While the pandemic caused most people to stay at home and wait, others were clever enough to use their time wisely to develop and implement innovative business strategies. The yearly entrepreneurship rate had increased by more than 24 percent as of March 2020. In 2020, the number of new enterprises rose from 3.5 million each year to 4.4 million. More businesses in the market lead to fiercer competition.
Due to technological advancement, marketing has become exceedingly convenient yet severely competitive too. The increasing rivalry requires every marketer to come up with out-of-the-box concepts to stand out from the crowd. More recognition leads to more customers and eventually more sales. If you play smart, you might be able to market your product or service in a low-cost or almost no-cost way. It’s not necessary to spend millions on marketing anyways.
Uninventive or generic marketing tactics create little to no hype, even for big brands that spend the lion’s share of their budget. Thankfully, if you’re clever enough, you can even compete with the big guns by investing way less money in marketing. Coming up with marketing strategies to target a specific niche can be challenging. However, it’s a piece of cake for the sharp-witted. Continue reading to explore how you can market your niche business to stand out from competitors.
- Develop eBooks
EBooks are a powerful marketing tool, especially during this digital age. They’re an excellent way to contain helpful information. People are more likely to download your eBooks if you offer them for free. They aren’t even too costly or complicated to develop. Check out Designrrs ebook design software to produce yours. Suppose you construct your eBooks to contain highly valuable information, for example, problem identification and resolution. In that case, it’ll help your clients think of you as an authentic business. After offering the information, you can divert them towards your product through the website.
- Promote User-Generated Content
User-generated content is today’s most innovative way to engage your customers. People are tremendously compelled by what they see on social media. They scroll through social media to find proof of authenticity before making big or small purchase decisions. It is where user-generated content comes in handy.
A mere hashtag can compel people to post about your product. Of course, there needs to be some incentive behind encouraging your customers to post about you. It could be an entry coupon for a lucky draw or a discount code. You can directly share their photos to your page and persuade other potential customers to buy your product. User-generated content is by far the least sales marketing strategy in existence. Additionally, it is relevant to your target audience in niche businesses.
- Select Your Marketing Channels Wisely
Of course, social media is excellent for promoting your business. However, some platforms can be slightly off-putting if you’re targeting a specific niche. Since Facebook and Instagram always have companies roaring with their respective marketing campaigns, making noise for your product or service can be challenging.
Moreover, these platforms are full of all kinds of people and internet trolls. Targeting a specific audience is out of the question here. It is for this reason that going all-in on all social media channels at the same time makes little to no sense. It will shake your marketing budget too. If your business sells corporate giveaways, use LinkedIn for promotion. If your audience is rarely found on social media channels, use email marketing.
- Form Partnerships
A business prospers by creating good relationships within the organization and its networks. Extending these relationships to third parties can accelerate the growth of your business exponentially. If you’re a new business, it isn’t going to be easy to gain the trust and loyalty of your target audience.
You can publish guest blogs using these queries “Write for us, guest post for us, and write for us marketing” or you can post social media posts as you want. You may even hand out flyers, send emails, or place huge ads on billboards. Nevertheless, people don’t trust words. They trust experience.
Partnering with influential personalities and bloggers can boost your sales. People trust these people and depend on their reviews to make buying decisions. Do you know what’s better than new customers? Return customers. Customers acquired through bloggers may also be rewarded with a discount voucher. Influencers aren’t the only ones who can benefit from collaborations. If their specialization isn’t comparable to yours, they can expand to content makers, YouTubers, or other companies. For example, if you’re running a home-based bakery, you can partner with a delivery service like Uber Eats. Customers can obtain discounts by ordering via the app.
- Offline Marketing Isn’t Yet Obsolete
Your target audience doesn’t necessarily have to be teens or adolescents who frequently check their email or social media. It can be oldies who read newspapers when everything is conveniently available on the internet free of cost. These people still rely on flyers and newspaper ads to learn about a product.
Offline marketing can be costly, but you don’t necessarily have to spend a leg or two. You can attend expo events, or trade shows to give away samples or hand out flyers and business cards.
Moreover, newspaper and magazine ads aren’t that expensive either, and they do the job right. You can also include tearable coupons in magazines for discount offers.
- Focus On Your USP
With so many businesses targeting the same set of customers, it’s a war that you can win by stealing each other’s customers. A USP or unique selling proposition creates a distinctive image of your brand that makes you stand out from other businesses. The same can also be a compelling incentive for the customer to purchase from your company. For example, fast delivery was Domino’s Pizza’s unique selling proposition. They marketed it by communicating that they won’t charge the bill if the pizza arrives within 30 minutes. People started to purchase from them frequently either by trying their luck to get a free pizza or just getting pizza on time because they’re too hungry or impatient. Hence, USP enables a business to boost sales and revenue.
The Bottom Line
There are countless ways to use target-specific marketing approaches to gain new customers and retain the previous ones. Digitalization has made everything easier for us, including marketing. However, not all people are acquainted with digital platforms, so offline marketing is still a prize-worthy marketing strategy. Social media may appear to be your most incredible option for increasing brand recognition. So you must be wise enough to screen your potential consumers and use the platforms properly.
Hello, My name is Shari & I am a writer for the ‘Outlook AppIns’ blog. I’m a CSIT graduate & I’ve been working in the IT industry for 3 years.