Niche marketing, according to definition in Wikipedia, is when a business is addressing a need for a product that is not being addressed by mainstream providers. In real estate, as in any business, niche marketing narrows the funnel of potential clients, customers or prospects down to a specific market group.

Many agents have asked, “How do I find my niche market?” The answers I have heard are as varied as there are niche markets! The easiest answer is to find the market that the others have left behind or are ignoring. Another good answer is to become the recognized expert in a specific market group. A good example is farming and becoming a neighborhood expert by concentrating your marketing and knowledge on a specific neighborhood or subdivision.

Farming and niche marketing are closely related. Farming is an old real estate term and niche marketing may sound better for this modern market, but you do similar things to achieve the same results. When you pick a neighborhood to farm, you try finding a neighborhood no one else is farming. It is the same with your niche market; you need to find one that will give you a good return on your investment of time and resources.

Like most agents, my current marketing is directed towards the internet consumer. I am not alone in this endeavor, and have found it crowded with likeminded agents. To distinguish myself, I needed to find an area where the other agents were not so concentrated. Instead of marketing just Arizona real estate, I narrowed it down to Gilbert real estate. I found that Gilbert had a large population of agents marketing Gilbert real estate and Gilbert homes for sale. I had to break the market down to smaller segments to get noticed. I was able to establish a niche market while our office was doing foreclosure bus tours last year. By blogging on the subject, I was able to reach the foreclosure market segment. We even had articles about the tours in the Arizona Republic and on the local Fox News channel that developed from those blog posts.

I heard some agents that have claimed to re-invent marketing to communities by advertising or hosting contests at local events. It's not that new; I can remember a Realtor that had his name on the outfield wall of the local little league games when I was just a boy. The only difference between then and now is the new electronic mediums that we have available to reach that business. A local high school booster, here in Gilbert, donates bottled water for the athletic department to sell during events. The athletic program gains needed funds from the proceeds and the booster benefits by having his company name, phone number, email and web address on the private labeled water bottles. His niche market is the high school sports audience, staff, parents and students that benefit from his participation.

Then there is the story, told by a popular real estate coach, about two agents that started their business by doing open houses for the other agents in their office. They scheduled several daily and grew their business from that niche.

So where can you find your niche in today's real estate market? Go back to the basics and start with your sphere of influence (SOI) and break it down into segments that will bring the business you are looking for. Some more niches could come from neighborhoods, community events, sporting events, churches, schools, groups, service organizations, clubs, first time home buyers, foreclosures, pre-foreclosure, environmental, short sales, eco friendly, blogs, social networking, etc.

Remember not to limit yourself, go out and find your niche!