Niching down on associations

“If you think about it, there really is an association for everything.”

This was the founding insight for my guest, Brad Gillum, who found a niche providing marketing services to membership-based companies and professional associations.

Brad’s company, Willow Marketing, has been in business for over thirty years and serves associations and member-based organizations. 

In this episode, we dive into the genesis of his agency, the trials and tribulations over the decades, and most importantly, we get to extract a nugget of wisdom or two on building verticalized agencies.

Here’s what we cover:

• Going from a generalist offering to a verticalized business.

• How the economic downturn in the 90s pushed Brad to find his niche.

• What it is like to serve a niche that isn’t competing against each other.

• How thought leadership and events helped Willow cement their footing in his vertical.

• How to leverage your current expertise to open a new vertical.

Here are some actionable key takeaways for agency founders:

• If you’re burning the candle at both ends, it’s time to re-evaluate your business model.

• Seek out advice from those who’ve done it before.

• Branching out to a secondary niche is an investment and can take years to complete.

• C-level should be doing the selling at a niche agency.

🎧 Listen to the episode now:

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Best,

CQ

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