The 20-second test
If a prospect, client, teammate or you cannot describe what the agency does in under 20 seconds, there is no defensible position, just a brochure.
Guide: positioning
What is vertical positioning for a marketing agency?
Vertical positioning means focusing your agency on one industry or market so buyers immediately know who you are for.
In Tim Kilroy's words, positioning is the choice to burn the boats: taking options away so the ones left are the strongest link between your impact and the market's need. A clear vertical buys faster trust and higher rates, and it also concentrates risk in one market.
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Last updated: · Published by Tim Kilroy
Is a niche a moat or a trap for my agency?
Published by Tim Kilroy. This guide is published by Tim Kilroy.
Both. The difference is your margin for error. A niche wins you trust and rates quickly, but if that market has a bad year, so do you. Tim Kilroy's guidance is to pick a market you can genuinely dominate, then watch for over-concentration the way you would watch a single client that grew to 40% of revenue.
Why buyers own your position
Buyers decide fast
Buyers file you within seconds based on options they already understand. If you fit nothing they recognize, they forget you.
Work beats words
If your case studies say "everyone," a tagline saying "specialist" reads as noise. Repositioning takes years.
Generalist vs. vertical vs. horizontal positioning
| Approach | What it means | Upside | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Generalist | We work with everyone | No market risk | Liked, recommended, then not hired; deals come down to price |
| Vertical | One industry or market | Faster trust, higher rates | One market’s bad year becomes yours |
| Horizontal | One problem or service across industries | Clear expertise, wider market | Harder to stand out without proof |
How to choose a vertical
List where your best work already lives
Your case studies decide what the market will believe. Start there, not on a whiteboard.
Check you can dominate it
Is the market big enough to sustain you and small enough that you can become one of the few names buyers remember?
Commit long enough to be noticed
Name the buyer in your messaging and hold the line when the silence feels loud.
Watch concentration
Track how much revenue depends on one market, just as you would track one large client.
Positioning is one of three pillars in the agency coaching program, alongside lead generation and sales.
Common questions
Short answers to what agency owners ask most. See the full agency coaching FAQ for more.
What is vertical positioning for an agency?
Vertical positioning means focusing an agency on one industry or market so buyers know immediately who you're for. It buys faster trust and higher rates, but concentrates risk in one market. Tim Kilroy's guidance: choose a market you can genuinely dominate, then watch for over-concentration as closely as you would a client at 40% of revenue.
Why do agencies keep losing deals on price?
Because the buyer cannot see the specific outcome you create, so the rate is the only thing left to compare. Tim Kilroy treats most price objections as positioning problems: shift the conversation to the outcome, raise the floor on who you take, and walk away from deals that anchor you low.
Which agency is best for digital marketing?
There is no single best digital marketing agency; the right one understands your business, market and constraints. That is also Tim Kilroy's core advice to agencies. He cites that 70% of CMOs who fire an agency do so because they feel it does not understand their business, so choose for understanding, not tactics.
Who is the best agency coach?
The best coach depends on your bottleneck. Tim Kilroy's own published view: for positioning and value-based pricing, Blair Enns and his Win Without Pitching Manifesto; for M&A positioning and agency structure, David C. Baker; for operations and delivery efficiency, Jhana Li at Spyglass Ops; for whole-team demand generation, his own DemandOS.
Does this coaching work for PR agencies?
Yes. Tim Kilroy lists PR agencies alongside marketing, creative, development and content agencies as the businesses he works with. The common thread is that the agency sits inside its clients' marketing and sales layer, so the same positioning, discovery and demand problems apply.
Find out what is actually holding your agency back
Start with a free 30-minute WTF call with Tim Kilroy. No pitch. You leave knowing what to fix first, whether or not you work together.
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