Understanding the differences between promoting a service and a product can help you optimise the results of your marketing campaigns and build a strong relationship with your customers to ensure the long-term success of your business.
Tangible products are easier to be marketed since they can be shown, displayed, demonstrated and touched by the consumers, which helps the audience to understand their values and how it will satisfy their needs. In comparison to product marketing, promoting a service is slightly more challenging when it comes to convincing about the value of the offer and requires a different approach to trigger an emotional impulse compelling the customer to buy.
What makes service marketing different from product promotion:
| Product Marketing | Service Marketing | |
| Sells | Value | Relationship |
| Goal | Satisfy the needs of your target audience | Build and maintain a relationship with your customers |
| Quality | Easily measured based on pre-defined criteria | More complicated as there are no physical attributes |
| Customisation | Products are designed and built as standard | Services can be customised depending on your customers’ needs |
When promoting your service, it is important to consider the differences above to tailor an efficient marketing strategy and reach your objectives.
Here are our 5 top tips to master your marketing plan:
- Highlighting the people who are part of delivering your service: employees usually interact directly with your customers and are as important as what you are trying to sell. Employees’ behaviour will often determine the customer’s experience with your brand.
- Showcasing any tangible elements such as the place where the service is delivered as well as anything that provides information about the service you offer (your website, brochures, flyers, app, logo, branded promotional item etc.).
- Having good processes in place will positively affect your customers’ level of satisfaction and experience: delivering the same standards of service to each customer is a great way to increase your brand awareness and get people to remember your brand.
- Using visuals that build an emotional connection with your audience: giving your brand a personality will help you build trust and gain your customer’s loyalty.
- Emphasizing on your mission and why you are providing your service: customers are no longer only looking for the best price but are also willing to buy from companies they identify with. If your values align with their own, you have a greater chance to convince them to purchase your service rather than your competitors’ ones.
- Bonus tip: don’t underestimate the power of online reviews! They are the second most trusted source of brand information according to a Nielsen research, and a great opportunity for a service business to overcome the lack of physical attributes and help measuring the quality of their offer.
Best practices of outdoor advertising for service marketing:
Some of the service-led industries including travel, tourism, education, healthcare, information technology and entertainment have successfully used outdoor advertising to increase their brand awareness, stand out as a trusted brand and grow their business. Check out the examples below for some inspiration:
Questions about billboard advertising for services?
Get in touch as we offer a wide selection of billboards to fit varied business sizes and budgets.
For more information on prime outdoor advertising billboards, contact us on 020 7112 8624 or email sales@billbaordmedia.co.uk
