In Marketing, How do I find the "niche" that will drive people to my product, the "animal" within?

Figure out what your target audience's biggest pain points are. Compare search traffic for various keywords that relate to your business and product, and see which ones have the highest search volume. These will indicate their areas of struggle and exactly what they're looking for in a solution. Find out where your audience hangs out online -- join relevant LinkedIn groups and Facebook groups, read blog articles on their favorite sites, find out what questions they're asking in forums (Quora, Reddit, LinkedIn Groups). This should give you a better feel for what exactly your potential customers are looking for. Then do your best to put yourself in their shoes and see things from their perspective. As your ideal customer, what would excite you about your product?

You can also run surveys or enlist friends or folks from your network or industry to give you their opinion. People are generally willing to answer a question or two, and you'll likely find it helpful to have a variety of perspectives to take into consideration.

The best way to think about "a niche" is a tribe that gathers around a specific interest. Tribes make superior target groups, because they describe how we relate to other people, and also how information spreads. If your target group is a tribe, they share lots in common that you can use to your advantage:
1) They gather in specific places. Benefit: You can find and target them efficiently
2) They speak a common language. Benefit: You can communicate natively
3) They listen to tribal influencers. Benefit: You can partner with tribal influencers
4) They attend recurring events. Benefit: You can create, sponsor, or attend these events
5) They enjoy sharing similar stories. Benefit: You can create content that they will love
6) They are already courted by other brands. Benefit: You can partner with these brands
7) They share common beliefs, values and world view. Benefit: You can be extremely relevant
8) They are share a passion or interest. Benefit: You can connect through emotions

I recommend further reading:
1) How to research tribes, using The Tribal Map
http://tribaling.com/blog/2013/06/17/find-your-way-across-the-tribal-web-with-a-map/
2) How to do Tribal Marketing in social media
http://tribaling.com/blog/2013/07/17/tribal-marketing-in-social-media/
3) Understanding the 7Cs of Tribal Influence
http://tribaling.com/blog/2013/08/27/the-7cs-of-tribal-influence/

What I'd do in your situation first is to pick several niche markets that I believe have the highest potential to have a need for my product/service and I will find a way to connect with them, to call them and to ask them what are they biggest pains/struggle in your business/personal life.

I have found out that the best way to find out what people need is to ask them what are their current problems and after that to try to come up with a solution for that.

You can try to connect with these people on LinkedIn (that worked very well for me), Twitter or try to call them straight away in the company they are working for.

I had a great success using cold calls for idea validation & extraction. I've managed to reach people from many industries, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, etc. just by being proactive and wanting to learn more about their business.

Not only that but these calls helped me for my inbound marketing campaigns because I knew how to craft value propositions especially for my "niche" and to increase my success there as well.

I'd love to teach you and to share my experience with you so feel free to schedule a call if you want to learn more.

Focus on listening to your customers. Even if you do not have a huge marketing budget, focusing on inbound marketing and customer development will enable you to focus specifically on products/services that your customers want, and will buy.

In all honesty, I believe your calling is in your passion. Start off with asking yourself these questions.....
What do you love to do?
What are you good at?
How I can get paid doing just that?

The answer will define your niche. Find the keywords in your answers and start your research there.

I hope that helps you.

Maisha Guy

Demand for products and services varies from person to person, business to business, community to community. High-fashion stilettos don't hold the same appeal for me personally as they might for someone of a different description. Meanwhile, a new business tool or consumer item that might thrill me would be totally irrelevant to someone else.

I suppose you first ought to identify what it is that you can produce or provide ... and what among those choices is it that excites you. Then try to identify your audience and get feedback from people who won't flatter you.

Doing this particular kind of research is easy and inexpensive. Call 5 customers who like and use your product and ask them this simple question: "Would you mind telling me the top three reasons you chose this product?"

You need to talk to five people because that's when some of their answers will start to overlap, and that will give you a sense of why people are attracted to your product.

People struggle with their Elevator Pitch for exactly this reason. They try to guess why people would be interested. When they just ask people why they were actually interested it leads to a much more engaging Elevator Pitch.

If you want help translating your customers' answers into a marketing strategy I'd be happy to set up a call.

I guess you need to put together two things in this question, your capability and the needs of potential customers. Your capability is going to drive a great conversation as long as you know very well the subject. The people that have some needs that are related with your capability are going to start talking about their problems and pains and here is when the magic happens. You have great conversations because people is interested to get some expertise from outside and if you are the people that can solve it, they will be willing to provide information to solve the problem. Once you find several people with the same UNSOLVED problem, then you have a niche opportunity. Just validate that they did not found some solutions because the solution does not exist and not because they search in the wrong place.