In a very noisy world, it can be tough to rise above the competition. Finding the right niche to focus on is key.
You then need to nail it in all parts of your strategy to build brand loyalty and maximise ROI. That goes for both your overall marketing tactics and social media marketing. Where do you even start?
We’re sharing what niching means and covering our insider tips for building credibility within your ideal market on social media We’ve also doubled down with some best-in-class niche marketing examples to inspire you.
Contents
The advantages of niche marketing for brands
How to identify your ideal niche
Why do brands follow the mainstream?
Examples of niche marketing success
What is niche marketing?
The dictionary definition of “niche marketing” is:
“the business of promoting and selling a product or service to a specialised segment of a market.”
“Specialised” is key here. To harness the power of niche marketing, you need to lean into your speciality and understand the best ways to deliver that to a specific audience.
Every larger market has smaller segments. These could be particular categories under an umbrella trade (e.g. you have “clean beauty” under the beauty industry), or they can even be down to location and core demographic. It’s a highly targeted form of marketing and has plenty of benefits.
The advantages of niche marketing for brands
So what are the advantages of niche marketing? Here’s a breakdown:
- More efficient marketing
When you know an audience’s specific needs, you can streamline your marketing and drive ROI. It’s easier to do this when you niche into a more precise side of a market. You’ll use fewer resources, maximise your materials and see better results. A win-win situation.
- It fosters brand loyalty
In a world where less than half of brands are seen as trustworthy, connecting with your audience is more vital than ever. Niching helps establish that trust factor.
Trust is the secret sauce when it comes to long-term customer acquisition. And there’s a willing audience ready to lap it up. 81% of potential customers need to trust a brand to consider buying, so you want to develop meaningful relationships with these groups. Niching helps you do that.
- There’s less competition
Niching down allows you to rise up above the crowd. Targeting broader markets can make you a small business in a massive pond. Being an expert in your niche will help you make waves instead. Fewer competitors mean you can focus on higher engagement and other individual metrics rather than constant brand awareness campaigns to try and speak louder than others. Gain a competitive advantage by choosing more specific target markets and making your content directly appealing to them.
Niche social media marketing
People come to socials to follow and enjoy the kind of content that just gets them. With more than half the world using social media channels, you can’t just throw generalised content out into the ether and hope for the best. You need specific, niche creative content that appeals directly to your target audience.
That means choosing the right channel for your market, identifying what makes your audience tick and creating a tailored marketing strategy to win them over. How can you do that? By enlisting the experts in niche content, of course.
Niche influencer marketing
Influencers are specialists in niche content. They’re passionate about what they do and know their audience inside out. So if you’re looking to niche on socials, they’re a valuable asset.
Creating niche content can help you build brand loyalty, but partnering with social media creators unlocks in-built, powerful trust that already exists.
They’ve honed their craft and built up a niche following of users who come back repeatedly for their content. When you collaborate with the right influencer, you access a highly engaged audience. If you get your strategy right, you can dominate your niche in the social media world.
How to identify your ideal niche
Before you start creating a strategy, you need to find your niche. You can “niche” in a few different ways:
- Location – Brands can build local campaigns to gain the attention of a group of people in a specific place.
- Demographics – You can focus on certain age groups and target your marketing around them.
- Interests or values – Focusing on individual interests and values can help you niche into a hungry market.
- Quality or price – You can niche your product or service based on its price range or level of quality (e.g. luxury goods vs budget goods).
- Necessity – Particular communities may have distinct needs, and you can hone in on these. (e.g. Instead of “skincare”, you can focus on “sensitive skincare”.
Niching can help you drive sales and increase traction. So you need to find a segment that fits with your business and works on social media. Follow these steps to find it:
- Identify problems you solve
What questions do you provide an answer to? How does your service or product help? What problems do you solve? As a marketer, you probably have a fair idea about all of these. But really think about the kind of audiences that you help and focus on specific elements of those audiences. Are they a particular demographic? Are they focused on a particular interest? Where are they geographically?
To identify the right niche on social, you need to think about where these people are hanging out. Find out the conversations they’re involved in. Listen to their discussions through the comments section and beyond. Then identify the niche topics they may be focused on within particular channels. Note these may not always be the most obvious ones.
