“Can I market in an industry I’ve never worked in?”
“I’ve never done marketing for that kind of company?”
“I don’t have experience in that field, how can I create a marketing plan for them?”
“I know nothing about this field!”
“Don’t I need to have some experience in the industry before I try to make ads for them?”
I’ve heard these types of questions so many times before. Many people, and marketers, think that if you have to have worked in an industry before you can do marketing or advertising for it. That’s absolute horse poop!
Yes, of course experience is often better but it’s not necessary. Having little to no experience in a particular industry can often give marketers the blues. That’s exactly what happened to Cricketmcfly on Reddit’s r/askmarketing.
“I started working for a small general contractor/commercial construction company as a project administrator, which I am good at and like doing. I have very little experience marketing and the small experience I do have was targeted towards skateboarding and all social media based. My new employer has now tasked me with all of our marketing, and my raise to salary depends on me “figuring this out.” I feel lost in trying to get new business for us.
Is there any advice out there for someone in the construction field? I use Google AdWords, and we have a website- but that’s it. What can I be doing differently?”
Personally I look at marketing as a set of lessons, best practices and skills that (if you’re a good marketer) can be applied to any field, product, service of industry.
Seriously, stop thinking about it as you don’t know anything about that field. You don’t need to. Instead go back to basics.
- Identify the target market.
What kind of construction services do you offer?
Who needs your services?
How old are they?
Do they need to meet certain requirements (home owners, etc)
Income level? Geographic are? Etc. - Find your placement/distribution:
Where are your potential customers?
You need to be where they’re looking for your services or where they will be thinking about related services.
Example: try talking to real estate companies. Many home buyers intend to do some renovation. (If that’s what you do) Having a trusted referral, like the person you bought the house from, offers a higher chance of ROI. You’d have to give up what? Maybe 10% off the top of a job that you got paid for and made your money on already? - Value proposition:
Why should they pick you over others?
Once they find you, along with 10 other companies, why should they choose you over them?
I also gave them a few more tips that were a bit more specific to their situation. However the main emphasis her is that no matter what service, product, or industry the basic principles of marketing can be applied to everyone. It’s important not to get caught up in all the complicated techniques, tools, practices and gadgets. Remember that all of these are built off of the fundamentals of marketing.