Image: Christina Morillo / Pexels
What is a Niche in Business？
When you're first starting your 3D-printing business, one question you may get asked is what niche your business will occupy. If you've never heard this term before, that's okay. Here's the breakdown: a niche is a small segment of the market that your business will focus on. Choosing your niche is one of the largest decisions you'll need to make as a business owner. But how do you pick the perfect one?
Today, we're diving into how to pick the right niche, so you can save yourself time, frustration, and most of all money when starting your 3D-printing business.
Why You Should Choose a Niche
Selecting the perfect niche is important because it guides the products you'll make, and it narrows your marketing efforts to the customers who buy those specific products. In effect, focusing on a single niche helps optimize your business and improve its profitability as your production expertise improves.
You Can't Do It All
Arguably, the biggest mistake when starting a 3D-printing business is refusing to target a specific niche. Many people instead try to occupy them all. One week they'll be making fidget toys to sell on Etsy, and the next, they'll be printing custom car parts. But you can't be everything to everyone if you want your business to succeed.
Get Good At One Specific Thing
When you try to do everything, you prevent yourself from earning the reputation as the go-to business for a specific type of 3D print or service. That reputation is what will drive word-of-mouth advertising and create repeat sales for you. So, instead of trying to do everything, a niche allows you to better establish yourself.
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Understanding Your Strengths and Weaknesses
The first step in choosing your niche is to generate a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself what you're really knowledgeable about within the 3D printing realm, and what you're not. Do you have specialized experience (in CAD, for example), or in mechanical repair? Those skills offer additional avenues to explore as you pick the right niche for you.
Play to Your Strengths
Look, if you know nothing about fixing printers, for example, then you probably don't want to select a niche that deals with 3D printer repair. The same goes for miniatures printing, 3D modeling, and custom cosplay items. It may seem counterintuitive, but by playing to your strengths, you can get closer to a niche that works well for you. Naturally.
However, be honest with yourself. You may even enlist the help of friends and family members to offer an objective view if you're having trouble identifying what you're good at.
Conducting Market Research
Sales and marketing will always play a role when you are choosing the segment of the market to occupy. Understanding how sales and marketing work can help you target customers who want to buy your products. That'w where market research comes in.
Use sites like Google, or Etsy to help you gauge interest in a particular product. If you want to sell 3D-printed wallets, for instance, do a quick search and see if 3D-printed wallets are something people are buying. If they aren't, then you probably shouldn't waste your time and effort trying ot be the next big 3D-printed wallet manufacturer.
Image: Christina Morillo / Pexels
Identifying Potential Niches
Aside from identifying your strengths, the best way to find additional niches is to think about the aspects of 3D printing that interest you. Like before, sit down and make a list of these interests.
Do you find design is more exciting to you than printing? Great, move toward CAD. Do you feel like the world of miniature-modeling is more your speed? Awesome. Add it to the list of possibilities.
Once you have several options written, let the list sit for a few days. Then come back to it and see if one of them jumps out at you. If it does, then you may have found a niche for you. Then comes the market research before making your final decision.
Developing Your UVP
A UVP is shorthand for Unique Value Proposition.A UVP sets you apart from other people in the market. So, ask yourself: what can I offer that no one else in the 3D-printing world can? It might help to start by considering the UVPs of major brands you use daily.
Think about your smartphone, for example. What is the unique value proposition of the company that makes it? In other words, what made you buy that phone over all the other phones on the market? Was it because the smartphone was a status symbol? Or was it because the phone was more customizable than others? Perhaps you bought a distraction-free phone?
These are UVPs, and if you look around, you'll see them everywhere.
Image: Jakub Zerdzicki / Pexels
Building Your Online Presence
If you've gotten this far, you may have a pretty sound idea of what your niche should be and how you can market yourself for the customers in your niche. The last step here is to work on building your online presence so you can connect with those customers.
Many people establish their online presence with short videos for platforms like YouTube or TikTok. But you don't have to. Why not host an industry podcast, help people in public 3D-printing forums, or write informational articles about your chosen niche? Don't try to sell--instead try to help. Helping others do things is a recipe for successful connections. Once you've made those connections within your niche, then you can start trying to market your products.
A good method for coming up with topics for this step is to think about the problems or areas of confusion that people bring up again and again. Helping to solve those issues or fix that confusion is a sure-fire way to build connections. So, be liberal with your knowledge. The more you share and the more people you connect with, the more you'll be perceived as an expert in your niche.
The Best 3d Printer For Small Business
The last part of the business niche equation is to make sure you're set up to fulfill orders once they come in. For that, you'll need a strong, capable printer that won't fall short when it's crunch time. And if you're on a budget, you'll need a printer that won't break the bank.
That's why we recommend the AnkerMake M5 or M5C for small business owners who are serious about making their mark in the world of 3D printing. Both printers have state-of-the-art features like 500m/s speeds, multi-material printing, and a full software suite to help make 3D printing easy. Whether you're looking for a new printer, or you want to just add another member to the fleet, AnkerMake has you covered.
Just make sure to check out all of our holiday deals before they're gone!
Putting It All Together
Today, we've discussed ways in which you can pick your perfect 3D-printing niche. We've also offered several practical tips to get you started. While these tips aren't the only ones available, they are a great shortcut for those entering into the 3D-printing business. We sincerely hope they can help you on the road to your success.
Did we miss anything? Is there anything you'd like to add? Come join the conversation over on our official Discord, where you'll find people just like you who love to chat about 3D printing. Until next time!
