An Example In Micro-Niche Business
If you follow the world of online business, you hear the term “micro-niche” all the time. But when is the last time you’ve actually seen it executed? Especially in the world of online retail (rather than content) business?
Well, I’m fortunate enough to be working for a British company called The Watch Group Company, which specializes in watch repair, watch tools, vintage watches and all kinds of uber-cool watch related stuff.
Let me just say straight up that this is one of the cool-ass things about doing SEO related work. You get to work for awesome companies with awesome products. You get to help them succeed, and best of all, you learn a whole lot.
When my company started working for The Watch Group, they were just starting out as a single online Watch Part store. From the beginning, one thing struck me about this company which made me know they’d eventually succeed: watches are their passion. This isn’t a bunch of twenty somethings trying to pull a fast one on the public by pretending to know what they’re talking about. They really know their stuff. And they love it.
One of the keys to running a good online business is establishing yourself as an expert in your niche. Customers need to believe that they can trust you. There are a lot of ways to demonstrate your expertise. You could write a series of articles. But you could also do something as simple as picking unique, quality products to sell. Another option is to micro-niche (specialize) within your niche. In other words, anyone can sell watches, but how many American teenagers trying to make a quick buck could tell you what a watch movement is?
What I’m trying to say here (it’s late, and I’m just arriving home from an all day business meeting) is that The Watch Group didn’t have to say a thing to me and my company for us to know that they were the real deal. A company that we could feel comfortable trying to promote. We knew, simply in virtue of their product offerings, that these guys knew their watches.
It’s not surprising that less than six months after we started working with them, they’ve branched off several new businesses (micro-niched) to further establish their authority as horologists (a word I didn’t know until I met these guys!). For starters, they’ve launched one of the premier watch tool and repair sites on the web. But take note: they launched in the proper way; as an official Bergeon distributor of watchmaking tools. Bergeon Smirdgeon you say? Well, for anyone who knows anything about anything in the world of watchmaking and watch repair, Bergeon is top of the line and becoming an official distributor is quite rare.
Do you see what this company has done to ensure success? They wear their expertise on their figurative sleeve (their website). If you know watchmaking and watch repair, and you show up at their site, you have no doubt that you’re working with a legit, specialized watch company. A watch company with something unique to offer the watch professional or hobbyist.
But they didn’t stop there (say it to yourself: “keep on micro-niching - keep on digging deeper into your area of specialization - don’t stop”). So what did The Watch Group do next? They launched a forum for watch hobbyists and watch repair. What a great way to dispaly expertise by offering free help and advice to customers. Communication with customers, at any level, is a fundamental strategy for gaining their trust (and money!).
So there you have it. The Watch Group is off to a great start. They’ve become a successful online watch company fairly quickly. How’d they do it? They flaunted their expertise with a combination of micro-niche, specialized product selection and offering useful information.
That’s a great model for how to do micro-niching the right way.
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Share your thoughts!!!