Published: 25 Nov 2022
Marketing is a huge subject that covers many areas. While many people will hear the word marketing and immediately think of marketing communications like PR, digital and advertising, to events, conferences, sponsorship, social media. Marketing is actually much more strategic, and the marketing communications activity is just one element of the bigger picture.
It is very easy to get confused by all the different terminology and overwhelmed by the marketing choices there are. However, a simple way of looking at your marketing is using the marketing mix model. If you are marketing a product, then the four Ps of marketing mix: Product, Price, Place, Promotion will provide you with a good framework. However, surveying is a service, so you actually need to consider the seven Ps of the marketing mix, which also include People, Processes and Physical evidence. If you can get each of these elements right, your marketing will be much simpler.
Product
The first thing is to identify what it is you are trying to market. Is it a product or a service, is it a standalone product, or part of a range. What is the quality and positioning of the product or service, its properties and how it has been designed. Maybe you specialise in measured land and building surveys, underground services or site engineering, what ever it is, it is necessary to identify and define it.
Price
Your pricing strategy also needs to be identified. Is it clear and easily understood? Do you have a range of prices for your range of products or services – and if a customer is taking, for example a measured building survey, will they receive a better price if they also have an underground utilities survey carried out at the same time? Your pricing strategy also needs to take into account what it delivered as standard and what you charge extra for.
Promotion
The promotion of your product or service involves the identification of the marketing communications activity you will undertake as part of your overall marketing strategy. At its most basic, this includes advertising, PR, social media and sales promotion. Your website will form an important part of this and also your networking.
Place
With a profession like surveying, the ‘place’ or where you provide the service is out on site, so there is little you can do to influence this. However, what you can do is define the geographical area that you cover, so that you know who you are targeting.
People, Processes and Physical Evidence are particularly important to you as surveyors, as you are selling your skills and expertise, rather than a specific product.
People
It is important to think about the people directly and indirectly involved in the process of providing survey results. You need to be aware of you team and your clients, but you also need to take into consideration whether your work will impact the wider public and how to mitigate against any issues. You also need to think about other stakeholders that might be impacted by the work you carry out.
Processes
While process might not be considered as part of marketing, it is important that the procedures, mechanisms and sequence of actions that are required to undertake the survey work smoothly and efficiently.
Physical evidence
Getting the physical evidence element right is crucial. Whether this is setting out your proposal of how the work will be carried out, or the way you display the results at the end, this is what makes the intangible ‘survey’ a tangible, valuable output.
For further ideas and inspiration, take a look at our list of TSA members, to see how they have approached their marketing.
