5 Important Tips for Marketing Your Service-Based Business

When it comes to marketing your business, there is never a one-size-fits all solution. This is never more evident than when crafting marketing strategies for service-based businesses (SBB), versus marketing strategies for product-based businesses. Service-based businesses face challenges and obstacles that their counterparts don’t have and that marketing specialists have to find unique solutions to overcome. This can be true for B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) businesses.

The “thing” you sell with your service-based business often isn’t even a “thing” until you have completed whatever it is that you do. If you own a concrete pouring business, you’re not going to demo the existing driveway, haul it away, bring in a truck of cement, and pour it all for a potential customer. And no customer you’d actually want to work with would expect this. But where does that leave you marketing wise?

Since you can’t base your service-based business on a “trust me bro” marketing strategy and expect to grow, you have to do something to reach your future clients. It’s not impossible but you do have to go into it with a clear strategy...and some creativity never hurt anybody. You use these things to paint clear and compelling pictures as to why of the sea of similar businesses in the market, you’re the person they need to partner with.

If your forte isn’t copywriting, you’re left grasping at the same generic, bland, and boring statements everyone makes. Things like “We have the best service!” “Our quality can’t be beat!” and the classic, “We are always on time!” Those are all great and should be touched on in a compressive marketing strategy. But those do not differentiate you from the other guys, and makes you actually sound the exact same. And when everything else is equal, you go with the cheapest option and it’s a race to the bottom. So, let’s help clean up your service-based business’ marketing strategy with some quick tips!

1.    Sell the End Result

In service-based marketing, you’re almost always selling the end result. Basement remodel? The End. Fence installer? The End. New Driveway from our concrete example above? Fin. (That’s French for “End”). You’re selling the end result of what you provide. At its core, your business’s marketing strategy should center around the benefits of what you provide, the product you leave them with, all the ways their life will be better and easier once they do business with you, and basically all the ways their life will be terrible if they don’t do business with you.

By clearly defining the two states that your clients could be in, you start to help them understand the benefits of going with you. Their active state is filled with all the pain, problems, and hassle they’re trying to get away from. And the grass on the other side really IS greener and it’s where they should aspire to get be. It is where their dreams, wants, and needs are met. They’re in painville and they want to go to pleasure town. And who’s the bridge over troubled waters? That’s right, you!

2.    Stories. Sell. Services.

You don’t have anything tangible that they can see and hold at this stage; so, help them see with stories. When you say you’re the “best,” the “fastest,” or the “most trusted,” those are just claims based on nothing. This is doubly true if your customer doesn’t know you from Adam.

You’re going to have to do some legwork beforehand for this to succeed. I never said this would be easy. Curate a list of your business’ greatest successes, case studies, and specifically how you’ve helped customers in the past overcome their pain points. You’re going to take all of this and use it for inspiration when you’re creating marketing content. This is the ink that you write your business story with.

Don’t be afraid to share your personal philosophy about your industry, business in general, or the market, especially if asked directly by the customer. Using OS Media Group as the example, we believe that strategy should be the foundation upon which your creative marketing should rest on. We believe this so intently that we made our company email signatures read “Where Creativity, Meets Strategy.” We’re very clear about that, even if we just answer an email confirming a coffee meeting!

Case studies and testimonials are great storytellers because customers are more willing to trust someone who isn’t “with” the business and is signing their praises. However they found you, they’re just a customer, standing in front of a business, asking it to be fair and honest with them. When your customers see someone who was in the same position as them and who got the results they currently want by working with you…that’s powerful. It also helps to remove one of the biggest objections most customers have, “What if this doesn’t work for me?” Because it has already worked before.

3.   Nurture First

When you sell a service, you need to provide value, have a great story, compelling useful content, or anything else that shows you’re the guy (or gal) for the job. The higher the cost of your service, the more this will apply and the more nurturing you will likely need to do to show you’re the right one. If you have a $5,000 service and your ad is “This is what we do! It’s $5,000! Is that cash or card?!” then you may have a pitiful return on your ad spend. You wouldn’t propose marriage on the second date, would you?

Your marketing strategy should include a heavy emphasis on increasing touch points. A touch point is anytime you appear in front of your customers. This could be traditional advertising, digital marketing, blogs, phone calls, or emails. Most sources say that a service-based business often needs around 10 touch points with a customer before they make the purchase decision. That’s 10 times you need to show up, with value, in front of them before they’ll buy. But how?

4.    Put the Fun in Funnel

You need a marketing funnel. That’s simply a process to walk your prospect through the customer journey from a cold open of who you are and why they should care, warmer as they get to know you, and hot when they’re ready to buy. A simple example funnel would be an ad with useful content that asks the viewer to opt-in for more great content. A thank you page for doing that after they submit their information. A thank you email to confirm they can receive your messages. And then a multi-step back-end nurturing sequence. This could be through text, call, email, or re-targeting ads.

Each step should take them a little closer to doing business with you through a series of micro commitments and ever-increasing value. The beauty of having an effective funnel in place is that once it’s dialed in you can automate the entire process. It’s like having thousands of tiny sales people doing business all the time generating leads, nurturing them, and converting them to clients.

5.    Pick a Lane

Dead companies, failed marketing strategies, tacky campaigns, and influencers that tell you to be everywhere, all the time, doing everything, is a recipe for burnout and failure. Very few companies have an ideal customer that is “everyone.” They’re in a few carefully selected and curated platforms so their marketing dollars and efforts are utilized effectively.

First, develop an avatar of your ideal customer that you’re looking to attract. Who are they, where do they go, how old are they, where do they live, and what markets are favored for that type of person. Once you have a clearer picture of the who, you just have to find the where. For that, hit up Google and search “Social media network demographics for 2024 by platform.” That will quickly tell you where your target demographic is spending time.

Once you know where that is, go there. Go there and for now, ignore everything else. E.g., if you want to reach men in the 35 – 50 demographic, you should first focus on Facebook and YouTube. But you’re marketing a service for young women, ages 18 – 30. Then it’s time to get real active on Instagram. If you’re a business that sells to other businesses (B2B), a LinkedIn account should be your first marketing strategy point.

Don’t try to be everywhere and try to do everything. It’s about picking a lane by putting in the work to clearly identify your target market, who you’re trying to serve, finding out where they’re active online, and go straight there with your Mr. Ed blinders on.

If that sounds like a lot, and you want someone to do it for you quickly, correctly, and with a design flair that will make you stand out from the competition, reach out to OS Media Group today!

Kent Keller is a seasoned Brand Consultant, Social Media Manager, and Copywriter. He also acts as the Chief Executive Officer of OS Media Group. With over a decade of experience as a police officer and nearly five years as the Public Information Officer and Media Relations Manager for a prominent police agency, Kent brings a wealth of expertise to the proverbial table. His background, combined with his successes in developing numerous marketing campaigns and brand strategies, uniquely positions him to assist you in effectively engaging with your customers or community members.