We’re all familiar with countless examples of marketing designed for the masses. Coca-Cola, Nike, Netflix, Amazon, and hundreds of other companies spend the majority of their marketing efforts on reaching everyone everywhere. For a lot of very large companies, everyone is a potential customer, and so messaging everybody is the best way to put their products or services or brand in front of the most eyeballs possible.
Other companies, though, from business-to-business companies (B2B) to service providers to entrepreneurs breaking into very specific markets, should take a niche marketing approach. Niche marketing brings with it several advantages for small businesses and startups, and we’ll take a look at some of the benefits of niche marketing, some great niche marketing examples, and how to find a niche market to help your business succeed.
What is niche marketing?
Niche marketing is the concept of advertising to a very specific sector or audience (niche) rather than a blanket, broad-audience approach. And while most marketing campaigns do narrow down their focus to specific groups, demographics, and outlets, niche marketing takes these principles several steps further.
For example, if you were running a company that made miniature figures for tabletop gaming, you could design a marketing approach that appealed to comic book and board gaming fans everywhere. But the broad scope of this audience can be difficult, and the costs could increase dramatically.
Instead, you might design a niche marketing campaign that is intended for a very specific audience of game enthusiasts. That might include people who have a particular interest in a specific game (e.g., the Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures Game) or a specific type of gaming (collectible card games, etc.).
Or, maybe you’re launching a new golf equipment business with clubs that are designed for amateur golfers who have a bad slice. You could certainly advertise to all golfers everywhere, but there are a lot of people in that group who would not benefit from your product. Instead, targeting a smaller niche of golfers will allow you to speak directly to the intended audience, which is full of people who are more likely to be interested and take action.
The more specific you get in your marketing plan, the more benefits you can gain from a niche marketing strategy.
Why do you need niche marketing?
While any business can benefit from a niche marketing strategy and finding a niche market for their company, small businesses and startups can see the biggest advantages of niche marketing. From understanding your audience and your customers better to recognizing significant savings in overall marketing expenditures, there are several benefits of niche marketing that make it an ideal choice for SMBs.
Benefits of having a niche marketing strategy
Just a few of the upsides that come with developing a niche marketing strategy include:
- Lower costs: Whether you’re utilizing pay-per-click (PPC) ads and paid social or you’re developing email campaigns and targeted videos, narrowing down your audience to a specific niche market helps to reduce the overall expense associated with your marketing campaigns.
- Increased engagement: Even though you’re trying to reach a smaller group of customers and prospects, those people are already primed to be interested in your product or service. And finding exactly what they are looking for, or a solution to their specific problem, makes them more likely to convert and to become loyal customers.
- Reduced competition: If you’re taking aim at a very specific industry, service sector, or customer base, you are much less likely to face significant competition from bigger companies or related providers. This is not to say that you won’t encounter competition, but it’s much easier to get your brand and products in front of people if there are only two options instead of twenty.
There are many other benefits to niche marketing, including increased credibility and trust among your customer base. In addition, if you’re wanting to engage in experiential marketing efforts, it will be much more affordable and much more likely to engage your audience and drive brand loyalty (and sales) if you’re focused on a unique, distinct, well-defined group of consumers or prospects.
If you are having trouble getting the kind of social engagement you were hoping for, or finding influencers and industry experts who might be willing to spread the word about your brand, employing a niche marketing strategy can be a big help.
How does niche marketing work?
Niche marketing works when you are able to build a competitive and effective marketing campaign that directly speaks to your target audience(s), gets people interested and engaged with your brand, and develops loyalty that helps expand your reach and general awareness of your brand.
However, in some instances niche marketing may not work for certain SMBs. For example, you may find that your selected audience or area is already a crowded space with significant competition in place. In this case, you run up against challenges including too much competition, too small a space/audience for your message to have an impact, and too few customers. You might also find yourself entering the space at the same time as many other companies, in which case everyone’s advertising gets lost in the noise.
Where many niche marketing efforts fail, though, is early in the process, and you can avoid this by avoiding common missteps. Define your niche marketing strategy, including your audience and your industry—not doing so can cause big headaches down the line. Additionally, don’t expect immediate impact or results—making adjustments too early in the process (or pulling the plug altogether) will lead to a failed approach. As with any marketing efforts, it takes time to fully understand how your efforts are doing and where you can make adjustments.
