LIST OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE NO.

NO.

1. What is Service Marketing? Definition, 2

Strategies, Examples

2. What is Service Marketing? 3

3. Sectors that use service marketing 4

strategies include:

4. Characteristics of Service Marketing 6

5. How to Define Your Service Marketing 9

Strategy

6. How to Market a Service-Based Business 12

7. Service Marketing Tips and Tactics 19

8. Service Marketing Types 22

9. Examples of Service Marketing 23

10. What are the 7 P's of Service Marketing? 26

11. Conclusion 32

12. Bibliography / References 32

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Chapter 1

What is Service Marketing?

Definition, Strategies, Examples

INTRODUCTION :
Nowadays, there is a noticeable rise in service startups.
Businesses of all sizes are moving towards a service-oriented
marketing approach.

The presence of a vibrant service sector has led to the narrowing

down of the differences between goods and services. For many
businesses, goods and services are interconnected. Even for
companies that focus on the production of goods, services represent
an integral part of their business operations.
The easier part for businesses is to create a service, the harder
part is to market the service. How do you define your service
marketing strategy? How do you market your service-based
business?
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In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about
service marketing including effective tips and tactics.
Let's get started.

Chapter 2
What is Service Marketing?
Service marketing is an exclusive branch of marketing that sprung
up in the early '80s because some specialized services required
unique strategies, unlike physical marketing strategies. It centers
on the business of non-physical intangible or, better said,
abstract goods.
This form of marketing applies to both B2B (business to business)
and B2C (business to customers) services. Examples of sectors that
use service marketing to drive their businesses include:

 Hospitality,
 Telecommunications Services,
 Tourism,
 Entertainment Services,
 Financial Services,
 Health Care Services,
 Professional Services,
 Car Rental Services,
 Trade Services, etc.
Service marketing is a high-grade type of marketing that needs you
to build a considerable level of trust with your target audience.
Building the trust of your customers in your services enables them
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to be more willing to sign the contract since they trust that you
have the necessary skills to deliver the promised service value.
Unlike a one-off transaction that involves the sales of products,
service marketing is a concept that requires high-level human
interaction.

Chapter 3
Sectors that use service marketing
strategies include:

Type of service sector in india

 5

Certainly! Here are some sectors that actively employ service

marketing strategies:

1. Hospitality Industry:

Hotels, restaurants, resorts, and other businesses in the

hospitality sector rely heavily on service marketing. Their
success hinges on providing exceptional guest experiences,
personalized services, and creating a welcoming
atmosphere.

2. Telecommunications Services:

Telecom companies offer services like mobile plans,

internet connectivity, and cable TV. Their marketing
efforts focus on customer satisfaction, network reliability,
and competitive pricing.

3. Tourism and Travel Agencies:

Travel agencies, airlines, cruise lines, and tour operators

promote travel experiences. They emphasize convenience,
safety, and memorable journeys to attract customers.

4. Entertainment Services:

The entertainment industry includes theaters, concert

venues, streaming platforms, and event organizers. Their
marketing revolves around promoting exciting experiences,
star attractions, and ticket sales.

5. Financial Services:

Banks, insurance companies, investment firms, and credit

card providers fall under this category. Service marketing
in finance emphasizes trust, reliability, and personalized
financial solutions.

6. Health Care Services:

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Hospitals, clinics, and healthcare providers focus on patient

care, medical expertise, and compassionate services. Their
marketing aims to build trust and highlight specialized
treatments.

7. Professional Services:

Legal firms, consulting agencies, and accountants offer

professional expertise. Their marketing emphasizes
knowledge, reliability, and client satisfaction.

8. Car Rental Services:

Car rental companies market convenience, vehicle variety,

and competitive pricing. Their success depends on
delivering reliable services to travelers.

9. Trade Services:

Plumbers, electricians, carpenters, and other skilled

tradespeople provide essential services. Their marketing
often relies on word-of-mouth referrals and local
advertising.

