Content marketing is an important element of being a social business and is closely related to the rise in popularity of social media. It's through curating and creating relevant and engaging content that brands can leverage the full potential of social media. However, as more brands get on board with content marketing and the amount of available content continues to rise, it's becoming more difficult to capture the attention of your target audience and convert them into customers.
As author and keynote speaker Andrew Davis points out, "paradoxically, the more information sources available to the consumer, the more niche-focused content creators must become and the more successful they'll be."
"Inefficient and ineffective content marketing" is costing upwards of $958 million a year according to a report from Kapost. This waste is mainly because the low-hanging content fruit has been produced and, according to Kapost, brands are wasting significant funds producing redundant content that doesn't stand out.
We're also seeing a decrease in content marketing performance. A B2B content marketing benchmark study from the Content Marketing Institute found an 8 percentage point decrease in effectiveness -- from 38 percent in 2014 down to 30 percent in 2015. Many marketers attribute this to the lack of clarity "on what content marketing success or effectiveness looks like."
Are you asking yourself, how do brands produce content that delivers business results? The answer is, by identifying their content niche. It's no longer enough to produce content around a broad theme or industry. Content marketers today are being asked to speak to very specific audiences and to avoid duplicating content from competitors. Brands are now competing to find new ways to serve their audiences by producing original reporting, conducting surveys, and publishing proprietary data.
What is a content niche?
- A narrow audience segment that you speak to directly
- A calm eddy in a crowded content marketplace
- A vibrant readership that is underserved
We teamed up with Visually to create a Social Business Journal that showcases brands that have been notably successful at identifying their niches and developing content for them. The content creators we interviewed include established brands, as well as entrepreneurs. Finding and addressing your own niche should be easier with these case studies.
AARP told us how they found content marketing gold by learning to address niche segments of Americans over 50.
The content marketers at Kabbage Inc., the #1 provider of online small business loans, revealed how they captured the trust of small business owners.
Andrea Kuchinski, founder of Thick to Thin, disclosed how she turned her frustration over a lack of available fitness apparel that suited her into a viable business through niche content.
And, change evangelist, popular speaker and entrepreneur Brian Fanzo revealed how niche audiences don't just congregate around content, but also social tools and platforms.
What each of these brands has in common is a niche content strategy. I invite you to discover how you can win through niche content marketing.