Angela Glanzman - October 4, 2016
If you are a marketer or business owner of a highly specialized industry, defining and implementing a targeted and strategic marketing plan is critical. Without the luxury of mass appeal, your niche marketing efforts must attract and engage your unique audience, abandoning the one-size-fits-all models that wastes money and yields minimal return.
Fortunately, the evolution of the digital marketing landscape has generated new and increasingly sophisticated marketing tactics, equipping specialized businesses with the ability to promote their company effectively.
Let’s look at a few tactics that niche industries should be applying today.
- Find the right audience. Before you can find then target your audience, you must understand them. If this is an area of weakness, try tapping into the power of forums, using FindAForum. Studying several forums in your niche industry can reveal what your audience’s needs and common problems, while identifying who the experts are within these venues. Other powerful resources in this process are groups found on the major social media sites, like LinkedIn – but the key is active and participation!
- Engage and build your audience. The road to acquiring and keeping loyal customers is simple, although not easy. Perhaps the most effective tactic is distributing customized content that resonates with your identified audience – tips and resources that addresses their unique needs. If your content is compelling, your audience will thank you by sharing the content with their network and, ultimately, doing business with you.
- Utilize user-generated content (UGC). Showcasing content produced by your fans, followers and customer fosters a sense of authenticity and trust. With 63% of consumers preferring to work with a company they consider authentic, this tactic could be the key to your online success. One recent study revealed that brand engagement rose by 28% when UGC was incorporated into a brand’s messaging. Try contests and freebies to encourage your network to share their thoughts, ideas and videos!
- Select channels wisely. By focusing your visibility on highly relevant channels, you can differentiate your business among your competitors and elevate your message among the online noise. Quick marketing wins can often be found in audiences already familiar with you and your company. Remarketing – serving ads to those people who have visited your site but not yet converted – is a valuable tactic to employ here. With several variations of remarketing available, converting these users has never been easier.
- Leverage robust targeting. Facebook continues to refine their targeting capabilities, offering advertisers more precision while defining their audiences. For example, you can easily integrate email lists into your campaigns, allowing the social media giant to advertise directly to the users on your list and find other users who look like those consumers. Taking it a step further, you can combine lookalikes with interest targeting, a game-changer for those marketing niche businesses online.
Marketing a specialized business can be exciting and rewarding, as long as your strategies take into account your specific audience and their needs. Falling for the latest hype can be fatal for a niche business, as those tactics are meant to cater the general advertiser, rather than the niche industries.
