(Newswire.net — March 27, 2019) — When you run a mainstream business – like a supermarket, restaurant, or residential plumbing service – you don’t have to worry about offending anyone or hitting a hot button issue. You’re free to explore your brand’s potential through a variety of marketing strategies without the fear of backlash and rejection.
Your marketing strategies may be ineffective, but at least they won’t hurt your brand. But the same can’t always be said for businesses in sensitive or taboo niches. If your company falls into the latter category, strategic planning is mandatory.
The Challenge of Marketing in Sensitive Industries
Certain industries are more sensitive than others. The products or services they sell are either taboo, highly unique, or revolve around issues people don’t openly discuss. Examples include mental health, digestive health, sex, adult entertainment, and gambling.
There may or may not be anything wrong with the products and services in these industries – that’s up for each customer to decide – but there’s a perception by a certain faction of the marketplace that requires business owners to think carefully about how they market and advertise their value offerings.
From a marketing perspective, you have to be strategic with how you position your products and communicate your messaging. It’s extremely important to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time and place. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a low ROI that kills your budget and fails to drive revenue.
The problem is that you can’t develop a traditional social media marketing strategy where you flood people’s timelines with content about your products and services. It’s also possible that Google prevents you from advertising through its AdWords platform. There are plenty of challenges and you can’t approach marketing haphazardly.
A Few Tips and Best Practices
There isn’t a clean and concise formula for successful marketing in a sensitive industry. There are, however, plenty of best practices that leading companies use to propel their brands to the top. Here’s how you can follow their lead:
1. Stop With the Mass Marketing
The first step is to cut out the mass marketing approach. It doesn’t work, and you’ll end up overspending for minimal results. Just ask Laura Spaulding-Koppel, who runs a company that offers cleanup services for taboo situations.
“When I launched Spaulding Decon, I followed my competitors and made the mistake of marketing to the masses,” Spaulding-Koppel says. “However, I quickly learned that people do not want to hear about topics like crime scene or drug lab cleanup continuously.”
The key is to strike the right balance and to hone in on a specific audience that wants to hear about your products. And when you do target these individuals, the messaging should be appropriate.
“My approach to marketing today is to be discreet, respectful and sensitive,” Spaulding-Koppel says, “but not shy when a client is in need of one of my services.”
2. Work With an Agency in Your Niche
Marketing in a sensitive niche can be tough. All of the principles that you learned in business school – or in professional experience, for that matter – go out the window. You have to learn a whole new set of rules. Or do you?
To save time and frustration, you may find it more effective to work with an agency that specializes in offering marketing services that are tailored to your niche.
Take rehab facilities, for example, which are subject to restrictions with Google advertising. Working with an agency that specializes in mental health marketing services allows these businesses to implement web design, SEO, and advertising strategies that are specifically designed for their niche. It’s a game-changer.
3. Remove the Taboo
If you want to use certain mainstream marketing techniques within your strategy, sometimes the best option is to take away the taboo elements that would otherwise hold you back.
KY, which makes sexual lubricant products, is a great example of this. In recent years, they’ve adopted marketing campaigns like this one, which moves away from the raunchy and toward the normal. The ads are appropriate for all audiences and make people laugh, though the target consumer is still well aware of what’s being sold.
Adding it All Up
In a perfect world, social norms and sensitivities would be an issue, and you could utilize the same marketing strategies as every other brand. But the business world is odd, and we don’t all play by the same rules. Instead of wallowing in frustration, take the time to learn about your niche and which strategies work with your target audience. In doing so, you’ll stand a better chance of crystalizing your message and adopting an approach that yields a positive return.