When it can pay to target a niche so small that your biggest competitors either despise or completely ignore it
Inbox.Ink Archives: Issue #28
From: West Of Old Polemi Mountains
Cyprus
Dear Friend,
Hey… I know that’s a really bad joke to some of you. It’s kind of like starting a letter with: “Take my wife, please.” Anyway, let’s get serious. This issue of “The Inbox.Ink Letter” is about the importance of focusing on a small niche in a mass market and the vast amount of money that can be made by concentrating your sales message to satisfy a small, yet almost insatiable, group of customers.
This is so important… it can be like the difference between night and day! Let me give you an example: One of the world’s most successful companies is the 3M Corporation. I read recently the 3M has a product for virtually every industry in the world. On any given day, somewhere on this planet, 3M is making a sale. They are truly a giant in the world of commerce.
Yet, in spite of the fact they have products for virtually every industry, there is one industry in which they have a product that is so popular, they can hardly keep up with the demand. And, if you haven’t guessed it already, that industry is… Dentistry! In fact, 3M has a product called “Filtek” which is the number one preferred restorative material for dental bonding and has a 40% penetration in the U.S. dental adhesive market.
This one product alone, which serves only the dental industry, produces approximately $300,000,000 in annual sales. Dentists love this stuff. It’s easy to work with, it’s strong and durable, it’s good for the patient and so on. The point is, here is a company that can serve and does serve virtually every industry on earth. And yet, they have chosen to concentrate on one product for one industry (dentistry) because… …They Make So Much Money In Dentistry, They Don’t Need To Bother With Any Other Industry!
So much for that “niche” being a small one, eh? However, there are small niches… that can be really small… which also offer a lot of profit potential. For example, there is a town in Texas called The Woodlands. It has a population of 27,000 people. And guess what? Those folks are so affluent and have such a high average income, their little town alone… supports an $85,000,000 a year shopping mall!
And you will also be interested to know, the average daily room rate for a motel room in The Woodlands is $150.00 per night. Just think of all the “image” advertising that goes on to make the people in that town know about and desire all the goods and services they pay $85,000,000 a year for. Imagine the cost to the retailers. Some of the stores are huge. The mall, itself, covers 1.2 million square feet and there are 160 other stores… with one as big as 50,000 square feet and another that is as large as 30,000 feet.
And, by the way, the city of The Woodlands has a law which prohibits anyone from living there if they have a yearly income of less than $30,000. This makes the people who make $29,000 in that town the equivalent of “poor white trash.” But hey, as we all know, there just ain’t no money in selling to small, focused niches, right? That’s right! As long as your product isn’t a 3M dental bonding material… or as long as your product isn’t the small, specific product someone in The Woodlands needs or wants… or, as long as your product isn’t one which is almost insatiable and the people in that small, specific niche are so passionate about, they will do whatever is necessary to buy whatever your product is!
But, how can you find a small niche that is that passionate and hungry for what you have to sell? It’s not easy… but… if you can do it… You Will Have More Money Than You Can Count! On the other hand, if you can’t do it, you won’t have nearly as much money as you’d like. OK, so now we know we need to find a small, focused niche that is dying to buy what we have to sell. But, how do we go about finding a niche that isn’t already being serviced by someone else who already has a lock on them?
Well, the first thing we need to do is…stop trying to find a “new” niche (as in “never before exploited by anyone”) and instead…start looking for an already existing small niche that is serviced by a dolt or a bunch of dolts who don’t know how to create advertising that will make their customers “beg” to buy. In other words, we are looking for a small niche that is already starving for your product or service but… So Far They Only Know About One Source Of Supply… Which… So Far… Doesn’t Know How To Create Advertising That Will Make Them Beg For More!
So, how is it we can find a small, focused niche that is already starving for what you have to sell? Actually, there are lots of ways to do this and, I’m going to give you a list of them in just a few minutes. But first, I want to illustrate my point by telling you about an experience I had not long ago. I was in Cancun, Mexico and, I was meeting a couple of friends of mine who were coming in by United Airlines. I knew the flight was coming in from Houston and, I also knew it was scheduled to arrive at 1:00 p.m. However, in Mexico, they always tell you to expect things to be late.
