Love Your Niche: Marketing a Sustainable Business

Marketing small and medium-sized businesses is a challenge, and I'm sure many people would say that's even more true for vegan and sustainability-driven businesses. I'm not sure I agree. 

As a content marketer, I've worked with both small businesses and international companies, in hyper-specific niche industries and very competitive fields alike. And let me tell you, it is much easier to get results when marketing businesses that have a clear niche. 

Often, though, businesses owners get fixated on the idea of a broader audience. They say things like, "Sure, I want to attract vegans who live in my community, but I don't want to alienate steak-loving tourists who might be driving through on their way to Myrtle Beach, either. Let's not say anything about offering vegan options. I don't want to turn anyone off."

Instead of appealing strongly to the specific group of people who already want the thing they offer, they're making a half-hearted attempt at attracting anyone who happens to amble by. 

The problem is, those meh customers want something specific, too — and you're probably not it. If you win their business by default, it's not likely to be a relationship that lasts. Getting the sale is important, obviously, but the lifetime value of the customer is a more powerful metric. Target the customers that have the highest lifetime value, and ignore the poor souls who don't get what you're doing.

It's not about turning people off; it's about turning people on. 

(That sounds familiar, but a Google search turned up nada; if I stole that line from someone, please let me know. Maybe I'm just that good.) 

If you run an organization that relies on outreach, things are a little bit different; I'll talk more about that in another post.

Returning to the topic at hand, your niche is your biggest asset, not a liability. When you know your ideal customer — your buyer persona — you can explore their needs, wants, and challenges in your marketing. You can also identify which social networks they use, when they check their email, how they make buying decisions, and how you need to communicate with them before and after purchase. In many cases, you can even anticipate what they'll want next (super-helpful for product development, no?).

Yes, you heard me right: you don't need to be active on every social platform. In fact, you shouldn't. You may let out that sigh of relief.

I'll get into the nitty-gritty details of how to do all of this successfully in coming posts; think of this as the in-the-locker-room-at-halftime pep talk. Love your niche! Embrace your ideal customer! Go team!

Photo by Gokhan Oksuzoglu on Unsplash