Vertical Marketing to Your Advantage

Vertical Marketing to Your Advantage

What is vertical marketing? Simply put vertical marketing is
promotion targeted at a specific industry. The benefits of
vertical marketing are immense. Vertical marketing can open
new doors and touch niche markets, where there maybe little
competition. Often niche markets are ignored by large
companies. A creative entrepenaur and marketer may find it
easier to establish brand recognition in a specific
industry. In addition, customers are frequently willing to
pay a little more for an industry specific product.
Customers also appreciate the unique benefits they
experience with the more personalized customer support of
the smaller company.

Customers welcome the opportunity to purchase from a company
familiar with their industry and needs. Industry
professionals also tend to listen to their peers, and a
recommendation or endorsement can help spread a products
popularity within a specific market or industry segment.

With a little forethought, minor changes to a basic press
release can change the focus, and target it to a specific
industry. Trade publications are also more likely to give
ink to an application, that targets the magazines focus.
There are numerous link opportunities, if you are able to
illustrate why your application appeals to a specific
industry, by targeting traditional marketing methods at
specific industries and niche markets.

While some products have an obvious vertical target market,
some general products can be effectively targeted at
specific industries or verticals, with just a little
creativity.

Software is an excellent example of a product that lends
itself to vertical marketing. An example of vertical
software is MSA Herp. MSA Herp is herpetology software,
which catalogs the eating and mating habits of snakes and
lizards. Obvious markets include pet stores, zoos and state
parks, which obviously satisfies a very specific audience
and does not necessarily have mass appeal. By catering to
specific audiences this program has become a clear leader
in a very specific field. Believe it or not, this can be
done with "general" applications as well. Software with
broad appeal can be targeted at specific audiences or
verticals. An HTML editor can easily be targeted at the
education market, or a general accounting program can be
targeted at a specific industry like retail stores or law
offices.

Frequently minor code changes and the use of programming
tricks like "conditional compiles" can create an
application that caters to a specific market. The change
could be in terminology, or the graphical presentation of
the program. The idea is to make an application that is
unique or beneficial to a specific group of people. If you
can't think of a niche, create one. Take a look at the type
of customers that you sell to, pick a handful and ask them
what they use your application for. Their answers may
surprise you. By talking to existing customers, you can
extract a profile of a user, and determine ways to reach
potential customers that had not previously been considered.

In order to effectively target vertical markets, often all
that is required are changes to ad-copy and presentation.
Pursue link exchanges and directory listings. Vertical.net
and Global Software Solutions are both industry specific
virtual communities through which you can promote your
products. Consider becoming active in online communities
that cater to your audience or even creating one if your
research indicates a strong enough user base. Consider
targeting web pages at specific industries; offer industry
groups promotional specials or discounts. Provide white
papers, customer profiles or endorsements that detail how
applications can be used in a specific industry. Explain
how the product will solve a specific problem or save time,
in a specific industry. By providing a real world solution
to a real world problem, customers are able to see how
specific products can resolve their day to day problems.

Resources: http://www.globalsoftwaresolutions.net
http://www.vertical.net

white paper samples
http://www.notepager.com/whitepapers.htm

About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for
NotePage, Inc. http://www.notepage.net a company
specializing in alphanumeric paging, SMS and wireless
messaging software solutions. Other sites by Sharon can be
found at http://www.softwaremarketingresource.com , and
http://www.messaging-software.net