6 Tips To Start Your Field Service Content Management Strategy
October 23, 2019 | Read: 7 minutes
Have you ever been worried by a leaky tap?
I heave a sigh of relief when I see a field service technician deftly twitching the screw and putting a new washer in place.
Thanks to the skills of these experts, I’m put at ease, and will tell everyone about the success story I’ve had!
However, many of these excellent technicians don’t think they have a story to tell and that a field service content management strategy is just for the likes of Uber or Apple…
Truth be told, everyone should create and distribute more marketing collateral, regardless of their industry. With the amount of competition around these days, how else can they stand out?
This is why today we’re discussing how content creation helps build a valuable brand and we’ve employed the help of marketing management expert, Karthik Subramanian.
His extensive experience working for content management tool Paperflite has given him an insider’s point of view into helping companies across industries get started with content marketing.
We’ll let him take it from here and count down the benefits of a field service content management strategy:
- It helps clients and followers learn and do it themselves.
- It positions your company as a subject authority or a thought leader.
- It enhances brand image and instils a higher brand recall value.
- Earns you free word-of-mouth publicity.
- It helps you build trust with your target audience and cultivate long-term relationships.
More importantly, nobody ever went out of business by creating useful content. If you are a marketer at a field service company or even an owner looking to boost your company’s brand value, here are six tips to get started with your content strategy:
Let’s get started!
1. Know your audience
Any content creation initiative begins with five fundamental questions:
Who is the target audience for this content?
If you are a local HVAC service provider, your audience will be the nearby residences, offices, gyms, clubs, tennis courts, etc. It will be the owners, managers, administrators, supervisors, and caretakers of these places who are looking for easy solutions.
How will they benefit from it?
It helps them fix things easily on-the-go without external help. Fixing the kitchen sink leakage doesn’t need skilled technicians. Instead, a simple plastic pipe, a torch, and a dry cloth can help to get it done.
Where do they hang out?
The target audience might use social apps such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, or Instagram – so distribute content on these channels to have a wider reach.
Looking for some LinkedIn video tips? Check out Databox’s expert advice roundup on LinkedIn video marketing tips!
What content type do they prefer?
They might prefer small how-to videos, blogs with pictures, images, checklists, or FAQs – creating such content can help you reach the right audience.
How do you measure content performance?
Irrespective of the content that you produce, measuring its performance helps you gain deeper insights into what is resonating with your target audience. Are videos performing better than blogs, or are the infographics drawing more people in?
2. Employee-produced content
At field service companies, everybody is a marketer or a brand ambassador. Due to the nature of the work, technicians are continually interacting with end-users trying to make their lives happier.
They are out on the street fixing leakages, repairing broken pipes, cleaning AC vents, or performing routine checks on machines throughout the day. So, why not have them shoot videos of their work while they’re at it? Videos are easy to create, produce, and engage. It gives a realistic touch to content and can help viewers get it done themselves. Or, ask reps to narrate it while you record and transcribe it for an easy how-to blog with pictures.
If you need any more proof, check out these expert opinions on how videos increase brand engagement from UpCity, then head off below to our very own video on how to get started:
3. Use influencers to spread the word
Influencer marketing is certainly not just for the big boys or large corporations who have large purses. Even companies that have smaller content marketing budgets can tap into their influencer networks.
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For example, mayors, councillors, ward officers, local media personalities, or even the average Joe who has followers on their social media, can be influencers. However, it is crucial to determine the message that they’d convey on your behalf and the medium of communication.
That brings us to choosing communication media.
4. Don’t ignore unconventional media
The truth about content production is that no matter what you like to create, it may not be the same that the audience wants. That is true for the channel of communication, as well.
For example, the target audience for field service companies might listen to local radios, view TV shows, and read area-specific newspapers/magazines that cater to their needs. They might even turn up for the local football games, charity shows, town halls, meetings, or the beach. After all, not everyone follows the US-China trade talks.
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Spreading the word through such unconventional media enables field service companies to get closer to their target audience.
5. Recreate and reuse
Content creation shouldn’t be a one-time activity. It is expensive and time-consuming to create original content. So, field service companies must create content once and reuse it in other forms.
For example, a short video about cleaning the air conditioning vents can be reproduced in an infographic with simple images in a sequence. Users can understand the process and become better equipped to do it themselves.
According to Databox’s excellent advice on how to grow a blog, “update these articles to keep them relevant, and remember that content is not created for yourself, or people that already follow you, but for an audience you won’t know nor reach before you put it online, and there is the highest potential for growth: all these billions of internet users that never heard about your blog, yet are potentially looking content you might provide them.”
6. Measure content performance
Most often, companies produce splendid content but fail to measure content performance. They aren’t able to tie their content to revenues that it can potentially generate. It results in the creation and optimization of more irrelevant content that lacks strategy and direction.
Most content marketers dive into Google Analytics or vanity metrics on social media to check the real worth of their content. While these methodologies are must-haves for any company, specialist platforms such as Paperflite help in knowing the content engagement amongst the target audience. It helps you to know the number of views, downloads, time spent on each content piece.
Such insights help field service produce and distribute contextual content that is approved and brand-compliant to their target audiences.
What you still need to know about field service content management
Field service companies must create content that is natural and flows freely. It must be a part of their daily business to produce content that their users can engage and consume easily. It isn’t about building loads of content that is of no use to anybody; rather, it is about the quality of content that generates higher engagement.
This is why we’ve put together a sales strategy guide to help you get started with your customers the right way. Check them out below!
