Our fearless leader recently sat down with two experts, Ruth King, founder and CEO of Business Ventures Corporation, and Mike Ratchford, a marketing expert, on HVACChannel.tv to discuss the correct way to market your business.
When you get three small business experts together in one room you can guess there will be some pretty good information floating around. We suggest you watch the entire program by clicking here, to hear all of their advice and tips. For this post I will focus on the bulls eye of marketing and why it matters to the field service industry.
The bulls eye of marketing is the way in which you focus your marketing intentions. The image pictured below depicts the bulls eye with all of those people you have the potential to market to.
Okay so you have the image, but how do you think you should focus your marketing efforts? Well how about I tell you which way I thought first? Originally I thought you should spend most of your time and focus on the “suspects”. “Suspects” will be discussed more in a later blog post, but for now just consider them the people out there in the world that you don’t know and who don’t know you, but have the potential to become customers if you ever cross paths. So back to my original thought, I already earned revenue from my clients and customers, why should I market to them? Boy was I wrong.
Turns out Mike Ratchford suggests you focus your attention the opposite way of what I was thinking, and his explanation certainly is more logical then my thinking. Here’s why:
Yes, you already earn revenue from clients and customers, but why? Because you have built a relationship with them. You delivered great service, they trust your company. And honestly, who better to receive and read your press releases, newsletters, brochures, etc., then those that already listen to you and respect you?
Or look at this another way: Why would you spend the largest portion of your marketing budget on those unfamiliar with you? You don’t know their background, what they need, or if they are even looking. It's going to be a lot more expensive to get their attention and get them to understand why you're unique. It would make more sense to focus your budget and energy towards those you know are interested in your business.
Even better, your clients and customers make the best referrals. So by allocating more of your marketing budget towards them, you are potentially working towards getting new clients through referrals. Who better to recommend you then someone who has used your service multiple times and has positive things to say?
Marketing in the field service industry is a tough task. It can be hard finding the correct message to relay, the correct way to state that message, and the best way to deliver it. By knowing which direction to head on the marketing bulls eye, you are able to make your marketing process that much easier, and who knows, you may even gain a few more customers from it!