My 5-Step Process For Helping Agencies

Here's my 5-step process for helping agencies adopt a vertical market approach:

Step One: Use current client data to identify which vertical market your best-fit clients fall into

Step Two: Interview current/past vertical customers to uncover how and why they buy from you

Step Three: Find your competitive differentiators by researching your vertical competitors

Step Four: Establish your unique positioning so your target vertical buyers find you remarkable and irresistible 

Step Five: Launch inbound, outbound, and relationship-based marketing campaigns targeting your high-value vertical market buyers

From there, we test, learn, iterate...and grow. 

Guess which step my agency founders want to jump to?

If you guessed Step Five...you'd be right.

That's why part of my job is to remind them sometimes you've got to go slow to go fast. 

Have a great day!

CQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does the process start with analyzing current client data instead of picking a vertical outright?

Because real evidence from existing best-fit clients reveals which vertical already shows promise, rather than starting from a guess or assumption about which market might work well.

Why does interviewing current and past vertical customers come before building differentiation?

Because understanding how and why they actually buy provides the raw material needed to build genuine differentiation, rather than guessing at what matters to them.

Why is researching vertical competitors necessary before establishing positioning?

Because understanding what already exists in the competitive landscape is what reveals where real differentiation can actually be built, rather than accidentally repeating positioning competitors already claim.

Why do agency founders always want to skip to Step Five, launching campaigns?

Because campaigns feel like tangible progress and immediate action, while the earlier steps, data analysis, interviews, competitive research, and positioning, feel slower and less exciting, even though they're what make the campaigns actually work.

What's the actual lesson behind reminding founders to slow down before jumping to campaigns?

That sometimes you've got to go slow to go fast. Skipping the foundational steps to launch marketing sooner often means launching campaigns without the clarity needed to make them actually effective.