3 Ways to Target Your Audience With Niche Video Content

Many companies make the mistake of creating video content that is too broad. Audiences, meanwhile, are searching for narrower and more niche content in the online video landscape.

Video viewers spend plenty of time watching online videos and are hungry for more content in every part of the conversion process. Here are three ways to target specific audiences by creating niche content.

Identify the Primary Audience

Before starting any video campaign, establish the primary audience for your content. It is easy to fall into the habit of saying, “let’s make a one-size-fits-all video for everyone.” The truth is that a mindset like that one will not get you the results you hope to achieve.

Online video reaches many audiences through search, so choosing a topic and optimizing it for SEO is a way to pinpoint a target viewer and a customer. This approach can be as simple as creating videos based on what your audience is searching for.

It starts with taking the time to identify the audience content journey. For example, is your audience existing customers, potential customers, investors, internal employees, the general public, B2B, B2C, future employees, or someone completely unfamiliar with your company?

Pick one audience and keep them in mind for every part of the video process, including pre-production, production, post, distribution, and marketing.

Every step along the way will play a significant role in how your messaging is received by the viewers--the creative direction, script, talent, and overall tone of your video. Always remember the age and demographic of your audience and how they prefer to receive information.

The next important step when crafting your niche videos is determining the most compelling call to action. What do you want this viewer to do? Do you want them to make a purchase, get more information, sign up for something, subscribe, or share the video? It could be a combination of these items but identifying one strong call-to-action for each video will simplify the process and make it more dynamic.

A helpful tip in the case of external consumer videos is to think about the storyline of your content. Most online audiences get bombarded with advertisements, so try to demonstrate how your product or company can solve this audience’s problems early in a video. Focus on the pain points and create visual stories around them rather than creating loud commercials.

Make sure your videos clearly state and demonstrate the problem they’re designed to solve, and for whom they’re meant to solve them.

The call-to-action will differ for each audience, and some may depend on your distribution platform's ability, as discussed in the next section.

Identify and Master the Platform

The same video does not have to live across every platform your brand uses. The strategy could be more effective with a video living in less places, when trying to target a specific audience. In most cases, a company website can be a very different experience compared to social video platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Therefore, a single video asset will not work across these channels.

Publishers should know precisely where to distribute videos early in the planning process. This information can determine how to produce an online video. For example, tailor each video to the platform, so it's crucial to know what works and, more importantly, what doesn't, especially with niche audiences.

Thinking back to your primary audience, where are they, and how will they see that video? Having a video on website landing page can create longer viewing sessions with the benefit of complementary content surrounding a video player. This is a compelling approach to introduce that audience to further products and solutions offered.

If the audience is using some of the social platforms mentioned earlier, you have an opportunity to grab them with an informational and entertaining piece of promoted content marketing.

Even if the audience is using multiple platforms, publish your video to one that is going to resonate most with that niche audience.

Once you have completed your research and chosen a destination, it is wise to master those platforms and know the features and limitations. For example, a brand would like to use one of the clickable buttons features on YouTube, like cards or end screens. Knowing about the interactive features inside a video player can help when scripting and shooting a video.

The same approach can apply to other online video platforms used on a company website. Are there any features that you can build into that video that will lead the viewer to the goal of that campaign? Can other assets such as whitepapers, blog posts, social media connections, or presentations be placed around that video to guide this audience further along the content journey?

Knowing the platform features can lead to more assertive calls to action in your videos.

Almost all platforms can provide marketers with some metrics, so researching the analytics can reveal much useful information to marketers. For this topic, demographic and geographic locations are vital in determining if the video reaches the target audience. Evaluating analytics ahead of time can help determine whether the platform is the right one for a given campaign. Again, every video channel is different from the next one.

Remember that view count is unimportant if you have a small or niche audience. What is essential is reaching an audience that is dedicated and may turn into something more than a view.

Instead, evaluate factors like the duration of the niche videos you produce. Then, look at engagement rates with that audience and see how long-form or short-form content performs. Is your audience watching the content to completion? Are they sharing your content or commenting? Evaluating these metrics can help you refine your strategy with future online video campaigns.

Keep SEO Top of Mind

As mentioned earlier, one of the most powerful ways to grab a niche audience is by including search engine optimization early on in your creation process.

Get together with your internal or external SEO experts and research the questions and search terms the target audience uses. This information from your primary audience can fuel your content creation and the likelihood that a video will reach an audience.

Marketers can craft the content in videos to target a specific user or customer. This video from Microchip is a great example.

In this video, not only did Microchip they create a particular topic for their target viewer, but they also used those search terms in the title of their video. This strategy made the video easily discoverable by their niche audience.

For more advanced online video platforms, use built-in tools or create video site maps that include metadata like keywords in and around your video players. Then, take the extra time to populate those tags and fields. These things matter and make a difference on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and others.

Take these tips and apply them to your own video strategy. This approach will lead to more qualified viewers that can contribute to the goals of your overall video marketing efforts.