A guy used to joke that he was working on selling an old bicycle inner tube for a million dollars.
People would look at him and say, “You’re crazy! Who’s going spend a million bucks for that?”
“I don’t know right now. But I only have to find one buyer.”
That exchange captures the essence of micromarketing benefits. It is the polar opposite of mass marketing and a little distance away from niche marketing. With micromarketing, you define a very small target audience that you want to hit. And, whenever you’re trying to hit a small target, you know that the “degree of difficulty” goes up greatly. However, the reward for being able to hit such a small target increases as well.
Micromarketing benefits may outpace niche marketing
If you’ve taken my advice over the years to firmly implant your business in a niche market, do you have the potential to take it even further, and define a micromarket you can exploit? Micromarketing benefits can be even bigger than those you experience in a niche market—especially if you’re beginning to experience serious competition in your niche.
Enjoying financially significant micromarket benefits may require tweaks to your basic product or service to make it especially appealing to this small group of buyers. Ask yourself questions like:
- Can I make my offering geographically specific?
- Can I tailor my offering for a certain narrowly defined demographic?
- Can I reshape my offering so it appeals to a group with specific interests (hobbies, professions, etc.)?
- Can I adapt my offering for a group with a certain spending history?
Someone in the travel industry, for example, might put together a vacation package that appeals to recently divorced individuals with incomes over $150K per year who live on the West coast. It could be an upscale modification to a standard Las Vegas vacation package.
Conceiving the micromarket and dreaming of the associated micromarketing benefits may be easy, but connecting to it can prove more difficult. Internet retargeting strategies can work. Also talk to reps at some of the digital and traditional marketing firms; you may need to use direct mail.
Adapt pitch for the micromarket
At the same time take a hard look at your current advertising and marketing. These materials need to be spot on. If you, or the creative people you work with, are totally accustomed to crafting pitches for one kind of buyer, you may need a radical change in your “mindset.” The types of materials that work for the average consumer, for example, won’t resonate with the top 1 percent. This is true for other groups as well.
The key to long-term success in any business is maintaining forward momentum by finding new markets and offering new products or services. Going forward, being able to cash in on newly discovered micromarketing benefits could drive your success to new levels.
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