Remember, effective service marketing involves

understanding customer needs, building trust, and
delivering exceptional experiences. Each sector has its
unique challenges and opportunities, but the core principles
remain consistent!

Chapter 4
Characteristics of Service
Marketing
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Characteristics of services

Service marketing emerged as a special field of study due to some

services that needed different strategies. These services must have
some peculiarities before they can be studied as a separate entity.
Let's take a look at some of those peculiarities.

 Heterogeneity – Services involve various processes that

are subject to human variation and are delivered by
certain personnel. Some clients request highly customized
services because services are naturally variable in
substance and quality. Variability implies that you are
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open to fewer opportunities to regularize the delivery

of services.

 Intangibility – Services are abstract, i.e. they lack

physical form. They cannot be controlled with any of our
bodily senses like sight, touch, or smell. This
characteristic implies that ownership cannot be
changed or transferred. Value is derived from the
consumption of experience of that service. You cannot
evaluate the quality of service before purchase or
consumption.

 Perishability – Unlike physical goods, service

performances are temporal (they cannot be stored or
enumerated). Perishability implies that demands are
prone to wide-ranging fluctuations. No inventory acts
as an intermediary between demand and supply and
dormant services cannot be retained.

 Inseparability – Unlike goods, the concept of production

and consumption of services cannot be dissociated. For
goods, the production and consumption of physical
products are two entirely different processes. An
implication is that services are highly labor-intensive.
Also, there are fewer opportunities to substitute capital for
human labor.

 People Involvement – Service marketing is in the hands

of people who provide services to need the needs and
wants of their customers.

These five characteristics give rise to different problems in

service marketing. Services are by nature complex, multi-
dimensional, sophisticated, and multi-layered compared to
standardized products. There are benefits attached to services.

Service marketing involves interactions between companies and

clients, and between customers and other customers.
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Chapter 5
How to Define Your Service
Marketing Strategy
The best marketing strategies all start from a simple and
actionable plan and a genuine evaluation of where your business is
today. You want to know how much customers value your services.
Which of your services sells the best and which sells the worst?
What services offer a high profit margin? These are questions
that need to be check-marked for you to build an effective
marketing strategy.
Some decades ago, service companies rarely made use of
marketing strategies compared to manufacturing companies.
Compared to manufacturing companies, service firms:

 Often handle advertisement internally instead of

going out to agencies
 Rarely come up with sales training programs
 Rarely meet marketing experts for consultations
 Do not run sales analysis in the environment around
them.
There are various reasons why these service firms did not
initially use marketing strategies. Some had lots of demand and
did not see the need for a marketing plan. Others felt it was
unprofessional to employ the use of marketing.
Later on, some of these service firms started experiencing a decline
in demands for services, leading to low sales. They started using
marketing agencies to boost their sales.
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Service-based businesses need some elements of external

marketing to be successful. It is what promotes your services to
your target audience.
Defining a marketing plan for your service-based business is
essential to your business' growth. Your strategy should focus on
satisfying the needs of your target audience and building a long-
term relationship with them through consistent interaction.
Below is a guide on how you can define a successful service
marketing strategy.

1. Know the Key Elements of a Successful

Strategy
One key element is for you to characterize your customers by their
needs. You can do this by doing thorough market research on
different customers and approaching them in a more friendly way
than your rivals in the market.
The next step is to make the most of your business strengths to
meet the various needs of customers. For instance, if you notice
that some sets of audiences prioritize quality in service, your
marketing strategy should convince them that you can provide the
high-quality service they want.

2. Do a SWOT Analysis
Your business strategy must take account of your strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Detailed research on
your existing customers can say much about your SWOT.
After doing your analysis, look at the potential effects that each
element of the SWOT analysis can have on your strategy.
 11

Source: Corporate finance institute

3. Develop your Marketing Strategy

With insight into your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
threats, you can maximize the positive information and
minimize the effects of the negative information.

