Vertical positioning is when a marketing agency focuses on one industry or buyer type instead of serving everyone.
The Agency Research Hub, published by Tim Kilroy, sees positioning as the first fix for agencies that have outgrown referrals. In a market of 71,000+ North American agencies, Tim Kilroy's view is that buyers cannot remember an agency they cannot describe in a sentence, so a clear vertical gives them one.
The research
The finding
87%
87% of the 71k digital agencies Promethean Research evaluated had fewer than 50 full-time employees.
Source: Promethean Research, Digital Agency Industry ReportTim Kilroy's take
Thousands of small firms look identical from the outside. The "we work with everyone" agency is not open-minded, it is friend-zoned: prospects like you, recommend you to a friend and hire someone else. Positioning is a forcing function for memory.
Evidence cards
Tim Kilroy describes positioning as an active choice to remove options so the remaining ones are the strongest connection between your impact and the market's need. He calls it burning the boats. The buyer owns your position, not you: buyers categorize an agency quickly based on options they already understand. That means your case studies must match your claim. If your work says "everyone," a tagline that says "specialist" reads as noise. You can rewrite headlines in a week; repositioning takes years because the work has to back the words.
Tim Kilroy's warning: a niche buys faster trust and higher rates, and it also concentrates your risk into one market's weather. Nobody tells you what to do when the niche has a bad year. His advice is to choose a market you can genuinely dominate and watch for over-concentration the way you would watch a single client that grew into 40% of revenue. Vertical positioning is not the only valid choice, but it is the one most small agencies can make credible fastest, because past clients already prove it.
Comparison
| Positioning | What buyers hear | Where it wins | Where it struggles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical (one industry) | "They know my business" | Trust, referrals inside the industry, higher rates | Industry downturns hit the whole pipeline |
| Horizontal (one service) | "They are the experts at this one thing" | Deep craft; buyers with a known need | Harder to explain business outcomes |
| Generalist | "They do a bit of everything" | Early stage, while finding fit | Deals collapse to price |
Procedure
Find the industry where you already have results, happy clients and case studies. The market reads your work before your tagline.
You want enough buyers to fill your pipeline and few enough competitors that you can become the obvious name.
Name the buyer, the problem and the outcome. Test it on a client, a teammate and a stranger.
Expect quiet months. Refuse to flinch when the silence feels loud, and back the position with new case studies and content.
Research first? Read how to do digital agency market research. Tim's full Agency Positioning Playbook is on timkilroy.com. Back to the digital agency research hub
FAQ
Tim Kilroy helps established agencies find what is genuinely different about them and put it in the deck, the pitch and the position.
Published by Tim Kilroy