Last evening I was pulled into a conversation on Social Media Coaching. I guess I was invited in because I am a Social Media Coach..duh. However, the conversation was more about how Social Media is used in niche marketing than coaching.
Social Media is probably the best method of marketing a niche product or service. I say probably because there are more services and products targeting a niche of the economy than ever which I am sure will cause other forms of marketing. Until then, coaching business people who are not familiar with niche marketing will be growing.
The primary issue with niche businesses is finding the customers. They are out there but not all gathered in one place…but are they not?
The only way to find out have to effectively target a marketing campaign to a niche market is to use Social Media. Unfortunately, most niche business owners or employees are not good at social media and blow their campaign by attempting to use other methods of marketing online.
The conversation became interesting when one of the participants in the group mentioned even the mainstream economic pushing large businesses have a need to hit a niche they may not know they had. The example (as far fetched as it seemed) was on Car Dealers. Even though this economy is not robust with consumers rushing out to buy a new car, still many dealership may find they end up with a car on their lot that would interest a very small portion of the consumer base. The incident that was mentioned was a dealership that ended up with a number of very drab colored (light brown) cars. The question because ..How do you get rid of the units that nobody wants?
Being a niche coach, I found this example interesting and when it came around to me for what I would do to sell off these over ripe lemon colored cars I quickly offered a solution.
My solution was based on the root cause which was the situation with getting oddball products from time to time happens all of the time. They should initiate the first step to niche marketing and that is to build the community of consumers who like oddball cars. In this case the dealership should hire a social media coach that would guide them into entering the internet on a solid foot and not just jump out on Twitter and SPAM the crap our of everyone.
They should build a social networking group for oddball car lovers and then keep them entertained with specials on odd cars that are being offered on their lot. To grow the community the dealership, or the social media coach they hired, then get out on Twitter and Facebook and draw attention to the communities existence.
This solution seemed to be the one the group felt was the best option for that example of niche marketing and would be adaptable to any niche business.
Overall, the message here is simple..get HELP with your niche marketing. Do not attempt to do it yourself. In most all cases the word from a third party on a niche product or service puts a brighter light on the niche. A community for the consumes of that niche validates the legitimacy of the niche which pushes all of this effort to the bottomline..selling a product or service.
So, the next time you are sitting in your office with your head in your hands not knowing how to get out of bind affecting your business, call a Social Media Coach. I know there is a solution to every problem. Let me know how I can help.
