Zap
A competition site’s niche defines the types of prizes it has on offer, its overall vibes, and its theme.
Maybe you offer fast cars, maybe you’re really into stationery. Whatever it is that makes you tick, it’s great to use it as your brand’s angle.
Defining a niche for your competition brand makes you stand out from the crowd.
A niche is what makes you unique, which allows you to more effectively target very specific audiences, increasing your customer base efficiently by focusing on people with similar interests to you.
In that way, being specialised with your interests can actually increase your customer base, whilst requiring a smaller marketing budget.
But it also reduces competition. Why?
Well, imagine someone searches, ‘competition business’ online. Every single brand that identifies as a competition business, in every single field of interest, with every sort of prize possible will come up.
In all of that, your business is now just one of many.
However, if they search for ‘cars online competitions’, their field is much narrower. If you’re one of the competition sites with a niche in cars, yours will come up. You won’t have to compete with every single competition site in existence — what great news!
Do what you’re passionate about. Follow your dreams.
By honing in on something you care about, you actually hone in on your strengths. You’re better able to publicise and discuss something that you really care about, and you understand customers’ pain points in that area, because you’re one of them.
You also, incidentally, will probably have more fun selling things than you would selling random products.
Have a gander at what your fellow competition businesses offer, particularly in your specific area of interest.
Is it a very saturated market? Are there lots of competition businesses in the same area? If so, it might be worth defining your niche even further, or picking something else. Remember, there will always be competition, so it’s not impossible to sell what you love, but it has to be realistic.
Also, think about whether those competitions sell well. Look at customer reviews and testimonials, and see what you can offer that they don’t. That is another way of being more specific with your niche — your niche becomes not only ‘cosmetics’, for example, but ‘upmarket cosmetics you can’t find on the high street’, because no one else offers those.
You’ll also need to think about supply and demand. Ask yourself: Is it enough to buy and sell my particular prizes and make a profit?
Think about where you’ll get your prizes from, and whether there are items you can buy in bulk. You can also think about what people might be willing to pay for a chance at winning those particular items.
Finally, think about whether the target audience is particularly expansive. Scroll through Reddit and Quora, and talk to experts in the competitions industry, to see if there’s much demand for items like yours, or if people talk about that area. What are the questions you can answer?
If you struggle to find content, it might be that you’ve gone too niche. For example, you don’t want to sell ‘pink eyeliner pens’ specifically, because,
a) there probably aren’t enough prizes you can offer and b) people probably don’t care about that topic.
They don’t care enough about pink eyeliner to come back repeatedly (who needs more than, maximum, two pink eyeliners?!). Since retention is important in competitions, it might be better to go with ‘impressive makeup items’ more generally.
Come and partner with Team Zap! If you’re worried your niche is too niche, or you have too many interests to narrow them down, we’re the answer to all your problems.
No, seriously. Contact us today, and we’ll get people talking about your competitions lickedy-split.
