Promoting a Service

I was recently consulting someone who launched a new concierges business where she will run errands for busy executives and business professionals. She is working on her website and marketing collateral, and wanted to know what else she should do to promote her services.

Here's my response.
You are headed in the right direction by establishing a web presence and printed marketing collateral. Promoting a product means getting customers to buy an organization’s product and, in most cases, to remain a loyal long-term customer. To communicate effectively, you need to understand the elements of the promotion mix which include advertising; used to build up a long-term image or get quick sales. Just starting out you may not have the budget right away to do a lot of advertising, but the greatest benefit of using advertising is the ability to reach a larger audience and repetition. Sales Promotion could be apart of your promotion mix. Use this to get a quicker buyer response or to boost sales during slow periods. Sales promotions are attention getters, incentive to buy, and an invitation to take action.

Public Relations is another way to promote your concierges service by using press kits, speeches, charity events, sponsorships, media, events, community relations. With PR you can build your credibility and get free media coverage. In your line of business you will be doing a lot of personal selling. This involves doing sales presentations, offering sales incentives, attending trade shows. You will use personal selling to establish long term relationships that lead to long-term customers. Start with establishing your objectives. Is it to increase sales, create an image, or create awareness? Once you have an idea of your objectives, and then evaluate the different promotional tools and chose the optimum mix of promotional methods. The final step would be to integrate it into your overall marketing communication program.

Post your marketing questions to The Marketing Lady.