You can also write out some questions that your marketing actions
will answer. Review these questions regularly and tick whenever
you have completely answered them.
 12

Source: CoSchedule

Chapter 6
How to Market a Service-Based
Business
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Service-based businesses offer services to its target

audience. Before you begin to market your service to customers,
you need to understand some concepts.
You need to study and understand your customer's personalities,
the dynamics of your target audience, their reaction when they are
satisfied with your service, and their reaction when you do not
meet their expectations.
Also, you can study how your existing customers knew about
your service and how they were convinced to patronize you. It
helps you in knowing the right points to hit when marketing your
business.
After understanding your customers, there are some proven
methods you can apply when marketing your business. They
include email marketing, SEO, performance marketing, webinars,
direct outreach, and referral marketing.

1. Email Marketing
The use of emails is one of the best ways to market your service-
based business. After identifying your target audience, you can
use email marketing to build and automate your email
campaigns. You can set that up using email marketing
software such as ConvertKit, MailChimp, and other MailChimp
alternatives.
The welcome email is what you send to your customers when they
join your email list. You can personalize your emails based on the
user's preference.
Provide social proofs in your emails, people love it when there
are proofs to back up the efficiency of service. Also, ensure your
emails are reader-friendly. Do not employ the use of sophisticated
words with the mindset of impressing your clients. You can miss
out on passing the message you intend to pass to your target
audience.
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Source: DigitalStrike

2. SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a great way of promoting
your service business. There is no doubt that if a random customer
goes on the web to search for a service, he or she is most likely to
click on any of the first five websites that appear on Google SERP
(Search Engine Results Page).
 15

If you want your website or blog to rank high, you need to do some
SEO optimization. People still find it hard to understand how the
Google search algorithm works on the internet. Here are some SEO
tips to help you market your business.

 Use quality content

 Use search keywords in your content, and
 Use SEO-optimized titles, headers, and URLs.
 Use SEO tools to improve your rankings
including keyword research tools.

Source: Blue Corona

3. Performance Marketing
Performance marketing is another good way of up-scaling your
service business. It is the combination of brand marketing and
paid advertising to achieve one goal.
This type of marketing involves an affiliate and a retailer. It is a
win-win for both parties because the retailer only pays when the
desired action has taken place.
 16

Performance marketing is an umbrella that houses affiliate

marketing and other types of marketing. The affiliate helps you
market your service. Once they can convert a large audience, you
pay them for their service and in turn, get a large number of people
to offer your services to.

Source: Taalmedia

4. Webinars
You can also leverage webinars to boost your services and
amass a large audience. To use webinars, you first identify a topic
that interests your target market.
Here are ways to find a topic:

 Define your target audience

 Understand their pain points
 17

 Use irresistible titles to capture their attention

The next step is to prepare your webinar. Ensure you are the person
that hosts it. For this step, here are a few things to do.

 Use the best webinar software platforms

 Create your content

 Test run the devices you want to use to host the

webinar

Promote Your Webinar

No matter how resourceful your webinar is, it needs promotions for

it to get to a larger audience. Here are a few tips on how to promote
your webinar.

 Add call-to-action clicks on your website

 Send promotional emails
 Post blog contents emphasizing the webinar
 Use social media platforms and possibly
run Facebook Ads.

After a wonderful promotion, convert your webinar attendees into

sales. The best way to do that is to:

 Focus on delivering valued content

 Showcase your expertise level

 Advertise your service at the end of the webinar.

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Source: Get Response

5. Direct Outreach
Direct outreach is another great marketing tool. Customers
patronize services based on emotions and justify them with
logic. It involves reaching out to your customers via email or
phone, including cold calling.

6. Referral Marketing
In the business world today, there is no doubt that referrals boost
market sales. Referral marketing is a process where existing
customers refer other people to your services.
 19

Unlike other types of marketing that you directly contact a large

audience, your existing customers do the work for you. Referral
marketing helps your business gain more customers through
word-of-mount testimonials from people who used your
services.
One thing you need to do as a brand for referral marketing to work
out is to offer quality and satisfactory services. Once you do that,
the rest is easy. Customers are always naturally eager to talk to a
friend or two about the service they enjoyed from a business.

