Agency: “Who is your target audience?”

Client: “Well, we really can work with anyone.”

This is not an uncommon conversation exchange I have with clients at the beginning of an engagement. We are looking to zero in on their audience, which goes counter to the client’s approach to cast a wider net. One of the biggest challenges of well established companies is to identify a niche.

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 Why is it important for product and service firms, especially in the B2B space define their niche? It’s because knowing your niche, and actually marketing to that niche within a specific segment of your industry can be extremely lucrative. Anyone can sell shoes, but a store that specializes in shoes specifically designed to ease arthritic customers’ pain is a store that will be cherished by everyone within that niche.

However, knowing your niche and actually marketing to that niche are two separate things. Here are a few ways that you can incorporate that niche into your inbound efforts, and reach your ideal target:

Engage Your Audience by Identifying with Their Pain

Even when businesses do business with each other, people are at the core of each transaction. Don’t get lost in marketing jargons and or focus on inbound/outbound techniques. Think about messages that directly hit upon prospective clients’ needs and pain point — What are the problems you help solve? Why would prospects need you? Communicate that directly across all digital platforms and keep the message simple.

By focusing on your specific area of expertise, you help to separate your company from the competition. In a world where everyone is trying to use the same marketing tactics to get ahead, the consistent promotion of your specialty will allow you to stand out among the marketing clutter. Inbound marketers might use off-beat content here or there to generate a buzz. But being able to relate to your audience and the struggles and identify with that particular experience not only helps get the point across but also could generate long-term brand loyalty.

Gain Trust by Being Transparent

In the wonderful world of digital marketing, it is possible to reach audiences near and far by showcasing your capabilities online. Make no mistake, prospects are researching around the topics they care about, subscribing to helpful resources and actively listening to their peers that have a strong point of view and can make recommendations.

Companies don’t create dozens, if not hundreds, of pieces of content surrounding one small segment of an industry unless they really care about that topic. The kind of trust that builds lifelong customer loyalty is to be transparent of what you know. To some extent, share your learnings  — whether is limitations of certain solution sets, solutions that you’ve tried, and different tactics and the type of results received by applying them.

The cynical members of the marketing audience believe that a company will say or do anything in order to get the attention of their desired audience. While there’s at least a little truth in that sentiment, by backing off a “selling” pitch to presenting the context around your expertise, you’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of serious loyalty and a potentially endless stream of referrals for open ended conversations, which may or may not lead to sale but would set you apart in a niche market.

Use SEO to Establish a Presence in Your Niche

What’s even better than creating content about the topics that are dear to the heart of your business? Establishing an online presence in an area most marketers aren’t even considering.

Every time you post content to your site or to social media, you’re building your stature as a thought leader online. You can take this even further by selecting specific keywords you’d like to target as you build your mass of content. Returning to the example of arthritis-friendly shoe sales, you could brand your content around the keyword “women’s shoes for arthritis” and own that niche in short order. It’s a much better idea than simply talking about shoes with no real end goal. This approach of finding your niche works in the B2C and the B2B world because you’re talking to humans who have specific needs and wants that you can help them with.

Some marketers are afraid to touch SEO because the algorithms beneath the search engine rankings change so frequently. However, good content will always rise to the top of the list. Creating content that promotes your niche while making your company even more SEO-friendly can only help to boost your exposure, both locally and on a larger scale.

Become an Authority to Your Audience

One of the best aspects of using inbound marketing to discuss your niche is that you have the ultimate platform for establishing credibility. The more you talk about your industry, the more you demonstrate your knowledge in this area. And there’s nothing that moves customers quite like knowing that they’re working with an expert in the field.

This is a trick that works in any industry, but it’s especially valuable when it comes to discussing niches. Once again, the lack of voices means that it’s a much shorter path to the top. Instead of being one of many knowledgeable personalities in a segment of the marketplace, your niche gives you something you can own all for yourself.

Being the resident expert in your niche has more rewards than simply being the go-to when someone wants to know about your area of expertise. It means constantly giving your audience a new reason to care about your niche. With every piece of content you create, you put a new spin on the topics that matter most to your audience. This convinces those recipients to care even more about your specialty area, which makes them that much more loyal to your company. This also helps your audience feel heard and cared about, which not only keeps them satisfied, but it will also drive them to refer you to others.

Generate Interest by Driving a Specific Action

Developing content is the first thing any business tackles when learning how to create an effective inbound marketing campaign. And while it’s great to have top-notch content, it’s useless without a way to funnel potential customers towards that content — and to utilize that content to convince people to become paying customers.

Your content should always have a purpose. In other words, content for content’s sake is a waste of everyone’s time. The more broad your topic is, the more likely it is that you’ll produce content that doesn’t help your audience in any real and meaningful way. Remember, the whole point of inbound marketing is that it gives you the chance to educate, inform or inspire people. By choosing bland topics within a broad category, you’re merely ensuring that nobody will have any interest in what you have to say. Instead of going with generic material, your best bet is to create something special and base your entire inbound campaign around a specific theme that addresses the various topics within that theme.

Find Your Niche to Stand Out in the Marketing Crowd

While there’s nothing wrong with doing business in a broad industry, the level of competition makes it that much harder to stand out. Focusing on a niche gives you the ultimate ability to stand out from the pack while simultaneously promoting a cause you’re passionate about. Incorporating your niche into your advertising is a fantastic example of how to create an effective inbound marketing campaign and make it work for your audience. It allows you to cement your status as an authority, both in the eyes of your customers and the search engines. Most importantly, the credibility you generate while passionately educating the world about your niche will endear you to others, which will help you gain the trust you need to succeed in the B2B world.