With global industries targeting audiences on an international scale, finding an effective digital marketing strategy for a niche business can seem daunting without proper tools.
Offline-advertising dominates traditional marketing strategies, but with the rise of social media, there is a whole world of consumers you could be missing out on.
Digital marketing has traditionally been seen as a strategy capable of engaging mass generic consumers. However, with the right approach, what has once challenged niche businesses – engaging a precise target audience on a small budget – can now be used to your advantage.
Golden Rules of Marketing…digitalised
1. Know Your Customer
This is the most golden of the golden rules for any niche business. With such a narrow target, there is no excuse to not research and cater to every detail of the interests and demands of your consumers. The strength in having an extensive online marketing strategy in which your products are launched and promoted means that interest and buying patterns of your high-value customers are right at your fingertips. By analysing the consumer habits of your repeat customers, you can determine exactly what parts of your products are popular and see where there’s room for improvement, whilst also showing your target audience you understand their demands.
2. Know Your Product
There’s nothing more embarrassing than being asked a product-related question by your customers and not knowing the answer, or worse… giving them false information! Knowing your product including all of its benefits, and any shortcomings, allows your marketing strategy to communicate relevant and accurate information to your target audience, ensuring there’s continued trust and a respectable business image.
How can digital marketing help achieve this? Online mediums make collecting data from surveys, post comments and consumer feedback so much faster and thus more effective, allowing you to more accurately and promptly reply to consumers.
3. Create an interactive audience
A disengaged audience means a lack of interest and loss of sales. The key to keeping an audience satisfied is to give them the opportunity to communicate their ideas and desires to you. This is where an effective online marketing strategy comes in. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook allow consumers to quickly share their concerns and comments. Though these highly visible posts can seem counterproductive, a prompt and specific response will reflect well to your audience and ensure continued trust in your business! Look to incorporate consumer feedback platforms across your social media and make sure every response is specific to the individual request. There’s nothing that turns consumers off more than generic responses. A user-friendly website is also an extremely valuable tool. With the popularity of mobile technologies consumers want advertising and product information quickly and easily accessible from any device!
4. Always be ready to innovate
Having your products on an online platform means access to information and new ideas is literally at the fingertips of every consumer. Products, values and audience demands change rapidly and you must be ready to react. Innovative product and marketing strategies will allow you to meet the demands of current consumers and attract new ones.
Tips and Tricks
So what is an effective online marketing strategy and how can you customise your own to best suit your audience? Every online advertising platform is different and it is important that you are able to adapt to the styles and demands of each.
Facebook and Twitter
- Keep your posts short and sweet – social media users constantly refresh and scroll through their feeds. Dense information posts filled with statistics are likely to turn consumers off; keep posts witty and interesting and restrict that character count!
- Catchy and memorable profile and cover photos – most consumers remember logos and pictures better than they remember text!
- Use #s – Hashtags serve niche businesses more than you might think! Information collected through hashtags shows you your high-quality consumers! The more of your hashtags a consumer uses, the more engagement with your brand!
- Targeted Facebook ads – This is an easy tool to use as Facebook automatically breaks down your target preferences and ensures even the most niche of markets can be catered to!
- LinkedIn is the perfect platform for finding niche customers in the B2B space. Join groups with a specific interest in your niche and post long-form thought pieces showcasing your deep knowledge on the topic.
- LinkedIn is the only “professional” social network, so it is important to stick to professional topics. Looking professional is also key here.
Other Platforms
- Newer platforms such as Google+ and Pinterest make targeting specific groups much easier and allow for more innovative business/consumer relationships!
- Youtube and other video sites are also gateways for fast and widespread advertising.
User-Generated Content
- User-generated content allows you to showcase your product at no cost and through the voice of consumers themselves. Instagram is a popular platform for this, with more and more businesses sharing photos and posts of their consumers using their brand, making consumers feel like ‘part of the team.’
Digital Marketing has evolved in recent years to become not only a friend of niche business but a lifeline. If you’re not sure where to start, get in touch with us.
Are you looking for a social media agency? At 28K, We can develop an effective social media strategy and create the content you need to bring it to life. Speak with one of our skilled digital marketing advisors today.
