With social media, the racing world has become pretty saturated online. It can feel like it’s just one big mass of people all clamoring for the same sponsors and fans. Even within the small world of racing, you can niche down even farther to find an audience that is yours. Derek Halpern once said, “Before you build your audience, know who you want to sit in the seats.”

In this post, I’ll show you how to niche down in the world of racing to find your ideal audience.

Why This Matters to Sponsors

Knowing exactly who is following you is crucial to your sponsors; they want lots of audience data from you so they know that you’ll take them directly to their target market. If a potential sponsor asks you if the demographics and buying methods of your followers match theirs, can you answer them? If not, then they will just go find a different method to use their advertising bucks.

It’s tough to pitch a potential sponsor if you don’t know their target market and how to reach them. A lot of the time we are throwing our marketing attempts out into the wind and hoping that someone, anyone, will either buy from us or our sponsor. In order to strategize your marketing, you need to answer:

• Who this is for?
• How you can serve them?
• What they are looking for?

Once you nail down who you want to attract, everything else will fall into place. 

How to Find Your Niche

When you comb through this data (along with your demographic social media insights) you will see shared characteristics. It could be their location, occupation, the platform they use the most, or what type of brands they love.

This is what’s known as your niche—a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service. The keyword in this definition is specialized, so really narrowing it down and becoming well known for something particular. This will also help you out so much when you’re trying to find a sponsor; you will not only become an expert on your audience, but you can align yourself with the perfect company that fits your niche. 

Using your Instagram insights and market research, you can discover who is naturally attracted to you and your brand, and you can really own them as your fanbase.

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There are many different ways to communicate on social media, you don’t have to be the winningest or the loudest or the most entertaining to be effective. Those who connect with you and your message organically will join your fanbase. Figure out who you attract and who you repel, and please don’t try to talk to the masses or else nobody will hear you.

The biggest benefit of your social media, and even your newsletter list, is that you will find those that will actually take the time to read and respond to you. The people who want to get to know you are the ones that are true supporters. 

The next step after figuring out your niche in the racing world is to start building your marketing deck to compile all this data into a presentable way for potential sponsors. Download my free marketing deck roadmap here.