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February 2019

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How to find your niche in a saturated market

It’s 2019 and it seems like every business, product, and idea imaginable already exists. But 50 years ago people thought the same and look how far we’ve come.

We’ll start by saying you don’t have to be 100% different from everything around you in order to succeed. There are thousands of brands around the world offering the same products to the same audience in the same market, all doing so with enormous success.

However, if you do still want to base your business on just what makes you unique, then follow these 5 simple steps!

1 Identify your passions

This may seem like a step backward if you’ve already got a business or idea in mind and have done this, but if your idea was born from a crazy dream or overhearing a passing comment, then take the time to really evaluate the areas of interest that are driving you the most in life. You may find that your original idea aligns perfectly with these, but you may be surprised at how your life passions can lead your business in the opposite direction.

It’s important to remember that business isn’t easy and it’s bound to test you. But if the passion and interest is there, then these tests can quickly become a welcome challenge and you will always have the drive within you to persevere through the rough patches!

2 Find the problems you CAN solve

We all want to run faster, live longer and look younger, but we’re only human. Just like with a business, you can have the most imaginative idea, but if the technology isn’t there yet, then you’re learning to run before you can walk.

At this point, you already know your passions and interests so you can use these as a starting point to condense the problems within these areas that are currently not being solved.  

If your passions relate to a particular target market then identify the problems this audience as a whole may be facing. Determine if these are realistically solveable and then move on to step number 3.

3 Identify the competition

Competition is normally thought of as a negative factor, however, this isn’t always the case. The presence of competition, in most cases, is a good thing.

With increased competition comes an increase in profitability. You’ve found a niche that clearly works financially, all you need to do now is dig deeper, analyse your competitors and identify if and where you can stand out from the crowd.

If there isn’t an obvious way you can differentiate your business from those already existing, then identify how you can do what they already do, but do it better.

For example, if your competition is seemingly doing well, but in your opinion is producing low-quality content, then it should be easily achievable to outrank your competition in this area. Aim to provide their audience with more detailed content that they seek and see their spending habits switch from them to you.

4 Put a number to your niche                                                                                         

You may be able to get one-up the competition, but just how financially profitable will this lead actually be? You may be providing a solution, but if the answer to the problem is only relevant to a small section of the market, then expect a small income from it.

Whether you’re planning to sell a product or a service, you always need to know it’s current market value. If a service is the route you’re going down then the ball is in your court. Make your prices competitive, yet attractive, and most importantly make them profitable to you.

If you’re going down the product route then your pricing strategy is relatively predetermined by the market. Product searching websites are a great place to start. Thanks to the continuous growth in technology and the abundance of items available on the world wide web, you can now browse top products in pretty much any category imaginable! When doing this you can check the number of similar products available for purchasing. If there’s a lot you might be on to a winner, if there’s nothing then you may find you’re unable to monetise the niche.

5 Put your money where your mouth is                                                                      

If you’ve got this far then the final step should come as no surprise, it’s time to test your idea. You’re armed with everything you need to test your niche and the next steps really could be make or break for your business idea.

Start off small. Set up a landing page for pre-sales of the product or service you intend to sell. Drive traffic to this page through paid ads, general Social Media promotions and any other marketing routes you feel are relevant. Once all of this is underway you should be able to roughly gauge the initial demand for your offering, in some cases this could be low, but you may hit the jackpot, showing you just how viable your niche really is!

With so many routes to market, it is important to make sure you target the ones that will be the most fruitful for your business. Our team are experts, so get in touch to find out how we can help you.

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The fall of the Instagram Influencer

When you checked your Instagram recently you may have noticed something a little off and in some cases, a lot off.

The eagle-eyed platform users among you may have clocked that some of your favourite Insta bloggers and vloggers have had a sudden drop in following almost overnight and today they are taking to Social Media to seek answers for just what is happening in the influencer world.  

Since the mass panic from brands and bloggers alike, Instagram have released a statement on the situation, commenting “We’re aware of an issue that is causing a change in account follower numbers for some people right now. We’re working to resolve this as quickly as possible.”  

