A company that provides services to its customers often faces unique marketing challenges. After all, there’s no soft drink to show bubbling into a chilled glass, no designer shoes a model can strut on stage, no sparkling ring to show on TV ads near Valentine’s Day. No tangible thing that one can display on TV, YouTube, or on the company website. Now that’s some challenge.
Yet with a few tips, a company can conquer the challenge of marketing their service. Here are some ideas:
Create a Customer Experience that Solves Their Problems
Suppose a company offers, for instance, communications software services. First of all, it needs to make sure that its service goes above and beyond its promises. Companies that take a chance on its services need to have a seamless experience—from the website to the sales team to the results.
Most importantly, the service must solve their problem. Whether it’s more speed, real-time collaborations halfway across the planet, it must become the company’s hero. In today’s connected environment, positive vibes can spread at the speed of light.
That’s where the marketing team goes to work. Highlight customer reviews, testimonials. Post videos that show how the service changed the playing field for the company’s clients. Encourage customers to tell about their experiences on social media. Write white papers and case studies that show what the service has done for the company’s clients.
Advertising Should Highlight Target Customers’ Pain Points
Pain points are those situations that hold a business—or an individual—from accomplishing their goals. An athlete needs to land a triple Axel. A guitarist needs to master the intricacies of Flamenco forms. A restaurant needs to fill its tables every night. A company needs to have more security for its real-time communications with its teams in foreign countries.
If the service-providing company can help these potential customers to conquer their own challenges with its service, its marketing team needs to focus their advertising and marketing efforts on conquering these challenges—and the evidence that the company has done so for others.
Create Tangible Products to Market the Intangible
Find out what the company has done for its customers. Create tasteful promotional products with labeling that illustrates how the company has helped its customers overcome its pain points.
Pens and Coffee Mugs: A psychiatrist who specializes in ADHD and autism slashes stigma with his “Dr. X’s Solutions” pens, adorned with calming blue color, the website URL, and the office phone number. Coffee mugs, too, can stimulate conversation about mental health around the office.
Custom printed labels: For people with health issues, immediate help is often needed in crisis situations. Custom printed labels for the healthcare industry that patients and their loved ones can attach to landline phones, cell phones, or the dashboard of one’s car, can put the doctor’s phone number within easy reach.
Promotional wear: For music lesson studios, dance studios, and sports training gyms, promotional wear can tell the brand story without a word, effectively marketing the service to its target customers.
With these time-tested strategies, a business can market itself effectively—even without a tangible product.
