Inbound marketing is perhaps even more important for service companies than it is for those with physical products. After all, it is not like customers can walk into a department store and buy a cleaning service, or find a lawyer they can check out with at the cash register. 
No, people have to go looking for services, and the first place most people will look is online. And when they do, they are looking for more than just a yellow pages listing; according to research, about 57 percent of the buying process is completed before searchers even contact the company under consideration. In other words, what they find about you online does most of the selling for you.
Inbound Selling
For companies which pride themselves on service, this might seem a little disheartening. After all, you have a sales team ready to talk with potential customers and help them learn all the benefits of going with your company. Yet your prospects are doing most of that work themselves.
Smart marketers, though, will use this to their advantage. If most of the sales process is going to be managed by the customers themselves, then you can provide them with the sales messages they are looking for.
Supplying Content
When people search for your service or look up your company, what do they find?
Without a good content marketing strategy, that answer could be “nothing.” Or, worse, it could be “whatever your competitors have to say.”
But with the right content marketing and SEO practices, you can make certain you get your message across. For a service company, that message would include:
- Showing that you are an expert in your field. By becoming a source of useful information and answering the questions that your target audience has, you can both attract the right visitors and prove that you know how to handle their problems.
- Explaining your services. If people want to call you to get all the details, they will. For those who prefer to study up on their own, you should provide information on how your company works and gently nudge them towards a decision.
- Proof of success. The best evidence you can provide that your services are worthwhile is to have testimonials or case studies from previous clients.
Using Social Media
Referrals are highly important for service companies, and a lot of referrals now take place on social media. People will check out what others have to say about you on your Facebook page, or poll their social networks for recommendations of which companies provide the best service.
You can help your case, and get more people talking about you online, by being active on the social media networks yourself. Engage with your loyal customers there, and keep your name top-of-mind. You can even learn more about your customers and prospects, and how to better serve them, by monitoring the conversation using tools such as Twitter lists.
Social networks can also serve as self-contained search engines, which makes it even more important to have a presence there and optimize your profiles.
Equipping Your Team
Inbound marketing can help you optimize your sales process, making your salespeople more productive. However, your team must be equipped on how to properly utilize inbound marketing.
For example, inbound marketing is focused more on customer service and collaboration, not on traditional, pushy sales tactics. Consumers who prefer inbound marketing do so specifically because it avoids such situations, and gives them greater control over the buying process. Sales representatives need to understand this distinction and adjust their style accordingly.
There is also technology to learn, such as marketing automation software, closed-loop marketing and drip marketing systems. All of these can help reduce a salesperson’s workload and make them more effective at selling, so it is well worth their time to learn.
Overall, once they understand that inbound marketing allows them to spend more time talking to warm leads and less time slogging through cold calls, most salespeople will be thrilled with the paradigm shift.
So, if you manage a service company and are wondering whether inbound marketing will work for your industry, the answer is a clear “yes.” And by taking full advantage of what inbound has to offer, both you and your new customers will benefit from the change.
*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
