Vertical Marketing Campaigns Work

By Ian Richardson, Managing Partner, Richardson & Richardson Consulting LLC

Inspired by Thursday Process with guest Taher Hamid, MSP Camp

Vertical Marketing Campaigns

Marketing campaigns are the strategy and tactics utilized by your organization to attract new potential business opportunities. Sometimes these can be to recruit a “new logo” to your organization (a brand new client relationship), sometimes they can be utilized to market a new product or service offering to your existing customer base, and sometimes they can be focused on reinforcing your value for your existing offerings. Regardless of the “goal” of the campaign, how the campaign is structured, the “messaging” of the campaign is critical to its success. A Vertical marketing campaign is a campaign that is tailored to a specific target audience, or vertical, such as manufacturers in the defense industry, CPA offices with 3 or more partners in the Long Island metropolitan statistical area, or I.T. service providers who are struggling to generate new leads.

Ensuring that the messaging is on point and that vertical marketing campaigns are effective helps an organization avoid the frustration of lost deals to competition, the discouragement experienced by underperforming sales teams, and the shame and insecurity that can befall entrepreneurs when their organization gets “stuck” in a space of flat growth.

Why are Vertical Marketing Campaigns Important

The reason vertical marketing campaigns are so important is that they’re speaking to a “buyer persona.” That buyer persona, your “vertical target”, has specific pains, beliefs, and desires that are unique to their space. In the USA, a doctor’s office cares about efficiency in their support staff and the ability to maximize the provider’s “billable visits” while minimizing the time needed per visit due to the way providers are compensated by the insurance industry.

A vertical marketing campaign speaking to doctors in private practice exploring the topic of self-registration and pre-payment via a waiting room kiosk to collect pertinent information like medical history, medication list, problem lists, and insurance and payment details can streamline the front reception desks time, as well as optimize time spent by medical assistants in the patient room. That optimization might allow for extra visits to be scheduled during the workday, which in turn generates extra revenue for the same payroll dollar spend – a message that will resonate with the doctors.

Because the vertical marketing campaign is well crafted to the target audience, the provider of the kiosk software could expect increased engagement and opportunities once the campaign is launched.

How can Vertical Marketing Campaigns fail.

My friend and colleague in the I.T. Channel, Taher Hamid, Camp Leader at MSP Camp, joined me on the Richardson & Richardson webinar series The Thursday Process, and shared why it is so important to target true problems, beliefs, or desires for your target vertical. If you create content that isn’t truly speaking to your vertical, it will fall flat. The content won’t take off, you won’t create the interest and demand your organization needs to drive its growth goals, and you will have wasted the resources expended on creating the content.

Final Thoughts

Vertical marketing campaigns are a fantastic way to dial in on what really matters to your target markets. Through proper strategy and tactics, supported by the right messaging, you can achieve steady, routine, year over year growth and a business that thrives and delivers reliable returns.

If you’re struggling with getting marketing efforts started, figuring out how to properly target your desired audience, or getting alignment with your team on the need to invest in the effort, Richardson & Richardson can help. Check out our case studies for stories of organizations that we’ve assisted with similar issues and download our white papers for deep dives on tools you can use in your organization. If you’re wondering where to start, book a complimentary session with one of the Richardsons today to come up with a plan on how to move forward.