Although the general consensus coming out of Instagram HQ is that this ‘mass culling’ was unplanned and unpredicted, the conspiracy theorists out there are suggesting otherwise, implying the overnight ‘glitch’ was a deliberate act by the company designed to shut down fake and inactive accounts brought by celebrities and influencers in an attempt to elevate their position online.

However, if this is, in fact, true. It comes as no surprise, as back in November Instagram informed all users that this was something they would be cracking down on in the future, writing; “We’re taking a number of steps to limit this kind of unwelcome behaviour.”

Although a small number of those affected by the issue have seen their following return to normal, the vast majority are still left contemplating the authenticity of their audience and their future relationships between themselves and the brands that once favoured them for their online reach.

For some Instagrammers the loss of thousands of followers and in some cases millions will undoubtedly seem like the end of the world and a colossal waste of months or even years of hard work and carefully choreographed posts, we at BAM see the ‘culling’ whether intentional or not, as a positive!

When a brand or business works with Influencers, they rely on their audience being active and engaged followers, something that is crucial if they are to see a worthwhile return on their efforts and investments. So when followers are inactive, fake or dis-engaged, all collaborations, sponsored posts and ads showcased on their page are essentially falling on deaf ears, and this benefits no one.

With the estimated amount of money invested into influencer online ads and sponsored posts on the platform being colossal worldwide, this is money that can no longer be wasted and as a result of the ‘purge 2019’ brands can now start to expect more realistic, accurate and predictable results when working with influencers online.

Organic growth can once again become the priority focus, while also giving the enormous bank of Micro-Influencers a chance to shine and for brands to start to see the real value in smaller but engaged audiences, rather than focusing purely on the numbers!  

Get in touch with our expert team for more information on all things social.

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TikTok London Youth Marketing awareness drive

TikTok are the latest addition to BAM’s growing portfolio of international brands. Last year TikTok entrusted us to bring an end to their year in style, with an engaging, energising and inspiring student campaign across London. We love getting our hands on new clients and so we were delighted to have the opportunity to showcase the true power of the student market.

Formerly Musical.ly, TikTok is a new Social Network App that has well and truly taken over the internet. Available in 34 languages and reaching daily active users of over 150 million, it was clear from the offset that TikTok was an app that students wanted and needed to know about!  

The brief focussed on London Universities with a typically higher number of artistic/performance-based courses. BAM set out to deliver a campaign that replicated as much energy and enthusiasm as the platform users display themselves, implementing an experiential approach that was very in keeping with the ethos of the app.

After gathering 1000 pre-event surveys via a custom data collection app, we were able to highlight students current knowledge of and interaction with the brand. From our insight we were able to establish two main campaign objectives:

  1. To increase brand awareness within the student market through the use of influencer promotion and content creation
  2. Increase overall user acquisition

With these targets in mind, BAM focused on 5 key London University locations. Our first challenge was to source the best BNOC’s (Big Names On Campus) from each University, providing them with information to broadcast about the upcoming experiential days on their campus.  

With our help, TikTok executed exciting experiential events across the city. Varying at each location, the events saw everything from candyfloss machines to a giant iTab allowing students to try the app; to a photo booth and DJ playing all the best tunes from the 90’s and noughties on Tik Tok FM. BAM also facilitated an additional 664 hours of staffing for 83 shifts and Digital Media to run in cohesion with the onsite activations.

The iTab’s and the DJ booth were an integral part of the success of the dome activation days. They were impactful and a great way to demo the app. The iTab’s drove real-time content creation, with the DJ adding the atmosphere whilst drawing a crowd. We saw a significant uplift in sign-ups and interest along with a 78% open rate from on-site event push notifications.

After the great interaction onsite, it was time to truly understand the impact this had for TikTok on their objectives. We conducted a post-survey at the key locations, obtaining 1000 responses which were analysed for insight.

The results?

TikTok saw an increase in both brand awareness and platform use. The number of students aware of TikTok increased from 40.8% to 44.1% and the number of students who use the app increased from 4.7% to 13.9%. A significant increase and a true indication of how successful marketing combined with word of mouth recommendations can spread like wildfire amongst the student demographic.