Author: Thomas Ferriere

Thomas Ferriere is the co-founder and CEO of Local Finder LLC, a marketing agency in Pasadena CA. Thomas has been a music producer, music publisher, sound engineer, DJ, online teacher and try to be a good Fencer. He and his wife share a home in Southern California with two great boys and lots of swords around the house.

How to Define Your Niche Market

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
How to Define Your Niche Market

How to Define Your Niche Market

Finding a profitable niche market can help you focus your marketing on specific demographics. Unfortunately, many business owners fail to properly define their niches.

Defining your niche allows you to address the needs of your potential customers. It helps you build more successful marketing campaigns that boost conversion rates and sales.

What Is a Niche Market?

A niche market is a subset of a larger industry. Each niche market has unique needs or preferences that separates it from a broad, generalized market.

For example, website development is a general market. Website development for nonprofits is a niche market. Compared to the average business, nonprofits have distinct needs.

Marketing to a niche is often easier than trying to appeal to a broad audience. With targeted marketing campaigns, you can zero in on the distinct requirements of your niche customer base.

  1. Choose an Industry to Serve

The first step in defining your niche market is to identify the industry that you serve. No matter if you work in real estate or fashion, you should have a good understanding of how the overall industry operates. This allows you to identify:

  • Your biggest competitors
  • The size of the overall market
  • The variety of niche markets within the industry
  • The problems that customers face

You need to define the general problems that customers in your industry face and how you can solve them. This helps you analyze the distinct needs and wants of customers in your niche market compared to the broader market.

  1. Define Your Specialization

Your specialization is what sets you apart from the competition. It allows you to dig deeper into a niche market to address the specific needs of a smaller group of people.

For example, “Dallas Law Firm” covers a broad market. Customers likely have a wide variety of concerns and preferences. By choosing a subset of this market, such as “Dallas Family Law Firm,” you can better serve a select group.

  1. Create a Detailed Buyer Persona

A buyer persona defines your target audience. This is who you plan to market your products or services to.

A typical buyer persona is a short biography of your ideal customer. It should include the buyer’s age, income, career, education, geographical location, interests, and hobbies. These details help humanize your target customer.

  1. Define Your Competitive Advantage

Create a list of the problems that your buyer persona may encounter when searching for products or services in your niche. Go through the list and identify the ways that your business is uniquely equipped to deal with the problems.

You should also take a closer look at your competition. Determine how their products or services address the same problems. Pay attention to the strengths and weaknesses of your competition. If you cannot directly compete against their strengths, try to focus on their weaknesses.

Make a shortlist of the advantages of your products or services based on this research. Use this as your unique value proposition when generating marketing material.

Keep in mind that you do not need to focus on one niche market. As your business grows, you may expand your marketing to cover other niches. However, it is important to build each marketing campaign around one niche.

Business Online Strategy

How to Use TikTok for Small Business Marketing

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
How to Use TikTok for Small Business Marketing

How to Use TikTok for Small Business Marketing

TikTok is one of the latest social media platforms to take off. However, before using it to promote your business, you should learn more about TikTok and its demographics. Social media marketing is only successful if users enjoy your content.

Use the following guide to make the most out of your TikTok marketing efforts:

  1. Make Sure That Your Target Audience Uses TikTok

The first step is to ensure your potential customers use the new social media platform. TikTok has over 500 million monthly active users. 60 million of those users are in the United States.

TikTok has also released stats on the demographics of its users. About 60% of the US audience is female. 60% are aged 16 to 24. 80% are between the ages of 16 and 30.

TikTok is incredibly popular among Generation Z and younger millennials. If you try to market to older adults, you may want to stick with Facebook or Twitter. However, Generation Z includes today’s trendsetters. Marketing to a younger generation may help you promote your brand to a larger audience.

  1. Learn How TikTok Works

To create effective marketing campaigns, you need to understand how TikTok works. TikTok is a video-sharing social media platform.

Users share short video clips lasting between three and fifteen seconds. You may also create looping videos that last between three and sixty seconds.

Most user-uploaded content includes videos of people lip-synching to their favorite songs. However, as the platform’s user base has grown, the variety of video content has increased. People share everything from dance videos to funny video clips.

The platform includes basic video editing features. Before uploading a video, you can add background music or adjust the speed of the video. You also have a few filters to play with.

After uploading a video, other users can react to your short clip with their own video clips. The reactions appear in a small window that you can move around the screen.

TikTok also allows you to add hashtags to your shared videos. Hashtags help people discover content and provide a useful marketing strategy, which you will learn how to use later in this guide.

  1. Generate Fun and Creative Content

As with most types of marketing, you need to generate quality content for TikTok marketing. The content should not be promotional. Focus on creating authentic content that the typical TikTok user may enjoy.

Most of the videos uploaded on the platform are funny or creative. However, you do not need to try to create the next funny viral video. Many small businesses upload video demonstrations of their products. The key is to keep the content light-hearted.

For example, you could film a demonstration of your product and add an unexpected song for background music. Choose something that highlights a feature of your product comically or the lyrics of the song.

