The Step-by-Step Guide to Niche Marketing for Print Shops

Here’s a secret: If you try to sell to everyone, you end up selling to no one.

Sounds kind of crazy, right? But it’s the truth. Far too many businesses think that they’re going to be successful if they offer a wide range of products for as many groups of people as possible.

What they don’t realize is that customers want to feel intimately understood. The buyer wants to feel that the business understands their problems and offers helpful solutions. But when a business tries to sell to everyone, they never create a strong enough brand to inspire love and trust in any buyer.

Enter: niche marketing. This marketing technique is all about creating the perfect product for a very specific customer. And it’s an especially powerful tool for small businesses that provide printing services.

Here’s what you need to know.

Why niche marketing works

The goal of niche marketing is to create a product or service so well-suited to a buyer that they can’t help but make a purchase.

Imagine you’re a dog lover. In fact, you don’t just love dogs, you’re a dog fanatic. You have at least three of your own that you love to pamper and put in silly costumes, and your friends probably have dogs, too. In this situation, you would belong to a niche market of dog fanatics.

Now, imagine you’re looking for a dog shirt for Fido to wear. A major retailer’s website offers dog shirts amidst all the other things they sell. You browse through for a while, but the shirts all seem pretty similar and frankly pretty cheap. Nothing special stands out.

But then, you stumble upon a website that sells only dog shirts. There are tons of options with puns, varied colors, and you can even have a photo printed on it! Plus, you find out that the company owner created their business because they’re a dog fanatic as well.

Which website do you buy from?

If you’re truly a dog fanatic who loves to dress your dogs, you’ll likely go with the other dog fanatic’s website. You may even put up with a longer shipping period or higher prices because you know the product is exactly what you’re looking for.

That’s the power of a solid niche marketing strategy. When your business aligns perfectly with a specific buyer’s needs, not only do you make a sale””you create a loyal customer.

Does niche marketing limit your options?

Let’s address the elephant in the room. A dog fanatic website is great for dog fanatics, but no one else will care. How do you survive as a business when your market is so small?

Niche marketing actually isn’t about smaller markets. It’s about finding specialized markets””groups of people that have specialized interests and are generally underserved by standard marketing.

For example, you might choose to orient your business toward nonprofit organizations, such as creating T-shirts for fundraising events. There are a lot of nonprofits out there, so it’s definitely a larger market. But they’re specialized and require products and services that other groups don’t.

The trick is finding a niche (or several) that’s large enough to give you steady business over time, but small enough to avoid heavy competition.

How to do effective niche marketing for your print shop

1) Understand what makes your business different

Like that awkward goth phase in high school, self-discovery and differentiation are incredibly important processes for your business to go through.

What makes you stand out? Do you make it super easy to place orders? Are your products luxurious? Do you offer a faster turn-around than anyone else? Interesting technology? Unique art? Insane customization options?

Knowing what you’re going for is the first step. Many companies try to be everything. The smart ones understand what they’re best at and focus on making their best even better.

2) Define your target market(s)

Once you understand who you are, you need to decide who your customers are.

Think about where the majority of your orders have come from in the past year. It might be schools, musical bands, local businesses””whatever the groups are, write them down.

Now spend some time reviewing each of these groups. Ask yourself these questions:

• Do you like working with them?
• Is it a large enough group to be profitable over a long period of time?
• What kind of competition do you face with this niche?
• Is this a niche that you want to continue selling to? Why or why not?
• Are there any related niches you can try selling to to expand your business?

Remember, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one niche. But don’t try to go after too many groups. People remember the brands that are strongly aligned with specific audiences. Too many niches runs the risk of “diluting” your brand, leaving it generic and unmemorable. It’s hard to be known for anything when you do everything.

3) Research your target market(s)

The key to effective niche marketing is to understand your customers. What are the needs they have that other niches don’t? You may have done this process more organically over time, such as finding that schools need a lot of t-shirts for clubs and events that other niches wouldn’t need.

Begin pairing your services with your target markets. You may find that a niche has many more needs than you were previously servicing; if you can meet those needs, you can expand your offerings and win more customers.

Whenever possible, talk directly with individuals who belong in the niche. What are their unique struggles? Ask about any terminology that you don’t understand. When you begin marketing to the niche, using their language is going to make them feel understood.

4) Tell your brand story

To build trust with your niche audience, you need to explain why you create your product for your customers. Don’t be afraid to be authentic. So many businesses out there are trying to sound professional to the point that they miss out on actually connecting with the customer.

Put yourself out there. Show your passion. Your customers are in a niche because they love something. Aren’t you, too?

5) Get creative with your marketing

When you’re marketing to a niche, especially when you’re a smaller business, the big, go-to advertising techniques don’t always apply.

Instead, word-of-mouth style marketing will likely give you better results. Focus on finding your target niche’s community. For example, many local businesses will have Facebook groups that they use to promote their services to one another. School administrators often have friends at other schools. If you do well for one member in a community, they’ll likely be happy to recommend you to others.

In my hometown, there was a small ice cream store that was targeting local high school students. Their marketing budget was limited and they only had one little location. But they did have lots of ice cream.

To spread word about their business, they changed tactics. Instead of running ads to draw customers to the store, they would package up their specialty ice cream in little cups and distribute them at school events. They often did this for free. As a result, the ice cream store got to show students how good their ice cream was, and the administration loved them for it. Not only did it generate more foot traffic to the store, but other businesses began hiring them to provide ice cream for their meetings, store openings, or other community events.

Word-of-mouth is an underrated form of marketing that works incredibly well with niches. And it doesn’t just happen in person””these days, it often takes place online. Make sure you have a Facebook business page, since that’s often one of the first places people look when they’re researching a company. By sharing relevant articles and posting interesting photos, you can give your customers something to talk about and share with their friends.

Many print shops also do well on Instagram, where they can show off new designs and fun photos. Social media is a powerful way for even the smallest businesses to connect with their niche and establish themselves as an authority.

We can help you market to niches easier

At the end of the day, niche marketing is effective, but only if you have the other important stuff squared away””customer service, fast turn-around, and a quality product.

InkSoft helps you run a more efficient business. Not only can the platform keep your orders organized, but you can create multiple online stores to appeal to different niches. Curious how InkSoft can help your business grow? Reach out for a personal, behind-the-scenes product tour.