All businesses are rightly proud of the products and services and feel confident that they are worth customers investing in. But sheer quality isn’t enough in its own right. Customers need to be made aware of what a business has to offer and that is, of course, where marketing comes in. This is how firms reach out to their audience, understand their needs and cater for them accordingly.
But, what if your audience is small? If you offer a very specialist product you might be tempted to feel that all that marketing stuff isn’t for you. Why pay for a billboard when most of the people passing it have no interest? Why, too, do you even need to reach out – will your niche audience not know what they want and how to find you?
Yet this isn’t the way you should think. Marketing can help ALL niches and here’s why:
Small pond, big fish
It doesn’t matter if you’re paddling in a small pond. If that’s the case then, as the Design Trust states, your aim should be to become the biggest fish. Marketing helps niche companies to show they are an expert and a leader in their market. Just because you cater to a niche doesn’t mean that you’ll have no rivals – especially in an age where the internet has opened up trade so that competitors can be based on the other side of the globe. Setting yourself out from the crowd is every bit as vital in niche sectors.
Passionate and engaged
The beauty for businesses in a niche market is that they are likely to cater for a passionate audience that is knowledgeable and prepared to engage in their chosen subject. The likelihood is that they can tell you things you didn’t already know about your sector – as well as insight into your own products and services. If it’s impossible to bring this out through marketing – and it is through surveys and research – then why wouldn’t you?
Data and digital
One of the concerns for niche businesses might well be that they spend money on marketing that is wasted, with efforts targeted at the wrong people. That’s understandable but much easier to avoid in the digital age. The great swathes of data used to make modern marketing decisions plays into the hands of those in the niche sector. An audience for such businesses is likely to be easier to define by its very nature and therefore it should be easier to talk directly to them.
Mobile makes for a great conversation
There is little wasted effort in many of the tools used with digital marketing. Web-based surveys, email newsletters and SMS campaigns can be set up quickly and effectively and at a lower cost compared to traditional marketing techniques. SMS marketing campaigns
are focused and targeted – messages can be sent directly to your prime audience so that you are speaking to the very people you need and no-one else.
No matter what your business, you need customers. Reaching out to any niche audience using modern marketing techniques can help to foster a reputation, gather vital information and insight and deliver campaigns that cater for that niche.
