The term niche marketing can be off-putting for small businesses that are just starting out because of spammy agencies and freelancers. However, niche marketing is actually a strategy that small businesses should take to heart if they want to grow and make more money. According to a study by Yahoo, 54% of customers find personalized ads to be more engaging. A McKinsey study shows that ads tailored to clients’ can also significantly increase ROI - up to 8 times, and increase sales by at least 10%.
So what does that mean? It means finding the right audience and niche market can be crucial for your small business's growth and revenue.
Before we get into talking about the niche market and a niche marketing strategy for small businesses, let's clearly define what exactly niche marketing is!
What is Niche Marketing
Niche marketing is a way of targeting specific markets or audiences with detailed messaging and tailored advertising. It can be applied to any product or service, so no matter what type of small business you are, you are a part of some sort of niche market.
One thing that differentiates niche marketing from other types is that it doesn't just aim to sell the same product and message to everyone. Since niche markets have their own needs and preferences, they're hyper-personalized and can be very picky about what platforms they even use. This shouldn't be confused with other types of marketing such as an eCommerce digital marketing strategy or any general marketing strategy.
Simply put, a niche market is a small defined portion of a much larger market. So what makes the niche market more defined than you're larger market is that the niche audience has much more defined needs, identities, and preferences.
Here are a couple of niche market examples that we have worked with!
Niche Marketing Examples
Example one:
Artists for Good, a non-profit online art gallery that promotes artists by selling their art for them and donating all proceeds to a selected charity. AFG's larger market is anyone looking for an online art gallery. However, we can take that and expand it even more with a defined niche market.
They have:
1. Artists who are donating art and proceeds to charities
2. People who want to feel good about the art they buy know that it was for a good cause.
We have both a very clearly defined larger market as well as our clearly defined niche market. This allows AFG to tailor ads, landing pages, and everything else to the larger audiences, as well are two of our niche markets.
Example two:
BDE Style, a men's health review site. Now BDE reviews health products, specifically about erectile dysfunction, but they also promote all-around healthier lifestyles for both men and women.
They have:
1. Their larger market caters to men and women attaining healthier lifestyles and relationships.
2. One of their more defined niche markets includes Erectile dysfunction product reviews and people looking for help on how to deal with ED through acoustic wave therapy.
Again, having a larger audience and then a much more defined niche market allows them to tailor different niche marketing strategies.
Niche marketing is an example of proper small business planning, a true understanding of who your target audience is, the niche markets you're in, and it can ultimately help you reach a lot of your goals.
Why Finding Your Niche is Important
If you haven't already started thinking of all the many different reasons why finding your niche market is important, we've put together a few for you! Here are a few reasons why niche marketing can be so beneficial.
Find Your Right Audience
One of the biggest reasons it's important to find your niche market is because you can better understand who your different customers are and where to reach them. As we mentioned earlier, no matter what type of business you have, there will always be multiple audiences.
The goal is here is to find your one larger market and then branch off of those to find small more defined audiences.
Think of it this way...
If you were trying to sell women's T-shirts, obviously you're larger market would be women. But you wouldn't just stop there, you have to think about all of the different types of women are out there and even their differences in age. Would you have the same sales pitch as for a 40-year-old woman vs. a 20-year-old? No, of course not.
But in order for this marketing strategy to work properly, each audience must first identify with your brand message. By defining your niche markets, you'll start to look at who each niche is and start to break them into the different audiences that you will need to market towards differently.
Lessen Your Competition
Another important reason why niche marketing is so great for small businesses is because of the fact that by targeting a specific group, you're limiting your direct competition. In a way of course.
If you were to target everyone who likes T-shirts, then yes, there will be more people on both sides of the spectrum that are forced into this market with you. However, if you can find out how to specifically target groups within this even larger audience without having as much competition coming at them from different angles.
This ultimately leads to less confusion and fewer obstacles when it comes down to trying to reach these potential customers. Reduces Confusion & Competition
Improve Your Marketing Budget
By finding your niche market, you can start to better understand the different opportunities that are out there.
Think about it like this...
If you wanted to spend some money on Facebook ads and Google AdWords in order to get more traffic towards your new blog post or product page, would you rather have a larger audience with fewer conversions? Or would you rather focus on spending less ad dollars by targeting two very specific groups of people who will be more interested in what you're advertising? Especially with your newly tailored ads!
We know our answer, but we'll let you decide for yourself!
5 Small Business Niche Marketing Strategy Tips
Now that you understand the basics of niche marketing, let’s look at 5 small business niche marketing strategy tips to help target your ideal groups.
#1 Using Keywords
One of the most important aspects of your niche marketing strategy is to use keywords that your target audience would be searching for.
Now, we're obviously not just talking about targeting words and phrases like “T-shirts” or "women's T-shirts". You'll want to use a combination of both general and detailed keywords. Why? General keywords will help to increase your traffic while the detailed ones will help catch that very niche but much smaller traffic.
This can help drive better results when trying to reach your ideal customer base!
Also, take a look at your competitors' keywords and their ranking! This is critical to your creating a successful SEO plan!
#2 Do Your Niche Audience Research
The next step in your niche marketing strategy is to conduct extensive research into the audience you are trying to reach.
By having a better understanding of who your niche audience is and what they enjoy - it will help you not only reach them but also find new ways to show them how much better you are compared to the competition.
You can do niche audience research by:
Social listing - Use a tool to monitor what people say about your brand
Create buyer personas - Create a document that outlines your ideal customers
Competitor research - Take a look at your competitor and see how they are engaging the same niche audiences
You can also use tools like Google Trends and Facebook Audience Insights to learn more about your niche audience.
#3 Niche Platforms
Now that you have your niche audience researched, it's time to reach them on the platforms they love using. As a small business, you're probably not going to market on every single platform, so you'll need to know the best niche platforms for your small business.
For example, when targeting millennials - Facebook might be a better choice than Tiktok. Whereas if you were targeting a much younger crowd, it would be vise versa. Also, keep in mind this doesn't just pertain to ages but also products and services.
You get what we're saying here right? It all comes down to research and taking note of everything that makes up who these people are as well as which ones will help you best engage with them.
#4 Small Business Competitor Research
We mentioned doing some competitor research when looking for your keywords earlier, but it doesn't stop just there. You need to dig much deeper into your direct competitors.
This includes everything they are doing in their niche marketing strategy.
Take a look at the content they share, how often they publish posts/tweets, what kind of ads do you see them promoting?
All this information can help you create your own better plan to catch even more of that specific target audience's attention!
#5 Become Your Niche Authority
Finally, after learning more about your audience and the competition - it's time to focus on becoming an authority in your niche.
This is a great way for you to establish yourself as someone who truly understands their customers and can help them with anything they need or want.
When people see that you're knowledgeable on the topics of their interest, they'll be much more likely to click through on some of those ads! Plus, if they ever have any questions regarding products/services/anything at all within your industry - they'll know exactly where to go: You! *wink wink*
Also to note that Google will notice when you start to become an authority within your niche which will help to build your SEO!
Niche Marketing for Small Businesses
Niche Marketing is a great way for small businesses to reach their ideal customer base, but it can be tricky if you don't know how. Hopefully, this blog post has helped provide insight into the process of niche marketing and give some helpful tips on how to do it yourself!
If you're struggling with coming up with your own niche or need assistance in any other areas - let us know right away so we can work together to create an amazing SEO plan that drives sales by leveraging human behavior. Leave a comment below if you guys have questions or even looking for some simple advice, we're here to help!