While all of us should be thinking about our targeted audience, there are some businesses that need to be extremely careful when marketing to their customers. These are businesses that are marketing products or services within a sensitive niche. Failing to research and pay attention to these customers can have dire consequences on both your brand and business.
What is a “sensitive niche”?
A sensitive niche is a market that is characterised by an issue that may be considered taboo or have a spectrum of opinions. Regardless of these issues, there is still a genuine need for products and services within these markets. Some examples of sensitive issues in Australia would include:
- Death and dying
- Religious views
- Political views
- Sexual issues
Getting started in a sensitive niche
Whether you are starting a new business or launching a new product, the first step is to do some thorough research of your niche market. The idea is to understand what these group of people value and want from a product or service that you’re promoting.
- Look at competitors: Are there any competitors already marketing to this niche of customers? If so, what is their positioning strategy and how much traction do they appear to have? This funeral and death care resource uses toned down words such as “end of life” as opposed to “death” which shows that their audience are sensitive to certain language.
- Go on forums: The chances are a lot of your customers will be vocal on anonymous online places such as forums. Here is a good place to connect with these people- understand the language in which they talk, and ask them important questions. To find these communities, start in large forums like Whirlpool or do a quick search in Google for your “niche” + forum.
- Social media: A good place to figure out what type of content resonates with your audience is on social media. Buzzsumo is a tool that will help you look at a competitor’s social media strategy in order to see what content is most engaging.
Paying attention
The challenge of successfully launching your product or service is by no means over. In fact, the sensitive nature of the niche will require ongoing brand monitoring when anything new is released. Following this process repeatedly and measuring results with brand management tools will ensure that your business maintains positive positioning among your audience.
