The reason why many companies avoid niche marketing is because of the naturally smaller audience you will first start out with. This is the very point of a niche market. You're able to focus your advertising a lot more because you have fewer people you need to appeal to. This allows you more success with that marketing, but fewer sales no matter how successful you are.

But does choosing to market to a niche mean that you are forever preventing yourself from expanding your company? Is your customer base always going to be much smaller than everyone else's?

No, this is very rarely the case, and quite often companies who focus on a niche market can branch out from their initial success in order to keep their business growing and strong.

I knew a friend who worked for a computer company that sold database software. Most places can make use of database software, but when they were getting their marketing done they decided to only send their http://www.printplace.com/printing/postcard-printing.aspx>color postcards to high school administrations. They had a number of high schools in their area so they focused all of their efforts on them.

It wasn't long before they had managed to get the majority of the high schools using their database software. Obviously though once they had all the high schools that was the end of that particular customer pool, and while they were able to continue selling upgraded version, their business couldn't really grow much.

So they moved onto the middle schools and elementary schools. From there they marketed to the local colleges, and then to companies that sold educational equipment. Slowly they spread out their reach, but all of it began with that one core marketing, and all of their expansions still dealt with the same idea of education as the niche market.

This is what a strong niche marketing campaign can do. Those first few you send out or posters you put up might be meant for only a small market, but that doesn't mean you will forever be limited to what you began with.

The first niche market lets you set up your business, get your sales going, and get a name for yourself. Referrals were one of the main ways my friend's company was able to keep expanding. You can't get referrals until you start getting strong business, and a niche market gives you a better chance of generating that initial business.

When looking at any niche market one of the first things you should consider is the growth potential and how long the market can sustain you. Make sure you can map out various ways to keep your business growing once you've completely tapped into your primary niche market.

Don't shy away from something because you don't fully understand the potential there. Niche markets are a powerful tool once you understand how to fully make use of them.