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Service-based companies are not something new, but thanks to modern technology they have become more important than ever. This means that the service-based industry is becoming a crowded industry where the number of businesses is growing on a daily basis.
To put it simply, a service-based company will have to beat a lot of competitors to make a profit and grow. This is where marketing plays a vital role.
Without marketing, consumers won’t be able to notice a new service-based company while established service-based companies can fall into oblivion. But, just like in the case of this specific industry, modern technology has changed marketing too. This means that not every type of marketing can help companies like this get noticed.
You need the right approach to market your company and feel the positive effects of this activity. How can a service-based company use marketing in the right way is a common question these days and we’ll use this guide to provide a basic answer to this question.
Developing a marketing strategy
First and foremost, it’s crucial to determine the ultimate goal of your marketing activities. This is exactly what Solveo does when helping clients with their growth strategy service or GO-TO-Market strategy service which are basically parts of a wider marketing strategy.
In the case of Airport Briefing which is a service-based company focused on flight operations and training designed for operating aviators, the goal was to conduct market research, define target personas as well as to build and execute the marketing strategy. Since this business is focused on a specific category of people, the process required a lot of research and the creation of specialized multi-channel digital strategy. But, once you figure out what the final goal of your marketing activities, things will become easier.
The next step in this process is to create brand awareness. Storytelling is a powerful tool in this case. For instance, if you are trying to offer mobile banking services (Ohridska Banka SG), you have to focus on the benefits that a service like this provides to the end-users and how it works better than other solutions in specific situations (traditional banking).
Obviously, market research is a must and this activity includes analysis of past sales, competitors, and statistics. Even mail surveys can help you understand the service-based industry. Even though businesses that are part of this industry are usually not focused on the general market, there are still different groups of customers that would like to use these services and that’s why it’s also a good idea to separate customers into groups. Use different factors like income, age, location, education, gender or ethnicity in order to create more efficient marketing campaigns.
Online marketing for a service-based company
Without any doubt, online marketing has become the leading type of marketing today. This is a broad term which includes different elements and activities. For instance, developing a modern website is a must for every service-based company. This website must be easy to navigate and include all the information that visitors need.
SEO (search engine optimization) is an inevitable part of every successful marketing strategy and marketing for service-based businesses is not an exception. To get the best results, you should use the right keywords, get more outbound links to your website, create a mobile-friendly site and use the help of an SEO expert if possible. Invest a lot in content and make sure that your website content is up-to-date. Finally, analyze the expenses and advantages of using online advertisements. Google AdWords is a good place to start a campaign like this.
Relying on conventional marketing tools
While it’s true that online marketing is replacing conventional marketing, this doesn’t mean that older marketing techniques are useless for service-based companies. On the contrary, this type of company can benefit a lot from offline marketing. Mailers and coupons still work like a charm, but you should not exclude print ads and TV ads.
Don’t forget that market research plays a very important role here because TV ads and print ads can be expensive and marketing your services on places where you can’t reach your target audience is a complete waste of money.
Sending newsletters to your existing clients is another great move. Service updates, special deals, changes in your offer, useful information – all these things can be shared in newsletters. Finally, we should also mention that carrying and handing out business cards is still a useful thing.
Market a service-based company
When marketing a service-based company, you should take a few specific things related to this industry into consideration. Yet, marketing this kind of company is not much different than marketing product-based companies at least when it comes to the basic elements of a marketing strategy. For the best results, it’s a wise move to hire a professional marketing company that has experience in this area.
