Service-Based Vs Product-Based Marketing
Hello, welcome to this week’s episode all about how to market your business whether you’re a service-based or product-based business, so grab your favourite drink and let’s get into it.
So why is it important to market your business differently depending on whether you are a service-based or product-based business? Well because we all have a lot on our plates. We’re all really busy trying to run our businesses and trying to live our lives. If we are marketing in every possible way, that isn’t necessarily effective for your business which can just be wasted energy.
I think it’s really important to understand which marketing tools might be better for your type of business and how you might be able to use them effectively. So that you can streamline your marketing process. We need to get exposure for our business but for it not to take hours a week.
I’m going to talk through the different ways that you can market your business depending on what kind of business you are. I’m going to start with the service-based business and then move into product-based business marketing. There are tips throughout that might work for your business, regardless of what you do, so I hope you find it useful.
Service-based business
Email marketing
I would highly recommend email marketing for a service-based business. If you haven’t got a list of subscribers you really need to think about how you’re going to do this. I’m going to chat about his some more in the lead magnet section.
I didn’t use email marketing for a long time in my business, I collected email addresses and had a list but didn’t really know how to use it. As a service-based business, I suddenly realised that I could help people by sending them emails.
Giving them advice for free and that that, in turn, would help my business to grow. People would look to me for advice or want to work with me because I was helping them to grow their business through my free offer, and for those that didn’t, I was still helping them, which is my whole purpose.
So I would recommend sharing valuable information, sharing advice sending them helpful content that you’ve created, giving them any tips and this will really help people to see you as a trusted business that wants to help.
my favourite marketing tool, as I’m sure you know if you listen to any of my episodes. I would be as a service-based business pinning lead magnets to attract subscribers, that’s how I get most of my subscribers. I would also pin advice based content blog posts, any kind of content that you’re creating, plus tips and any FAQ type posts
use the well-known post & story method but my advice would be don’t feel like you have to post every day. You could post three times a week and as long as that caption speaks to your audience, as long as you are optimising those posts and as long as you are showing up in your stories then you will get the benefit of Instagram, without having to be on there 24/7. My advice is to come up with a strategy that works for you and your business and stick to it.
Everyone will tell you how best to use Instagram but as long as you’re consistent on there and show up frequently then it will work for you. I definitely recommend using IGTV and mixing up the kinds of posts that you are putting out. Use video, carousel posts and using all the features in the stories function.
I think for a service-based business having an IGTV mini-series or collection of videos that explain your process or offer advice and tips could be really beneficial.
You definitely need a page for your business which explains your services, you’re opening hours, your contact details, your website and there’s also a nice section about you which you can talk about the history or Story of your brand. So I would definitely recommend utilising a Facebook page. and keep it fresh. I would be posting content they that you are creating, updates or if you have sales or discounts etc.
Some service-based businesses might benefit from having a Facebook group. You can have a private group where you allow people to join and you share things that are only available to that group. It can build a community which can be a nice space.
lead Magnets
I would definitely recommend using lead magnets to raise your exposure to new clients but also to get people to subscribe to your mailing list. You can also use it to get people to visit your Instagram account your Facebook group or any kind of marketing lead that you might need. As a service-based business, I would create lead magnets that talk to your ideal customer and provide helpful and strategic advice/tips.
Content marketing
Service-based businesses can have a variety of content marketing strategies in place. Podcasts YouTube videos and blog posts/articles are just some examples of content that you can use to market your business. Blog posts also have a really good impact on SEO so if you’re trying to build your website this might be a really good way to tick 2 boxes in one go.
Product-based business
Email Marketing
I would use this to launch new products or share announcements. You could also use this to promote discounts or sales. You might want to offer exclusive discounts or sales for just mailing list subscribers to make them feel valued. I spoke about this on the podcast last week and in blog posts, my website, making your email subscribers feel valued is one of the most important ways to keep them on your list.
Pinning products is definitely a great idea as a product-based business. Don’t worry too much about the locality because even though you might not get a direct sale every time someone clicks on your website, it’s going to improve your SEO rating in the long term. This will have a direct impact on how many people see you in Google searches etc. You might also get sales as a result of Pinterest
First thing I’d recommend is set up Instagram shopping. You can then make posts about your products and do a lot of things that as a normal content creator you can’t do, like link them in posts. It’s worth setting that up if you sell any kind of product.
TIP – If you are on WordPress you can use WooCommerce and this has an extra plugin that you can add for Facebook shopping. This then automatically pulls over to Instagram which saves you time – Genius! if you want some tips on how to do that send me an email or DM me on Instagram and I can help you with that.
I’ve already mentioned the Facebook shopping, set up a shop even if you don’t have the WooCommerce plugin because it will take people directly to your website and it’s an extra way of selling your products.
I think all product-based businesses should have a Facebook page because it links directly to your website, you can have call to action button on there and advertise products. But more importantly, people who are looking to buy product sometimes look at Facebook to see information about opening hours and to look at reviews, so definitely set up a Facebook page.
You can also run Facebook ads. They’re actually quite easy to set up but there are loads of agencies out there that can help you do this. Please don’t boost posts, it is proven that they don’t target the right customer for your brand and you probably won’t end up making any sales from that kind of Facebook ad.
Lead magnets
as a product-based business, I would suggest creating lead magnets on ways to use the product or helpful checklists that could be associated with the product. A good example of this is if you are a wedding stationery business you could create a timeline document that couples could fill in to help them plan their wedding.
Content marketing
Write blogs to discuss the product, talk about the customer experience, describe the making process or tell stories about the brand. I recommend having a 12-week strategy designing your post around content pillars so that you can have different topics for your reader.
I would have within all product businesses one content pillar that was centred around of advice or tips. This kind of content is the kind that people will read and will look for on places like Pinterest, so it’s always going to be more popular. An example of this is if you were a jeweller you could have blog posts about buying the right piece for an occasion.
So that’s service-based and product-based marketing ideas and tips.
I feel like I need to say that you don’t need to be doing all of these things. There is not enough time in the week for you to be doing every single thing I’ve talked about. Especially in the beginning when things take so much more time to plan and do. As you get more experienced various marketing tools do become quicker but at the same time, you shouldn’t be doing all of them. I would recommend focusing on 3 and choose three that work well together. I would also be looking at repurposing content, adapting things you’ve already done to work in different formats.
So the takeaway this week is that product and service-based business have very similar marketing strategies but there can be some ways to use those strategies that will help your business to stand out.
Think about how you being a particular type of business will make a difference to the marketing that you should be doing.
Design a strategy that works for your specific business and although listening to other peoples advice is helpful, make sure it works for you.
Don’t try and do all the marketing, all the time. Pick the things that work for you and commit to those fully.
I hope you found that useful, if you want to chat some more get in touch, my details are in the show notes, I’m here to help.
Thank you so much for listening to the moxie brand academy podcast
If you want more head over to moxieva.co.uk/blog, where you’ll find guides and downloads and if you want to continue the conversation head over to @moxieva on Instagram.
Listen to the podcast episode here
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