VMAD: The Vertical Market Analysis Drilldown

This will cover the Vertical Market Analysis Method/Drilldown (VMAM/VMAD)

With Theme Zoom, you can easily analyze your market/theme at many different levels, by using the "drilldown" feature. Drilling down into a theme simply means analyzing a theme in terms of its associated keywords, or more specifically, generating a list of keywords associated with the theme. You can drill into a theme either from the Theme Management screen, or from the Zoom Analysis screen (via the Drilldown button).

Whenever you drill into a keyword which has more competing websites than your current Parent Theme, you are (probably) "zooming out" to a higher-level of analysis of your market/theme. Zooming out is equivalent to climbing UP your vertical market silo. When you zoom out to a broader scope of analysis of your market, the theme from which you zoomed out often becomes a high scoring Subtheme or a Niche of your new higher-level theme.

For Example, if your current Parent Theme is "tshirt design" (61,400 competing websites) and you "zoom out" by drilling into "tshirt" (8,130,000 competing websites), then "tshirt design" becomes a Niche in the context of your new Parent Theme of "tshirt".

Whenever you drill into a keyword which has fewer competing websites than your current Parent Theme, you are (probably) "zooming in" to a lower-level of analysis of your market/theme. Zooming in is equivalent to climbing DOWN your vertical market silo.

Vertical Market Analysis Method:

The vertical market analysis method or (VMAM) is when you utilize Theme Zoom to drill into the highest level keyword within your vertical market. The advice is, "Zoom out before you zoom in."

When you "zoom out" to a broad scope of market analysis in the VMAM, you may find that the theme you had chosen as "your market" is not the market you really want to target. After zooming out to a higher level, you can refer to the Architectural Comments column of the Zoom Analysis screen for more information which will help you choose the best market to target for maximum effectiveness of your campaign.

In the context of the VMAM's high-level survey of potential markets, as strong silo nomination (e.g. Double, Triple or Quadruple nominated silo) in the Architectural Comments column should be interpreted as an indication of a good market to target.

This is where keyword research and market research become a single event.

At the highest level of your vertical market research it is important that you do not confuse "keyword research" with "market research". To understand the difference between "market research" and "keyword research" listen to the free audio with Elliot Gluskin:

What is the difference between keyword research and market research?

Our market research partners are Jay Townley and Elliot Gluskin of Gluskin/Townley market research. Elliot and Jay have been doing vertical market research for over 20 years. In the free audio call Elliot gives away some of his trade secrets and tools that high end market researchers use to examine and qualify a market.

For expanded knowledge of Vertical Market Research, be sure to catch Niche Trend Radio created by Jay Townley and Russell Wright.