A business niche is a specialised or focused area of a broader market that your brand serves specifically. Finding a niche in the market differentiates your business from the competition and allows you to excel in your sector.
However, it’s more important to have control of your business by standing out as the niche leader than to worry about eliminating or out-competing your competitors. Simply, it’s easier to dominate your niche than compete in it.
So, here are five ways you can dominate your niche in 2023:
Use Hyper-Local SEO
Hyper-local search engine optimisation (SEO) is when a business uses keywords and search terms to optimise its online presence to attract local customers in a specific geographic area such as a town or street. This increases local traffic and footfall.
Businesses should use hyper-local SEO to simplify the search journey for consumers and receive a high Google ranking, making them stand out from competitors.
When someone searches for “restaurants in …” or “restaurants near me”, Google rewards sites that implement hyper-local SEO by highlighting them on Google Maps, including them in the box-out listings, and ranking them well.
Below is an example of restaurants in Selby ranking well with hyper-local SEO.
Be Results Driven
It’s not wise to leave anything up to chance, so base your marketing strategy on your desired results. Most businesses are driven by their results, but if you want to dominate your niche, focus on achieving customer driven-results.
By aligning your company decisions with the needs of your target audience, your profits will speak for itself. If a marketing campaign didn’t resonate with your target market, then ask yourself these questions:
- What social media channels do your customers enjoy engaging with you on?
- What products or services could make your customers’ lives easier?
- What notification or email offers drive the most traffic to your app or website?
- What returns and complaints did you receive from customers?
Mat Smith, the founder of Mat Smith Consulting, said: “Be addicted and obsessed with achieving results. Like a madman possessed, leave nothing to chance. Every word, image and detail must be tested with the precision of a heat seeking missile locked on to its target.”
Be Visible, Everywhere
You must ensure that if a consumer searches for you or your niche, you appear on pages one, two or three of Google. If your business is hidden on the internet, then you will never dominate your niche, as your competitors will be easier to find.
Below is an example of businesses that are dominating the niche market for personalised pet supplies, not including those who have paid to be sponsored on Google.
Not only do you have to be visible on the search engine, but you have to be visible everywhere else, especially on social media (if your target audience uses it). You should post content every hour, not just twice a day, and pay attention to all channels, not just Facebook.
Better still, why not increase your visibility on competitor sites too? Try creating partnerships between you and competing brands in the form of guest posts and link placements.A great way to do this is to employ a guest blogging agency to create a content campaign for you.
You have to be relentless in raising brand awareness, although some people may not like it, and it can result in a loss of followers or subscribers but not any that matter!
Make Competition A Good Thing
Competition within your niche and the industry can be good because it confirms that you’re in a viable market and that people are interested in the products or services you and your competitors offer.
Understanding and analysing your competition is also a great way to learn how to improve your brand and dominate your niche.
Here are some things you should know about your competition:
- What they’re good at. If you haven’t already, you should adopt these positives as they work well for customers within your niche.
- What they’re not good at. Can you do these things better or avoid making the same mistakes?
- What gaps are there in the products or services they offer. If your competitor is another online clothes retailer that doesn’t sell petite or plus-size clothing, you should sell it to appeal to a broader audience and impress the market they have missed.
- What customers like or don’t like about them. You can check out customer reviews and social media comments from their customers, which could also be your target audience.
- Where they rank on Google. If they rank above you on Google, then they have implemented better SEO practices. This means you should take some time to go through your keywords, links, titles and images.
Remember, this also means that your competitors will watch your every move and analyse your strategies.
Segment Your Market
Market segmentation is essential in a content marketing campaign, as one size never fits all.
You must divide your audience into segments and create highly targeted content and experiences for each segment. This maximises the chances of your business getting more engagement than others in your niche.
Becky Gilor, Head of Sales at Ment.io, said: “Split your target market into segments and fine tune your marketing efforts. Make sure to serve each individual audience with verbiage they can relate to.”
Here are four common types of market segmentation:
- Demographic segmentation is dividing your customers into groups based on their demographic information. This is the most popular because it’s an easy and reliable way to divide customers.
- Geographic segmentation divides your customers into groups based on where they are and what it is like there.
- Psychographic segmentation divides your customers into groups based on personality traits that can affect their shopping habits and decisions.
- Behavioural segmentation is dividing your customers into groups based on their behaviour online.
(Image Source: Oberlo)
Conclusion
You can’t please and benefit everyone, but you can impress and lead the way for a targeted group of people by perfecting your digital marketing efforts towards your niche.
Give your customers quality content for free, keep an eye on customer-driven results so you can make adjustments, use hyper-local SEO, understand audience segmentation, research your competitors, be visible everywhere, and you will ultimately dominate your niche.
