Here’s the recording of my talk on “How to market and sell more creative services” at Creative Coffee in Leicester on February 18th 2015.
The key points are (and it’s recommended that you do them in this order):
Know your market
This is a big deal. The more you know about the people you’re trying to sell to the easier your marketing will be.
You must spend as much time as possible here because getting it wrong will mean that you’ll end up marketing to the wrong people and in the wrong way.
Know your message to that market
Once you understand your target market you then need to work out what it is you need to say to them to get them to respond in some way.
This is where you’d focus on the benefits of buying from you.
Use the right media to get that message across
This is all about the channels that you use in your marketing.
This could be your website, social media, email marketing, networking, exhibitions, paid ads, leaflets and all of the tools you use to get your message into from of your target market.
Sadly, this is where most small businesses start and it’s a mistake.
But if you want to sell more creative services (or anything really) then always start by spending time researching your target market.
Make sure your market messages have all of these 3 things in place:
- What is it?
What is it that you’re trying to tell me about. Clarity is better than clever here. Keep it simple and you’ll get a better response. - Who is it?
Who are you and what makes you so special? You need to try and differentiate yourself from your competitors. - What’s in it for me?
What do I get out of this if I buy from you? How are you going to make my life or business better in some way?
Keep in touch and use a CRM.
A simple system such as Mailchimp can really help to leverage your list of customers and contacts and make people feel included.
It’s cheap and easy to to do too.
Want more on marketing? Check out:
A fantastic example of great customer service (podcast)
What is swipe and deploy marketing and how can you use it? (YouTube video)