To niche or not to niche … or to de-niche

Posted on | August 28, 2006 | Comments Off

Chris Carfi has been sharing some highly intriguing Long Tail thoughts, which have provoked a few thoughts of my own (as intriguing thoughts are wont to do):

If you operate in a niche that resides in, say, the middle third of the tail, does it makes sense to de-nichify (even if only slightly), instead of pursuing increasing returns, in order to expand your potential market? If you move yourself to the left by de-nichifying a bit, that will expand your potential market but it also expands the universe of your competition, which brings its own set of issues.
On the other hand, if you operate in a small but well-heeled niche, does it make sense to de-nichify by developing products for less well-heeled types in order to make it easier for your target to find/identify your brand?
What if the metric that defines the shape of the curve is something that is intangible and difficult to measure? The metric that defines the shape of the online content curve in all its various niches is a combination of traffic (easily quantified) and influence (not so easily quantified). We micros tend to be an unsophisticated bunch and that kind of thing could make it difficult to proceed.

If you think about it for long enough, your brain starts to feel like a yo-yo.

That’s not to say it’s not worth thinking about. In fact, I find it all quite fascinating and, as a microbusiness owner, strategizing these things is a good idea. The great bugaboo of most microbusiness owners is marketing, really — figuring out how to get found and how to convert the folks who find you into customers.

Learning how to work the long tail is a useful skill but learning how best to select and define your niche can be, I think, even more important.

[tags]The Long Tail, niche marketing, microbusiness[/tags]