The Dark Arts

Marketing is often seen as some “dark art”, the secrets of which are only known to a few. In years gone by marketing was a big hit business. Prime time TV ads, ads in the national press with the aim of “hitting” as many customers or potential customers as possible. One large drinks company was famously quoted as saying that they needed a customer to see some form of their advertising every four days. They had a very large advertising budget!

Things have changed and marketing is a much more subtle. You may have heard the term “market segmentation” and as we are nearing Christmas, the analogy is to imagine a Terry’s chocolate orange and how many leaves it has when you eventually “tap and unwrap” (even I have bought into their marketing slogan!). This is how marketing has evolved. Rather than targeting large groups, advertisers now attempt to target individual customers with a specific message. This is further complicated by the fact that there are so many different forms of advertising platforms. So, running a successful campaign takes a great deal of planning and preparation.

Now, stop for a moment and think how you market your firm. Do you use some paid for advertising in local papers, sponsor a local football or rugby team or is your marketing a little more subtle? Do you have a website, Facebook page, twitter feed or LinkedIn profile? Do your vans carry your name and contact details (plus the SELECT logo!!); does your workforce wear branded workwear? There are lots of ways of getting your message over, without spending a fortune.

By the time you read this, SELECT will have embarked on a marketing campaign of its own. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government issued Statutory Guidance on Electrical Installations and Appliances in Private Rented Property. The Housing (Scotland) Act now includes a requirement for landlords to conduct five-yearly electrical checks of the fixed wiring and any electrical appliances supplied in privately rented homes.

The guidance states that these checks must be conducted by appropriately skilled persons and lists SELECT as one of the organisations whose Members meet this requirement.

To highlight this new requirement we are undertaking a local radio and social media campaign to raise the awareness of the new regulations and to direct landlords to our website.

To make things easier for customers, we have set up a new domain, needanelectrician.scot, which will allow customers to find a SELECT Member.

We have also developed a new leaflet aimed at informing landlords what their new responsibilities are and Members will be able to access a copy of the leaflet which they can customise to suit their own firm and print themselves.

So benefit from our campaign by making sure your customers know you’re a SELECT Member. Use the SELECT logo wherever you can, on your vans, headed paper, website and emails, all these actions cost a little but the payback could be immense.

CABLEtalk November 2015