How to 10x Your Business by Marketing to Niche Markets

Focusing your business on a target customer can make your operations simpler, your marketing spend more efficient, and your business a money printing machine. But, knowing your niche market is only the first step to getting those benefits. It is by marketing to a niche market that you reap the rewards of focus. In this article, we’ll help you apply the timeless marketing adage, ‘Right Message, Right Place, Right Time’ to targeting a market.

Finding the Right Message for Your Target Customer

In days gone by marketing was all about the business. Whoever had the best features, and could talk about them the loudest, got the business. In today’s world customers are already saturated with information. They live in an endless stream of advertisements, posts, and videos. If you want to stand you, you can’t just fight to be the loudest or the best anymore. You must differentiate not just at the product level, but in your messaging.

Here’s how: instead of talking about your company you talk about your customer. Sounds simple, right? Not so much. You can’t just use the same messages but flipped around. The ad ‘I will love this chocolate bar’ will fall just as flat as ‘You will love this chocolate bar’. So, how do we find a message that will connect?

Customers no longer search for products. They search to build their identity. Who they are must match why your business exists. How they belong to their identity groups must match the values of your company, how you behave. Ultimately, you have to understand who your customer is now and what your customer wants to become. Then, position your product as the bridge for the customer to get to who they want to be.

Here’s an example of a tagline from one of our clients, a construction firm: “Remodeling redefined”. This tag line is too high level for a potential customer to be useful. Instead of being pulled into reading more they are confused and would have to read more to understand. This is a surefire way to drive customers away. After working on their messaging, the new tagline became: “The Home Remodel Contractor You Can Trust”.

While the message is general, it is clear. It tells the reader who the company is and why the reader should care. In an industry bereft of reliable contractors, this tagline speaks to the desires of the target customer.

A word of caution on messaging: it must be authentic. Customers aren’t stupid. They can sniff out lies and fake messages from a mile away. Your promises in marketing must match your actions as a company. Don’t say something because it sounds good. Say it because it is true (and then make sure it sounds good too).

Finding the Right Place to Reach Your Niche Market

There’s a saying in the housing market: “Location, location, location.” In the same way a house’s location can drastically change its price, your message’s location can drastically change its effectiveness. If you want to reach stay at home moms then advertising on a job hunt platform probably isn’t going to work. You must go where the people are if you want your marketing efforts to be effective. So, how do we find them?

If you want to reach more of your current customers then evaluate how they are finding you. A tool like Google Analytics can tell where your customers are finding your website from. Your sales team will also know where they have the best luck finding customers. And your marketing team will know which inbound efforts are most effective. But what if you want to find new customers you don’t have yet?

This is where audience research becomes important. The best way to do this is through personal connections, but that isn’t always an option. If you can, sit down with 10 or more members of your target customer group. Get information on where they spend their time (online and in person) directly from the source. If you can’t get access to the group, demographic research will be required. Tools like SparkToro can tell you about people’s interests and where they spend their time.

There are a few general purpose rules that can help narrow down possible marketing platforms as well:

• The older someone is, the less likely they are to use the internet.
• 70% of internet traffic is on social media sites.
• Millennials make nearly half of purchasing decisions for companies.
• Consumers buy more through social media than any other method.
• Mass media reaches more people but is targeted far less effectively.
• Pay Per Click advertisement is trading dollars for traffic to your site. PPC can be highly targeted and scaled, theoretically, infinitely.

Ultimately, you’ll need to find the right place for your message so your target customer can actually receive it.

Putting Your Message Out at the Right Time

Finally, you need to make sure your marketing efforts are being done not just where but when your target customer is paying attention. There are a few basic rules for this as well:

• Pay attention to time zones. If your customers are in the U.S., don’t post according to Europe’s or Asia’s day.
• Account for your customer’s primary activities. If your niche market is parents, then post after their kids go to bed. If your target customer works a 9-5, avoid posting during the workday.
• Don’t spam messages. The worst time to try and reach someone is right after you’ve reached them. Imagine getting five sales calls in a row. You wouldn’t be any happier to get the fifth than you were the second.

There are two other factors to consider when looking at times to post. These are the day of the week and important dates. For many consumer target customers, Saturday and Sunday are optimal marketing days. Just the opposite is probably true for most business niche markets. You can get deep with this. If you know people typically get lazier as the week goes on then market your done-for-you offering mostly at the end of the week. Or if people most often buy on Wednesday (for whatever reason), then spend most of your budget on Wednesday. You should look for patterns in your niche market’s behavior and adjust your marketing to match.

Important dates are also something you must plan your marketing around. Think about how many more roses get sold the week of Valentine’s day than the rest of the year. How much more likely is a man to buy jewelry around his anniversary than the rest of the year? If you can figure out important touchpoints in your target customer’s life, you can work your marketing around those too. This doesn’t have to just be external, however. Think about the critical moments in your work with your customers. How do you respond when they make a first purchase? Are you celebrating the first time they do something cool with your tool? You can plan your ascensions and marketing messaging around points like this to drastically increase upsells.

Ready to Market to Your Niche Market?

In the last few articles you’ve learned why a niche market is important, how to select your target customer, and now how to target a market. With this information you can go out and 10x your business! But you haven’t learned everything about marketing. For more tips and actionable tactics, join our email newsletter. We’ll send the best marketing info directly to your inbox.

Until then, God be with you.

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