In order to stand out from the market, companies need to find their niche and do something different. If all companies look the same, how will a consumer choose? If all companies advertise in the same way, then they will only fight over a consumer base.
Creating a content tilt in your marketing strategy is a great way to reach customers that your competitors aren’t appealing to.
Finding a Niche and Creating a Tilted Content Plan
First determine what sets you apart from your competitors. Let this help you push your niche direction. Let this also help you determine who your target audience really is.
In a circular fashion, once you’ve determined your target audience, you can further tilt your content to appeal to that consumer base. Worry about nailing the niche, not trying to be everything to everyone.
You want to be special and outstanding, not generic.
Companies That Tilt
Here are some great examples of companies that are tilting their content production to appeal to a very specific customer base:
Heineken Impresses the Beer Market
The alcohol market is very crowded, especially for beer. Heineken was struggling and chose to reinvent their brand to appeal to a very specific crowd. They discovered, after interviewing nearly 9,000 consumers, that the average consumer either wants to live larger or live more consciously.
But, what was their brand better suited for? Heineken decided they were about living legendary, pushing the limits and getting the experience. That meant that their commercials and content needed to start branding their company as the legendary brand, appealing to the consumers that want to live larger and experience more.
This differentiation helped them stand out from the crowd and get their brand back on track over the past few years.
Woot! Makes Deal Busting an Art
There are many sites out there that focus on can’t-miss deals, but none does it as well as Woot. While Amazon, Overstock, Marshalls, Ebay and other companies try to appeal to a broad consumer base, Woot is attacking the Millennial buying crowd, and it’s infectious.
The brand focuses on wit and personality to sell their deals. The company’s main base is a shirt designing content where the community votes on their favorite shirts and the winning shirts are printed. The catch? Only customers are part of the community that can vote and the winning designers get prize money and a cut of each shirt purchased.
But, Woot doesn’t stop here. They have a Woot Off! about once a month where crazy deals are flying in and out, changing each time the allotted max number of purchases is met. Their $5 mixed bag sells faster than hotcakes on a cold day.
You probably will never get one of these shrouded items, even though they promise you will probably hate it. Their emails are filled with ridiculous sock monkey jokes and random deals.
Their body copy is filled with pop culture references and altered quotes. And, their consumer base is loyal to the end.
Cook’s Illustrated Wins Over the Tired Cook
How do you stay relevant as a book company in a world of dying print and increased digital? Cook’s Illustrated recently paired up with Test Kitchens of America to do something for their books that went beyond the norm.
They created a series of illustrated cook books that took science into consideration for each and every recipe. How will water affect the starch in potatoes? How can that be avoided for a creamier result?
The Science of Good Cooking is one book that will tell you the answer along with what the kitchen tried to pinpoint their solutions. The result? Very helpful and interesting cookbooks with guaranteed deliciousness on every page.
This tilted content appealed to the audience that didn’t want just another Pinterest fail for dinner on Wednesday. Oh, and their website followed suit.
Discount Juicers Floods the Market
Usually flooding is a bad term, but in this case study, Discount Juicers is dead on. John takes his unique position to create a video library with nearly every juicer on the market. Not only does he highlight specific models, but he holds juice-offs to compare results live on the camera.
If you are in the market for a juicer, you will be seeing his content. The result? A comprehensive library that gives value and gets hundreds of thousands of views as consumers do research to make their big purchase.
Are you ready to learn more about developing your content tilt from dozens of content marketing experts? Let’s gear up for the 2016 Content Marketing Conference held in Las Vegas in May!