Any marketing professional who has been in the business long enough should know that all any service professional or consultant needs to be successful is drive or passion. However, when you’re building a niche marketing list you need more than drive and passion, more than a lot of determination and energy.  What you truly need is a plan.  A plan that acts in harmony –

K.I.S.E.

• Knowledge

  • Knowledge is power.

• Information

  • Information is key.

• Strategy

  • Strategy is paramount.

• Execution

  • Execution is everything.

Having knowledge of the niche you are trying to market gives you power. Having the right information at your fingertips is also key. A good strategy is additionally paramount to your marketing success. From the creative ad/mail piece, to planning the campaign dates, your execution is everything. Always keep the K.I.S.E plan in the back of your mind when working on a niche marketing campaign, and never lose passion.

Unbanked or Underbanked

There is a large sector of our population that is classified as unbanked or underbanked. These sections of population are more prevalent in low or no job growth communities, generally lacking educational backgrounds causing them to earn a lower than average yearly income.

• 7% of United States households are unbanked

• 19.9% of United States households are underbanked

Some primary characteristics of this sector of the US population are a very inconsistent stream of income and a large distrust in banks. When most banks want to charge you for even having a checking account, and on top of that, some banks allow you to overdraft, and this leads to additional fees. When you have a very inconsistent income stream, you search for alternative methods to manage your cash flow.

They use services like:

 

• Payday Loans

• Money Orders

• Check Cashing

• Pawn Shops

• Auto Title Loans

 

With a volatile income, this sector of the population is very likely to use payday loans, check cashing, auto title loans, money orders, or even pawn shops for some quick cash or banking type services.

Knowing about the people you are trying to market to will be essential. These unbanked or underbanked consumers are not found by the typical response file mailings as they do not use credit cards. These are consumers that have responded that they use cash for their transactions, as opposed to a check, debit, or credit card.