Even if you don’t have a dedicated marketing staff, there are still things you can do to make your service offerings more visible to other businesses. As you consider your marketing direction, remembering these four differentiators can help.
- Positioning (know your potential clients and make sure your marketing caters to them)
- Products (know your services and products, and know how they differ from other offerings)
- Proof (make sure you have data to back up your claims and statements)
- Personality (keep your organization’s “voice” in mind, and how you want to “sound” to existing and potential customers)
We’ve compiled a list of marketing ideas that could be incorporated into your plan; most of them can be implemented even with small marketing budgets. In a few weeks, we’ll be posting a “Part 2” featuring even more ideas.
Document Success Stories
Connect with satisfied customers and ask if you can share information about your partnership. What problems did they encounter before working with you? What solutions did you offer? How have these solutions made the customer more efficient? What kind of ROI does it provide? Share these case studies with potential customers thinking about investing in a similar technology, or with a business that wants to know more about your company’s work.
Write & Distribute Press Releases
If your company wins an award, partners with a new manufacturer, completes a notable project, or offers a new service, then share the good news! By creating and sending press releases to local and national media when applicable, your company will be in front of promotional outlets. Your releases could spark ideas that journalists want to publish and/or follow up on.
Contact Local Media
Let local business magazines, websites, and newspapers know about some of the unique and different things your business is doing. Did a group of your technicians recently complete special training? This could serve as fodder for a news article on how training and professional development investments impact local businesses. Did your firm just complete design and installation of a state-of-the-art security system for a school district? Pitch an idea about how technology helps area schools protect students and staff.
Write Beginner’s Guides
Is there a certain question that comes up often from customers? Does your organization have a certain process that saves time and money? Consider creating a “beginner’s guide.” Depending on your customer base, it could cover ways to create and upload digital signage content, or explain steps to conducting a companywide emergency drill. When you offer this information to existing and potential customers, they’ll view your organization as a resource vs. a company that just wants to sell them something.
Produce a Helpful Video
Maybe it’s easier to communicate certain messages or answer specific questions via a short video instead of a written guide. Would a video clip that demonstrates how to change videoconferencing system options and settings be valuable to customers? How about a 30-second how-to on accessing archived video from the surveillance system. Creating these videos and sharing them with customers will save your staff time and money when they don’t have to answer the same questions over and over – this resource can be referred to again and again. You can also show these videos to potential customers, using them as an example of how your company addresses customer needs.
What’s missing from this list? Stay tuned for Part 2 featuring more marketing ideas for integrators!
Image by: renjith krishnan