What is Niche Marketing? How to develop a B2B niche marketing Strategy?
Rahul Sudeep
Director Marketing at AppsTek Corp & ImageVision.ai | IIM-K Alumni | AI Marketing Evangelist
Keeping the attention of a person when you are talking one-on-one is easy. Keeping the attention of 4 people when you are talking to them at the same time is difficult but possible. Now, try keeping the attention of all the people in the audience when you are giving a speech in the audience. There will, inevitably, be those who won’t hear a word you said!?The reality of marketing isn’t too far from this.
What Is Niche Marketing?
Imagine if you filter people who would be interested in your speech and only deliver it to them. The response is going to be so much better!?That’s niche marketing.
Niche marketing is finding a specific market for a product or service. We can contrast it with general marketing, which is trying to appeal to as many people as possible.?
Niche marketing is about focus, while general marketing is about diffusion. Niche marketing can be useful for businesses that want to target a particular group of people.?
For example, a business that sells pet supplies could focus on marketing to vegetarian pet owners, rather than trying to appeal to everyone. They can further niche down to target a specific type of pet owners, such as dog owners or cat owners.
Niche marketing can be an effective way to reach your target market because you can focus your resources on a specific group of people. This allows you to create targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to be successful.
Benefits of Niche Marketing
There are several benefits of niche marketing:
Getting through to Sophisticated B2B Audience
Getting through to a B2B audience is harder than a B2C audience because they are more market aware and have higher expectations.?They aren’t a fan of ads and generalized marketing campaigns. So, targeted ads and sales calls won't cut it.
However, niche marketing can be a great way to get through to a sophisticated B2B audience. This is because you can target your marketing to a specific group of people who are more likely to be interested in what you offer.
For example, if you are selling software that helps businesses manage their finances, you can target your marketing to businesses that are in the financial services industry. This will help you get through to your target audience more easily.
85% of buyers prefer to do their own research before talking to a salesperson. This means that most of the buyer's journey is over before they come into contact with the brand.?
So, it is important to have a strong niche marketing strategy in place to reach buyers at each stage of their journey.
How to Develop a B2B Niche Marketing Strategy
Step 1: Know Your Industry and Competitors
The first step to developing a niche marketing strategy is to know your industry and your competition. This will help you identify the areas where you can niche down.
For example, if you are in the financial software industry, you need to dig around and see what your competitors are doing. Do they have a blanket product for the entire market? Is there any company that’s providing a solution to a niche market? If so, how are they doing it??
Step 2: Analyze the Audience
The next step is to analyze the audience that you want to target. This will help you understand their needs and what they are looking for.
You need to ask questions like :
Step 3: Choose a Niche Audience
Once you have analyzed the audience, you need to choose a niche audience to target. This can be done by segmenting the audience into smaller groups.
For example, you could target just small businesses or startups (business size). Or you could narrow down a market based on a belief (for example, eco-friendly).?
Make sure that the niche market/audience you're choosing is profitable, i.e. there is a demand for your product/service. And that the pricing aligns with the buying power of the target market.
After finalizing the niche market, create your ideal customer profile and buyer personas. This will help you understand your target market better and create targeted marketing campaigns.
Step 4: Go Where They Are
Time to dig deeper into your audience's needs, wants, and emotions. Research the platforms they use, look at their behavior online, and understand their interests.
If you want to reach businesses in the financial services industry, you could go to industry-specific forums and online groups. This would be a good way to reach your target audience.
Another way to reach your target audience is to go to networking events like conferences and conventions. This is a great way to meet potential customers and build relationships.
You can also go on social media and look at the conversation around your industry. This will help you understand what people are talking about and what they want.
Step 5: Align Your Brand and Messaging to Their Needs
Once you know enough about your audience, you need to align your brand and messaging to their needs.
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This means creating marketing campaigns that are targeted to the specific needs of your audience. Your message should resonate with them and address their specific pain points.
Step 6: Create Content Marketing Strategy
Now that you have aligned your brand and messaging to the needs of your audience, you need to create a content marketing strategy.
This will help you create content that applies to your audience and will help you reach them.
Your content marketing strategy should include:
A good content marketing strategy will help you connect with your audience and build relationships.
Don't forget to add thought-leadership into the mix. This is a great way to show your audience that you are an expert in your field.
Partnerships are also a great way to reach your audience. Find partners that share your audience and work with them to create content relevant to their needs.
Step 7: Implement Your Content Marketing Strategy
Now that you have a content marketing strategy, it's time to implement it.
This means creating content, publishing it on the channels you have chosen, and promoting it to your audience.
When you're creating content, make sure that it is high quality and relevant to your audience.
Your content should be well-written, accurate, and informative.
It should also be engaging and interesting.
Once you've created your content, it's time to publish it on the channels you have chosen.
This could include your website, blog, social media, and email.
Make sure that you promote your content to your audience.
You can do this by sharing it on social media, emailing it to your list, and promoting it on your website.
Step 8: Engage With the Audience
Time to engage with the audience.
Make sure that you respond to comments and questions.
Be sure to thank people for sharing your content.
And most importantly, continue to create high-quality content relevant to your audience.
When you start a conversation with your audience, it also gives you the chance to leverage user-generated content.
This is a great way to get people talking about your brand.
Step 9: Evaluate and Adjust Your Strategy
As you continue to create and publish content, it's important to evaluate your strategy.
See what's working, and what's not.
Make adjustments to your strategy as needed.
Check the metrics regularly to see if you are achieving your goals and getting positive reactions from your target audience.?
Step 10: Customer Retention
The last step in developing a B2B niche marketing strategy is customer retention.
Repeat customers are key to succeeding in niche marketing. As you already have a small audience, you need to make them come back to keep your business rolling.
There are a few things you can do to keep your customers:
Creating a niche marketing strategy can be a great way to reach your target audience. By aligning your brand and messaging to their needs, you can build a strong connection with your niche audience.
And by using the right channels, you can reach them where they are. If you follow these steps, you'll be well on your way to creating a successful niche marketing strategy.
Global Product Manager at Elfie
1 年Thanks so much for sharing Rahul
B2B Marketing Leader| Driving Brand Growth, Innovation, and Visibility in Full-Cycle Software Solutions| Passionate about Transforming Industries through Strategic Marketing & Technology Innovation| Motivator| L.I.O.N
2 年Awesome article Rahul!