Mastering New Markets: Essential Do's and Don'ts for Success

Jenny Ngo
Apr 15
5 min read

Updated: May 4

Content for this blog post was gathered from Social Media Examiner, Pretty Little Marketer, and Sprout Social.

Whether you’re new to the world of niche social media platforms, Gen Z audiences, TikTok trends, and many more. It’s honestly easy to feel disconnected or struggle to understand the constantly emerging trends and such. Often, it’s tempting to shy away from unfamiliar territory, blending into the crowd as a result. But if you want to stand out and truly make an impact, then you are at the right place! Here, we’ll dive into practical strategies to help you adapt and connect with target audiences that are different from your own. With our tips, you’ll learn how to cater content to your audience without sounding fake or artificial.

For this blog post, I will discuss the do’s and don’ts when it comes to working with a new audience. We will also focus on examples using my favorite companies such as Rhode , ELF and a lot others to get a better understanding of how we get into effective and authentic marketing.

What to do

Do your Research!

To understand more about your new target demographic, is to do your research! Especially if you want to make your content feel more authentic! In the article from PrettyLittleMarketer.com titled “Lessons from Rhode’s Peptide Lip Shape Launch” by Ramie Thompson, the author discusses the clever marketing strategies Rhode employed to release its newest product, the Peptide Lip Shape. By using top models (aligned with their target age demographic) and even featuring Tate McCrae to showcase the product, Rhode clearly aimed to resonate with its audience. it’s crucial to conduct your own research, identify gaps, and devise an approach tailored to the situation. Rhode executes this with a sense of fun and precision, ensuring their strategy fits seamlessly with their target audience and generation—something they’ve managed to do quite cleverly.

Engage with your audience.

Interaction with your followers is effective. Not only is this a good way to research what your audience is like but this is also an effective way to boost more engagement. When you hear directly from your audience this helps you avoid awkward assumptions and makes you stay relatable. Duolingo, a language learning app pretty much started out as a typical language learning app until later on memes from users showing up making the Mascot of the app a lot more menacing. As a result of the app playing along and making content with things up to date such as memes and trends. Such as when they quickly jumped on the NBA Offer Trend, Participants (in this case the Duolingo Owl) "offer a trade," usually two amusing or unusual objects, as the NBA draft jingle plays. While "you get Spanish lessons, push notifications," and "an owl friend," Duo receives no compensation. (Gahan, 2021)

Finding the Problem

To reach more relatability and create a genuine connection with your audience, find an area that your audience often has trouble with and offer a solution. By addressing their struggles, this will help demonstrate understanding and empathy, making your message resonate on a personal level. For example, Discord was created because of how gamers lacked a proper platform to communicate effectively during their online session.

Become more consistent and flexible!

As mentioned before, we live in a time where things are constantly changing and evolving. So it is important to remain consistent to build trust with your audience and become flexible, helping you to adapt more with your audience. For example, Duolingo’s content mainly consisted of popular memes and trends, the company also experimented to see what worked and what didn't, helping them understand what their audience would be more likely to be engaged with (Gahan, 2021).

Experimenting with new things

E.L.F cosmetics, a well known drugstore makeup brand, collaborated with Roblox to create a whole new immersive world in the game. Not only was this idea super out of pocket and wild, but this was honestly a smart move, Which is Because many of their customers—mainly young ladies and preteens—spend time there. Similarly, understanding their audience’s passion for music, E.L.F. released a music video on TikTok that drew five million challenge videos and billions of viewers (Michael Stelzner, 2025). This highlights that ELF’s success is not a creative gamble but it is also a way to build better relationships with their audience making their brand more authentic and relatable for the audience.

What NOT To Do

Going in blind

Seriously, why would you? Like any other thing you get into, it’s never smart to go in blind, especially when you’re getting into something you have no idea about. Whether it’s learning a new skill, entering a niche market, or connecting with an audience you’ve never worked with before, going in without preparation is a recipe for mistakes and missed opportunities.

Fakin' It

While it is okay to have a persona to cater to your audience, if you don’t understand the trends, lingo, and slang, chances are your message won’t land—or worse, it won’t even be understandable. PrettyLittleMarketer.com titled “Lessons from Rhode’s Peptide Lip Shape Launch” by Ramie Thompson, the author talks about her excitement surrounding Rhode’s latest marketing campaign for its newest release: the Peptide Lip Liner. The concept of the article could have been enjoyable to read—if not for the writer’s forced attempts at making the tone overly relatable, making some parts of the article a bit harder to understand and easily lose interest--Unless if you want to be like the guy from 30 Rock, then be my guest.

Not Considering your target audience

We live in a time where things are constantly changing, we are also living in a time where things are diverse. Meaning its more important than ever to consider Cultural Sensitivity. Many businesses and brands have faced backlash excluding or insulting customers or employees. Whether or not you are for or against any matter, it’s always best to remain mindful.

Final Thoughts

The reason I wrote this article is simple: I’ve seen from time and time again many businesses making the same mistake, which is not understanding who their audience is. And as we live in a time where things will continue to expand and evolve at an unprecedented pace, connecting and understanding your audience is more important than ever.

Throughout this essay, we looked at the major do's and don'ts of marketing to unknown areas. From conducting rigorous research and engaging authentically to avoiding false assumptions and forced identities, we've detailed practical techniques to help you stand out. Learning from successful firms like Rhode, Duolingo, and E.L.F Cosmetics demonstrates that understanding your target is essential for effective, relevant, and meaningful marketing.

When we don’t understand we risk falling behind instead of standing out and making an impact. However, with the correct tactics, you may not only adapt to these problems, but also leave a lasting impression that distinguishes you.