Here’s The Key to Getting Noticed in a Crowded Niche

Crowded niches are crowded for a reason: there's a lot of money to be made there.

Folk wisdom is usually to choose a small niche that no one else is focusing on.

But you might not want to shy away from those big, massive evergreen niches.

Believe it or not, with the right marketing strategy, you can get a piece of the pie.

The key is to tap into people who already have some clout within your particular niche.

But there's more to it than that.

With influencer marketing, you've still got to provide some kind of value for the audience.

You need to catch their eye and inform or entertain them.

You've also got to appeal to their own desires and goals.

In a recent blog post, Convince & Convert offers some advice for building relationships with influencers, and collaborating with them to create great content.

Surprise and Delight, The Ultimate Attention Grabber

We talk a lot about “adding value,” but the term is becoming more and more nebulous, often limited to comments, tweets, and shares.

These have their place, but we can do better.

In order to truly delight with your influencer marketing activity, you must think outside of the box.

These methods are why I tell other marketers to focus on a small cohort of influencers at a time. It requires manual effort and a sharp attention to detail.

These are the techniques that will really help you really stand out from the crowd. They go beyond mere shares, comments, and tweets.

They boil down to two things: personal desires and professional goals.

By now you should be monitoring your target influencers closely.

You’ve discovered a lot about them, from what they love in life to the activities they’re executing in business.

This knowledge gives you the power to surprise and delight them in a way that demonstrates authenticity.

Let’s start with guest blogging.

Influencers are usually either promoting their products and services or pushing out their own content—they may even be executing on a product launch.

Whatever they’re doing, a mention on a reputable publication or blog will be appreciated.

They’re already busy enough with their work.

[image source: Convince & Convert]

Mentioning them in content that helps them get their message to a wider audience will serve them and speed up the engagement process.

You can also suggest connections with people in your network.

If a mutually beneficial opportunity exists, reach out to both the influencer and your own connection, gaining permission to make an introduction.

Explain why you think it would be worthwhile before you make the formal introduction

Relationships are built one-to-one. Getting to the “intimacy” stage of relationship building requires going deeper.

While it’s great to pay attention to your target influencers’ business goals, they’re also passionate about other things in their personal lives, too.

Let’s say Gary Vaynerchuk is on your list of target influencers.

If you really pay attention to what he’s doing, you’ll notice he’s a Nike fanatic. There are endless ways you can use this knowledge to get his attention.

A coupon code for an online footwear store so he can get a new pair when the need arises is one easy approach.

Or, you could find out his shoe size and send a limited edition pair of Nike trainers straight to his office.

These are two extremes.

Selecting an approach that goes the extra mile, such as the latter example, will cut through the noise.

This is something used often by B2C marketers, but not often done in the B2B world.

There’s a lot of opportunity in this approach when dealing with executives.

If you’re looking for influencer marketing shortcuts, no amount of techniques or tactics are going to help you. True relationships are built by showing you care.

Instead, make sure you’re building mutually beneficial relationships with the right people.

When you’re confident with this piece of the puzzle, be super personalized online and in real life.

Contribute to their career goals and personal desires.