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Visibility Actions and Value Tactics for Service businesses

Guest post by: Keith Thirgood

Article Overview: Do you have a hard time hunkering down and marketing your business? Is it hard to know where to start? Will it be a waste of time and money? Scary thoughts.

Visibility Actions and Value Tactics for Service businesses

Do you have a hard time hunkering down and marketing your business? Is it hard to know where to start? Will it be a waste of time and money? Scary thoughts.

Happily, there are only two factors you need to remember regarding marketing: visibility and value. Visibility is how you get your marketing message out and therefore seen. Value is what you put into your marketing message.

And when it comes to marketing, visibility beats value every time. As an independent professional, don't waste a lot of time trying to figure out which activities you should do.

These are the actions you must engage in, on an ongoing basis, for good visibility.

Network: Don't hide your value under a barrel; make as many quality contacts as possible.

Write: Get published in the media your prospects read.

Speak: Talk on your subject in front of groups of qualified prospects.

Keep in touch: There are a number of ways to do this. Make calls, send notes, and publish newsletters electronic or traditional.

A website: Make it deep, make it helpful, make it suit your brand and keep hype to a minimum.

If you spend your time worrying if these things will work or not, if you never get around to them, or if you spend your time doing other less effective marketing activities, then you're in for a world of marketing pain.

Instead, let's agree that you're going to spend most of your time and marketing energy on carrying out the above five actions.

So much for the actions, what can you do to ensure each action is packed with value?

The key step is to grab attention. Without your prospect's attention, the rest does not matter. Make sure they know you're talking about them. Not about someone else. Do it with your words, "We help senior operations managers reduce downtime in their plants." Do it with your brand. Everything about you should look the part of someone who can achieve your prospects' goals.

Clearly inform your prospects about what you do. They really don't understand what it is you do. Let them learn as much as they desire about your service/product. However, don't even think of trying to sell them. Just make sure they know enough so they're not confused.

Give them the benefits. Whenever you communicate with your prospects, keep the benefit to the client in the forefront of your message. A benefit is the tangible result your client walks away with by using your service. Don't confuse features with benefits.

Where's the proof? Prove the claims you make. Don't expect them to believe you just because you've got an honest face. Use facts, figures, case studies and, of course, testimonials.

Drop the jargon and talk like a real person. Be conversational. Personal. Talk like you're talking to a friend. Make it easy to understand. Make it interesting.

Show how you're unique. People don't do business with just anybody. You brand yourself by emphasizing some unique part of your business. This is what you'll be known for. Don't take this bit lightly. Give it a lot of thought.

Ensure that some of your marketing gets into the details of what you do and how you do it. It's easy for a prospect to dismiss general statements. They're apt to think to themselves, "Everyone says that". Revealing the details can make your marketing far more convincing.

Give them stories. We're entering the age of the story. We're overwhelmed with data and information. Stories humanize and clarify concepts. Facts may be important, but they touch the head not the heart. As Tom Stoyan, Canada's Sales Coach, says, people make buying decisions based on emotion, and justify them by logic.

Choose the right words. The wrong word can create the wrong image in the imagination of your prospect. The right word can pull people in. For a start, don't use words in your written communication you wouldn't use in conversation.

And never forget to give a call to action. The rest will be wasted if you don't motivate your prospect to do something. Tell them what you want them to do next. And remind them why they should do it now.

Follow these steps, and you will find the barriers to marketing evaporate in front of you.

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Article Tags: benefits, hard time, marketing, service businesses, time and money, unique, visibility actions



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