Content is considered king in the marketing world because of its effectiveness and its ability to drive engagement in audiences.
Unlike promotions, custom offers and other pitches, content delivers value to consumers by educating, informing and entertaining them without asking anything in return.
Companies leverage content marketing to establish a meaningful relationship with their target audience so that their other messages will be well received.
However, reaching an audience that’s hard to reach, to begin with, can be a challenge for content marketers.
These audiences don’t respond well to general content that’s relevant to a broad audience.
What’s more, these audiences have specific needs and specific interests.
Today, the success of content marketing and the content itself is measured in engagement rates, exposure, social media responses and other factors.
In other words, the more people interact with it the better the content’s performance is.
That’s why the majority of companies don’t even bother to satisfy the needs of smaller niche audiences with their content.
But, if your business relies on such small audiences, then appealing to a broad audience won’t do you much good.
With that in mind, here are a few content marketing strategies for hard to reach, niche audiences.
Research the niche
Appealing to an audience that’s hard to reach requires extensive research.
You must identify who they are, what they do and what they’re interested in, for starters.
You should also take the time to research their demographics, as well as their needs, preferences, expectations and demands.
As mentioned before, niche audiences have specific needs and interests, which means you won’t be able to reach them unless you know what they want.
The main issue niche consumers oftentimes face is that no one provides them with an alternative tailored to their needs.
Instead, they have to make do with what’s available on the market.
However, if you do in fact manage to identify their pain points and provide them with a solution, you can capture the attention of an entire consumer base, no matter how small it may be.
That being said, in order to develop content for such audiences, you must first take the time to research them and get to know them better.
Publish content on social media
Social media platforms are an ideal channel for content marketing. Even the hard to reach audience is present on social media.
However, you must first identify which platforms they are commonly present at and you must also determine the right approach.
Publishing content on social media platforms designed for your niche audience will quickly show you how effective your efforts truly are.
However, you’ll have to rely on various metrics and analytics to get a sense of your content’s performance.
Niche consumers will react to content in a positive, negative or neutral sentiment based on the impact your content has on them.
In other words, you can easily test your content’s ability to reach niche consumers simply by monitoring their response.
However, this strategy can be a double-edged sword because if you irritate niche consumers with your content, they won’t engage with anything you publish in the future.
Therefore, only publish when you’ve backed your decisions with information obtained from research.
Specify your content
If you wish to reach niche consumers with your content, you must develop and design content specifically for them.
You must also resist the urge to develop content that will appeal to the general audience or risk driving niche consumers away.
Your content must be highly relevant to niche consumers and it must appeal to their needs.
For example, insurance companies have a particularly hard to reach audience.
Everyone knows that insurance is important and beneficial, but very few people will actually opt for a policy.
Therefore, design your content to explain the importance of your products or services and focus on explaining why consumers need it.
As an example, if you want to encourage consumers to opt for term insurance in Singapore, for instance, you’ll have to develop content that explains the benefits and the importance of such policies to your Singapore audience.
Inform and educate them as to why they might need it, as well as how it can solve their problems and encourage them to take action.
The more specific your content is, the more willing your niche audience will be to convert.
Leverage influencers
Sometimes, no matter what you do, your hard to reach audience simply doesn’t engage with your content as much as you’d like them to.
Fortunately, there’s always a way to overcome a difficult situation if you’re willing to make an effort, that is.
In this particular case, leveraging the help from an influencer might be the solution to your problem.
The main reason consumers are more trustworthy towards influencers than towards companies is that influencers are just regular people who review various things on behalf of others.
If an influencer endorses your content, there are good chances that their audience will engage with it as well.
However, when attempting to get an influencer’s support for your content designed for niche audiences, you won’t have to look for the most popular influencers there are.
As a matter of fact, influencers with less than 10,000 followers, also known as nano influencers, might be more suited for your content’s needs.
Adjust your content
It’s no secret that content is influenced by consumers who are in fact influenced by current market trends.
Marketers, therefore, strive towards adjusting content to suit current market needs.
As an example, articles are overshadowed by video content, which is now starting to be overshadowed by story-based content.
Adjusting the content’s format is a common practice in the marketing world.
However, when it comes to hard to reach audiences, they might not be big on current trends.
That’s why you should determine which type of content, as well as which format they prefer before you go in guns blazing with trendy and flashy content.
If your audience prefers articles, then write articles. If they prefer podcasts, then create a podcast.
In other words, don’t assume that if something is popular with the general audience, it will also be popular with hard to reach, niche audiences.
Content Marketing for Niche Audiences: Conclusion
Content marketing is only as effective as the content you produce.
If your content is able to provide value to your audience in any way, chances are that it will be successful.
Therefore, take the time to research your hard to reach audience before you produce content that will make them not so hard to reach after all.
