Affiliate Marketing - Picking a Niche THEN Creating A Customer Avatar

Notes to Reader:

Words: 2920

Time To Read: Approximately 8 minutes

Recommended Resources: A fresh coffee top-up is recommended and a notepad/pen!

Selecting Your Niche

You are here to learn how to promote products and earn a commission. One of the first tasks is to select a niche...

Here is a great article by Kyle that talks about niches for 2020 - be sure to check out the featured comment too (it is mine)...

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/kyle/blog/which-niches-will-...

There are 90 niches that I included in my comment that are expected to do well in 2020. If you do not have one selected or are looking for another one to work on, have a look at that list...

Okay...Listen up...

This is an important step in creating your business and if you choose the wrong niche your sales might be like trying to sell beach trips to someone living on the beach...I can tell you you are not going to have much success unless it is a lousy beach?

Here are three questions that I use when I am determining whether a niche will be successful for me or whether it will be a waste of my precious time...

1. Do members of the niche buy stuff related to the niche or are they mostly freebie seekers?
   
2. What kinds of sales could you make, i.e. one-time or recurring and higher priced products or services to the audience members of this niche?
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3. At what level do you actually like the niche and do you understand or can you learn to understand who the target customers are - what their fears, needs, and desires are?

When you are just starting out especially, it obviously is going to be much more enjoyable working in a niche you are passionate about. That seems simple enough, and it is true.

If you have a connection or can learn about the niche to gain that connection it likely will be much more profitable. You will put the time and effort in to make it succeed.

There is more though, and this is what we want to drill down on with this article...

Knowing the fears, needs and desires of the target customer is going to help immensely in how you come across to those target audience(s).

Now, you may be thinking...

“This seems too hard. I really don’t know the fears, needs and desires for any potential customers or members of any niche...” - just stop for a second, please!

Did you know that you likely know a lot more than you’re giving yourself credit for?

Unless you have been involved in sales before, or in product creation, you may not think you have the skills or background to know this kind of information about people or buyers. You have been using a consumer mindset (only buying things)...

Transitioning to a creator mindset (promoting and selling things) can be a big frustration for you. But, it does not have to be.

Here is why and here's the thing...

Even if you have only been a buyer of things over the years, you know people. You compete to get the best deals, you comb the papers (or websites) to get information on products, you talk to other buyers...

You have been doing a pretty good job with navigating this thing called life so far...You get what you want, tell others what you need, and you manage to get your needs met.

To me and to everyone, it tells me that you understand basic human psychology.

Whether you have a degree in it is immaterial, just from getting through life you have attained skills that will help you for this business.

In a nutshell...I think MOST consumers...

...Want the fastest, easiest, most practical solution that provides them the most value for the least amount of money and work...

...and quite a few of them will pay a premium to get that quality and convenience they seek - so it is not ALL about the price point.

This is a good starting point for all niches. There is more, of course...you will need to do some research even if you think you know who the target members are and what they are looking for.

That in and of itself should not give you pause...

It can be an interesting undertaking, learning what makes people "tick" in a particular niche...A bit like spying...It does not have to take up a LOT of time, there is plenty of information you can find quickly and at no cost these days with the internet!

Here's another thing about selecting that niche...

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Competition Or No Competition? Which Is Better?

Be Careful on this one!

I have seen a lot of people make a big mistake when they are choosing a niche to go after...

They look for and select a very low competition niche. They do this because they are thinking that nobody is working the niche - it must be an untapped gold mine - I can much easier have success in the niche.

Unfortunately, this is not the way it really is generally.

Here is why...

There are VERY FEW new ideas. Especially with affiliate marketing, there have been countless people before you trying out niches, and they have figured out what niches work and which ones don’t.

"If there were tons of money to be made, there would be a lot of affiliate marketers in the niche. " says me... : )

This is a warning flag as opposed to being a positive indicator. Remember, you are getting started, you are not trying to break new ground, you are trying to get some sales and commissions going as fast as possible!

