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5 Effective Ways to Handle Niche Markets With Grace
Business doesn't have to be dirty. In fact, when business owners approach their customers from a perspective of service and sincerity, everyone wins. The deciding factor? Grace, and in niche markets, you'll need all the grace you can muster to get through the highs and lows of customer support. Customer support isn't just for the offline world -- as sellers of information, it's crucial that we make customer support a priority from the start, and not just when they buy something from you. Below are five effective ways to handle niche markets with the grace necessary to win over fans and truly take over your niche. 1) Start with Empathy - One of the misconceptions of niche markets and problem solving is that the problems always have to be "desperate" and/or of an emergency nature. One person's emergency can often be another person's "so what?" -- put yourself in their shoes. Look through their eyes to get their perspective on what's happening. For example, if you don't own a pet, you may not truly appreciate the apprehension and fear that comes when a beloved pet suddenly stops eating, or is attacked by another animal. On the surface, one would think that these situations would be on a universal scale, but sometimes we don't automatically offer the empathy our audience is expecting. If you don't demonstrate from the start that you truly care about the audience's situations and problems, they will not believe a word that comes out of your mouth! A quick solution to this problem is to get personal -- make the story the feature, not the product. A great product with no story will yield middling sales, if any at all, while less-than-perfect product with an amazing story will yield high sales. Naturally, strive for both quality and sincerity, but I am certain you see what I mean. Share your story, and you'll win more customers than any "stock story" will ever bring you. 2) Be Contactable - There are great products out there, but at times the product creator can be difficult to reach. In the age of social networking, email, and Web2.0, this is unacceptable, and will cause you to see more refund requests, unsubscribers, and complaints about you than you ever want in your life. Putting out a support email address, a twitter account, or even taking advantage of some of the "new school" support sites like GetSatisfaction.com makes it clear that your audience that you are not only there for them, but you want to be there for the long haul. 3) Initiate Conversation - Some niches cannot wait to talk to you, while other niche audiences may be quite shy -- in either case, all audiences appreciate someone who initiates real conversation about their problems without being condescending or coming off as a know it all. Remember empathy? This is critical -- delight in the privilege of sharing what you know, but take care to enjoy the conversation with your audience as well! 4) Be Prepared to Listen - While it's important to initiate conversation, many newcomers to niche marketing sometimes fail to really listen to their audience during the conversation. This is a shame, as great products can be refined to become even greater if we just listen to the feedback our audience is more than happy to give to us. Not all feedback is negative -- constructive feedback can be a mix of positives and opportunities to learn from and improve upon. 5) Be Assertive - Assertive is not being aggressive, and while we are coming from a perspective of service and sincerity, there's nothing wrong with offering value-added products and services that will benefit the audience for weeks, if not years to come. One trait I see over and over again in newcomers to niche marketing is their unwillingness to ask their audiences to take action on anything. Today's savvy customers understand that nothing is truly free, and are more than willing to take the necessary actions to support you -- whether that means a Digg submission or a quick StumbleUpon vote of approval, a purchase or a quick promotion. Your best marketers of any of your products will be your existing base that comes back to hear what you have to say, so don't be afraid to call on them to spread the good word! This is where great products float to the surface -- the marketer must continue to provide quality and get the product out there to the world. This can only be accomplished by having unshakable faith in the product, and a continuous assertive desire to bring value to the niche audience that will gain the most benefit. Marketing with grace is the key to success in niche markets -- if you take these five key points to heart and apply them to your niche business, I have no doubt in my mind of your success!
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Contributor's Note
More insight on niche marketing / adapting to niche audiences - work hard, play hard, love easily y'all!
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February, 2012
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