Before introducing any product to the market, the first and foremost important thing is to figure out what will set you apart from other competing businesses and the potential customers who will be interested in buying from you.
If you just jump into the market without a strategy, it’s possible that you will be targeting customers that may have been cornered already by established players in your industry.
Yet, identifying where you excel, and prospective customers that will be drawn to what you are offering is easier said than done.
So, how do you position yourself for success in your industry?
The answer is to identify an untapped niche in your target market and then master it by exceeding the expectations of your customers.
I will show you how to develop a niche strategy and highlight companies that have successfully taken a similar approach.
How To Target A Niche Audience [Step-By-Step]
Here are the steps you must take to successfully develop the unique value proposition that will help distinguish your brand from others in your industry.
1. Figure Out Which Social Platforms They Are Using
If you are going to promote a product to a niche audience, then you must meet with them in places where they tend to congregate.
Thankfully, your market research should provide all the information you need. For example, if your customer profile shows that your most likely customers are baby boomers that are more comfortable with Facebook, then the right approach will be to advertise your business using Facebook ads.
If they are mostly members of the Gen Z generation that spend the bulk of their screen time on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, your content marketing efforts must be focused on those platforms.
Once you know where to find your ideal customers online, you will be able to craft promotional content that is designed specifically for those platforms.
2. Choose Where You Will Promote Your Business
When a business is trying to connect with a specific segment of the market, choosing the right platforms to promote the brand is crucial.
Your market research will help with this. It will help you discover the preferred platforms of your target customers, how they search for products online, and the type of content that will grab their attention.
So, if your target audience are baby boomers that spend more time on Facebook, then it makes sense to focus on that platform. And if they are mostly from the Gen Z generation, then your marketing efforts will focus on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
3. Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) to Test Your Niche
Let’s assume you have a niche that you’re satisfied with. It’s best practice to test the niche to see if you need to invest serious money and time.
Let’s say you decided to create and sell a vegan baking cookbook. You can create a landing page for the cookbook, detailing what it entails and your credentials.
The landing page is for people to pre-book the cookbook or to download a sample ebook. You can create one using Leadpages or Carrd.
Run ads to validate interest
Next, create paid ads to gauge people’s interest in pre-booking the cookbook. People may see the ads and not click on them, which shows no interest. The ads may also be bad, but let’s assume they’re not.
Potential customers may see the ad, click on it and then give you their email. That shows interest and commitment to the product.
You can then use the ad impressions and registrations to estimate the numbers if you expand your ad budget.
4. Produce Content They Are Looking For
This builds on the preceding what I covered in the preceding section. While knowing where to target your audience is important, you must also communicate with them using language that will resonate with that demographic of customers.
The easiest way to identify the type of content that will pique their interest is to study your competitors. Use market analytics tools to identify the following:
- The type of content they produce that gets the most engagement,
- The social media posts and videos that get the most likes and shares.
- And their social media posting schedule.
All that information should show you what engages your target audience and the right format to present your content.
I highly recommend using hashtags when sharing content on social media to reach as many people as possible.
5. Engage With Your Target Audience
If the content you are sharing resonates with customers, they will engage with it by posting comments and sharing the posts with their friends.
You must capitalize on that engagement and build a relationship with your followers. Respond to their comments and try to organize events like Q&A sessions that foster interactions between them and your brand.
The idea is to do everything possible to keep the conversation going between you and your audience. The more they come to associate with your brand, the more loyal they will become.
6. Reach Out To Niche Influencers
Another way you can connect with your niche audience is to work with influencers in your industry.
These are individuals that have established themselves as authorities in your industry and have built a dedicated audience of followers that listen to everything they say.
Of course, their audience must be made up of people that will be interested in what you are selling. There is no point in working with a fitness influencer when your product is cookware.
7. Listen To Your Customers
At this stage, t niche strategy you developed has led to a new product that has attracted the attention of a segment of the market, and you have started building a loyal base of customers.
Your work doesn’t stop there, you must continue to listen to your customers so you can use their feedback to resolve issues and improve your product.
Social listening tools like BrandWatch and Buffer will help you monitor what people are saying about your brand on all the major social platforms.