Source: Korona

Chapter 7
Service Marketing Tips and Tactics
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Some of the best service marketing tips and tactics you can use to
attract more customers, generate more sales and Return on
Investment (ROI) include:

1. Entice Your Audience with Incentives

No matter the services you offer as a business, you have lots of
competitors out there trying to gain the attention of the same
customers you are targeting.
How do you want to attract these customers to your service?
How do you want to convince them that you offer services
better than your competitors?
Incentives, promos, and add-ons are ways you can use to win
customers to your side. Everyone appreciates extra efforts that
service-based businesses add without charging extra costs.
Incentives also attract new customers to your service.

2. Prioritize Your Value Over Prices

Most businesses always want to compete over prices in a bid to
attract customers. However, if you want to reduce your prices, it
might hurt you in the end because the lower you go, the lower your
rivals will go just to snatch the market. Will you keep going lower?
Will you reduce quality because you want to cut costs?
Smart service-based businesses compete based on values.
Although there might be ranges in price, the one with the best
values always wins. Once the standard of your business is offering
high-quality services, you do not have to cut costs to attract
customers. Intentional customers will take you as their ‘go-to'
brand for your type of service.

3. Communicate Effectively
Communicating the results of services involves more personal
interactions than delivering details concerning the sales of a
product. Customers enjoy it when you constantly update them
on your services other than just keeping them waiting for the
 21

final results. You need to keep an efficient communication funnel

with customers.
You can effectively communicate via emails, phone
numbers, CRM software, or social media. With social media, a
single message can travel as fast as the speed of light within the
blink of an eye. You can also schedule messages. It will save you
the stress of sitting down all day forwarding messages to various
customers.

4. Earn the Trust of Your Audience

Trust is one of the major building blocks of service-based
marketing. When marketing your service, your main reference is
the service itself. But what is more important is what other people
(existing customers) have to say about you.
When marketing yourself, all you have to convince people is
words. But when one or two people can testify about your services,
it saves you the stress of proving your efficacy to each customer.
One good way to earn the trust of your audience is to deliver as
expected, or more than expected. Once your customers are
satisfied with your service, they will naturally tell others that need
your service about their fruitful experience with your brand. Your
brand gains new customers in the process.
Deliver quality services to the new customers and they will in
return keep spreading glowing reviews about your
brand. Reviews from your customers are very effective for
attracting new customers.

5. Leverage Social Networkin

Social media accounts help you to communicate effectively. The
importance of social networking cannot be overemphasized. Most
successful businesses have multiple social media accounts to
reach out to a larger audience easily and quickly.
As a business, you need to create a website that has information
about your services. You can use website builder tools like Wix
 22

and Squarespace to create the website. Then create accounts on

social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
Provide links to your media accounts on your website. Market
your service business on these accounts regularly. You can even
hire social media managers on freelance job websites like Upwork
and Fiverr to manage your social media accounts on your behalf.

Chapter 8

Service Marketing Types

The term ‘marketing' talks about creating awareness about
your business, what you have to offer, and how your solution
can benefit lots of people.

Source: The Investors Book

 23

Here are the three types of service marketing: internal marketing,

external marketing, and interactive marketing.

1. Internal Marketing
This is the type of marketing done by the company to its
employees. Your employees need to be aware of what your service
offers. It is done through empowerment programs and training.
Your employees should be ambassadors of your service.

2. External Marketing
External marketing is the most common type of marketing. It is
done by the company to its customers.
This type of marketing is the one that drags sales into your business
because you are directly reaching out to the target audience.
External marketing is done through advertisements, promotions,
online PR.

3. Interactive Marketing
This type of marketing is between the employees and
customers. In a marketing funnel, different employees have where
they directly interact with customers.
Interactive marketing is done through customer support,
interactions on social media, and personal employees. An example
is when the customer service department of a service-based
business attends to the welfare of customers.

