The competition for audience attention has never been fiercer, and creating content that will resonate with a specific demographic is exceptionally challenging. It’s one thing to look at previous material that has resonated, but how can you inform new content concepts that you haven’t explored before? How do you avoid repeating the same old messaging over and over? In the worst case, you could invest in content and advertising that fails miserably with your target demographic. People’s favorite content forms vary significantly from platform to platform, and audience preferences shift so quickly that it’s challenging to stay ahead of the game and figure out how your messages could come alive across all these platforms.
Burgers and fries were the only items on the menu when McDonald’s first opened for business. Following a review of competitors, the founders realized that they needed to be unique to differentiate themselves as a food chain. Instead of having a diverse menu, they decided to focus solely on their best-selling items, resulting in a significant increase in consumer satisfaction.
McDonald’s founders took advantage of white space prospects in their sector. While other fast-food chains at the time had a varied menu but lacked in customer service, the McDonald’s team chose to focus on just two food items to put customer service first. McDonald’s soon grew to the Multi-billion dollar empire we know today.
What is a White Space?
A white space is where customers’ unstated or unmet demands are identified to drive innovation. It’s a method of identifying new markets and product improvement opportunities in the business world.
Case Study
In 2014, Redbull Canada’s design team generated a content format that has since seen over 100 million video views using a straightforward framework version.
They were tasked with devising a strategy for all digital marketing operations to ensure the long-term viability of Redbull’s numerous digital platforms over the coming year. One of their strategic aims was the creation of a recurring content format that could spread to new genres while remaining unique to Red Bull.
The concept had to be adaptable enough to sustain the Red Bull brand’s social media and web efforts. At the same time, they needed to develop a unique solution to avoid the high expenditures of music licensing and production.
Bored with the repetitive rigor of the process, the team joked about doing the very opposite of the marketing trends at the time. Moving away from the conventional music inundated and slow-motion-based video marketing to one based on natural sounds, more matter-of-fact and less refined just ended up being the right answer they were seeking. I guess ‘Eureka!’ is a particular type of crazy.
Defying convention and tapping into the more relatable content whitespace, Raw 100 soon became a big success until now.
How to Find White Space Opportunities in Business
Innovate on Your Current Product Offerings
One of the best areas to start looking for white spaces is inside your present consumer offerings. Consider identifying where white spaces can be found in your products. Assess where client needs are being satisfied and where they are not. By analyzing a large number of content forms using metrics such as video views, engagements, and shares, you can determine which types of content themes are doing best in your category.
You can then organize all of those posts into meaningful themes. Patterns will begin to emerge, indicating which themes are currently resonating with your audience. Carefully note that reliance on software should be low on this aspect as themes carry so much nuance that requires direct human interpretation.
For example, when your content production team comes upon a topic that generates a great deal of interest from your readers but hasn’t been written about it yet, that is a whitespace. Consequently, you can choose how to innovate: Are you going to publish a series of pieces on the subject, create subcategories for smaller topics, or create a media collection on the subject?
Perform a Competitor Analysis
Conducting a competitor analysis is the first step in locating whitespaces in your market. Begin by picking your top 5–10 competitors and conducting a thorough analysis of each. Create a matrix and search for trends and similarities across the competitive landscape, and identify what brand identities and affiliations each rival owns in the market.
There are many elements to be evaluated, including:
- Visual branding
- Differentiation, Audience categorization, and targeting
- Positioning
- Messaging
- Products and services Mix
- Brand personality
- Pricing and Customer retention
Conduct Constant Social Media Analysis
Keep an eye on what your target clients are doing on various social media platforms and compare your results. Social monitoring is crucial, especially as one unfavorable review can cost a company 30% of its consumers. Users spend an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes every day on social media, so understanding what they’re speaking about is critical. Even something as simple as your typical follower’s age group might provide you with helpful information about what you should be talking about. You also gain a good understanding of your strengths and flaws. It would be best to keep an eye on trends in social media material created by your business rivals to make sure you aren’t missing out on anything.
Find Your Company’s Value Proposition
Imagine you are in charge of an onsite field services company dealing in cable internet. Aware that there are many similar companies in the market, you may be struggling to find white spaces. You acknowledged in your business plan that your company will deliver an easy-to-use, intuitive customer platform. That is the feature that distinguishes you from your competitors. Efficient onsite customer experience will then be your whitespace.
Onsite customer service is often a challenge for many field services companies. Yours eliminates this struggle. Your firm will be the one that presents a customer-friendly interface, and this is the messaging you’ll intend to push. If your organization is having trouble finding white space, revisit your business plan. You might find the strategy you require to go back on track.
Final Word
Identifying content whitespaces is essential in defining a working marketing strategy. White spaces can help your company’s branding strategy stand out. Maybe you’re having trouble figuring out where your product belongs in the market. If you can discover a space for innovation, you can use it to improve how others see your firm. Here’s a quick recap;
- Measure the performance of as much content in your niche as you can, categorize it into themes, and find patterns of top-performing content themes.
- Run through the same process for all your key competitors, looking for content themes that your competitors already own and are saturating.
- Look back at your list of content themes and find the themes that are both resonating with the audience and not already oversaturated by your competitors; those are the whitespace opportunities you’re looking for.
- Complete this process for every social platform that matters to your brand and audience. This will show your content strategy should differ across all the various social channels.
For additional tips on finding whitespace opportunities and working out effective marketing strategies, reach out to us at The Centennial Ink, and we will guide you all the way.
