4 marketing wins for your service-based business
This article is for service-based businesses looking to get some marketing fundamentals in place! We outline the key benefits of marketing service-based businesses. Included in this article are 4 marketing wins you can implement this month.
What’s a Service-Based Business?
Glad you asked! A ‘service-based business’ deliver intangible, but valuable things, to customers. Examples include financial, cleaning, therapy, hospitality, legal, healthcare, software, and consulting services. This is in contrast to a business that sells physical products.
Many of our clients fit the category of a service-based business.
Why Market a service-based business?
Market a service-based business to:
1. gain visibility for your business and what you offer; and
2. to gain customers.
You’re investing in building awareness and consideration of your business. A carefully planned marketing strategy gives you a steady pipeline of potential customers who, if nurtured correctly, convert to customers and lifelong advocates. Marketing keeps your business engine running by ensuring you stay visible, active, and connected.
When things get quiet and fewer jobs are coming in, marketing keeps your business moving along and stays top of mind for your customers and future customers.
4 tips to boost your business presence
Before spending money on advertising, here are some free things you can do to boost your service-based business presence:
Set up your website for success: Audit your website:
When did you last update your website?
Is it clear what you do?
Is it clear how people navigate towards your desired outcome?
Is content structured so people searching your services can find you?
Does your website mention how you are unique?
Do you have examples of your work, accreditations, or reviews?
Optimise Google My Business: People often seek reviews before hitting your website. Can they see evidence you’re trustworthy and active?
Here’s how to optimise your account:
Clearly detail your services
Authenticate your profile to access all the features
Ask customers to review your service. Better yet, set up an automation for reviews at job completion
Reply to reviews as soon as possible. The algorithm favours this and will optimise your profile more favourably on the location map
Connect your social profiles to increase engagement
When you post content elsewhere, post it to your Google My Business profile too
Bonus tip: use your customer reviews to reverse-engineer high-converting Google Ads.
Make content your friend: If social media is an important part of your marketing strategy, use it to your advantage:
Does your social media page or Instagram feed clearly tell the visitor what you do, who you are, and how you can help them?
Are you posting consistently, with a strategy in place?
Show your face! Service-led businesses are built on credibility. People want to do business with people they like and trust
Collaborate with other service-led businesses to expand your reach
To drive bookings or sales consider paid advertising to reach people in your target market. Only do this once your organic socials are humming.
Keep it humorous and human:
To distinguish your business against competitors, add your face! This builds trust and authority in your space. It humanises the approach away from being ‘salesy’, and emphasises connection and relationship.
Add a touch of humour if it fits the vibe of your business. Research shows that humour is scientifically easier for the brain to encode and remember. It can help shareability, reduce sales resistance, and differentiates you from others.
We’d would love to hear which of these tips you’ve executed for your business after reading our blog. Email us at hello@kumeumedia.co.nz to let us know how you went.
If you’re a service-based business and want a hand with these tasks, reach out. We’re happy to help!