Chapter 9
Examples of Service Marketing
There are two classes of service marketing examples. We have B2B
(Business to Business) service marketing examples and B2C
(Business to Customer) service marketing examples.

B2B Services Marketing Examples

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1. JBarrows Sales Training

JBarrows Sales Training is one of the best service providers that

provides consultancy and sales training services to some of the
world’s leading service establishments like G2 Crowd, Slack, etc.
These companies use JB services to ensure that their teams hold
high-quality meetings with the target markets. The sales training
offered by JBarrows also helps to improve the quality of
interactions during the sales process.
JBarrows Sales Training employs actionable strategies to help
small and large-scale companies achieve desirable results.

2. Cience
 25

Cience is a B2B service provider that uses multi-channel

prospecting to help companies grow. With highly accurate
research, they provide outbound sales processes that enable
qualified meetings with your target audiences. Clients are assured
of positive results.
Cience is among the top 10 fastest-growing marketing
companies in the US. They have been able to serve different
clients in hundreds of industries.

B2C Service Marketing Examples

1. Uber

Uber is a transportation business that connects available

drivers with customers via mobile apps. For customers, it is a
fast and convenient service compared to commercial transit buses.
For the drivers, they get to earn an income while transporting
people to their desired destination.

The online transport giant builds credibility by in-app reviews

dropped by customers after each ride. Its primary value is
flexibility for both parties.
 26

2. Airbnb

Airbnb is an online market where people can find nearby

accommodations. The company can sort customers' needs such as
duration, costs, accommodation, location, etc. Customers enjoy a
quality user experience when they use Airbnb and this boosts the
company's reviews in return.

Chapter 10
What are the 7 P's of Service
Marketing?
 27

There are 7 P's of service marketing. They include product, price,

place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence.

Source: Techtalkdotorg

1. Product
Product is what the word ‘marketing' centers on. It is whatever
you have to offer as a solution to meet your customers' needs.
In this case, it could be information, your blog, or even a
consulting service. The perks of your service and its advantage
 28

over other rival service providers should be obvious to your target

audience.
Your product has to be well defined in terms of its primary
attributes and its extended attributes. The attributes of your
service are the building block of your marketing strategy.
If your service design is faulty, no amount of marketing strategy
can earn you a large audience. Products can include technology,
UI/UX design, securities, transportation medium, and more.

2. Price
Regardless of the value that you offer, pricing is a key determiner
in acquiring customers and their final satisfaction. Before placing
a price tag on your service, it would be best if you know the
audience's price expectation range (and what your rivals are
charging for the same service). It would help you know if you are
charging far above the average or far below their expectations.
Talking about services, the price might not correctly indicate the
quality. It is like putting a price on an abstract feeling.
There are several price strategies used in service marketing. They
include:

Penetration Pricing
For this type of pricing, you start with low charges to acquire a
large audience. As your brand begins to grow, you increase your
charges.
In this way, you are slowly increasing your price rate on your
audience. It may not have a one-time effect on them, compared to
when you go from a low price to a ridiculously high price at once.
An example of a company that adopted this strategy is Sky TV.
Economy Pricing
Economy pricing means setting a low price that is difficult for
your competitors in the market to beat. But take note that this
 29

low price must still be profitable for your business. As long as it

remains profitable, it is a good pricing strategy.

Premium Pricing
Premium pricing refers to when you place high prices on your
service. You have to justify the reason why you are pricing at a
premium or else competitors will look the other way at your
competitors. One easy way to justify premium pricing is to deliver
a unique, top-notch, and quality service.

Product Line Pricing

This pricing strategy refers to when you break down your
services into small tiers or categories with specific prices per
category. It means that your prices increase as you offer a higher
number of services with higher value.
An example is a car washing company for different categories of
car cleaning. They can have different price tags for basic wash,
wash with wax, and full package.