So my recommendation is as follows:

The single smartest thing you could do is find a niche that is full of products that people are already looking for, they are buying these products, and you simply have to get in front of those red hot buyers using your content and SEO skills you are learning here!

That’s the shortcut to success with affiliate marketing and of course this ties into the niche you are going to select.

NOTE: If you are a note-taker, write that down....If you are not a note taker, why not? This is a great way to reinforce learning (and you can refer back to them again and again)!

If you follow this bit of advice, you are going to avoid one of the biggest mistakes that many newbies make.

Bottom Line:

There are some niches that have proven to work over and over again for affiliate marketing, and then there are niches that truthfully are not worth your time at all. Doing a little research will tell you in which category the niche may fall into...

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Three Examples Of Hot Evergreen Niches

To keep things as simple as can be, I want to discuss three general niches that have proven themselves through the years to be profitable for many marketers and they are as follows: Health, Wealth, and Relationships.

Before you go running off to create a website on these general niches, read the rest of this article...For each of the niches above there are literally thousands of subcategories you can and should decide to enter over the general niches.

Taking one, health for example, you can find subcategories and niche products in...

• men's weight loss
• women’s weight loss
• yoga, meditation
• diabetes
• erectile dysfunction
• cancer
• juicing
• diets
• etc.

Each of these subcategories have hot seller items that people are spending billions of dollars every month on! Best of all, they are shopping online too (hint: this is where you are at, making them offers they cannot refuse!).

Just think about this:

"If you can grab just a SMALL piece of that huge sales potential, you can have the financial freedom that you’ve been searching for. This is the reason you are here!" again says me... : )

Also, if your niche is TOO broad you will not be able to target the people that will stick around to buy whatever it is that you promote. There may be many that stop by that are interested in health but they do not care about yoga, for instance.

So it is better to drill down a bit to get an audience size that is large enough to sell a variety of products to, yet not so small that you will not have enough products or people to make some sales and profits for your work. There is no one-size fits all for this...

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What's My Preference?

Personally, I like the wealth niche, as it really offers so many ways to leverage what people are looking for - money and wealth (and all that this brings)!

"I like to show people how they can make money, grow their business, become independent, and build a better life for themselves…" last of my own quotes, I promise... : )

It really comes down to three simple ways to do this:

(1) Get customers, then get MORE customers.

(2) Grow the average transaction value of each customer, meaning that you do not need as many customers to maintain your sales figures, plus you have a good chance of growing your sales if you are getting more customers.

(3) Increase buying frequency. Get them to buy more often from you once you have them buying.

So how does this relate to your affiliate marketing niche and business?

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When Selecting A Niche, Ask Yourself...

Will the niche you’re considering bring in revenue for you in the three ways I mention - or at least two of them?

That is the starting point after having an interest. The research you do can focus on the questions in addition to other areas of importance such as the target audience (and the avatar as we will discuss below).

Do you see how we have turned the niche selection process into a more disciplined exercise? This means you are not just going on a hope and a prayer. You have a solid plan and process that will lay it out for you.

This process will also help you understand what it is that you are looking for with this affiliate marketing business, it will help you identify what products to promote, who to promote them to, and how you will structure your content and promotions so you get your desired results.

This leads me to the next portion of the process that is very important: the target audience(s) or who are the people that want the products you want to promote?

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Know Your Customer

Who is the customer you will be targeting in that niche you know will work? Remember that in sales, marketing is all about reaching the people in the niche.

So not only are you choosing a niche, you’re also choosing the type of person you will want to market to.

I use what I call a "Customer Avatar System." This process helps me understand the target customers and the triggers that I have to include in my copy to get them to take the desired action (which is to buy the stuff I am promoting)…

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Developing Your Customer Avatar

Here are the steps I use:

(1) What are the qualities and characteristics of the targeted buyers?

- Are they leaders?

- High-achievers?

- Health-conscious?

- Spiritual seekers?

