Why Niche Marketing Is Important
In the world of business and marketing, bigger can often seem better. You want more eyes on your blog, more traffic going to your website and more customers making purchases. While that is true, marketing to a huge audience can sometimes have the opposite of the intended effect. That’s where niche marketing comes in. Explore what niche marketing is, why it matters and how to apply niche marketing principles to your particular industry.
What Is Niche Marketing?
In every marketing campaign, there should be an intended audience. In a niche marketing campaign, that intended audience has been reduced so that content can be finely targeted to appeal to a specific group of people. Imagine that you’re the head of a publishing company. You sell books to a wide audience, but you want to focus on niche marketing. To start, you need to find your niche. Perhaps you want to sell more books related to wedding planning.
Your niche marketing campaign, based on the example above, might be geared toward young women and couples who are engaged or in serious relationships. Everything from the content you produce to the products you advertise might appeal to that very specific buyer persona. With niche marketing, you’re no longer trying to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Instead, you’re trying to make a connection with a smaller, niche audience.
Finding Your Niche Can Reduce Competition
There are many different reasons that niche marketing can be effective. One of the most important benefits is that it can reduce competition. If you’re selling books, you’ll have enormous competition from some of the biggest publishing houses and bookstores in the world. Unless you’re a billion-dollar multinational company, you won’t be able to truly compete with these enormous enterprises.
However, you can start to become more competitive if you focus on a niche within the industry. Instead of trying to market to everyone who reads books, you might market specifically to those who support independent bookstores. Or, you may only release books that are written by women or geared toward female readers. In this way, you create your own corner of the market that has fewer overall competitors to deal with.
Increased Visibility on SERPs
Every single minute, there are more than 2.3 million searches on Google. Add in some of the other most popular search engines online, and it becomes clear that humans are always searching for something. If you have any kind of online presence, one of your goals should be to appear on search engine results pages, or SERPs, as often as possible.
Once again, the biggest problem here is competition. In every field or area of industry, there are thousands or millions of competing websites. Trying to stand out from the crowd is a tremendous challenge. Think back to the last time you searched online for something. The odds are good that you found what you were looking for in that first page of search engine results. One way for businesses to appear at the top of SERPs more often is to appeal to people searching for something specific. Instead of something broad, and therefore highly competitive, you want to appeal to searchers looking for something more specific. Here are a few examples:
• Instead of “pizza in New York,” aim for “gluten-free pizza in Queens.”
• Instead of “hotels in London,” aim for “pet-friendly hotels near Buckingham Palace.”
• Instead of “shoes for women,” aim for “kitten heels size 8 for women.”
Letting Your Competition Guide You to the Right Keywords
You’ll probably want to also see how the competition is doing as far as ranking for keywords. Although it’s best to incorporate search terms that contain specific keywords, you’ll also want to use keywords that are relevant and have the potential to increase your search engine rank.
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Expertise in a Specific Area
One of the best ways to stand out for any business, and in virtually any industry, is to showcase your skills and knowledge as an expert. Of course, it is hard to be an expert in everything all the time. Few people can claim to be experts in everything within the footwear industry or all things culinary. Even when people truly are experts in these broad fields, audiences don’t always believe it.
It is much easier to become an expert in a niche area. It is also more believable that someone is an expert in gluten-free baking than that they know everything about the culinary arts. If you want to create content from an expert viewpoint, narrow down your area of expertise so that it is smaller. This makes it easier to truly master the field, provide expert advice and research or produce content. Often, hiring a freelance technical writer who is already an expert in the field makes this step even simpler.
Increased Word-of-Mouth Campaigns
One of the best things that can happen to any website, business or organization is word-of-mouth campaigns. These can’t be purchased, and they appear organically. These campaigns can happen in person, but they often happen online. In short, word-of-mouth campaigns are when readers and customers start to advertise for you.
This is a dream scenario for a number of reasons. First, it is free! Second, word-of-mouth recommendations are more compelling than almost any other kind of marketing or advertising campaign out there.
