Who Says Services Can’t Be Marketed Like Products?

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing says that marketers of services can learn a thing or two from retailers.

“All it takes is looking at your marketing from some new perspectives.

· What if you offered gift certificates for your services?

· What if you mailed those gift certificates to your loyal clients and encouraged them hand them out?

· What if you offered bridal or baby registry? (C’mon, get your neighbor’s kid a tax return for their wedding – way better than a toaster)

· What if you held over the top events for your clients? (I know a remodeling firm that buys out a Christmas tree farm for that year’s clients)

· What if you had a holiday, client only, sale or new service introduction?

· What if you held education forums aimed at very specific niches of your clientele? (single women, parents with kids going to college, sports minded families, people learning to be more green.)”

I think those of us in service businesses somehow think we are (or should be) above the kinds of things that those less-than-dignified product marketers do to move merchandise. And, while I wouldn’t want to copy some of the more outlandish ones, we can certainly borrow the tried and true and modify them for our service businesses.

What do you think? Do you have any additions to John’s suggestions?