Marketing products and services can have many similarities as well as differences. Products and services benefit from adding trust and name recognition into the marketing materials, but products can be impulse purchases whereas services need time for delivery. There are several differences between marketing products and services, most of which center on relationship building.
Trust
Entrepreneur magazine says in a service-based
business, "you are the product." In other words, you have to sell
confidence and trust in yourself, and your ability to perform the services as
described. When marketing a service, you need to instill trust and confidence
in your abilities because instead of receiving a tangible product in exchange
for money, the customer receives a promised result.
Time
Selling a service also means you're selling your
time. When you sell a product, there is time invested to create or acquire the
product and then it is sold again and again without further time invested.
Services by their very nature are time-intensive activities because there is no
way to continue providing a service without continuing to invest time
performing the service. Time is an important part of marketing a service
because if you promise results within a given time frame, you must be certain
you're able to deliver while still managing and providing services for others.
You must be able to effectively estimate and manage the time needed for
providing services to clients.
Deliverability
When you're marketing products, you can give
customers a delivery date estimate if they're ordering online or through the
mail, and they can walk out the door with the product in hand if they buy it in
your brick and mortar store. Services must be created after they're ordered,
and delivery times will vary. The challenge with marketing services is being
able to convince customers that you can and will deliver quality results within
a given period of time. Usually service marketing materials have testimonials
and case studies from other satisfied clients, that work to prove you're able
to deliver on the promises in your marketing materials.
Wants And Needs
Many products can be marketed in ways that
trigger impulse buying. If someone sees a pair of shoes, she can suddenly
decide to buy them whether they're needed or not. She may justify the purchase
by claiming they needed dress shoes for a special occasion, but in reality she
gave in to a want instead. Services are rarely impulse buys, but the marketing
materials can help buyers justify the want or need by explaining the benefits
the customer will receive from buying the service. A lawn care service for
example, can include convenience and free time as part of their marketing
materials, to persuade buyers to sign up.
Relationships
Marketing a service-based business relies more on
building a relationship than marketing products does. Some relationship
building is done with product marketing--particularly branding and name
recognition--but it's not as important a part of the overall marketing process
for service-based businesses. When services build up trust and reliability with
clients, they gain relationships that can continue earning them money for years
to come.