But how, exactly, can companies encourage this organic word-of-mouth marketing? One of the best ways is to connect with enthusiastic individuals in a niche area. If you sell hiking equipment, why not target some niche marketing content to women hiking the Appalachian Trail? Women who read your related content are more likely to share this specific information with other women following in their footsteps. Whether on Facebook, Reddit, Twitter or out on the trails themselves, women might mention your brand and your business to other women who have similar interests.
Think about outsourcing your niche content
It is easy to see the value in niche marketing. Translating that to compelling campaigns is the next step. Hiring a business writer can be a smart move, especially if you want to focus on a niche area where you aren’t necessarily an expert. Writers can research, put together interesting content and still promote your company at the same time.
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How to Create High-Quality Business Articles
Whatever the industry, business articles are a critical part of marketing. Writing business articles geared toward your industry may be helpful in a B2B context, but they can also simply be specialized blog content. When you’re writing for a specific industry, you don’t necessarily have to appeal to the layperson. However, there are still some suggestions and best practices that will help your business writing gain traction in your industry and beyond.
Writing Science Articles
Science content can be thrilling to write and to read. Often, topics revolve around new developments in the world of science, and those developments can have stunning potential. However, one of the most important elements of quality science writing is not exaggerating. Claiming drastic developments, like saying that a new medication can cure cancer, may not be a wise choice. Anything too spectacular can read like clickbait rather than hard facts.
In an effort to appear more credible, a freelance technical writer creating science content might pull quotes from actual scientists. This can also be tricky because complex, science-heavy quotes aren’t always easy to follow. Even the most complicated scientific breakthroughs should be explained in a way that any high school student could read and follow.
Writing Health and Medical Articles
Whether you’re a business writer or a doctor, writing health articles can be tricky. Straddling the line between health content written for medical professionals and health content meant for the general public is difficult. Before you put pen to paper or start typing on the keyboard, think about who your audience truly is. Are you writing to promote your health products to consumers? Are you selling medical equipment to hospitals? Or are you promoting medical services to the general population?
Thinking about this carefully in advance can determine the right vocabulary and the right perspective. Formal, medical papers should often be written in the third person. If you’re trying to persuade someone to try a new therapy, however, writing in the second person might make for a more compelling case.
Business Writing
There are so many different types of business writing out there. Some businesses need to write narratives about their company, their staff and the development of their products. Others want to showcase their experience through papers filled with research studies. Still more want to create marketing content. Writers need to know who they are writing for as well as who they are writing to in order to be as effective as possible.
Some business articles are B2B, which means that businesses are appealing to other businesses. In these articles, it is perfectly fine to go into detail, use industry jargon and focus on analytics. If the content is compelling enough, other businesses might even share it with their audiences, expanding your reach organically.
Writing Education Articles
In every industry, there is a wide range of content types to choose from. Education is no exception to the rule. Depending on the nature of your website and your audience, you may write blog posts, instructional articles or case studies, among many other options.
Educational articles might be about online colleges, or they could offer advice to students still trying to pick a major. They can be geared toward students, the parents of students or adults ready to advance their education later in life.
Articles about education, or any articles teaching the reader something, often need to take on an informed, expert voice. These articles are far less likely to be written in the second person, and they will almost never be written in the first-person narrative form.
Writing Law Articles
More often than not, law articles can fit into two broad categories. First, articles might be promotional in nature. These are informing readers, who belong to the general public, about legal services and how to use them. The second category of law articles contains content written for other members of the legal profession. As you can imagine, the two should be very different.
One of the best ways to market legal services is through content that comes up in search engines when individuals are searching for legal assistance. Therefore, a lot of legal content revolves around how to avoid legal trouble, how to find the right lawyer and how to solve other legal issues like filing divorce papers or securing custody. Informative, educational content with a legal focus is a big market for writers as well as legal firms expanding their online presence.
Writing Finance Articles
Finance articles are diverse largely because they can be written about small amounts of money or billions of dollars. At one end of the spectrum are personal finance articles. They can be written as blog articles by banks, credit card companies or other financial experts. They might discuss ways for individual readers to pay off their mortgage sooner, pay for college tuition or save up for next year’s summer vacation.
At the other end of the spectrum are finance articles on a much larger scale. These might appeal to businesses who need millions of dollars in financing or who are looking for their next big angel investment overseas. Accessibility is key with regard to both categories of finance articles. Make sure the content matches up with your intended audience and their financial reach.
