Top 15+ Marketing Strategies that Differentiate Your Business in Oil and Gas Service Sector
Like any other industry, the oil and gas energy sector has its own extreme ups and downs.
So, developing a solid business and marketing plan will do more to assure your long-term success. It will help you think honestly about various parts of your business and save you enormous time and energy.
When you are developing your marketing strategies, you need to consider factors that differentiate your business from others.
After having conversations with teams who are service providers in the oil and gas industry, I put together key points that will help differentiate your business.
- Don’t rely on referral marketing on new business:
Relationships are still important in the oil and gas industry. People in this industry prefer to do business with people they trust and like.
But in today’s oil and gas world, scouting, word of mouth and relationship are not enough. Oil and gas clients need facts to justify purchase for their business. So, build relationships by focusing on understanding your customer’s business and market.
- Complying with industry requirements keeps you competitive.
By highlighting some advantages such as how you comply with trade regulations, local content requirements and licences, you will be more competitive in the market place.
- Have targeted prospects and fully utilise data and information providers.
Grabbing opportunities in the highly competitive oil and gas industry, you need to allocate your marketing efforts towards companies with highest demands of your services.
You can achieve this by utilising information providers who will help you to identify high quality leads.
- Multi-tasking is crucial to survive in the industry.
The oil and gas industry is volatile and affected by oil price fluctuation in the global market. So, diversification is essential to surviving during the bad days in the industry.
Prepare to reach all three sub-sectors of the energy market: from upstream E&P, through storage and transportation to downstream utilization.
- Understand why you lost a bid.
If you bid unsuccessfully for a contract, it is imperative to ask why you were rejected. This will help resolve your weakness on the next opportunity to bid.
Related:How To Target The Best Business Prospects For Submitting Proposal For Services
- Provide good services on time or earlier.
To survive in this competitive industry, you should provide good services on time. Most of your coming opportunities in this industry will be determined on how you did your last job.
One of the key factors oil and gas companies consider when choosing a vendor is the vendor’s ability to respond quickly. So, do a good job, and they will give you more. Some operations in the oil and gas sector, such as drilling, are _fast-response_ businesses, so delaying, delivering poor supplies or rendering poor supplies will delay and ruin production and hence reduce their profit.
- Attend all sales meeting prepared.
To increase your chance of success, you should plan and prepare the presentation for your goods and services prior to meeting with industry clients.
That way, you will have a great presentation of your offer and this will make the decision makers have confidence that you are the right person to be given the project.
- Embrace changes.
Industry regulations may become stricter, so make sure you stay ahead of the changed and regulations in the industry and comply with them.
- Focus on the highest potential clients
Separating your business in the industry means being more targeted in your approach. You should target and allocate your resources to the business prospects who are likely to demand your services.
- Find out other projects unrelated to oil and gas in your area.
In your marketing strategy, make a list of the other project that are not related to the oil and gas sector which your business can be part of. If, for instance, you provide maintenance and repair services to the oil and gas companies, power plant projects might also need your services.
- Monitor regions that are growing to tap into new opportunities. Keeping track of the growing region like East Africa will help you take advantage of the oil and gas opportunities.
- Dig deep to understand which companies are likely to have projects and gain insight on the capacity of the projects.
- Expand your opportunities by entering new markets or establishing your business outside your geographical area.
- Monitor activities and trends in your targeted region. Identify the kind of oil and gas activities going on in your area.
- Have an online presence. Your website is a key part of your marketing tools. After attending a meeting or exchange business cards with professionals at an industry conference, your website is the best place that clients and partners will go to gain high level overview of what you do. So, build a website that will establish your credibility and trust.
- Learn what your competitors do in the industry and what works well for them.
- Recruit, recruit, recruit.Always recruit even in the downturn.
