While we hear about the power of social media as marketing tools, especially for those trying to bootstrap their businesses, but just how effective is it? New research from Utpal Dholakia and Emily Durham of Rice University takes a look at this question. The study is featured in the March issue of the Harvard Business Review.
Ok, you have experienced some success. Now it’s time for you to use that success to catapult your current attention from clients, prospects, and customers into even more success.
I’m going to give you an insider tip that, once you understand and implement it, will create endless leads for you and your business.
This one tip is to concentrate your efforts on niche branding.
Today, niche branding plays a large role in the success of almost any small or large business, both offline or online. A brand is one of the most important (yet intangible) assets that any company can possess. Without a brand, buyers and audiences will usually ignore your business and your offer in favor of better-known brands, which they believe will deliver proven, reliable results.
Niche branding, also called narrow branding, is connecting with your audience (customers and prospects) in a targeted way that focuses on their needs and circumstances, not on you or your product. At first, this may seem counter-intuitive, but don’t worry. It does not veer away from brand identity. Rather, it embraces the positive qualities of the brand, sharing them in more detail with select customers.
People in subgroups behave in similar ways. In general, when we don’t know where to go, we go where everyone else goes. As global markets tighten, niche markets offer unlimited ability to dominate by taking advantage of this behavior.
It is important to keep in mind that, while branding is about you–it’s really NOT about you. It’s about your niche and the people in it. It’s about the way your market, prospects, and customers view and perceive you.
You have the ability to define, influence, and have some control over this perception, and that starts by understanding today’s consumers.
Today’s consumers are savvier, more informed, and better connected than ever before. They share information, express their opinions, and influence one another’s decisions in ways that traditional mass media can’t comprehend or market to effectively.
To succeed, brands must be adaptable and constructed around the lives of consumers. They can’t present themselves in a single, unswerving way anymore. They need to focus on individual target audiences, whose needs and desires drive the promises, the individual elements, and even the visual language behind the brand.
Niche branding understands this. It starts with conventional segmentation of the market, breaking down consumers by groups that share common lifestyles and interests. Then, it completely re-imagines every aspect of the brand—the brand experience, product mix, usability, distribution, content, and media—as though the entire brand was originally conceived and built for each consumer segment.
Before launching headlong into this, you should be aware, niche brand building will take a concerted effort from your company. You must focus your mind on the needs and wants of your different markets, NOT necessarily on the needs of you or your company.
Frame your Brand – While planning your niche brand, you must keep in mind some important things about your business. These are:
To find the answers to these questions, start by putting yourself in their shoes for a while and thinking just like your average prospect, client, or customer.
Once in this mindset, ask yourself what type of service or product you would like to have available to you that would relieve that burden or solve one problem that you would face as your customer. Does your product or service fill this need?
By doing this, you will quickly understand what matters most to your target audience and can adjust your message, offer, and brand accordingly.
Once you have answered the above questions, and determined that your service or product is what your target niche market wants, it’s time to take action.
Never forget the importance of building a personal relationship with your customers. By doing this your target market will be more open to you about their wants and needs, which can be a tremendous help for you in building your niche brand.
The main purpose of niche brand building is creating a lasting impression on your target market. Building a brand while focusing on your niche does take some time. However, given effort and focus, it will develop you as a name in your niche. Soon, those in your target niche will recognize you and your company as an respected authority.
This is when you will start to see the residual effects from all your effort. Those in your target niche will begin directing all of their contacts in your direction, and you and your company will begin to garner attention without even trying.
How to Build Authority for your Domain
Having an authoritative website helps you create more leads, prospects, and sales. Not only will this help you when someone searches for your website but it allows you to create a launching pad for other marketing efforts. There are some things to keep in mind when creating authority around what you do. Today we talk a little about this and cover things such as…
Focus on Local Content (image by Editor B)
One of the best ways to get high search engine rankings is to create hyper local focused content.
If you aren’t doing this I would suggest that you change your thinking on content. The goal here is to be so focused on local relevant information so that the search engines see you as the ultimate authority in this area.
This takes advantage of what is called the long tail of search results. This allows you to get search engine rankings where there is less competition and usually more targeted traffic.
In this post I will share with you why and how you should create and promote this type of content. I’ve also created a video presentation below.
The ability to niche brand anything has never been easier than as it is today. I often look back a few years and realize how hard it was to find people who liked certain things.
That really is the concept of niche branding; building a relationship with a subset of people who love what you do, sell, or provide.
A good example of this is to look at the growth of cable TV channels. A few years ago there wasn’t the Golf channel, NFL, or even a whole channel dedicated to gardening.
As the world moves on and technology (especially the delivery of content) becomes cheaper I expect to see niche programing and niche branding to intensify.
Think and Leave Your Opinion (Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis)
One way to differentiate yourself right now is to have a opinion. But go deeper and have an opinion about your industry, your niche, or what you do. But I know you’re saying… I already have one of those (or a few). Awesome!
The next step is make sure those opinions are valid and you can actually back them up. Having an opinion is simply not enough. The ability to persuade and sway others to your side is where the true power resides.
Read further or watch video below.
I find that repetition is the best way for me to learn and apply concepts and strategies. I like to go back really pick apart things I’ve found helpful.
It seems that each and every time I watch a video on Ted.com that I’ve seen before I get some new insight.
The talk below is a great classic talk by Seth Godin on standing out. If you haven’t watched this before it is a great video that gives some good examples of standing out in the sea of competitors.
In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones.
Are you wondering what you or your business should do to succeed online?
I’m going to go real basic here… it starts with a strong foundation.
It starts with a centralized website that is designed and developed to convert.
Do you want to launch your personal brand into the stratosphere?
There is one thing you can do to catapult your brand building to the next level.
This one essential key is to define and illuminate your personal brand touchstone.
Your touchstone should evoke images that make a direct contact with your audience. A touchstone is what you are known for, the core of your genuineness or value.
Are You Spending a Day With Your Prospect?
I know what you’re saying… they are a prospect they don’t know me yet.
Like Einstein used to do let’s go on a thought experiment.
First on Einstein’s thought experiments… many of his greatest breakthroughs came from him piecing things together through what are called thought experiments. Or what you and I refer to as day dreaming– just that he was Einstein and we are not, so he does thought experiments.
Let’s day dream and spend a day with our prospect.