Writing Tech Articles
Tech articles are a strong way to promote new developments in technology. If your business has created a new app, a new type of software or a new website, a tech article can be the way to promote that and teach more readers all about it. In tech, the struggle is keeping the information from being too dry without overhyping the topic.
Tech developments can and do change the world on a regular basis, but not every piece of content needs to be revolutionary. Remember that much of the content about technology is about teaching and informing. People want to know how to use their electronic devices, how to stay ahead of trends and how to understand new technology before they invest in it.
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Technical Writing Services and Tips for How to Publish Your Content
Technical writing is the process of writing down instructional procedures. In decades past, technical writing services might have included writing the manuals for heavy machinery in a factory or user guides for consumer electronics. Today, the digital landscape has changed the way that we view technical writing.
Today’s technical writing is any writing that documents, details or explains technical processes. Tech writing can explain how best to use a dating app, or it can detail how a new medical technology will change the ways hospitals diagnose lung cancer patients. Here are some of the various types of technical writing services along with information about how to find the right writer for the job and how to publish technical writing content.
User Manuals
Perhaps the single item most commonly associated with technical writing is the user manual. Although technical writing is now a much broader field, user manuals are still a key part of it. User manuals come in all shapes and sizes, and they can contain a brief list of instructions or hundreds of pages of technical jargon.
Creating a user manual starts with a task analysis. This is how you’ll understand what steps are involved in the operation and which steps need to be included in the user manual. You’ll need to ensure that a user manual specifies if any additional materials are necessary as well as where any appropriate warnings should be included. Then, the steps for operation, cleaning, care or installation can be outlined.
Tech Company Press Releases
Rarely do businesses think of press releases as a form of technical writing. However, that all depends on the topic of the press release. If a business wants to highlight that they opened a new location or hired a new employee, then a technical writer might not be necessary. If the press release will explore a new tech development, however, then it takes skills to translate that idea into language that the reader can comprehend in a short amount of time.
Imagine that you own a startup company that creates plugins for websites. Your tools make it easier for businesses and bloggers to write content that adheres to best SEO practices. Now, imagine that you’ve upgraded your best-selling plugin. It can do more than ever before! A press release is the ideal way to announce the upgrade, and a technical writer can distill the tech-heavy vocabulary and present it in a more appealing way.
Case Studies
When done correctly, a case study is a story. Instead of speaking in general terms, a case study gets to the specifics of one particular case. These can be incredibly compelling, and an effective case study can lead to more conversions than dozens of white papers and blogs.
The trouble with case studies is sometimes that experts in the field want to write them. Individuals who are developers, engineers or financial experts aren’t necessarily qualified to put together a case study. Knowing the details inside and out isn’t enough to make something a great read. That’s why hiring a freelance technical writer can be a smart move if you’re ready to put together case studies. A writer will be able to take the relevant information and weave it into a narrative that makes sense to the reader.
Product Descriptions
Once again, product descriptions aren’t always something associated with technical writing. If you sell products in the tech world, however, each description should be written by a technical writer. From a single image, a general writer might be able to accurately describe a simple item like a cotton T-shirt. If you’re selling something more complex, however, you’ll need the knowledge and expertise of a technical writer.
A technical product description must be appealing because consumers or businesses should be able to see its value and want to buy the item. At the same time, this content needs to include all of the details and specifications that make the item unique. Professionals can incorporate both elements and ensure that the description is still easy to scan. The copy should be geared toward the right audience while being SEO-friendly at the same time.
Websites
The website of a business or organization is often the first impression that others will get of the brand. It should be obvious that great web design, formatting and layout are key to having an appealing website. However, websites should be more than just skin-deep. They also need to deliver content that is as attractive as the website’s design.
Websites for tech companies should have content that reflects what they do. On Apple’s website, as one example, you can read about their newest phones available for sale. Their content is more than just visually appealing; it is also a first look at the technology behind the product. While describing the phone and what it can do, there is plenty of industry language. However, the content is still accessible to those who want to invest in a great piece of equipment without having a lot of background knowledge. It is always smart to think of your own website as a form of technical writing.
