Somewhat like the vastness of interstellar space, it’s hard for me to fathom just how much stuff there is for sale in the world — it’s staggering.
Yet even with so many sellers already providing the most popular products, one strategy that still breaks through is to take advantage of the “long tail” in marketing, monetizing the realm of the deeply niche.
Similarly, there is a ton of value beyond popular content keywords, and savvy marketers know that the best optimization brings in the right customers — qualified leads primed for conversion.
Thoughtfully chosen long-tail keywords deliver choosy shoppers like me past the flashy and popular front-page products because we’re looking for something more precise. I know I’ll be excited to buy it immediately — when I find it.
Let’s dive into this strategy, look at some long tail marketing examples, and then explore how this idea applies beautifully to content marketing.
What is long tail marketing?
Long tail marketing is a strategy that aims to make an advantage of variety to rival the advantage of popularity. The theory is that a greater variety of products and/or services could generate more sales by reaching more customers and meeting more needs. It posits that selling just a little bit of a lot of lower-demand products could produce similar profits to selling a lot of just a few popular products.
The term “long tail” was coined by Chris Anderson to describe the graph below.
