When I talk about knowing your target audience and what topics resonate with them, I often use the analogy of shooting in the dark vs shooting at a clearly marked target with all the lights on. One is much more likely to get results than the other.
To take that analogy further, I would say marketing without a niche is trying to hit anywhere on the target. Marketing with a niche is trying to hit the bulls eye.
Unlike trying to shoot a gun or a bow and arrow, niche marketing does not require more skill to hit the bulls eye. It just requires a little more research.
I’ve already covered how to identify your target audience and create a marketing persona in this article, so for this blog post I really want to focus on how and why you should use niche marketing to grow your business.
But first, just for fun, let’s talk about pronunciation, because I’m a word nerd and I obsess over things like pronunciation. The word “niche” has French origins, which means the original pronunciation was probably “neesh” or something close to it. But it has become so Anglicized that pronouncing it “nich” has become common enough that you probably won’t get looked at funny if you pronounce it that way … unless someone who knows French happens to be in the room.
Table of Contents
Why You Should Use Niche Marketing
Before we get into the “how” of niche marketing, let’s start with the “why.” Why should you invest time and resources into researching your niche before you start marketing your products/services?
Get the Most Out of Your Marketing Efforts
It seems counterintuitive to say that niches are more profitable than general categories, but it’s true. The larger the audience you’re trying to attract, the less effective you’ll be because there are more people competing with you for that audience’s attention.
By contrast, when you focus on a niche, you’ll have less competition to deal with, which increases the likelihood your marketing efforts will hit their marks and drive success for your business.
Increase Your Visibility
By focusing on a specific niche every time you create marketing content for that niche, you’ll find it much easier to get in front of the people you’re trying to attract. Once you get some traction in your niche, you’ll find it easier to expand your visibility in related niches, but that comes later.
Niches Are Less Competitive
Your competitors are either so busy targeting the larger market that they never bother with the niche, or they’re targeting other niches, which gives you free reign over your chosen niche … assuming you choose wisely.
How to Use Niche Marketing
Now that we know why niche marketing is so valuable, let’s talk about how you can use it to your advantage.
Choose Your Niche Wisely
The first thing you need to do is make sure your niche is large enough to provide a market for your products/services. If you choose a niche without first doing your research, you could end up with a few diehard fans, which feels great, but is not enough to pay the bills. You first want to make sure your niche is 1) large enough to sustain your business, and 2) sufficiently lacking in competition that you have a chance of standing out from the crowd.
Target Multiple Niches
I have a business coach who is constantly reminding us not to confuse marketing niche with client portfolio. She targets a specific niche, but serves clients outside that niche. I have a specific niche, but serve clients outside that niche. So many people are afraid of niche marketing because they assume it means they’ll have to say “no” to some of their ideal clients, when that’s far from the truth. If they are really your ideal clients, they’ll be attracted to your messaging, even if you didn’t have them in mind when you wrote it.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with targeting multiple niches. It’s part of the reason I recommend creating at least 2-3 marketing personas instead of just one.
One of the easiest ways to identify different niches is to look at the products/services you offer. For example, if you have low-priced offers, high-priced offers, and offers in the middle range, you might want to target different niches based on who can afford which offering. Another example is a client of mine who serves entrepreneurs and nonprofits, so we make sure half her blog posts are targeted to entrepreneurs and half are targeted to nonprofits. Admittedly, those are two very large markets, and we have targeted niches within those markets, but it’s a good starting point for those who aren’t sure how to find their marketing niche.
Use Long-Tail Keywords
Short-tail keywords are keywords that are 2-3 words long, such as “financial planner”. While they tend to get a lot of searches, they also tend to be very broad search terms, and they’re often highly competitive. By contrast, “family financial planner” is a little longer and more specific, which means it won’t have as many searches, but it also won’t be too competitive for you to have a shot at ranking for that keyword.
Conducting keyword research with an eye towards both search volume and competition score is a great way to identify potential targets for your niche marketing efforts. As a bonus, they also tend to have a higher search intent, meaning people using those search terms are more likely to buy because they’re looking for something specific.
Do Your Research
As I mentioned in the introduction, niche marketing does not necessarily require more skill, but it does require more research. In addition to keyword research and creating marketing personas, you should also implement these tips:
- Social Listening: Use social listening tools to see what topics people are talking about on social media. If they want an answer to specific questions and they’re not finding answers, chances are good they’re going to social media, either to find answers, or to complain about the fact that they can’t find answers;
- Competitive Research: What is your competition doing? Which audiences are they targeting, and what strategies are they using to target that audience? How are they engaging with them?
Choose Your Platform Wisely
I talk a lot about blogging and newsletters as a way to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry and drive traffic to your website, but social media is also a great way to get the word out about how you help your customers, especially before Google’s algorithm has had a chance to categorize and index your latest blog post. But there are a lot of social media channels out there, and you can’t possibly be on all of them all the time. You’ll burn out and end up losing out on business opportunities because you were so busy on social media you didn’t have time to provide the products/services you were so busy touting.
To avoid overwhelming yourself with social media platforms that don’t generate results, go back to your niche. Which platforms are they on the most? I can promise they’re not on all the social media platforms, but by understanding the ones they use the most, you can concentrate your efforts on those platforms and get more results. When you’re not overwhelmed with options, you can learn how to get the most out of the 2-3 platforms your target audience is already using. That will give you a better chance of showing up in their feeds, at which point all you need to do is convert those leads into customers.
Develop Strategic Partnerships
Partnerships can have a variety of appearances. It can mean writing a guest post for someone else’s blog (and/or having them write a guest post for your blog), being a guest on each other’s podcasts, sharing each other’s social media posts, etc. The point is to get in front of your target audience through someone else they’re already following and listening to. If you can get that strategic partner to vouch for you, your target audience will be that much more likely to listen to you and view you as a trusted resource.
Position Yourself As a Thought Leader in Your Industry
This is why I tend to recommend blogging so highly – it’s one of the best ways to provide value to your target audience and convince them you really know what you’re talking about. That said, there are other ways to establish yourself as an authority in your industry, including webinars and hosting Q&A sessions on social media. When you position yourself as someone who is able and willing to answer someone’s questions, they’ll be more likely to come to you when they have a question and/or when they’re ready to buy.
Build Brand Loyalty
Once you’ve gotten the attention of your target audience, you need keep that attention and make the most of it by building brand loyalty. Continue putting out blog posts, newsletters, webinars, social media posts, etc. that are full of value and link your brand with that value. Again, this will ensure that people in your niche will be much more likely to come to you once they’re ready to buy.
Conclusion
Niche marketing is the surest way to make sure your marketing efforts are driving results for your business. It can help you increase your conversion rates while reducing competition, so if you have not already taken advantage of niche marketing, I suggest you start yesterday.
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Niche marketing is just one facet to ensuring you have a strong content marketing strategy. If you need help identifying your niche, or with any other part of your content marketing strategy, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Cecil Archbold Jr.
Alison Ver Halen
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Alison Ver Halen