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Anyone who wants to have any chance of running a successful business needs to realise just how incredibly important it is to be able to market effectively.
It would be nice to think that quality had the final say, and that you could stand head and shoulders above your competition, and make your fortune, by being as diligent as possible, and providing the best possible service. Realistically, though, it’s not always the case that the highest quality offering rises to the top.
Instead, the products or services that command the highest degree of the market share, are always going to be those that not only meet a certain standard of quality, but that are also marketed highly effectively, and rigorously.
There’s a lot that goes into an effective and compelling marketing campaign. You need to be able to establish a sense of rapport with your customer, and to gain the trust. And you need to be able to sell to their sense of self-interest, and desire to solve problems in their own life.
Ultimately, one of the most important factors in being able to market effectively, is to know your niche, inside and out. Here are a few reasons why.
- Different audiences will have different needs that have to be addressed
It’s a truism in the world of marketing, that you don’t try to sell features, you try to sell benefits, and solutions to problems.
Your audience isn’t stupid. If you list off the features of a particular product, in a highly scientific and impersonal way, they’ll be able to intellectually identify some of the potential benefits of those features. But, if you actually want to make an emotional impact on him, and motivate them to make a purchase, you need to take a far more evocative approach, from the get go.
When someone is in the market for a particular good or service, they will always have some problem in mind that they want to address, through the purchase. Importantly, the specific needs that your audience will have, will vary dramatically, based on the niche you operate within.
If you run a fitness business, for example, your audience is going to be entirely concerned with questions such as becoming beach ready for the summer, or getting six pack abs to impress the ladies. They won’t be worrying about their pension – at least, not in relation to what it is you are offering.
You need to hit the nail on the head when trying to establish rapport with your audience. You need to identify and address the issues they may feel they are facing, clearly and concisely. And, unless you understand your niche very well, you won’t be able to do this.
What does the average person who shops within your industry want? What is it they are looking for? And how can you give them what they want, more comprehensively than your competition can?
2. Different fields will have different over-played techniques that need to be circumvented
One of the big problems with marketing, in general, is that society as a whole is absolutely saturated in marketing campaigns of various sorts – and so, the general public tends to be somewhat jaded to marketing campaigns that are done “by the numbers.”
In order to really sell effectively, you need to be original and creative enough to actually get people’s attention, and not just cause them to roll their eyes when they see “yet another” example of the same tired old campaign being rolled out.
A key point to consider here, is that different fields will have different over-played marketing techniques that need to be circumvented, in order to be sufficiently original and attention-grabbing.
A company such as elitelawyermanagement.com, for example, will focus entirely on helping law firms to market in innovative ways. But, what’s “innovative” in one industry, may be rote in another.
3. Having the right “style” is essential for gaining customer attention and trust
Different industries and niches have different accepted standards of behaviour, presentation, and different qualifiers of professionalism and trustworthiness.
If, for example, you are running a trendy tech company, targeting millennials, you probably wouldn’t make a great impression if you took a completely straight-laced approach to your marketing efforts, insisted that everyone in your company wore a suit with a tie to work every day, and had a regulation haircut policy.
By the same token, if you are running a financial firm, you would likely horrify many of your prospective clients if you turned up for work each day in a tracksuit and sandals, and filled your marketing pitches with a bunch of pop cultural references.
Understanding your niche is important for understanding the right “style” that should be employed to gain your customer’s attention and trust.
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