4 ways to appeal to niche audiences online

If you want to get more targeted with your marketing then focusing on a niche audience is a good place to start. Instead of trying to connect with a broad range of people who might be interested in your brand, you can target one specific niche of your target audience who would really benefit from your product or service. 

You might be targeting a smaller group of people, but niche audiences are likely to be more engaged and responsive if your business is highly relevant to them. But you still need to find ways to reach and connect with your niche audience. This article outlines four ways you can appeal to niche audiences online. 

Research your niche

The first thing you need to do when you’re trying to appeal to a niche audience online is to understand exactly who they are. You need to do in-depth research into the niche that you’re targeting so that you can create campaigns, communications, and content that’s going to attract them and engage with them. 

This research will help you to know who your niche audience is by showing you: 

• What online platforms, websites, and social media networks do they use
• What interests and concerns do they have 
• The type of topics and content that they engage with 
• How they research and what influences their purchasing decisions

While you can do a lot of secondary research online to get an idea of who your niche is, it’s a good idea to actually talk to some people as well. 

If you’ve got customers or leads in that niche, reach out and ask them some questions. It’s easy to assume you know what people are interested in, and you can often let these assumptions influence your research — but talking directly to the people in your niche will help you to get a complete picture of what’s relevant and engaging to them.

You can also look at any competitors that are targeting the same or similar niches to get an idea of what they’re doing. This could give you some ideas about what kind of marketing connects with your niche, and ways in which you can do it better. 

Use relevant hashtags on social media  

Social media is one of the best ways to communicate with your niche audience and increase awareness of your brand or business. You need to come up with a strategy for your social media channels that’s focused on sharing relevant content, but also reaching out to and engaging with the niche audience you want to appeal to. 

Find out what accounts and people your niche audience is already following on social media so that you can understand the kind of posts that they’re interested in. And research relevant hashtags that your audience might follow but also relate to your brand. 

Using the right hashtags on social media is also a great way to reach out to new people and get your posts in front of a bigger audience. But you need to research relevant hashtags that your audience is already following, that also relate to your brand. There’s no point in using popular hashtags that already have millions of posts — if it’s not relevant to your niche audience they won’t see it, and your post will be buried by thousands of others too quickly. 

Once you’ve found a popular hashtag for your niche, then use other related ones as well to increase your reach. A good example of this is EasyLunchBoxes, whose general audience would be anyone looking for plastic containers for food, but they are trying to specifically target parents making packed lunches for kids. So they use hashtags related to family meals, healthy snacks, and lunch ideas. 

Social media can give you access to a huge audience, but you need to know how to target the specific niche for your brand and appeal to them. 

Alongside your scheduled posts, you should also allow time for some engagements and interactions with your audience on social. If you make an effort to respond to comments, questions, and messages, you’ll stand out as a brand that genuinely values its audience. This is another key part of appealing to niche audiences online — you want to build up a connection and trust with them. 

Create valuable blog content 

Once you know the kind of topics and issues that your niche audience cares about and engages with, this gives you the opportunity to create some highly relevant blog content.

Write blog posts that provide useful information and answer the questions your niche audience is going to be searching for online. Make sure that they’re optimized for relevant keywords and phrases that they use, and you’ll start to rank in relevant search engine results. If your content is valuable and engaging then it’s going to appeal to your niche audience. 

A great example of a business using blog content to target its niche audience is Vet Comp and Pen. Their general audience is veterans, but the niche they want to appeal to is veterans who qualify for disability benefits. The Vet Comp and Pen blog posts are full of helpful content that provides information and answers that veterans might have about accessing benefits and disability claims. All of this is highly relevant to their audience and going to help them appeal to and connect with visitors to their blog. 

You can also promote your content across social media and via email. It’s a good way to show your target audience that you know the niche inside out — you’re an expert on that topic or industry, which is a key way to connect with them. 

Work with niche micro-influencers 

Another way you can appeal to your niche audience on social media is by working with micro-influencers. Influencer marketing is a highly effective way of connecting with a target audience, increasing awareness, and driving traffic to your site. But when you’re trying to reach a more specific audience, you can find micro-influencers with a smaller following that will be far more relevant to the niche you’re targeting.

Micro-influencers often have a lot more engagement with their audience. It’s not just a good way to reach your nice audience, but it can help you to build trust with them. If an influencer that they follow recommends your brand then it’s a good indicator that you’re a trustworthy business that they would be interested in. 

Working with micro-influencers is an effective way to build up your brand and appeal to your niche audience. 

Targeting a specific niche audience is a great way to differentiate your business and connect with a group of people that are more likely to engage with you and convert you into loyal customers. These four tips will help you to understand your niche and effectively connect with them online.