Interoffice Memos
Miscommunication within an organization can be a costly mistake. Nonetheless, it happens far more than it should because communication isn’t made a priority. When two departments communicate with one another, there should be a common language. If the research and development team sends over a memo packed with industry jargon, the sales team might struggle to understand the meaning.
There is so much room for misinterpretation across many businesses and industries. One of the ways that this can be avoided is by working with technical writers to create interoffice memos. A technical writer can ensure that the memos being shared are written in a common language when it comes to vocabulary, meaning and context. This simple act can help many organizations run smoother and more efficiently.
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The Value of Research in Technical Writing
Whether the technical writing project is a user manual or a press release, research needs to be the foundation. If there is no research to back up the writing, it won’t be effective or accurate. While facts and data shouldn’t overwhelm the content, it still needs to be part of the equation. If you’re outsourcing a technical writing project to a freelance or business writer, then supplying them with research materials or resources is recommended. You don’t need to be an expert in the field in order to deliver great content, but you do need to rely on the experts to provide accurate data, analysis or results that can speak to your audience.
Balancing Jargon and Style
Technical writing can be considered a tightrope walk. Great technical writing manages to balance on the thin line between informative and easy to read. Businesses may already have a distinct brand style, and that should remain cohesive throughout any and all technical writing. Achieving the right blend of jargon and style isn’t always easy, and it often requires several versions to get right. With each round of edits, writers can get closer to the perfect balance.
Formatting Technical Content
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with any technical writing is ignoring formatting. It is true that compared to some other forms of writing, technical content is much more about the details and the data than it is about visual appearance. However, everyone has probably opened up a website, been appalled or confused by the layout and design, and found a competing website to look at instead.
The elements of design can and should still apply to technical writing. Headers are crucial, and a strong introduction and conclusion are necessary. Although the content can be dense, small paragraphs and headers can make it easier to scan or understand. Choosing the right font is important, especially for printed materials that can’t be magnified on a digital screen. Whatever you’re creating, ensure that it is formatted professionally so that it can make the biggest impact. After all, you’re probably investing a lot of money into a user manual or a new website. It’s worth spending a little more time on formatting in order to make the most of your investment.
Testing Technical Writing
The ultimate test of technical writing is whether it does the job. If it is a press release for a new tech product, do readers understand the product after reading about it? If it is a user manual, are users able to follow the instructions with ease? It is rarely a good idea to go from writer to consumer without first testing the content on a smaller scale.
This is a particularly common problem when the content is written, edited or approved by technical-minded individuals already familiar with the product, services or company. If you are an engineer that creates medical equipment, then the operating guides probably make perfect sense to you. However, would those guides make sense to a nurse working the night shift? If not, it could reflect poorly on the product and ultimately the company. Testing is the best way to ensure that the writing is well-understood and effective.
The Value of Hiring Technical Writers
Hiring writers from outside of the company can be beneficial for a number of reasons. First, it provides your business with an outsider’s perspective. Instead of preaching to the choir, you’re getting a chance to convert a new potential consumer. Having a fresh outlook can be invaluable.
A writer will also be familiar with the formatting and style issues that can so often become a stumbling block in highly technical copy. Technical writers can still process and understand highly technical concepts, but they are trained to balance that with copy that is easy to read and comprehend. To top it all off, technical writers can help you avoid grammatical mistakes or spelling errors, both of which can reflect poorly on your business and your brand.
Publishing and Promoting Technical Writing
There are two primary ways to publish technical writing: print and online. Today, virtually all technical content you create can and should be accessible online. However, some items like user manuals may also need to be printed in order to accompany the associated products they detail.
Remember that when offering both online and printed materials, some changes may need to be made. For example, online user guides can hyperlink to videos for further clarification. Coming across hyperlinks in printed materials is useless unless the full website is also spelled out in the content.
A lot of technical writing is designed to be used for marketing or brand awareness. Whether you’ve created a blog all about website design or a guide for users interested in buying the best smartphone, you’ll want to promote your content so that it reaches the greatest number of relevant readers.
In order for more people to organically come across your technical writing, SEO should be a priority. Using relevant keywords can push your content to the top of search engine results pages, and internal hyperlinks keep people around your website for longer.
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