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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