So, I asked the guy at the hotel desk if he would call the airport and see if the plane had landed. He didn’t have to call. He simply turned around and asked the bell captain if United Airlines Flight #whatever had landed. He didn’t need to call the airport because… there are only two airlines that fly into Cancun from Houston, so the airport only has two flights they have to keep track of. And, since the airport in Cancun is so very small, you can, at any given time… look out the window and see if any plane from the U.S. has landed!
The point is, there are only two airlines from the U.S. that fly into Cancun. They are Delta and United. And, as I said, there are only two flights each day coming in and two flights each day going out. So, here we have a small, focused niche of people who… Want To Go To Cancun! And, we have even narrowed that niche down further because we are looking for people who want to go there on United Airlines or Delta Airlines. And, if you are reading this, you are part of the same small niche because you are interested in what I have to say about finding small niches.
And, by the way, you are part of an even more focused small niche because… You Are One Of The Few People In The World Who Can Read! OK, so now we have a small, focused niche of people who are hungry to go to Cancun with United Airlines or Delta Airlines. So, how do we exploit that? Actually, that’s a piece of cake. You see, there is only one travel agency in the U.S. that specializes only on travel to Cancun. And, there is only one travel agency in the world that specializes only on travel to Cancun with United Airlines. And you know what? Those agencies are making a serious bank. And, do you know what else? They get to charge any price I want for their services… and… I get it!
Look, you are very lucky to be reading this letter. It is in this letter you are going to learn most of the techniques I know for finding small niches. And although I am not going to give you a full list of all the ways to find small niches, I am going to give you more than enough help so you should be able to figure it out on your own from here. Here are some of the ways you can find a small niche:
By Reading Newspapers: Look for tiny articles buried in the back of the paper about people who suffer from rare diseases and how they can’t get the drugs they need.
Or, look for a story about how a town is so hard up they are going to have to lay off all their firemen and policemen. Or, look for a story about a new breakthrough in technology… or… how the people in a certain town are experiencing a financial windfall. Or, read the “personal” ads and see if you can find a very specific group of people who are looking for a specific product or service.
Or, read the silly, little local gossip columns and see if you can find something like what I read in a gossip column in the Tampa Tribune on August 10th, 2003. Here is what the column said: “The education of a redneck by a soft-spoken Englishman is the focus of a new reality television show.
The program will feature Gary Busey, a loud, flamboyant, self-destructive American actor, being coached by Scott Swanson, a British entrepreneur and ‘change agent.’ “The program will be filmed in Los Angeles and will air on the British Broadcasting Corp.’s BBC3 network. The premise is that Busey is a redneck whose life is out of control and Swanson is going to teach him about English culture and language, and how to conduct his life in a more acceptable manner….” Or, read those tabloid papers they sell at the checkout stands of grocery stores, like the Enquirer, the Star and so on.
They are chock full of small niche ads and small stories that can give you small niche ideas. Or, read the financial pages of your local paper and see if you can find articles about a certain group of people or a certain company that has made a lot of money… or… has lost a lot of money.
By Watching TV: Watch the local cable stations in your area. Some of them have a station that does nothing but scroll down the TV screen and give information about the weather, stocks and bonds, special events, special deals, fundraisers and so on. Or, watch the TV channels that have your local “community access” programs.
These programs are usually run by the local school (or, sometimes even a certain class within the school) or they will be run by a church, charity organization and so on. Some of them will be designed to sell something. I once watched a program run by a high school kid that sold nothing but the advertising on his program. The point is, if you watch these programs, you can sometimes find an idea for a small niche. By Listening To The Radio: Listen to the little stations in your area that have the chintziest quality sound you can find. The ones who can’t afford to have their DJ’s sound like they’ve got some zip in their system. And, listen for the poor quality commercials. You may get some ideas. By Reading The Free Papers: Almost every city has a “free” newspaper which is given away at supermarkets, drug stores, or, stacked up in those “free newspaper” dispensers. The articles in these free papers are usually contributed by the people in the community. Read them. There may be something there for you. By Reading The Sunday Paper: Not the local newspaper but the big, fat, Sunday paper that comes to you every Sunday like the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and so on. The Sunday paper is a treasure trove of ideas. There are so many articles in there on so many subjects, you should be able to mine it for ideas for small niches for the next ten years! By Going To Charity Fundraisers: You can find out all kinds of interesting things at charity fundraisers. I was one of the main speakers at the National T.T.T. Society’s National Convention. The T.T.T. stands for the Top Teens of America. They are a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the development of young girls. They have chapters all over America and I was at their National Convention to learn about the organization. I did more than just learn about the organization. I also learned about an amazing marketing secret. I can’t tell you about it because, during the course of the convention, I was sworn to secrecy about the subject. However, I can tell you that if you ever get an invitation to attend a local or a regional or a national T.T.T. convention, you should go because… You Will Learn A Marketing Secret That Will Amaze You! But hey, enough of all that. You get the idea. And, here’s another idea: If you are going to try to find a small niche, do it in a geographic area you are familiar with. Do it where you live or, in a town you used to live in. But do it in a town you know about. You’re going to have to do a lot of “thinking outside the box” to come up with these ideas and it will be much easier for you if you know a lot about the area where you are searching.