  1. Curate Content From Other TikTok Users

You do not need to generate all the content that you share. A common marketing strategy for any social media platform is to curate relevant content from other users.

User-generated content (UGC) provides a content stream of videos for you to share with followers. It can also help you pick up followers who find shared content entertaining.

If possible, look for videos related to your products or services. Unfortunately, small businesses are less likely to find UGC that showcase their specific offerings.

Another option is finding relevant videos you think your followers may enjoy. Search for hashtags and trending topics that you connect to your products or services indirectly.

  1. Advertise Your Content on TikTok

Paid advertising is usually one of the fastest ways to reach a large audience. TikTok gives businesses four different ways to advertise on the social platform:

  • Native ads
  • Brand takeovers
  • Sponsored hashtag challenges
  • Branded filters

Native ads appear between user-generated content. Users can skip or scroll through the ads but it still provides a way to connect with potential customers. The videos need to last between nine and fifteen seconds.

You can include links to landing pages or app downloads in the video. After releasing the ad, TikTok provides metrics such as the click-through rate, number of clicks, impressions, and play duration.

Brand takeovers cost more compared to native ads but generate more exposure. The ads appear at the top of the user feeds before other videos load.

The videos are exclusive to different business categories. Only one video can appear in the slot for a specific category each day.

Sponsored hashtags challenges work differently compared to video ads. With this option, you promote a hashtag and create a page for the challenge. Users upload videos or comment on other videos. However, a custom banner promoting your brand remains visible.

Branded lenses are the fourth advertising option. Businesses can create filters that users can add to their videos. This is useful for wearable products. You could create a filter with a shirt, hat, or other marketing material.

The filter is available in 2D or 3D and lasts for ten days. TikTok also plans to create an augmented reality (AR) version of branded lenses, making this advertisement option more interactive.

  1. Work with TikTok Influencers to Increase Exposure

TikTok is a growing platform and already has influencers with massive followings. TikTok even makes it easy to discover influencers in your niche market.

With the TikTok Creator Marketplace, you can search for the top-trending users and videos. You can also view insights on audience demographics and growth trends to optimize your TikTok marketing campaign.

  1. Monitor Your Results and Tweak Your Efforts

Using Google Analytics or other analytical software, you can monitor referral traffic from TikTok. Pay attention to the traffic you receive from TikTok, conversion rates, and other important metrics.

As you analyze your progress, look for ways to improve your marketing efforts. You may need to post content more frequently or increase your advertising spending.

With these steps, you should build a stronger presence on TikTok.

Why You Should Start an Online Music Business in 2020

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
start a music business online

Why You Should Start an Online Music Business 

Breaking into the music industry is a challenge, whether you are a musician or a producer. Instead of trying to land a job in the music biz, you can start your own business.

Here are a few reasons why now is the ideal year to launch your online music business.

There Is a Growing Demand for Original Music

The music industry continues to grow uniquely, including increased demand for original music. A variety of industries require musical scores and original songs. However, many businesses cannot afford the expensive licensing fees for songs from the Billboard Top 40 chart.

From background music for commercials or independent films to music for marketing material and training videos, businesses need affordable music for various reasons. Your online music business can help address this need.

The Latest Software Makes It Easier to Produce Music

If you run your own record studio as a side hustle, ensure your artists have the latest plugins and gears in their home studio. Investing in equipment for them is better than waiting for a studio session. This is way cheaper, and the quality provided by these home recording solutions is good enough for “released ready” music. You will be able to put these investments in the artist contract and deduct all these investments.

When I signed my first album, the label provided me with a better sound card, a midi controller, a Neumann microphone, and a bunch of plugins for Logic Pro. I could produce my first album at home and save a lot of money for the label. From my side, I enhanced my home studio without paying a dime.

Anyone Can Build a Website for an Online Business

Along with music software, you can access a wide range of options for setting up an online business. WordPress, Drupal, Wix, and other platforms allow anyone to build a website without previous web design experience.

Setting up a website is essential to start a music business online. Your website acts as an online headquarters for your business and connects to your various social media profiles, marketing campaigns, and music distribution sites.

People Constantly Want to Discover Something New

If you are a musician or work with musicians, selling music online is much easier today. People no longer limit themselves to the songs on the radio. The younger generations are constantly searching for something new, allowing them to be the first to discover an innovative indie artist.

You no longer need a massive music studio to market your music. You can use online resources to bring your music directly to the fans without involving music executives or distribution companies.

You Have a Variety of Options for Selling Music

Compared to the past few years, musicians and producers have more ways to sell music in 2020. You can sell instrumental music for use on podcasts or video productions. You can also post music on YouTube or your own website to generate ad revenue from Google AdSense.

Amazon, Google Play, and Apple Music allow independent artists to sell tracks on their online platforms via music distribution services like Distrokid. Distrokid started at only 19$ a year, and you can upload as many albums as you want. They pay you 100% of your royalties and no other costs than a 2 pro version. One option which you can have 2 bands’ names and another one for labels. It is very easy to upload your tracks to online retailers (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Google Play, Rdio, Shazam, Deezer, and more).

