Find The Right Market To Grow Your Brand With This Niche Marketing Strategy

You say niche, I say niche. Which is the correct one? You decide. Welcome to Cashing on Camera. Cheryl Plouffe here. I have Susan Friedman with me today. She's been in the author industry for like over 30 years, has so much experience, and today we're really going to dig into niche marketing. Question for you, how do you pronounce it?

Well, depends where you are. I mean, as I was telling you earlier, my book is Riches and Niches, It doesn't rhyme with niches.

Exactly.

I'm a Francophile. I prefer the word niche.

I think that's probably why I kind of lean in that direction as well as a French Canadian. So Susan, so exciting to have you here because regardless of how you say it, right, the important thing is to understand the concept on the strategy really around niche marketing. So let's talk about that. What is the definition? Like, what is it that we need to really know about niche marketing? How definitive, how niched down is it? How specific is it really?

It's as specific as you want it to, Cheryl. And by the way, thank you for having me on the show. And yeah, there's that difference between target market and niche marketing. And I always say they're like kissing cousins. Okay, you know, your target market is, let's say, women teachers, but that's still a large market to go after. So if you wanted to break that down further, you might say, you know, teachers in high school or college, uh, you know, so you're going to break it down further, and maybe postgraduate teaching. It, it could go right deep, deep, deep deep. What I say the stop is where there isn't any money. Now you have to look at, if you're going into a niche market, you want to know that there's money in there, you know, so that you can make a living.

Well, how do you know that though? You know, is it research? It's really researching. I come from journalism, you know, you come, it's really about the research, right?

Absolutely, absolutely. It's about the research because, you know, there are people who have niched down, let's say, into pets and they're talking about reptiles and types of reptiles, let's say, that they specialize in. And there's a big market for that. No, uh, dogs.

Who knew?

Who knew that, you know, how to train Chihuahuas— I mean, that they could be a bit, you know, that might be a big market. So you've got to research it and look at also where your passion lies, you know. What are you interested in? Who can you serve? Who do you relate to? And who relates to you. And it's often, you know, your experience that determines that.

I want to dig in a little bit on your personal story with the one book. I think it was about the trade show, the— yes, yes, that story.

Because yeah, I'd love to—

like 500,000, I can't remember the number, I think it was like half a million sold or distributed. Tell us that story, it's phenomenal.

So it's literally 500,000 copies sold to one company. And you know, this is, this is the book. Okay, not very sexy. However, it— I was in the trade show market. I was doing trade show training, which was very specific. And the trade show industry, multi-billion dollar industry. I was training exhibitors how to be better at exhibiting at trade shows. And I wrote the book Exhibiting at Trade Shows: Tips and Techniques for Success. And when it came out, I didn't want to sell it in onesies and twosies, so I had to look for who else had the same audience as me. And so I found that the exhibit companies, the people that make the booths, the exhibits, that, uh, there are custom exhibits and there are portable exhibits. And the custom exhibits, very expensive. You can pay half a million dollars easily for, for a booth, or a company can at least. So they had exhibitors at trade shows as their clients, and they were very interested in this book.

I love that story because it shows you the power of niche marketing, right? In this case, you created a book, you know, you wrote a book about that. So, I love that example too because back to your original point, the difference between a target market, which is maybe perhaps a bit broader. So, I think about the example with the book that you just demonstrated. The target market might have been live events. But the niche market is trade shows. Would that be a good example in that case?

Yeah, yeah, I mean the actual events itself, like the show organizer, they were— that could have been a niche market or it could have been a target. Um, the exhibitors even at trade shows, I actually went for a broader base. People said, well, didn't you want to, uh, specialize in one industry? And I actually decided not to. And so it was trade show training for anybody who exhibited at trade shows, whether it was automobile, whether it's healthcare, whether it was biotech. I mean, I went to them all.

It's interesting because, and this really ties into today's topic, in that you have to understand the strategy before you can start actioning it as you've just described.

Yes. And whether it's a book or not, or whether it's just speaking engagements, coaching, it doesn't matter. You don't necessarily have to have a book. A book gives you enormous credibility in the marketplace, especially if you're touting yourself as an expert in the field. You know, they want you these days to have a book.

So if we dig into this, so, so we have to dig into the strategy. We have to understand the basics of the— and you've really beautifully described the difference between the target market and the niche market. But if we're talking about how to find the right market in order to grow a brand, what is the strategy that we have to use? Like, how do we go about figuring all of that out? And maybe it's obviously, it's in the course of this conversation, we're giving the high-level overview of this. Very much so. What is the strategy that we really need to be thinking about if we're going to try to find the right market to start doing the things you've described?