Now, let’s move on. Let’s say you have come up with an idea for a small niche. What do you do next? The very next thing you do is ask yourself the following question: Is It Possible Some Other Small Niche Is Passionate Enough To Pay Me For What They Will Learn From This Small Niche? I mean, if you are going to go to all the work of researching a new audience for your SAAS, don’t you think you should do a little research first to see if there is more than just one small niche that could benefit from what you are going to write?
Something worth thinking about.
You see, if you have a “sure enough” small niche which is hungry to buy something, what you should end up with is… a list of people who are so passionate about your subject… They Are Almost Willing To Kill To Get What You Are Selling! OK, so now you’ve got a list of people who are passionate about buying what you have to sell. The next step is to write a really good sales letter. One of the most important things you should do is… come up with a really good headline!
You know, when I write headlines, I usually have to write at least 100 of them before I come up with one that’s really good. And, guess what? I have come up with a nifty little way to write headlines that really works well for me.
I’m going to teach it to you right here and now. All you have to do is write down all the steps as I give them to you and then… follow the steps! Here they are:
Step #1: Find yourself a small niche you are passionate about.
Step #2: Hold a gun to your… oh wait, that’s not quite right. What I meant to say was: Find a small niche you are passionate about and, go over to Perpexity.ai and enter the name of the niche and see if you can find a headline someone else has written that you can “swipe” and modify to fit your small niche.
Step #3: Go over to FB “Groups” and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from one of the groups.
Step #4: Go to www.Amazon.com and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from one of the books or the newsletters that comes up.
Step #5: Go to the keyword search engine at google.com and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from one of the keyword searches the engine comes up with.
Step #6: Go to Google Groups and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from the groups that come up.
Step #7: Go to Google News and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from the news articles that come up.
Step #8: Go to Google Images and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from the photos that come up.
Step #9: Go to eBay and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from the auctions that come up.
Step #10: Go to a search engine of your choice and enter the name of your small niche and see if you can find a headline you can “swipe” from the web sites that come up.
Alright, so now you’ve done all that and you’ve collected 100 headlines… or… as close to 100 headlines as you could find. The next step is to copy all those headlines to a piece of paper and, start reading them over and over until you find one that “clicks” with you.
When you find one that “clicks,” stop reading the headlines and write that one down at the top of a fresh piece of paper. Then, start writing out the reasons why that headline “clicked” with you. Don’t stop writing until you have at least 25 reasons written out.
Then, write 99 more ideas and repeat the process. You will be amazed at how well this works. But, don’t take my word for it. Try it yourself and… You Will Be Amazed At How Well This Works! But hey, there is one more thing you need to know about… before… you even start trying to do this stuff. And that, my friend, is… You Need To Know What A USP Is And… How To Create One! And, believe you me, after all these years of writing “The Inbox.Ink Newsletter,” you’d better believe I’ve got a lot to tell you about how to create a USP… and… how to create a lot of other valuable advertising “secrets” that will make you more money than you can count. (I’ve also got a lot to tell you about how to “get” women… how to “keep” women… and… how to “dump” women… but… I don’t have time to tell you that stuff in this newsletter.)
So, if you want to learn how to create a USP for these small niches, I’m going to have to ask you to go to my web site at inbox.ink and start reading my newsletters. I suggest you start reading them from the very beginning… which… is June of 2021. There are 27 newsletters posted there and they are all free.
That’s it for now. I hope all of you had a great Football Season and, I hope none of you watched enough boring football to give you a hernia.
Peace.
Nishant