If you own a service business, you probably don’t have a huge marketing budget, nor even an employee dedicated to marketing. You certainly aren’t going to be running a Super Bowl ad anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be doing any marketing.
In fact, the best service business marketing is often fairly inexpensive. Here are ten mostly free ideas to get you started:
Start a blog – Guess what? You’re seeing this strategy firsthand! At HindSite, we continue to grow annually in the 20-30% range. Yet, you won’t see us at trade shows and we rarely pay for marketing in trade publications or on websites. So how do we do it? We have a content marketing strategy, and a big part of that strategy is the blog you’re reading. Our goal is the blog three times a week, and the benefits have been easy to see: we now rank high for some of the most frequently searched keywords, which generates more leads for our sales team.
So set a goal to blog every week and include useful information that generates more visibility for your business.
Create an eBook – Another tool in our content marketing toolbox is the eBook. We try to create one larger piece of content every month. We then hide that content behind a lead generation form on our website so we can generate leads for our Sales team.
So if you own a green industry business, think about creating an eBook about how to maintain a beautiful lawn in the town in which you’re based. Or how to get rid of common garden pests. If you deliver helpful information to your potential customers, they’ll start to reward you with their business.
Send a promotional email – One of the easiest ways to keep in front of your customers and prospects is email. If you use the right tools, it takes a couple minutes to compose and send an email. If you are a HindSite user, be sure to a take a look at our new service business marketing tool, HindSite Connect. With HindSite Connect, you can filter your customer and prospect lists in HindSite and quickly send any email you wish. For example, our irrigation business customers have used it to send promotional emails to their customers with outdated controllers. That email not only helps their customers save money over time with the newer smart controllers on the market, but also helps them generate more revenue.
Create a newsletter – At HindSite, we actually send three different email newsletters: one for our customers, one for our prospects, and one for our partners and resellers. We send them monthly. Again, it doesn’t take a lot of time and keeps your name in front of your customers and prospects. Include information about your company, any promotions you’re offering and helpful tips for your customers.
Volunteer your services at a community event – I’m a big believer in giving back to your community. So why not volunteer your business services at a community event? There are a ton of non-profit groups out there looking for help, so give them some! Wear your work shirts, bring your branded equipment, make connections with other volunteers and get some visibility for your business.
Send a press release – One easy way to promote that community event you volunteered to work at is with a press release. Create a simple press release and send it – along with a brief introductory message – to your hometown newspaper. Also, create a section on your website for your press releases so people searching for you service can see your recent news.
Create a referral program - Referrals are the lifeblood of most service businesses. So create a culture that rewards referrals and generates a lot of them. You can do something as simple as including information on how to refer friends on every communication to your customers, or you can deliver an incentive in the way of a discount on future services. Whatever you choose to do, make sure you’re actively soliciting referrals from your customers. If you don’t ask, they won’t refer. So ask every chance you get.
Write an article for a publication your buyers read – Another simple, effective strategy is to write an article for a local newspaper or magazine that your target buyers read. Delivering a simple 500 word article with helpful information for your buyers is a great way to build awareness about your business.
Brand your equipment – Every year my neighbor has a lawn care contractor remove all the leaves from her yard. Considering I was raking my yard when they did it, I thought I’d check out their truck to see who it was. I don’t really enjoy raking leaves.
But when I looked at their truck, there was nothing. No name, no phone number, no website address. I know it’s not free to brand your trucks, but it’s relatively inexpensive and since you’re driving around all day, your truck is really your most visible form of advertising. So use it to generate some new sales.
Send a handwritten thank you. A lot of these tips – blogging, email, eBooks – are modern options that only became available with the advent of the Internet. But sending a handwritten thank you note is about as old as paper itself. And it might just be the marketing tactic that delivers the best results. Send your best customers – those who order the most, who are you best referral sources, who promote you the most on social media – a handwritten thank you for all they’ve done for you and you’ll find that they’ll probably do a lot more.
If you want to grow your service business, you need to have a marketing strategy. But the tactics you use don’t always need to be costly. Try some of these simple, free alternatives, track your results, and you might be surprised to find that often the best form of marketing won’t cost an arm and a leg.
Want more marketing advice? Download our free eBook, 6 Requirements for a Website that Sells, today.