I'm going to use an example, an example of a colleague of mine who was an RN. She was burnt out as an RN. And she wanted to get as far away from healthcare as she could. And so I said, you know, Karen, what do you want to do? And she said, well, I love humor. I love making people laugh. I enjoy that, you know, anybody who, who feels that they need some, you know, uplifting. I was like, Karen, who needs it more than healthcare nurses? You're running away from And it suddenly struck her, yes. I mean, she is— they know that she knows how they feel because she's walked in their shoes. So she's now targeted the healthcare environment with her skills for humor. And now, you know, she goes around speaking, coaching, training sessions for them, and has become known as an expert in that industry.

So Susan, is the strategy then to combine two seemingly unrelated things and finding the connection between them?

It could be. It could be, depending where you want to go with it. I mean, you can learn an industry. However, your credibility comes when you've been in that industry, when you understand. I mean, most of the authors who I work with through Aviva Publishing, they have come out of an industry or they have had an experience. You know, maybe they've had an autistic child and they've brought, you know, they've worked with them through some natural healthcare techniques. And so they might talk about that. There may be inspirational stories, there may be sales stories. I have one of my authors works in the small printing industry Well, he's written a book on sales and he's taken it into that industry. He's now teaching in that industry. The association is interested in him.

So it did—

a lot depends on your background and again, your interest level. Where's your passion? What's your message? I mean, all of that is intertwined in what we're talking about.

Well, the, the professional experience and the thing that you're passionate about, the thing that you really bring a lot of knowledge and wisdom around is very much up my alley because I love the idea of using that authority, expertise that you've built up. So in some cases, over the course of 10, 15, 25 years professionally, why ignore that? Find a way that you can take that and catapult it into, again, maybe your own thing. Maybe you're going to be a coach, a consultant, a service provider, whatever it is that you're business that you're looking to build, but there needs to be a special sauce piece in there. Like, it's not enough, I think, if you— especially if you really want to leverage niche marketing— to just go out and just be like everybody else.

Oh, absolutely not. That's the whole idea of niche marketing, that you're setting yourself apart from everyone, is that people suffer from what I call fear of focus. Cheryl, they are frightened to focus in on one niche because they're like, well, what if other people want to buy from me? I'm like, well, let them. That's right, don't turn them away. I'm not saying stop selling to people. What I'm saying is your focus when it comes to marketing can be much more effective and efficient when you're targeting it into one, one niche.

Yeah, it's a really good point. Fear of focus. A lot of people think that if they go too narrow that they're going to be alienating everyone. Yes, you hear that a lot. But you, you can't be successful to market to everyone.

You can't, you can't. I mean, when people come to me when to publish their book, Cheryl, two questions I ask: what do you want the book to do for you, number one, 'And who's your target audience?' And more often than not, they say, 'My book is for everyone.' Everyone. That's great. How are you going to market to everyone? You know, not even Procter Gamble have got this down. They don't even try to do that. And I think they've got more bucks than, you know, the average author.

True.

So why not? You look at, you look at Nike, you look at Procter Gamble, look at all the different brands that they've got. You go into a Nike store and they've got different departments for every different sport. That's a niche, you know. They've got articles for, you know, items of clothing, you know, things that you need in all, all in that, that little niche market.

Yeah, and it's interesting, right, as you bring up these multinational companies like Nike or Procter Gamble, and to the average consumer, it kind of feels like they're marketing to everybody. But trust me, they are not. They have— they're putting a lot of money behind the research that's necessary to figure out how— who is that exact consumer that we're trying to market this toothpaste to.

And you can tell when you look at the advertisements on television what age group are being used in that, in that advertisement. Are they young people? Are they middle-aged? Are they seniors? Are they millennials? What— who are they? And whomever they are highlighting in that advertisement, I guarantee that's who they are targeting.

My husband and I always listen for the music that's being played on those commercials, right? If they're playing hits from the '80s, then we can pretty much assume that, you know, we know exactly who they're trying to target. So I think it does make a good point that when you have the right strategy and you understand how to find the right market, that you can then start digging into the niche market, and then the creative comes into play. It's not the other way around. You don't start with the creative and then try to figure it out. You figure it out and then you build the creative to appease the person, the niche that you're trying to target, right?

