Selling the Invisible

The core of service marketing is the service itself.

Assume your service is bad. It can’t hurt, and it will force you to improve.

Write an ad for your service. If after a week your best ad is weak, stop working on the ad and start working on your service.

Lake Wobegon Effect, after Garrison Keillor’s famous radio

Make it so your clients can talk behind your back, and that you can learn what they’re saying. Have your clients send their completed surveys to a third party. Have the third party assure your clients that they can leave their names out, and that their names won’t be revealed. Your clients will give far more candid answers. Have a third party do yo

“Better reality” in your service will make marketing easier, cheaper, and more profitable. In fact, some companies have improved their “reality” so much they can almost eliminate the “getting the word out” part of their marketing plans. The first step in service marketing is your service.