Break The Bubble: 6 Steps To Marketing Your Niche B2B Solutions

The last decade has seen industries like SaaS, IT, and tech boom in terms of growth and promotional activities. A lot of VC and investor money has been poured into these domains, which gave these companies the luxury to grow at a rapid pace.

Marketing was one of the key focus areas for a lot of them. But now that the funding winter has hit, many businesses are trying to cut costs and bring down their marketing spends. Owing to these, technology and software companies might see a decline in enthusiasm when it comes to aggressively marketing their solutions.

This is an opportunity for niche B2B businesses to come forward and grab eyeballs with the uniqueness and benefits of their products and solutions. A great example of this is the B2B embedded systems industry. Companies that sell electronic products to other businesses need to come out of the 'bubble' and be more vocal about their products.

This is why I wrote a detailed article on marketing for the embedded systems industry. I believe the next decade will see such businesses coming to the fore to leverage marketing more instead of relying simply on event-led growth and word of mouth. Another example is the robotics industry where highly visual and engaging content can make all the difference.

Marketing ideas for niche B2B businesses

Niche businesses might find it difficult to make conventional marketing tactics work. They require a fresh approach. The below article discusses 7 marketing ideas for niche B2B businesses. I suggest you check it out to develop a complete understanding of the topic:

7 Niche B2B Marketing Strategies For Sustainable Growth

In this edition of the Elevate Your Marketing newsletter, we look at 6 ways in which niche businesses can start approaching marketing as a key growth lever. These are steps such businesses need to take to prepare themselves before going all in with marketing.

6 steps to making marketing your growth engine

I have interacted with many founders and marketing leaders who are running niche B2B businesses. In my opinion, more than 80% of them are not marketing their solutions enough. Hence they need a 'nudge' to get started or become more regular with their marketing efforts.

If you are in charge of marketing a niche B2B business, the following steps will help you look at marketing with a positive mindset rather than seeing it as a mere cost center:

1. Know your TAM, SAM, and SOM
2. Learn from the leaders in the category
3. Identify gaps that marketing can fill
4. Perform a long-term cost-benefit analysis
5. Start with your comfort zone
6. Scale and grow

1. Know your TAM, SAM, and SOM

TAM, SAM, and SOM stand for Total Addressable Market, Serviceable Available Market, and Serviceable Obtainable Market respectively. They are defined as:

• TAM: The total size of the market you operate in.
• SAM: The section of TAM that you can serve with your products or solutions.
• SOM: The piece of SAM that you can realistically achieve.

Knowing your TAM, SAM, and SOM is important for any business. But for niche businesses, it becomes even more important. This is because, unlike something like IT services, the solutions offered by niche businesses are sought by only a small section of the market. This means that the TAM itself is much smaller compared to other industries. Hence, all the marketing activities have to be highly targeted.

Compare it with a Google ads campaign. Not knowing your TAM, SAM, and SOM is like using broad-match keywords alone in a Google search ad campaign. You will end up getting too many irrelevant traffic or leads.

So, knowing your target and the growth potential of the niche is one of the very first steps to getting started with active marketing efforts.

2. Learn from the leaders in the category

I can say with confidence that there is no niche where at least 1 company hasn't made it big with marketing. So if you are one of those who think there isn't anyone doing aggressive marketing in your industry, get ready to change your perspective.

Look at the leaders in your industry. How are they promoting their solutions? How are they reaching their ideal buyers? Is it just word of mouth, or have they used some form of marketing to achieve growth?

In most cases, the leaders would have a combination of 3 to 4 channels that have worked well in their favor. So do a competitor analysis from a marketing standpoint and learn what's working for the best in the industry. Use the below article as a guiding light for this:

Competitor Analysis Framework – A Definitive Guide [From A Marketing Standpoint]

Once you gather the necessary insights, see what is it that you can apply to grow your business. It sounds simple, but not easy to execute.

3. Identify gaps that marketing can fill

One of the common misconceptions in niche industries is that business problems cannot be solved by marketing. However, when you dig deeper, you realize that some of them are growth-related challenges, and marketing can bring a few solutions to the table. Or at least, marketing can be a part of the solution.

Let us understand this from an example.

Imagine that you are in the business of selling special tools for the automotive sector. You are very likely to cap out your revenue potential in your region after a certain point. How do you then go about expanding to a new region? Below are some of the steps you would take:

• Find a channel partner in the region you wish to launch.
• Set up a sales and/or engineering team in the region.
• Make sure to meet the compliance requirements of the region.

While all these are a must, if you don't have a digital presence in the region, it will take you more time to establish the well-needed trust. Even finding channel partners can be tough without ample online reach. This is where marketing can help. It can help you establish a global presence from the corners of your office in your native country.

Similarly, identify gaps or business challenges marketing can solve for your business. That will encourage you to build a marketing function for the long term.

4. Perform a long-term cost-benefit analysis

Business is a game of numbers. If your topline and bottomline do not meet the targets, no amount of justification will be enough. Given this, before you invest actively in marketing, conduct a cost-benefit analysis that is focused on the long term.

This is because marketing takes time to work. You won't be able to justify the investment in a few months. Consider a period of 2 years at least. List down all possible expenses (This need not be super accurate. The idea is to arrive at an estimate). Now write down the expected outcomes and their value in revenue and pipeline terms. Make sure you are able to see an ROI of more than 1X at least.

The idea is to think long term and think big.

5. Start with your comfort zone

Starting something new is difficult. If you haven't done active marketing yet, it might feel overwhelming. This is why it is important to start with what you are already comfortable with.

Are you more into creating text content? Or do you prefer to show videos of your products? Is social media your thing? What about creating talking head videos on educational topics?

Whatever it is, start with a form of marketing that you find easier compared to others. Develop a habit of using that channel or content type consistently.

6. Scale and grow

Once you get into the groove of the 'comfortable channels', you need to expand your marketing and try out new channels. That's how you set yourself up for growth.

Final words

Though we discussed a few common points for niche B2B businesses, as I always say, not two businesses are the same. A manufacturing business is different from a renewable energy firm. A robotics-as-a-service company is not the same as a carbon credit business. You need to tweak the approaches we discussed for your business.

At my agency Skalegrow, no two client proposals look the same. No two marketing plans are the same. That's because what works for one company doesn't work for the other. So we make sure to customize our approach to the solutions and industry of the customer.

Need help in taking your marketing to the next level? Check out Skalegrow or write to us at [email protected].