Targeting Niche Audiences with Content

Writing content is a great opportunity for a brand to target new audiences by working across multiple channels to leverage a brand’s message into an actionable strategy that can meet the needs of thousands of consumers. Whether it’s through the curation of social content, updating product descriptions, or writing long format blog posts that answer customer questions or compares product models, creating content is extremely helpful to online shoppers.

Additionally, content can organically boost rankings, shape your brand to be a resource and thought leader in the industry, and naturally ease visitors into the buying process. So how does it work? Well, justifying the case for writing content is actually pretty simple.

Now more than ever, consumers want more. More information about the products and services you offer. More details about your brand’s story. And most importantly, more interaction between them, the consumers, and you, the brand. Luckily, content provides these customers with what they need to continue through the buying process during their experience and leave them coming back for more. Let’s walk through a fictional customer journey to understand the necessity of content.

Let’s say you want to buy a new comforter for your bed. You know what your bed size is and you know what color the comforter has to be for it to match your sheets (blue, but not too blue), but you don’t know what material you want the comforter to be, so you’d like to have more information before you buy.

This need for information is because when a customer shops online, they aren’t gathering all the sensory information they usually take into account when they’re buying in store, like feeling the comforter in their hands to determine how soft the material is. So, as a brand, you can utilize content to fill that consumer need for additional information during the buying journey, while adding value to the overall shopping experience and becoming a resource for consumers to use.

But we’ll discuss that later. So, you’re online shopping for a new comforter, and you’ve found yourself torn between two comforters, a blue comforter from Brand A and a blue comforter from Brand B. The comforters are the same pattern and price, and we all know that material texture varies by brand, so you can’t make up your mind between the two comforters.

Brand A has one or two reviews that are from four years and three months ago saying, “I like this comforter,” and “This was a good purchase.” But on the product page on Brand B’s website, they have a small romance copy description about the product and a hyperlink to an updated blog post. This blog post is dedicated to exploring the intricacies of each comforter material type they use with an easy-to-read chart showing the fabric texture differences between Flannel, Cotton, Egyptian Cotton, Polyester, and Silk. On this Brand B page, there’s also references to their social media accounts, so you explore their Instagram.

Brand B has a unique aesthetic on their page, with dozens of interesting photos with comforter cleaning recommendations, room decorating tips and great interaction where consumers ask questions about Brand B products and get helpful answers. #dreambrand, am I right?

So you purchase the blue comforter from Brand B because they provided valuable information about the product you were looking at and seemed to value their customers by meeting their needs.
As can be seen, Brand B was going above and beyond by leveraging content marketing techniques to target niche audiences of consumers by creating media and social content that drove brand awareness through social media and providing valuable content on their website that answered consumer questions during the buying journey. Cool, yeah?

Like I mentioned earlier, consumers are searching for information that provides valuable answers to their questions that are formatted correctly, up to date and easy to understand. This content makes for an easy marketing opportunity that most brands don’t take advantage of but can allow the brand to be a resource and thought-leader in their industry. Consult the graph below to learn more.

Buyer’s Journey

1. Awareness

2. Consideration

3. Decision

Buyer’s Online Research

A potential buyer is seeking an answer to a problem or desire and want information that validates the problem they have through informative, non-promotional content.

Buyer is actively looking for a solution to a well-defined problem.

Finding testimonials and data that help inform and support their decision.

Your Company’s Response

Understand the problems that consumers are wanting answers to and that your products / services can solve. Provide content that answers a consumer’s question before they even ask.

Position your company as a thought leader and answer any questions your consumers may have about the industry or product/services you offer.

Make a plan of action to inform and support the consumer during every step of the process. Use content to drive the sale by informing the consumer.

Types of Content to Offer

Educational Blogs

Expert Advice

Industry Research

Timely Reports

Comparison Sheets

Rich Product Pages / Descriptions

Expert Guides

Customer Testimonials

Comparison Sheets

Product Demos

By combining cross-channel strategies like keyword research from search engine optimization and social listening tools from social marketing, your brand will have a better understanding of the needs of your consumer and what type of format they’d like answers and interaction in. Once you have that information, your brand can better target online niches by creating content that speaks the language of your consumer and can be easily accessible online.

Once you understand what your target audience is searching for and where they are hanging out online, you’re well on your way to creating content that can target those niche audiences, yield a high ROI and add value and authority to your brand.