When and how to use the wedge marketing strategy

What Is a Wedge Marketing Strategy?

A wedge marketing strategy means entering a market by targeting a small, clearly defined niche with a highly focused product or feature. The goal is to establish a foothold, gain traction, and then expand into broader market segments. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone at once, wedge marketing emphasises precision, clarity, and incremental growth.

Marketing expert Emily Kramer describes wedge marketing as a strategic approach to entering competitive markets by first solving a specific, narrow problem exceptionally well. You can read more about her insights in her article on wedge marketing strategy.

Why Use a Wedge Marketing Strategy?

Markets today are crowded and competitive. Trying to appeal to everyone simultaneously often results in diluted messaging, unclear value propositions, and wasted resources. A wedge marketing strategy helps you:

• Clearly define your initial target audience and their specific pain points.

• Rapidly validate your product or service with a focused group of customers.

• Establish credibility and build momentum before expanding into broader markets.

• Optimise your marketing spend by concentrating resources on a clearly defined niche.

Sarah Tavel, General Partner at Benchmark, summarises this approach effectively:

"The wedge metaphor to me is most useful in making sure you're not a blunt instrument trying to chop into a market by being everything for everyone, but instead the sharp blade with extraordinary focus on a specific persona/use case to start." —Sarah Tavel, GP at Benchmark (source)

How to Implement a Wedge Marketing Strategy

Implementing a wedge marketing strategy involves several key steps:

Identify Your Initial Niche

Start by clearly defining a small, specific segment of your broader market. This niche should have a clearly identifiable pain point that your product or service can solve exceptionally well.

Develop a Compelling Feature or Product

Your wedge should be a highly targeted feature or product that directly addresses the niche's pain point. Pete Flint, General Partner at NFX, explains:

"Large markets aren't monoliths. Rather, they're a network of niches. It's essential to think about how to intelligently move through each of those niches en route to your larger target market. Begin with a killer wedge: a product feature or corresponding (small) target market that allows you to rapidly sync with many customers and refine your product or process. The best are an ideal marriage of a captivating feature and a clearly defined market segment." —Pete Flint, General Partner at NFX (source)

Gain Traction and Refine Your Offering

Once you've established your wedge, focus on rapidly acquiring customers within your niche. Use their feedback to refine your product, messaging, and processes. This iterative approach ensures your offering resonates deeply with your initial audience. Adopting strategies like thinking big and working small can further enhance this process by encouraging rapid experimentation and continuous improvement.

Expand Strategically

After successfully establishing your wedge, leverage your credibility and learnings to expand into adjacent niches or broader market segments. This incremental approach allows you to scale effectively without losing focus.

Wedge Marketing vs Bowling Pin Strategy

The wedge marketing strategy shares similarities with the bowling pin strategy, popularised by Geoffrey Moore in his book "Crossing the Chasm". Both strategies advocate starting with a narrow, clearly defined market segment before expanding into adjacent segments.

However, there are subtle differences:

• Wedge Marketing Strategy: Emphasises a single, compelling feature or product that solves a specific pain point exceptionally well. The wedge is the sharp entry point into the market.

• Bowling Pin Strategy: Focuses on sequentially targeting adjacent market segments, using success in one segment to knock down the next, similar to bowling pins falling in sequence.

Both strategies are effective, but wedge marketing places greater emphasis on the initial product or feature as the primary driver of market entry and growth.

Visualising the Wedge Concept

The wedge metaphor illustrates how a small, focused effort can lead to significant results. This video demonstrates how driving a wedge into rock can split it apart, highlighting the effectiveness of precision and focus—principles that directly apply to marketing and growth:

How Growth Method Supports Your Wedge Marketing Strategy

Executing a wedge marketing strategy requires clear hypotheses, rapid experimentation, and precise analytics. Traditional project management tools like Asana or Monday.com can help manage tasks but often fall short when it comes to the specialised needs of growth marketing teams.

Growth Method is the only work management platform built specifically for growth marketers. It simplifies your workflow by combining ideation, experimentation, and analytics into one powerful platform:

• Ideation: Capture and categorise growth ideas aligned with your wedge strategy. Growth Method automatically categorises ideas, shares them with your team, and solicits feedback, keeping everyone aligned.

• Experimentation: Rapidly test and validate your wedge hypotheses with structured experimentation workflows. Growth Method enforces best practices and clear stages—building, live, analysing, and complete—to increase experiment velocity and learning.

• Reporting: Demonstrate the impact of your wedge strategy to stakeholders with professional, detailed reports. Growth Method integrates seamlessly with analytics platforms like Google Analytics, Amplitude, and MixPanel, providing comprehensive insights to refine your wedge strategy further.

"We are on-track to deliver a 43% increase in inbound leads this year. There is no doubt the adoption of Growth Method is the primary driver behind these results." —Laura Perrott, Colt Technology Services

Conclusion

A wedge marketing strategy is a powerful approach for entering competitive markets, allowing you to establish credibility, gain traction, and scale effectively. By focusing on a clearly defined niche and compelling product feature, you can efficiently validate your offering and strategically expand your market presence.

Growth Method is the only work management platform built specifically for growth marketers. We help companies implement a systematic approach to grow leads and revenue. Ready to sharpen your wedge marketing strategy? Book a call today.