Geographical Pricing
This pricing strategy depends on the location of the company in
any part of the world. Variations in prices can arise from the
location of a company. Countries that place more value on your
services or where there are higher tax rates would offer services for
higher prices.

3. Place
For offline services such as legal services, healthcare, household
upkeep, etc, proximity is an important factor to consider. The
closer you are to your target audience, the higher the chances of
increasing sales. Accessibility is not an excuse for your audience
when marketing your services to them once you are situated close
to them.
 30

For online services where sales and purchases are made

virtually, there are still some determining factors for high
purchase probability. The common ones include:

 Security status of payment

 Ease of payment

 Account management

 Type of transaction

 Variety of payment methods

4. Promotion
Promotion refers to the mediums through which you advertise
your services to your intended target audience. It plays a major
role in whatever perspective the target audience has when they look
at your service. Your positioning has to complement your
promotion. Promotion leads to brand recognition and evaluation
of your services.
Positioning (where exactly you are promoting your service) has a
major role in the perception of your service. For example, where do
you want to promote your service? Is it on Facebook Ads? Is it on
Adwords? Also, what contents will they contain?

5. People
People refer to the target audience you are promoting and
marketing your services to. The success and credibility of your
service depend on how you can develop a good relationship with
your target markets. It is essential to develop and manage customer
relationships efficiently.
 31

You need to pay close attention to what your customers want. It

is one of the determining factors for the success of your service
marketing campaign.

6. Process
Unlike physical products, service marketing is not only about
the results. The process is an important concept to consider when
rendering services.
When you can define your process clearly and properly, customers
will perceive your service as a credible and dependable one. It will
assure them that their expectations will be met.
Having an effective process for handling your customer support is
essential. It is very important to swiftly attend to any issues your
customers have. Poor customer support processes will affect the
satisfaction level of your customer with your service.
As a service business, solving your customer's issues is not the only
important (result) factor but how quickly, efficiently, and gently
you attend to it (process) matters.

7. Physical Evidence
Physical evidence affects a customer's satisfaction with abstract
services. Since these services are intangible (cannot be seen, felt,
or touched), customers depend on stories from existing customers
to put their trust in you.
Reviews, accreditations, and stamps are what build a
customer's trust in a service provider. Trust is built when you
prove the promises you make when marketing your services to your
target audience. Also, if no claims are negating your promises, it is
easier to build trust in your customers' minds
 32

CONCLUSION :
In conclusion, service marketing is a dynamic and integral part of the
modern economy, focusing on the unique challenges associated with
marketing intangible services. The key characteristics of services—
intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability—demand
innovative strategies that differ from traditional product marketing. The
expanded marketing mix for services, often referred to as the 7 P’s,
provides a framework for addressing these challenges and optimizing
service delivery.
Effective service marketing strategies must prioritize understanding and
meeting customer needs, maintaining high service quality, fostering strong
customer relationships, and building a robust brand identity. With the rise
of digital technology, service providers have new opportunities to engage
with customers, personalize experiences, and streamline service delivery.
As industries continue to evolve, service marketing will play an
increasingly important role in differentiating companies and building
customer loyalty. The ability to adapt to changing consumer behaviors and
expectations will be crucial for success in any service-oriented business.
Remember, the essence of service marketing lies in creating value for
customers and ensuring a positive experience that encourages repeat
business and referrals. By focusing on these core principles, businesses
can thrive in the competitive service sector.

Bibliography
References:
1. Microsoft Copilot in Bing
2. What is Service Marketing? Definition, Strategies, Examples
(founderjar.com)
3. https://image1.slideserve.com/2385752/types-of-service-
sector-in-india-n.jpg
4. https://i0.wp.com/www.projectguru.in/wp-
content/uploads/2020/02/1-4.jpg?w=776&ssl=1
5. https://www.pngegg.com/en/png-zxjxe#google_vignette
6. https://theinvestorsbook.com/service-
marketing.html#google_vignette