Find out here which factors play a decisive role in service marketing and which advertising measures can help you score points with your customers.
What is service marketing?
Service marketing, too service marketing , is a service-oriented marketing approach that deals with the advertising planning, management and marketing of intangible goods. This includes those areas and strategies in the marketing of service providers that differ from the marketing activities of a specialist goods manufacturer. typical Examples of service industries include insurance companies, catering companies, IT and software companies or companies in the tourism and health sector.
Special features and challenges in service marketing
The special features and challenges in service marketing become particularly clear when you look at the main differences between services and tangible goods. Compared to tangible goods, services are not tangible and not interchangeable. In addition, they cannot be produced in stock, i.e. they cannot be stored. These basic characteristics of services increase the complexity of designing the marketing of service companies.
Unlike when buying a product that is visible and tangible to the customer, before buying or using a service, the customer simply receives a value proposition, which he evaluates in order to make his purchase decision. The challenge in service marketing is therefore to convince through intangible factors, such as image, experience, references and professional appearance. Even the strategic brand management plays a decisive role here in building trust with the customer and positioning itself on the market with the service.
Expanding the marketing mix
For tangible goods, the marketing mix, which includes all activities to achieve the set marketing goals, consists of the instruments Product, communication, pricing and distribution policy. Since other activities must also be considered in service marketing, the classic four instruments are extended by three points: process management, personnel policy and equipment policy.
process management
Process management includes designing the entire business processes that play a role in the customer experience. The processes are extremely important in a service company, as the optimization of processes can result in an improved quality of service. Only when the processes run consistently and consistently can consistent quality be ensured for customers.
personnel policy
The personnel policy describes the qualification and capacity of the personnel responsible for the service. For most services, customers have direct contact with the company's people and often rate overall performance based on the competence and care of the staff. Quality factors include, for example, the appearance of employees on the telephone or the general knowledge, skills and motivation of the responsible persons.
Equipment policy
Equipment policy, also known as physical evidence or physical environment, includes all features that the customer can see when using the service. This can be, for example, the design of the office in which a personal meeting takes place or the design of the brochure that contains information about the service. The aim of the equipment policy is therefore to positively influence the customer experience in order to increase the overall value of the service.
With these marketing measures, you can score points in service marketing
In general, one plays strong online presence plays a decisive role in service marketing. In order to make the services more tangible for customers and to convince them of the quality of the service, visual marketing measures and tools are particularly suitable. By Pictures and videos, which present the service as faithfully as possible, can be experienced by the customer and he gets a better idea of the offer. The company's own website or various social media channels are particularly suitable for the integration of photo and video material.
If possible, you can also use free and non-binding initial consultations or give your customers the opportunity to test their service. This gives you a trustworthy impression and gives you the chance to set yourself apart from the competition. Make use of it as well customer testimonials to share openly and to refer to reviews and awards. This also strengthens trust in your company, reflects security and gives new customers a professional impression. Depending on the sector, they are also suitable Events and trade fairs good as an advertising measure in service marketing. Events offer the opportunity to present yourself to both existing and potential customers, to impress through a competent appearance and to be remembered.
Success factors in service marketing
- Trust is the key to customer loyalty. Focus on personality and individual service and make use of customer references and recommendations
- Work on strategically building and strengthening your own brand
- Maintain existing customer relationships
- Customer centricity: Always look at all processes and measures from a customer perspective and optimize processes and customer experience at all stages of the customer journey
- Use digital marketing strategies and make it easier for your customers to learn more about your performance and your employees.
How can software support service marketing?
Service companies that work with a local partner network and have a decentralized marketing structure are often faced with the challenge of managing their marketing activities consistently and efficiently. On the one hand, the content should be planned by the company's central marketing department. On the other hand, however, these should be carried out or published by local sales partners.
Software with a fully automated ordering and production process can help decentralized companies in the service industry make the two-part process of marketing planning and execution more meaningful. This allows local sales partners to independently select, individualize and order their desired marketing materials using the software. This not only saves costs for central marketing management, but also means that the marketing center can concentrate more on its core business again and uses tasks and resources as effectively as possible. The company can also better reach distribution partners in the network and motivate them for local marketing activities. A software solution, such as the local marketing platform, can therefore help companies with decentralized marketing to centrally control all advertising measures and marketing materials and save time and costs.