And one important reminder about niche marketing—you can’t use the same content and approach as your general marketing or brand campaigns and expect results. This can end up having the opposite effect, where prospective customers tune out your message, and you end up losing credibility or impact with the audience that could be the most valuable and beneficial.
Niche marketing strategy examples
You can find several great examples of niche marketing strategies across a wide range of industries and audiences. But here are just a few great examples of companies that embraced a niche marketing approach in order to have a bigger, more lasting impact with customers.
- Lefty’s San Francisco: Operating a store with products specifically for left-handed people is already a niche, and this store leaned directly into their nature. Even though there’s only one physical store location, the brand has created and grown a terrific presence online. [1]
- LUSH Cosmetics: Dedicated to ethical sourcing and pure ingredients in their products, LUSH has built their marketing around their core values—eco-friendliness, organic ingredients, and honesty. And by taking some inspiration from brands they share the same values with and admire, they were able to hone in on their niche target audience and design messaging that speaks directly to them. [2]
- Powell’s Books: A legendary bookstore chain in Portland, Oregon, Powell’s built a nationwide following and a growing customer base by focusing niche marketing efforts on social media users who share a love of books and fuel an online conversation about them. [3]
There are many more examples, and you may even be familiar with some from small businesses right near your house. From the local coffee shop to microbreweries and restaurants, any business can benefit from identifying a niche market and implementing a niche marketing campaign to reach people directly.
Develop your niche marketing strategy
Once you’re ready to put together a marketing campaign that embraces and employs a niche marketing strategy, keep these steps in mind.
1. Identify your target niche market
True niche marketing requires taking what you think your audience is and really narrowing it down to a more focused, well-defined market. The energy and effort you put into this part of the process will pay major dividends in the rest of your efforts.
2. Know your competitors and their strategies
In addition to identifying your niche market or customers, you also need to spend some time investigating who your competitors are in the space. You may be lucky and find that you don’t have any competition at the moment, but this will not usually be the case. Instead, do your research on the niche, who’s already in the space, and what strategies they are employing to reach their audience.
3. Build your unique brand identity
Now that you know who you want to reach and who you’re up against in the space, it’s time to build or modify your brand identity to what is appropriate for the space and your audience. This will involve reviewing your brand values, unique value propositions, and what you are bringing to the conversation, all as they relate to your intended audience. And don’t be surprised if you learn something in this step that changes the way you think about your own business or brand. That’s an opportunity to further refine your message and your marketing, ultimately making it even more effective.
4. Tailor your marketing strategy
While your existing marketing strategy will give you a good place to start, this is the point at which you need to roll up your sleeves and make some serious modifications, enhancements, and changes to your approach. What worked for your broader marketing efforts will not work for a niche audience, and you want to address this fact throughout your approach before you get started.
5. Reach your niche market
You know the who and the how, now you need to incorporate the where. Find the places where your niche audience is most engaged, and target your marketing to ensure that it reaches them effectively on those channels and insert your business into the conversation.
6. Build brand loyalty
Now that you’re in the conversation, stay engaged. The best way to build your brand loyalty and trust in any space is to be involved, and most importantly to be providing valuable, credible, trustworthy information and expertise. Whether you’re facilitating an online conversation or contributing to an ongoing topic, niche marketing offers more opportunity for your brand to be present and involved. And all of this helps strengthen people’s affinity for your brand and business.
Start your niche marketing efforts today
Whether you have an established marketing program in place or you are trying to launch a new brand or product line from the ground up, now is a terrific time to find a niche market, develop a niche marketing strategy, and start gaining the advantages of niche marketing for your business.
Best of all, there are dozens of verified and highly reviewed experts in marketing consulting in the UpCity network who can help you begin developing a niche marketing strategy for your brand. And don’t overlook options for experiential marketing experts as well. Combining experiential marketing efforts with your niche marketing strategy is one of the most effective ways to amplify engagement and growth for SMBs.
Sources
- Lefty’s the Left Hand Store, Lefty’s
- LUSH Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, LUSH
- powellsbooks, Powell’s Books