How to market a business in a boring industry

Typically when a business is operating in what is referred to as a boring industry, it is also an industry that other businesses cannot do without. Good examples of these industries are accounting, law, insurance, information technology, etc.  Small business owners in other industries may not be excited to be interacting with these business, but at some point in time they have to interact with those business in some form or fashion.  For many of these industries, there simply is not way around opening a business without insurance or an internet connection.  If your business operates in one of these areas, there are several ways you can still market these businesses.  First you should start by trying to answer the questions that potential customers need answered.

Take a question like what is workers compensation?  Not many people type that question in to a Google search for entertainment.  They more than likely are looking to purchase this coverage for their business sometime in the future.  This can be the same for someone typing in what is a 1040EZ in the accounting industry.  More than likely whoever is typing in that question is doing their taxes.  If you can serve that customer by answering their question on your website, in a blog post or even on a social media post; you establish your credibility before the potential customer even realizes they are considering purchasing something from your business.

There are several ways in which you can do this in a way that is not overly intrusive, not too boring and can have an enormous impact on the bottom line of those businesses.  One arena many businesses attempt to promote in these industries is online.  Digital marketing opens up enormous places for you to market your business to people on their terms and the way in which they want to be reached.  Here are 4 tactics you can use to promote your business even if you operate in one of these boring industries.

Content Marketing

According to the content marketing institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action”.  Creating videos, blog posts, social media posts and other online content is one of the best ways to stand out online from your competition. All of these forms of presenting your business and your vision can have a dramatic impact on your business.  If there are questions potential customers need answered, your website is a prime place to answer those questions and provide the ultimate first impression.

Blogging

Blogging is another great way to start marketing your business when you operate in a boring industry like workers compensation insurance.  First, blogging can establish your business as a subject matter expert in your field or industry.  It also gives you the ability to answer those questions potential customer might be seeking.  Think of blogging as a way you can give your customer something for nothing.  Just like giving them a pencil or a coffee mug, free information has the potential to be much more valuable than a giveaway.  By answering a question you start off your relationship with the customer by giving them something they did not ask from you.

Creating compelling content on your website

Like blogging, creating compelling content on your website can set you apart from your competition.  The goal of a blog post is to get the customer to your website.  The ultimate goal of your website is to capture their attention and convert those visitors in to customers.  A frequently asked questions section is a great place to start when thinking about what content to create.  Similar to when you come up with a topic for a blog post, creating content for you website should also be about answering questions your customer needs answered.  Whatever questions you think your customers might type in to a search engine like Google or Bing should have a page on your website dedicated to answering that question.

Social Media

When initiating a social media campaign, it is important to come up with some sort of a schedule that fits your business’s needs.  Once you have come up with that schedule it is important to stick to it.  Determine what schedule works for your business and stick to it.  The schedule may be once a month and that is fine.  It might be better to do it once a week, three times a week or even daily.  It all depends on the amount of time you have to dedicate to this task and how much you ultimately value social media (You should value it a lot).  Next you should determine what is the right social media platform for your business.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest are some of the most popular.  It is not a good idea to try to start by using all of them.  Most businesses will create two or maybe three profiles and add other platforms as their presence grows.  Remember, like many things in life you have to crawl before you walk and you have to walk before you run.  This is very true when promoting your business on social media.

Also, there should be a few select people who have access to the accounts and that is it.  These people need to all be on the same page.  There needs to be more than one person who tweets because if someone leaves the organization, someone gets sick or someone goes on vacation you do not want that to cause there to be a lag in the amount or quality of the posts.  Your social media followers should not be able to tell when your social media employee goes on vacation.  That is a tale tale sign you need to get more people involved.