In an age of an e-commerce boom, expedited by the pandemic and limitations enforced through lockdown, the importance of catchy and engaging marketing has become more important than ever. With social media at the heart of the majority of our communications, and feeds constantly bombarded with messages and adverts designed to catch our increasingly short attention spans, anyone new trying to break into the market, regardless of their niche, has a daunting task ahead of them. And while sites like this can help to spread the word and give a home to small business advertising, there is no denying that the competition beyond can be vicious.

Many business people will tell you that there is no such thing as an oversaturated market, while others will tell you that any market you might be trying to break into is already oversaturated. Regardless of which of these is true, there is one thing that can generally be agreed upon: there is such a thing as oversaturated marketing. Of course, these days, marketing is so oversaturated, and we are so bombarded that we barely even notice it anymore, it has become part of our subconscious psyche. It is, in many ways so subtle and yet so pervasive that it can sometimes be hard to differentiate between a genuine want for something being marketed at you and continual advertising making you think you want or need a product. Adverts are even brighter, flashier, and more outrageous in a bid to capture our attention. How then does anyone wishing to promote anything make an intended audience see it, and want it when there is so much noise to cut through.

Beyond advertising on specialist sites like ours, the best advice will always be to find your niche. Find the niche that your product is designed towards, and tailor your product and any advertising to it to fit the specifications of that niche as closely as possible. Brainstorm about your ideal audience member – Who are they, what do they like and dislike? Why would they need your product? How would they find out about your product if you’re selling it online? If you’re using social media to market to them, which platform are they most likely to use? How can you use the features of that platform to your advantage when advertising?

These are all basic questions centering around the core idea of marketing yet are worth remembering to come back to now and again, as a key focus point for any advertising strategy. In a world of constant adverts and continual change, sometimes we can all get swept up in things that are bigger, brighter, and shinier. But to advertise a product you must have a consumer in mind and bringing everything back to that consumer and what they are likely to actually find value in, how they may value your product. At the end of the day, after all, we are just people trying to connect with people and make lives for ourselves in the best way we know-how.