I mean, I had my book and I really didn't know that I was going to target the companies who I ended up targeting, right? However, my thought was I didn't want to sell this book in onesies and twosies. I wanted to sell them in quantities. So then I had to ask myself, well, who would be interested in this book? Who has the same target audience as me and has deep pockets?

But Susan, the only reason— or maybe not the only reason, but one of the reasons why you were able to sell half a million copies of that book to that one company was because you had already niched it down. This wasn't an afterthought.

No, because I was in that industry, right? I wrote the book for those people. What, what I then had to find is, you know, since it was just me, myself, and I, you know, my marketing budget wasn't huge and still isn't. And the fact is, so you have to start getting creative, as you rightly said. And it's like, where is the money? Who is also looking at that same target audience? I was just talking to some authors, um, a few hours ago, and one woman said, oh well, I want to— my book is going to be for children, school children. And I was like, great, the school children are not going to buy it. However, who else is interested in those children and that subject matter? Because those are the people you need to go to. The schools don't have money. But the companies who sell equipment to the schools might well have. The same in the medical community, you know. So you want to always look at, you know, once you, you know who, what your message is and who you want to serve, then you start looking at the creative, as you rightly said, and start digging, doing some research and digging, you know. So, and looking, where is the money? The people who sponsor conferences, the people who advertise you start looking at those people because they've got money, they want to be seen, and perhaps that's where you can, you know, get involved.

Yeah, I love that. This is, this is really insightful. I love what you said too about trying to find maybe two seemingly unrelated things and that that's a good strategy to kind of pull together. Um, and I think a lot of our audience will probably start really to think about that and look at niche marketing through that lens. How can I combine this and maybe this has more to do with your professional experience and your wisdom and knowledge, to something that seems like it's not related. But if you can find the through line, you can find, and you can find the way to connect those two things together, you might well have the solution to a great niche for yourself and for your product. Absolutely.

You've said that beautifully. And, you know, if you go back to the story that I told you about Karen, you know, she had the expertise but she, she just didn't even think of using it, that expertise, you know, her profession that she'd been in for 20 years. She just didn't like it. However, she did like the fact that she wanted to do humor, and then when she coupled the two together, when we discussed that, it was like magic.

Well, I love that. Um, we have, uh, Martin who wrote in, this is such an interesting topic, I need to write a book to elevate my credibility.

There you go.

So you know, Martin, who to reach out to. Susan is your person. So one of the things that we do on Cashing on Camera is we have a segment called Stop Marketing Like It's 1999, where we ask you, Susan, for a tip, tool, tactic, or technique that's working to help you market yourself for the year that we live in. What is something you'd love to share with the audience today?

Well, I think it goes back to what we said before, is that you're not marketing to everyone. It used to be, oh, you know, let's be a generalist. And you have to be a specialist these days. The more you do, the more specialized you have to get because otherwise you're just up against far too many people. There's so much noise out there in the marketplace. And yet the, you know, the more you delve into that niche market, the fewer people there are and the more likely that you can be to be that big fish in a small pond. And I'm always looking at how can my authors, you know, do that? How can they navigate that so that they can literally be that big fish in a small pond?

I love it. Listen, how— I would love for you to tell everyone about your website. I'll show it on the screen here and how people can reach out to you.

Absolutely. And one of the entries to work with me obviously is to have your book published by Aviva Publishing. We're based in New York and we've been in business over 30 years. We've marketed, we've produced over 500 titles. However, what I also love, love to do, Cheryl, is to work with the authors to help them, you know, use that book to be credible, that they use it as a door opener. You know, they're not gonna get rich on the book, but it's the credibility, the door opener to speaking, coaching, training. And as we said earlier, the fact is that, you know, anybody who wants to tout themselves as an expert has to have a book these days. You just look at everybody out there who's producing books and it's because they want to get on the speaking circuit because that's where the money is.

So it's AvivaPubs, right?

AvivaPubs.com. Yes. A-V-I-V-A Pubs, P-U-B-S dot com.

Thank you so much. Thanks for coming on the show. This has been fun. I'm, you know, I'm going to be thinking about this differently now, I think. Good. Like video marketing. And I don't know if humor is really my thing, but we'll find, we'll find the niche, right?

Yes, yes. Who needs you most? Who are the industries? Who are the underserved industries that have money that need video?

Yes, there are many. Thank you so much, Susan, for coming. I really appreciate your time today, and you're welcome to come back anytime, and we'll find another topic because there's lots to explore here.

There is, certainly. Thanks, Cheryl. Thank you.