The bottom line is that you have access to various technologies in 2020 to help you build a successful music business online. Even with no musical ability, you can start selling music and making money.

start a record label-online

O2O Strategy: Make it Work for You

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
O2O Strategy: Make it Work for You

O2O Strategy: Make it Work for You

O2O stands for both Online to Offline or Offline to Online. If you operate a brick-and-mortar store location, you may find it hard to compete with online retailers. Online shops allow customers to shop for almost anything without leaving their houses.

Using the O2O strategy, you can convert online customers to offline customers. Find out how to drive more foot traffic to your physical location using the online-to-offline strategy.

What Is the O2O Strategy?

O2O stands for “online-to-offline.” The O2O strategy is a method for harnessing online sales to generate more offline sales. It can also refer to offline-to-online tactics.

Thanks to technology, people find it more convenient to shop from home. This has hurt local businesses and retailers with physical locations. In some cases, businesses have shifted their focus to online sales to remain competitive.

The following O2O strategies help you bring more online business to your storefront.

Allow Online Actions to Occur Offline

The most used O2O strategy involves allowing online interactions to occur at your physical location. For example, you can allow customers to place orders online and pick them up at your store. You could also permit customers to return online purchases at your store.

Having customers enter the store allows them to explore more of your merchandise, which may lead to more impulse purchases.

Offer Incentives for Offline Transactions

Giving customers additional reasons to visit your physical location may help increase foot traffic. Make it more enticing to visit your store by offering special discounts or promotions for in-store purchases.

For example, you could promote an in-store sale on your online store. Customers can still complete the transaction online and pick up the item at your store.

Improve Customer Personalization

Your website provides valuable insight into your customers’ spending habits and interests. You can use these insights to deliver a more personalized experience at your store.

Customers may opt-in to receive notifications on their phones when they walk into your store or receive recommendations for related products during checkout. These simple steps make the shopping experience more personal, which tends to build greater brand loyalty.

Create a Seamless O2O Experience

As you start implementing O2O strategies, try to maintain a seamless experience. Customers should receive the same level of service no matter if they shop online or visit your physical store.

Some businesses are trying to bridge the gap between online and offline shopping through online payment processing. For example, if you allow customers to pay with PayPal or Google Pay on your website, they can pay using these methods at your physical store.

PayPal, Google, Apple, and Shopify have solutions for integrating point-of-sale (POS) systems for brick-and-mortar stores. You can also use the same system for remote events, such as outdoor sales or pop-up events.

These are just a few ways to leverage your online presence to generate more offline sales. Pay attention to the feedback that you receive from customers. Use their input to find new ways to create a better online-to-offline transition.

Marketing Tips for Small Businesses During the COVID-19 Crisis

Posted on by Thomas Ferriere
Marketing Tips for Small Businesses During the COVID-19 Crisis

Marketing Tips for Small Businesses During the COVID-19 Crisis

The COVID-19 crisis has affected almost everyone, including small businesses. Many businesses have closed their doors, laid-off employees, or go bankrupt. Those that remain open will likely deal with reduced sales and other obstacles.

Here are a few marketing tips for small businesses during these challenging times.

Highlight the Ways That You Are Helping

If you watch TV, you have likely seen endless commercials showcasing businesses’ efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus. This includes allowing employees to work from home, donating time or money to hospitals and front-line workers, and eliminating late fees for existing customers.

Use this opportunity to highlight the steps you are taking to protect your staff and customers. Make sure that the marketing material you create remains authentic. If the video or social media post is too promotional, it may backfire.

Invest More in Your Marketing and Advertising

You have less competition as more businesses scale back on marketing or advertising. Use this time to invest more in your marketing campaigns and paid advertisements. With less competition, you should experience higher click-through rates, providing a greater return on your marketing spending.

You should also reassess your marketing budget. For example, you may need to hold off on marketing that involves physical aspects, such as promoting an upcoming trade show or event. Focus on online marketing channels such as social media, email marketing, and search engines.

Consider Changing Your Delivery Methods

If you have physical products or operate in a physical location, customers may appreciate delivery options that limit exposure to the public. This may include dropping off items at customers’ homes or offering curbside pickup.

For service-based businesses, consider setting up virtual appointments. For example, you can complete a virtual meeting to discuss SEO services and other consulting work.

Offer to Forego Late Fees or Penalties

Many of your customers may be struggling financially right now. During the COVID-19 crisis, you can pause late fees and other penalties.

While you may miss out on a few dollars from frequently late customers, you can generate more goodwill with your existing customers. This should lead to greater brand loyalty when the threat of coronavirus passes.

Find Out Where Your Customers Go Online

Your marketing efforts may not provide the desired results if you fail to connect with your customer base.

Find out which marketing channels your customers use most. In most cases, the answer is Facebook. However, if you have a younger-skewing customer base, you may also need to market your products or services on Instagram or TikTok.

Create Special Offers and Discounts

Another way to ease the financial burden on your customers is to offer discounts or special promotions. Entice customers to continue shopping by offering them discounts on popular products or services. You may even discount services to your existing customers to encourage ongoing support.

Use these tips throughout the coronavirus pandemic to boost your ROI. Just remember to reassess your marketing campaigns when the threat of the virus passes.