To stand out within your industry, you will need to develop new skills and identify market opportunities that can help your business grow. Unfortunately, while there are plenty of options out there, not all of them are worth investing in.
What you need is a business that can perform a unique yet necessary function for your customers. And one of the best ways to come up with new ideas is to look for a gap in the current market.
But with market trends constantly changing, finding the correct gap to exploit for your business can be challenging.
In this article, you will find eight methods that can help you find opportunities and contribute to your business growth.
Let’s get started.
What’s a Gap in the Market?
A gap in the market represents an opportunity for businesses to expand their customer base by creating and selling something that isn’t available yet but is already in demand. In other words, a gap in the market refers to the relation between supply and demand for the product or service.
8 Ways to Find Opportunities for Market Growth
There are a lot of gaps in the market. What you need to do is find one that you can solve using your skills and resources.
Below are some ways you can do so.
1. Check the Latest Technology Trends
Technological trends are evolving quicker than ever, and new opportunities are appearing more frequently. As of right now, AI technology and machine learning are the leading trends that open new opportunities.
AI and machine learning can enhance services and create a sustainable alternative product or service to the existing options. Try implementing these technological trends to niche markets that aren’t fully utilizing them yet.
An excellent example of implementing AI and machine learning is through Hostinger, where AI helps users in various sectors when creating a website. For example, AI can help create content, design templates, and find the latest trends for your business.
2. Research the Trending Business Models
When you’re finding new ways to grow your business, researching and applying trending business models is a great way to do it.
Let’s take an example of a sharing economy business model, like Uber or Airbnb. It works by letting people earn money from things they already own.
Another good example is online or mobile businesses that have opened up during this pandemic.
You can look at these business models and apply them to industries where they may not exist yet. Conduct more in-depth research on those trending business models and see whether you can use them for your niche market.
3. Consider Profitable Niche Market
Business owners often overthink things when it comes to choosing the correct market. They want to sell their products or services anywhere they can.
However, it’s always good to start small and grow steadily. The more niche the market is, the more likely you’ll be able to target your customers effectively.
Now you want to make sure that the market is big enough to allow growth. It should already have some competition as that shows that there is demand.
Niche markets are a great place for you to copy a market gap from another niche market. For example, let’s say that a strategy has worked in men’s clothing. Thus you can consider applying it to women’s clothing too.
4. Use Existing Research
If you have the resources to do so, continuing existing research can also help your market growth. Moreover, should you successfully finish the study and apply to either products or services, it can propel you to lead the industry with the result you just discovered.
However, this approach is more time-consuming and also requires additional research and funding to complete. In addition, it might not be worthwhile if the industry you’re in is constantly evolving. But if you can complete the research in an industry that needs it, you can significantly improve your market growth.
5. Identify Unsolved Pain Points
Another way to spot gaps in the market is by finding a niche in an existing market with unsolved pain points related to your strengths. Solving a current problem will attract customers and make your products sell themselves.
When choosing the right existing market, you need to make sure that the competition is not tough and that there aren’t many products or services already available. Then list down what improvements you can make to solve the problem and test it with potential customers.
6. Make Decisions Based on Consumer Needs
The best and straightforward way to find opportunities in the marketplace is by reflecting on your consumers’ needs and seeing what they’re missing. To do that, research the industry trends and do customer surveys – it can lead you in the right direction.
Looking into your competitor’s reviews is also an excellent way to gain insight into what they aren’t doing right and allow you to do it better.
7. Assess Your Strengths
It’s not just about finding opportunities for market growth but also about choosing the right business. It won’t do you any good to find a gap in the market if you can’t take advantage of it.
Thus, you should know where your strengths truly lie. For starters, make a list of your perceived strengths. Then, utilize the past experiences and old performance reviews to help you pick out anything that can give you additional insight.
You should also consult your team for honest feedback that can help you figure out what specific strengths you can push forward. Of course, to know for sure, you can always take a professional growth marketing specialist to identify which areas of strengths you can explore in your market.
8. Check Opportunities in Hidden Industries
A lot of market gaps are not visible to anyone but the industry insiders. For example, the mining and palm oil industry. However, with the government frequently changing regulations on how they operate, the companies will have to alter how they comply with the new rules.
And a lot of those companies are still using hard-copy paper to perform their compliance tasks. Technology brings an excellent opportunity to these industries because it can help them capture and input compliance information more efficiently using a website or application.
Conclusion
Now you know how to spot gaps in the market. All that’s left for you to do is use them to create a business and boost your market growth.
Remember to pay attention to market trends and look out for hidden opportunities from unsolved pain points and unfinished research.
Good luck!
