How would you test a market/niche?

by Reckoned

Posted: 10 years ago 11 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

I'm more oriented towards offline businesses, but I wish to know if there's a way to test online demand?

From what I've read about, the only kind of approximations I can get are from search engine results, email rental list sizes, ads, blogs, forum discussion etc.

However, what if it's a niche that is more specialized? For example, if I want to market Soya Cheesecake or Alcohol Cheesecake to a cake-loving crowd instead of just the Cake crowd, I'd need to be able to test the demand and rabidness of the Oreo cheesecake crowd.

But the problem is that most of the data are based on Cake alone - for example, in the search engines, most of the big results are based off the more generic terms. I'm also unable to check out the commercial intent due to tools like Adlabs closing (Are there any alternative measures?).

I'm sure many warriors here have some kind of experience on testing? (or at least the successful product marketers) I'd like to know your input on this!

Much appreciated!!
Reckoned

P.S. Merry xmas!!

#market or niche

brutecky

10 years ago

Honestly with the sheer number of people online the chances are that there are thousands of people interested in just about any product, in any niche.

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Reckoned

10 years ago

Originally Posted by brutecky

Honestly with the sheer number of people online the chances are that there are thousands of people interested in just about any product, in any niche.

That's true. However I'd like to look at the revenue potential as well... I wouldn't want to hit a ceiling on a non-rabid crowd and waste my investments, if you know what I mean... It's like beating a dead horse.

It's faster to slide on an oiled slide than one with sandpaper plastered all over it, if I may use a graphical metaphor.

Still would like to see how you'd actually go on a test an 'underexposed' sub-niche.

*

Is this a reason why some people advocate creating a blog and trying to garner audiences before trying to sell anything? It sounds plausible to some extent lol. But, so, so, so painful.

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savidge4

10 years ago

Google adwords would give you an approximate weekly search count on a specific search string, and possibly many more you didn't think of. Or if you want a more accurate, count set up a page with some info on it and run a cheap PPC on it for a day and see what kinda traffic you get.

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Reckoned

10 years ago

Originally Posted by savidge4

Umm.... What would you advise? Should i hit for generic terms? I'm not very familiar with PPC as i'm pretty new to net marketing. So should I place some kind of a lead capture page or a survey page?

Thanks!

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savidge4

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Reckoned

Generic terms will give you generic results. There is a set of terms used "Short tail keywords" ( Widget, red widget, wood widget ) then there is "Long tail keywords" ( Red widget with a white do thingy, Stained pine wood widget ) In general, the longer the term the less over all traffic. However, that traffic is more targeted to the item / information you are providing.

The better you are at getting your target audience, the better your results. If you go after "Widget", yes, you will get tons of traffic. But by percentage, how many really want the "red widget with a white do thingy"? As apposed to getting the traffic targeted to "red widget with a white do thingy"

You don't want or need to pay for traffic that is in essence of no use to me. That being said, there is a caveat. Those people searching for "Widget" may not know that there is such thing as a "red widget with a white do thingy", and in turn you can close a few.

I ALWAYS start targeted, and once I reach a plateau in sales ( say 2 a day for "red widget with a white do thingy" ), I will loosen up the target. I then might add "red widget with white" "widget with a white do thingy" etc... Keeping the next set of terms in between wide open target "Widget" and narrowed down target "red widget with a white do thingy".

To be honest I DO NOT use PPC as a traffic tool to drive sales. I use PPC as a tool to quickly determine a page's conversion rate. Once I make the needed changes to the page copy etc. I then allow SEO to organically bring me the traffic. A basic rule, the longer the keyword string, the easier and more successful SEO is.

Hope this Helps!

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Reckoned

10 years ago

Originally Posted by savidge4

Hmm, that feels right! How about using PPC as a temporary measure over SEO, since organically climbing the search results should be really painfully slow? (I figure?)

So what you're saying is... start targeted to test out the search demand... then slowly broaden out, and eventually move up vertically? (or did I read between the lines wrong

)

I really hope not to get my eyes crossed over SEO and all that. But I'm not even sure how you would go about trying to get a ranking in Google... How do you really know what they look for? It's kind of a gamble imo.

What do you think about email rentals or hmm some kind of ad space on relevant sites instead? Or perhaps even social media?

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savidge4

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Reckoned

Hmm, that feels right! How about using PPC as a temporary measure over SEO, since organically climbing the search results should be really painfully slow? (I figure?)

Originally Posted by Reckoned

Yes, it CAN take some time. Because I have a developed site, and have the ability to place linkage in my blog as well as text in other places the process is much faster to bring a new page "online" as it were.

So what you're saying is... start targeted to test out the search demand... then slowly broaden out, and eventually move up vertically? (or did I read between the lines wrong )

You got it!

I really hope not to get my eyes crossed over SEO and all that. But I'm not even sure how you would go about trying to get a ranking in Google... How do you really know what they look for? It's kind of a gamble imo.

I don't have the link, but I am sure someone has it here... but google kinda lays all that out for you.

What do you think about email rentals or hmm some kind of ad space on relevant sites instead? Or perhaps even social media?

Email rental can be effective, if the subject matter of the email is in the same context as your widget.

Ad space well hmm. Not a big fan myself. It depends on your target demographic, if its male,t hen maybe, female? forget it.

Social Media well hell yeah!

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RogueOne

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Reckoned

DO NOT spend money on Adwords. If you don't have a very good understanding of PPC you will lose all your money.

Keep it simple KISS

stick with the main evergreen niches :

Health, Wealth, and Relationships...

People just wanna be healthy, rich, and be in love...

they are evergreen niches and here to stay..no testing to see if the niche works

it has already been proven...Weight Loss will be amazing in about a week

This is horrible "advice," especially for newbies. Every time I see some newbie post this I wish I could reach through my computer and bop them on the head.

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JohnMcCabe

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Reckoned

Hi JLatham,

I'm not talking about the markets but the niches. Health, Wealth and relationships, as you mentioned, are large markets that are evergreen (not niches).

However, there are tons of niches within those markets - some which have already been tapped into, but there are always many ways to skin a cat.

My question is, how do you test these niches?

The quickest way to test a market is with paid advertising, PPC being the most accessible for most people.

I'd recommend soaking up what Perry Marshall offers on using Adwords. I think you can get the Kindle version of his book for under $10.

Dr. Glenn Robinson also has some very good info on testing markets and niches with PPC.

Originally Posted by hpgoodboy

You can use Facebook PPC to find out.

Create a campaign for a large audience, all people who like "widgets".

Then create 3 different ads, one for red widgets, one for blue widgets and one for green widgets.

The ads have a picture of a widget. For red widget the ads shows a red widget and the text: Like red widgets? Like us!

On the landing page (FB page) you have a signup form that simply says "we can deliver red widgets, please enter email to get notified hen they come out of the oven...".

The whole spiel would cost maybe $50 or $100 or so and you should have a decent number of responses. Those likes run something like $0.02 to $0.10 max (Depends on size of audience. The larger audience the cheaper the likes.).

This strategy is similar to what Marshall and Robinson do. Might be a much cheaper alternative.

The trick to not sinking a fortune into PPC ads is to set a budget based on what you want to accomplish. In this case, a few hundred responses might be enough to give you an idea of the potential.

Testing with PPC is a somewhat different animal than using it to drive commercial traffic (looking for as many customers as possible).