What’s the difference between target marketing and niche marketing?
A clear focus can keep you right on track and help you find the right audience for your niche marketing.
Do you like dogs? Do you own a dog? Do you own a dog and live in the city? Do you own a dog and live in the city and like to go on long walks?
When addressing your audience, it’s all about going from big to small. That way, you can reach the people who really care about what you do. A dog-lover is different from a dog-owner, and a dog-owner in the city is different from a dog-owner in the suburbs. Although there is overlap and shared interests, there are also different needs present.
“Smaller is bigger in business, and smaller is not all over the map; it’s highly focused,” says Lynda Falkenstein on niche marketing, author of Nichecraft: Using Your Specialness to Focus Your Business, Corner Your Market and Make Customers Seek You Out.
Discover the happy area where what you do overlaps with what your audience cares about, and you’ve started a great conversation. This is your target audience—and when you become hyper-focused on a certain aspect of that audience, you’re talking to your niche audience.
But while every business has a target audience, not every business has a niche market.
“Target marketing, defining your target market, is really only determining what part of the ocean you will swim in, what sea, what could be a good environment for you,” writes Sumei FitzGerald on LinkedIn. “But the niche? This is branding. This is personal.”
What’s the difference between a target market and a niche market? Niches are smaller, more specific groups within your target audience. You may do research to find a niche market, or you could naturally fall into it when you see a certain group responding particularly well to your product or service.
Depending on your mission and business, a niche market may be lucrative or it may be better focusing on serving your larger target audience.
