some magazines, do some web surfing and look for a niche that you think you can fill with a product line that you can design and craft.

Don't be concerned if you haven't got all the kinks worked out, serendipity will step in and lead you further.

The main thing is to be open to new possibilities. Just like the Indianapolis National Rally, it never crossed my mind that there were large bike rides throughout the country where I could exhibit. As for the tandem bikes, I've made thousands and I mean literally thousands of tandems since I was first asked  "do you make tandems"?

One of the reasons that a niche market works so well, is that there is very likely no one else doing it. Often times these niches are too small for a large company to develop a product and become involved. You on the other hand don't want to make 20,000 pieces. Maybe a hundred or in some cases a couple of hundred, but you are not interested in setting up a production line and hiring employees.

Niche marketing is finding a need and filling it!

There are three steps to a niche market:

1) Find a niche

2) Develop a line of products that focus on that niche

3) Find out how to reach that niche.

Just to be sure that we are on the same page, none of this will happen until you take the first step.

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