Vertical And Horizontal Market Strategies

What’s the right approach for your MSP?

Differentiation is an ongoing challenge for many MSPs. It’s harder than ever to stand out in our constantly changing, highly competitive market. 

So how do you make yourself relevant to the right clients? Answering that means making a decision about who you’re going to serve. And that starts with choosing between two basic market strategies — vertical or horizontal.

A vertical market strategy approach

A vertical market strategy targets a specific industry, trade, profession, or other group of customers with specialized needs. This could be:

• A specific industry — healthcare, education, finance
• An industry subset — dentists, online universities, off-shore tax consultants
• A niche within a niche — POS for dentists, IT for online universities, VOIP for off-shore tax consultants