When marketing in a highly-specialised niche, you constantly have to look for new ways to maximise your impact and get your message across. Some people mistakenly believe this to be a disadvantage but there’s more to it than meets the eye. If you can utilise the special features of your business, niche marketing could do wonders for your business. With that said, here’s a guide to effective marketing for your specialised business.
Know your target niche market
Just because there’s a narrow range of consumers who’re looking for your product or service, it doesn’t mean you can get away without researching your target market. In fact, it can even make it more difficult for you to identify your ideal customer. This is where segmentation is key and it can really help specialised businesses figure out who they’re supposed to market to. Companies in large industries might find it enough to know their ideal customer’s age, income and marital status but for specialised businesses, learning more is a must. The smaller your market, the more information you’re supposed to collect and use in your marketing campaign.
Take care of your customers
Besides knowing everything there is to know about your target niche market, you also have to be aware of what your product or service can do that no other company in your niche can. Taking proper care of your customers is very important in small markets, maybe even more important than in their larger counterparts. This is exactly why you should take some time to think about your customers before you start marketing your brand. Make it your goal to really help your customers and use that in your marketing efforts. Only then can you expect them to notice your business.
Listen to your customers
Even the companies in large niches are bound to fail if they don’t listen to their customers. Being aware of what your customers have to say is even more important when running a specialized business. Fortunately, we live in the age of social media and you don’t have to worry about asking customers for their opinions – they’ll tell you everything themselves. Any info you can get can be used for improving your future marketing efforts and if you’re still not convinced, just take a look around social media and you’ll see that everyone’s out there. For example, there are companies on social media that sell oilfield equipment, looking to collect information from their followers.
Know how to spread the word about you
Some people believe that niche marketing is exactly like regular marketing, only smaller. However, there are many differences between these two types of marketing and it’s necessary to take a completely different approach when you want to get your niche business noticed. Therefore, instead of relying on every marketing channel that works for companies in other industries, you have to assess their strengths in relation to your business. Some marketing channels, such as paid social media advertising may seem like a great solution but in reality, it doesn’t bring as much ROI as it does to companies in bigger fields.
Invest in PPC
It’s extremely important for companies in small niches to get as much ROI as possible. This makes PPC the perfect marketing channel for your business. Just think about it – somewhere out there, there are people who need your product or service and chances are that only they will click on links leading to your page. If you decide to include PPC into your marketing campaign, opting for long-tail queries and high commercial intent keywords is recommended. It’s also a good idea to optimise your website for mobile users as the last thing you want to do is miss out on people who need what your business has to offer.
Keep a close eye on your competitors
When running a specialised business, it’s imperative to know what your competitors are up to in terms of marketing. When talking about competitor research, people often think of corporate espionage but in reality, you don’t even have to leave your office to get an idea of what your competitors are doing. As long as you use software such as WordStream adviser, you should have insight into your competitors’ marketing strategies and get a chance to see what’s working for them. If you keep track of their marketing efforts, you’ll even get a chance to see what they did wrong and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes. Some other popular tools for competitor research include Adbeat and WhatRunsWhere.
The bottom line
At the end of the day, you have to remember that being in a narrow niche shouldn’t be viewed as a constraint for your business. Instead, you just have to be more careful when choosing the marketing channels you’ll include in your campaign. As long as you know what you’re doing and do your research, there’s shouldn’t be anything stopping you from reaching your target audience.
