Marketing Tactics to Gain Clients for a Service Startup

Posted January 2, 2025 • • 5 Minute Read

How do you market a service effectively?

A service startup is a business built around offering a service and not a product. Marketing a service startup differs from, say, technology startups, which seek to research, develop, and monetize new technology commercially, or product startups aiming to market a specific product (typically a physical one). Service startups rely on establishing trust with your potential clients and positioning yourself as an expert in whatever service you’re offering.

If you want to build a powerful marketing strategy for your service startup, you’ll need to define your:

Target audience– who would get the most out of your service
Marketing goals– what are you trying to accomplish with your marketing tactics
Marketing budget– how much can you afford to spend on marketing initiatives
Marketing channels– how to best reach your target audience

Once you’ve gotten your basics figured out, the below marketing tactics can be used to get the word out about your service startup.

Advertise in local newsletters

If you’re working with a limited marketing budget, or simply dipping your toes into advertisements, consider local newsletters. Typically, you’ll get a better deal advertising with smaller publications, and you might get a discount as a local. Local newspaper advertising can take many forms beyond a simple advertisement and can look like:

Running press releases of new service offerings
Partnering with local radio or news personalities for shout outs
Interactive inserts like Henckel’s fruit slice knife magazine inserts

Be aware of the city or regional publications in your area and get in contact with the publication’s ad rep or check the publication’s Contact Us page on their website.

Build a basic website

A business website is the cornerstone of a business’s identity these days, and it’s also a sort of Swiss Army knife in your marketing arsenal. Business websites can display a portfolio of finished work, provide a way for potential customers to reach out, and even facilitate orders. If you’re a professional cuddler, you could have a booking system built into your website so no one goes cold waiting for you to answer an email.

With websites being so much more accessible than they were in the past, and over 73% of small businesses having a website of their own, you’ll want to invest in one to support your business.

Northwest has the most powerful suite of services for new business owners. We’ll provide a free year of custom domain name registration, plus a business website, business email, and phone number all for free for the first 90 days if you choose us to start your business.

Participate in community events

Local art fairs, fundraisers, and other community events are a great place to drum up awareness for your business. As a service startup, you can get your business involved in your local community by:

Being a sponsor, displaying your name and logo
Setting up a booth with live service tutorials to show your business’s worth
Pitching in as a volunteer or organizer to show how your business gives back
Doing a fund drive for a local nonprofit

At the very least, community events are likely packed with consumers as well as other business owners, presenting a golden opportunity to network and build connections that could turn to business opportunities in the future.

Promotions to run for your service startup

Building visibility for your business is crucial, as it’s how you’ll begin growing a network of potential customers. While promotions can be considered a more general and long-term approach, they help to also blend in more direct means of driving sales and reaching new people.

Limited-time and seasonal offers

Running limited-time discounts or offering promotional pricing around holidays is a great way to boost revenue in the short term. If you need inspiration, here are a few ideas for temporary offerings:

Discounts on your services for long holiday weekends when potential customers are taking time off
Unique service offerings to go along with social media trends or trending topics
Specialty pricing for specific clients like recent grads, newlyweds, and first responders during certain times of year

Seasonal promotions can cut into your profit margins, however, and should be considered wisely so that you don’t eliminate your cash flow entirely.

Service bundles

The art of the bundle is a beautiful thing. If you offer multiple services that complement each other, it makes sense (as both a temporary promotion or a baked-in piece of your pricing structure) to offer a discounted price to customers who are interested.

Do you offer eyebrow waxing as well as ear canal conditioning? Consider bundling the two with a 20% discount and only getting your hands dirty once. The key to a good service bundle is pricing. Make sure your bundle offers your two items at a deal that makes sense to your customers, like a making each service half off if bundled together.

Loyalty rewards

Once you’ve gained a customer and delivered a stellar service, you’ve made a new friend, and it’s important to keep your friends close. Rewarding loyalty can manifest a few ways, from offering a punch card through a service like Loopy Loyalty to simply offering a flat 10% discount to anyone you’ve worked with previously.

Additionally, reward word-of-mouth referrals. If you’ve got previous customers spreading the word on your services, consider printing referral cards for them to hand out and reward them with commissions or discounts on future purchases.

Adapt and improve your marketing

Now that you’ve got some ideas to add to your marketing plan for your business, remember not to simply set and forget. Update your website regularly, change up where you advertise if you aren’t seeing a return, and move from being a guest to a sponsor at local events as you grow. Keep your marketing dynamic, and you’ll see success for years to come.

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