- Lazy?

- Skeptical?

- Politically charged?

Ask yourself these questions and more like them to really drill down on what makes the ideal customer tick. Knowing this information will help you more directly refer to the things that matter to the customers as you write copy for them.

(2) Research the Demographics.

- What do you know about their age, race, sexual identity, religion, lack of religion, personal habits, career paths, education, etc. that you can use to connect more deeply with them?

- Do some online reseach for this kind of information and collect it in one place - you will get a picture of the target customer when you go through this process. You are adding in information that will help you further understand them better.

(3) What kind of income do they make?

- Do they have the disposable income to buy the products that you want to promote? If so, are they buying such products now, and to what extent are they buying them?

(4) What are their pain points?

- When you determine the pain points (at least go after the top 3) you know what you are going to solve for them. It makes it easy to further sharpen the focus of what you are adding to your content and promotions.

(5) What is NOT working right NOW for them?

- There are things that many are doing right now in any niche that is not working, hence creating the demands for solutions. Determine what those things are, and provide those solutions for them.

(6) Determine the top 3 things they may be afraid of.

- This will help you address the fears as you write your copy, and it will also show that you understand their fears, plus it will help you grow trust and credibility with the customers as someone that knows what they are going through.

(7) Write down what you think the top 3 objections or skepticisms that they may voice or think about when considering buying from you.

- These may change over time, but you can take a stab to start with and back up your assertions by researching what they may be saying in reviews, within groups or forums, etc. Again this is information that you can use as you prepare your content and copy.

(8) What is the impact of the customers NOT taking the action you are recommending?

- Are there any viable alternatives to what your product or service is offering? How well will these alternatives perform for them? What will happen if they continue to do what they have been doing?

(9) What kinds of information do the customers need to know about your product or service right now to convince them to buy what you are promoting? The second part of this is what is the dream scenario you are offering? Your solution results in what for them?

- This answers the questions of how to present the features (but remember they are looking at it not from what the features can do, rather from the perspective of how the solution will help them). Tell them the outcome and make it what they are seeking.

(10) How are you unique from all the other marketers out there, what makes you the one to take action with versus another affiliate marketer (here you can add in your own story, your experiences, some bonuses, etc.)?

- This is something that you can add in as an extra(s), but they can have a huge impact on the decision-making process, so again you want to know what makes the customer tick so you can provide the confidence that you have what they are looking for and need.

Well, that was a handful to go through, right?

Okay...You have a good start. You can add to the areas above, these are just the ones I use. I also use a template to fill in and annotate all this data so it is easy to see in one fell swoop. It kind of brings everything together for me.

Now you may be thinking to yourself: "Yeah, but Dave, I really just want to get to selling..."

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How Does All This Up-Front Work Help You?

Once you have gone through the above process you will have a very clear idea of the niche, the market, the items to promote, who and how to promote, and what kind of copy to create to make the sales that you are looking for.

For every piece of your content, from a blog post to write copy and marketing material...

- You know what the customer looks like (in general terms).

- You know exactly who you're talking to (again, in general tems).

- You understand what they like or dislike, hate,or love, what their passions are, even their deepest fears (you guessed it, in general terms)...

Now you are selling to a human being, and can create your posts and marketing materials from their perspective. Your writing will be much more focused and likely effective. Your sales copy will be congruent with the reviews you write, it will all speak to the readers and customers.

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Wrap Up

The niche selection process is an important part of any affiliate marketing business, and I will go one step further by saying that although this is a true statement, just as important is taking the time to understand the people within that niche as much as possible.

If you go through the steps I mention above, you are going to approach the niche and marketing in a much more effective manner and likely you are going to sell more. You can easily rise to the top in any niche that you select (and have researched for its viabiity, of course).

Have fun with this, and let me know below any gaps or additional advice that you may have for affiliate marketers. Most certainly there are many ways to approach the business, and in my experience with sales over the years, this system works for both online and offline sales.

Cheers!

Dave : )