- Research trends
Trends can tell you a lot about where you should niche. They can help you identify gaps and show you the booming topics you ought to be a part of. Conduct market research to discover what your competitors are niching in. This can help you find a similar niche market or, better yet, niches they may have missed.
Exploring trends on social media channels can help you discover new niches and jump on growth opportunities. These trends aren’t just great for your social media campaigns; they can inform you of areas you should be thinking about across your marketing.
How to get started with a niche marketing strategy
Once you’ve identified your niche, it’s time to create a focused, fool-proof strategy. You should think about your audience and what they are looking for at every step. Then it’s all about building authentic, trustworthy content that appeals to them and their exact needs. Here are our insider tips to gain the advantages of niche marketing:
- Conduct market research
Research what other companies are doing within your niche. Identify their strategies, concepts and marketing campaigns. Then don’t copy them. Take inspiration of course, but think about how to differentiate your brand from theirs. Use their data to inform your creativity and think outside of the box.
- Produce authentic attention-sparking content
Now that you’ve figured out your niche, USP and competitor’s actions, it’s time to deliver some seriously engaging content. Whether through funny and relatable content (the top two most memorable forms of consumer content) or other forms of marketing, you need to make an impression. Just remember to be authentic and always stay true to your brand values.
- Leverage influencer marketing
Influencers can supercharge the advantages of niche marketing. They help you get in front of the right people through the right content at the right time. Expanding your reach and building your credibility. But to get results with a niche influencer marketing strategy, you must partner with creators who align with your brand, understand your niche and target your ideal audience. How do you find them?
You need an influencer outreach strategy. This involves researching, identifying and contacting the right talent.
Of course, when you work with us, we do all that for you, using our 8 years of industry expertise and unique performance data from over 60K creators.
Why do so many brands follow the mainstream?
It’s tempting to go where the crowds are. Mainstream genres have a lot of interest, so companies may think they’re great for brand awareness. But there are a number of disadvantages to large audience pools.
The disadvantages of mainstream marketing
Quantity instead of quality
If you target lots of people, you’ll miss out on the quality audiences who will actually want to buy your product. Niching helps you find smaller groups that engage with your product or service.
More competition
When you try and compete in the mainstream market, you’re up against lots of different brands. Standing out can be hard.
Example of niche marketing success
Saint’s Row
For the release of Deep Silver’s Saint’s Row the brief was simple, install nostalgia and create intrigue.
We focused on quality over quantity, partnering with creators that would truly deliver on our creative vision and bring the game to life.
Phase 1 (pre-launch): With a message of ‘Be your own boss’, six YouTube creators produced content as varied as ‘generating an in-game car then bringing it to life’ to ‘hacking the UK singles charts with a Saints Row themed song’. This culminated in two meet and greet live events (London and LA) where fans could play the game alongside the creators themselves.
Phase 2 (launch): 21 influencers across the three territories created their own gameplay content across Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok to drive even more awareness of the launch. To ensure the content stayed fresh, we developed different creative strategies amongst each influencer, from co-op gameplay and walk-throughs, to best bits and in-game challenges!
The results? We delivered 12.2 million impressions, 9.2 million video views, and nearly 15,000 clicks. This smashed our objectives by +124% in terms of video views and +2.5% on engagement rate.
Are there any disadvantages of niche marketing?
Niche marketing isn’t perfect. It can mean limited growth (if you reach the top of your niche, there isn’t much further you can go). Marketing can also be trickier. To make an impact, you need to nail your campaigns. You can’t rely on bulk messaging and generalised marketing materials. But if you plan accordingly, the advantages can definitely outweigh the disadvantages.
Niche marketing, needs a niche way of thinking
If you want to reap all the advantages of niche marketing, you need to think like an influencer. These creatives are hyper-focused on their market and make some of the most targeted content online. So adapt their approach to magnify sales and rise above the competition.
Need some support? We’re a niche marketing agency powered by influencers. We don’t just work out your ideal focus points; we help you build strategies utilising some of the most influential talents across social media.
Get in touch to hear how we can help you niche into your model market on social.
