Know Your Area of interest: Advertising and marketing Specialty Merchandise Successfully

Just because you sell a niche product doesn’t mean you need to think small. In fact, you have a unique opportunity to dominate your target audience, which is finite, rabidly engaged and hungry for the next flavor, innovation or permutation. I love mixing it up with e-cigarette users because I know that they’re way into the culture that I’m helping cultivate. There’s no faking it when you’re fully immersed in the community, which brings me to my first rule of niche marketing:

Be authentic.

Consumers can smell a poser from a fake smile away. Don’t just speak their language — know their language. If you merely mimic millennial catchphrases in an attempt to sound young, then you’ll come off as inauthentic or, even worse, mocking.

Instead of talking at them, be sure to talk to them. This could be as simple as joining the social media conversation via hashtag. One quick search on Instagram reveals that #Vape results in over 22 million posts, while #VapeLife yields more than 14 million. If I’m not including those ubiquitous tags in my posts, then I’m ignoring my niche audience. End of conversation, end of opportunities.

And now that I’ve started said conversation, it’s important to listen to the other side of it. Modern marketing isn’t just a matter of saying “Buy this.” Instead, it’s asking, “What do you want to buy?” It’s almost more important to understand your audience than your own product. After all, if everyone is saying, “We like caramel,” then why would I keep shouting, “Eat more chocolate”?

Size up the competition.

On social media, you’ll undoubtedly encounter other niche marketers vying for the same turf. Don’t get angry; take advantage of the situation. Have confidence in your product, but assess why consumers may respond to your competitors’ efforts as well. 

Case in point: I often see people posting photos depicting them vaping. They might be enjoying other brands of e-liquid in these pictures, but I don’t let it worry me (much). Instead, I tap into my roots and dig deeper. I respond to these social media posts with pictures and stories of my own. Even if I don’t convert that particular e-cigarette user, our conversation is out in the open, as is the nature of social media. All I can do is make my case and let the public choose for themselves. Respect the niche, and respond in kind.

Go forth and niche.

Satisfying the needs and desires of your target audience is just one side of niche marketing. It’s also important to know when to restrain yourself. Stop trying to sell products to people who aren’t interested. You have a niche, so go out and find it. For example, outdoor festivals can be ideal venues for marketing e-cigarettes. The buyers are there, so I go to them rather than expecting them to find me.

But there are niches within niches. Not all music festivals are created equal. I wouldn’t send the same products to Coachella that I’d distribute at Burning Man. The crowds are different, the appetites are different and the attitudes are different. They demand variation. Before I approach a specified demographic, I take the temperature of their likes, dislikes and everything in between. This pre-event research can be done online, but word of mouth is even more effective. Ask around: What’s hot at Lollapalooza this year, and how will my flavors align with those trends?

Test your market.

The festival circuit can be an ideal scenario in which to try your hand at test marketing. When I’m surrounded by e-cigarette users, I get firsthand, face-to-face market research, whether I like it or not. I see their reactions to my concoctions — the good, the bad and the sassy. If someone doesn’t like my latest e-liquid, they let me know. The criticism drives me to reconfigure my formula, and it all pays off when I see their elated expressions in the next round of testing.

One warning when it comes to test marketing: Don’t be obnoxious. If people are having a good time, they don’t want some entrepreneur ruining their experience just to get data about a new product.

Trust your team.

With any niche marketing endeavor, you want to hire brand ambassadors who love your product even more than you do. I make a habit of surrounding myself with friends, loved ones and trusted partners who are passionate about their respective roles in the vaping community. 

This all ties in with the points I made above. My teammates are authentic, so I trust that they can speak on my behalf when it comes to the product we all admire. They know the terrain, so they’re not caught in the headlights when I send them out to a venue where they should easily thrive. And, most importantly, I listen to my people because they have my back. When we get negative feedback, we all pitch in to solve the problem on a micro-scale before it becomes macro. Trusting your team is the ultimate niche marketing tactic.