Spiderman with tall buildings

The MSP marketing superpower of picking a vertical

Paul GreenUncategorized

Let me tell you about one of the MSP marketing superpowers you can unleash to utterly dominate a marketplace.

The superpower is picking a vertical.

I'm not talking about picking a skyscraper to climb à la Spiderman (although that would be great - albeit dangerous - PR). I'm talking about finding a niche to target your marketing at.

When you specialise in a specific vertical - or niche - it makes marketing so much easier.

And I know this because I've done it a number of different times. Of course I do it now - working specifically with MSPs.

But at my first marketing agency, we only worked with veterinarians, opticians and dentists.

Those are three very specific verticals- on purpose. Because the more specific your target audience, the easier it is to market to them.

This is based on the principal that the best marketing appears to be highly relevant to the person that's receiving it.

For example, let's say you were targeting accountants.

If you were targeting accountant, and in all your marketing you were talking about;

  • technology for accountants
  • what the average accountants' practice does
  • the set up for most accountants

In reality, you'll be talking in very general technology terms. But only you know that. To the people that are receiving that marketing, you appear to be talking directly about them.

When you're targeting someone in a vertical, it's also easier to actually reach those people in the first place, because;

- You can do Google searches for accountants in a certain area
- You can buy data of people within that vertical
- You can both research and target trade magazines
- You can go to trade shows
- You can follow those firms on social media

The list of possibilities could be pretty long.

And the final advantage of targeting a vertical is that you can very quickly become the go to authority in that vertical.

One of my MSP clients is utterly dominating his vertical right now here in the UK.

He already had a couple of clients in that specific vertical, and a couple of years ago made a decision to make that vertical his target audience.

Since then he's set up a website all about that vertical, he's got involved with all the organisations and associations, he goes to all the trade shows and has even become a known speaker off the back of it.

He's not the only MSP in that space, by the way. But he is the only MSP in his specific vertical.

What's the right vertical for you? Well, first of all, look at your client base.

What kind of clients do you have right now? Is there a trend? Can you see there are certain types of clients you not only enjoy working with, but are within a specific vertical?

Maybe there's a vertical sat within your business already that would be very easy for you to start marketing to today.

Email me anytime at hello@paulgreensmspmarketing.com (I don't bite. Often.). Or join 1,800+ MSPs in my MSP Marketing Facebook group today.