Above the Mist by Ricardo Matiello

Starting a drone Business is an exciting, nerve wracking and demanding time. We know, we’ve been there! Sometimes it’s difficult to know what to focus on first, but one thing’s for sure; you’re going to need some customers. As much as we all love flying, without paying clients the dream can be over pretty much as soon as it’s begun.

Marketing is critical to the success of your Drone Business and it doesn’t have to be complicated. This short guide hopes to provide you with some insights as to where to prioritise your marketing efforts and give you access to some time saving tools and tips to get your business off the ground.

Identify Your Target Audience

The key to successful marketing is to know your audience. This will dictate how you should communicate, where you should target your communications and what information you should make available. Identifying your target market means that you can tailor your website content, Social Media posts and even your brochures or presentations using information which will be relevant to your intended audience.

Creating content relevant to your target customers will help grow your audience on social media, improve your SEO results (Search Engine Optimization) and convince potential customers that you can provide a valuable service specific to their needs. From example, a decision maker at a utility company will want to read how you can save them time and money but also want to know that you understand the difficulties and limitations when using drones to survey powerlines. Someone commissioning aerial video footage will want to know that you have the latest and greatest camera technology. Everyone will want to know that you carry a CAA accredited PfCO (Permission for Commercial Operation) certificate.

Knowing your audience is the best way to prove that you are an expert in your field to the people who matter.

Make a Good First Impression

Your branding dictates how people mentally connect with your drone business. Whether it’s your business card or website, you colour scheme and logo count when trying to make a good first impression.

Ask yourself… do you stand out from the crowd? Is your logo or colour scheme memorable? Does it represent your specialist services?

You don’t need to spend hundreds of pounds on professional graphic design services. Stock image sites such as Shutterstock and Adobe Stock offer tens of thousands of royalty free images and logos which you can make your own. You can also create a strong company image simply by using the right typeface and colour scheme.

Also, make sure your branding is consistent throughout. From your business cards to your customer presentations, any external and internal communications should be in line with your brand image.

Top Tip: Keep it simple. Only use up to three colours and a simple sans-serif font which looks good in print and on screen.

Stand Out From the Crowd

Your website is often people’s first introduction to you and your business, so make sure it stands out and represents your services in the best possible light. Websites don’t have to be expensive. There are a lot of free web-builders which are easy to use for a DIY site with a professional look.

Your online image can be make or break when it comes to people deciding whether to use your services so consider the following:

Domain name: Does your choice of domain name represent you and your drone business? Try and choose something short and easy to remember as this will also form part of your email address. You don’t want something like [email protected] on your business card. Also, never use a generic email address either as [email protected] won’t instil trust in potential customers and may lead to emails being sent straight to spam.

Imagery: Make sure images are of good quality but don’t take too long to load. Look at using TinyPNG to shrink images for use on the web.

Showcase Your Best Work: Add case studies or blog posts to show off your latest or best work to potential clients. Whether you are an aerial photographer or UAV surveyor, people want to know that you have experience and know-how to be able to facilitate their project.

Your website also helps people to find you if they are searching for specific services on a search engine. Make sure that you include keywords in your content which you customers may be searching for, such as ‘drone photographer’, ‘UAV LiDAR Specialist’ or ‘drone inspections’.

Get Comfortable With Social Media

The importance of Social Media if often overlooked by companies who are looking to market a B2B (Business to Business) service offering as it is often seen as a consumer channel more suited to clothing brands and food and beverage companies. The key thing to remember is that most social media users also work in a specific field and will be receptive to content relevant to their career, even in their downtime.

Each Social Media platform has its own unique benefits for a business. You don’t have to use them all, but you should certainly be using the ones that provide you the ability for additional exposure to your target audience.

If you are a drone business which offers aerial services, LinkedIn is the social platform which will help you to grow your business by networking with potential clients. It’s also the perfect place to be able to showcase your most recent work or post company updates and interesting projects, just make sure you get permission from the client first.

LinkedIn Top Tip: Join groups and discussions which will help you to have a voice in your target industry and enable you to grow your audience by presenting yourself as an expert in your field. Don’t be afraid to get involved in discussions and voice your opinion. It’s a safe environment for peer to peer learning.

Many small business owners who operate in the B2B space discount Facebook as a way of generating new leads or getting in front of their customers, but Facebook isn’t just posts about people’s kids, cat videos and dancing grannies, it’s also a great way to target an audience who have specifically names your business area as an interest. Out of all social media channels, COPTRZ Facebook posts generate the most engagements – by this, we mean comments, likes and shares. Every time someone likes or shares one of you posts, your ‘reach’ or audience increases exponentially.

Facebook Top Tip: Facebook is a casual social platform so try not to make your posts too complicated or technical. Don’t forget to include links back to your website

Twitter is a great way to grow your audience and generate interest in your services. Although it isn’t technically a B2B platform, almost all big businesses use Twitter to put out small news items. It’s also a great way to find out what is going on in your industry and within your target market. Make sure you follow your customers and prospective clients, as well as the movers and shakers in the drone business.

Using hashtags (#) will help people to find your posts even if they aren’t following you. We often use hashtags such as #drones, #UAV, #photogrammetry and #surveying, all of which generate post engagements and additional followers. We also use these hashtags to search form shareable content on Twitter as it’s always good to share interesting content which isn’t yours.

Don’t be afraid to use your strongest images – most people look at an image first before reading the post – even sub-consciously, so make sure you stand out in people’s Twitter feed.

Twitter Top Tip: The 140-character limit can be a challenge so make sure you use a link shorter, such as Bitly bit.ly which will shrink any links you choose to share and enable you to write more about you and your business.

Social Media Advertising:

Social Media ads can be a great way of targeting your ideal audience online. Almost all the main platforms allow you to specify who you would like to see the advert, based on location, interests and even job title on LinkedIn. Advertising on these platforms doesn’t cost you a set amount upfront, an advert only costs you money if someone clicks on it, hence being known as ‘Pay Per Click’ advertising, or PPC. You can set a daily budget as low as £1 and run different adverts at the same time, based on different audiences.

Showcase your Value Proposition

Your ‘value proposition’ is essentially the reason why people should use your drone business and services and not those of a competitor. It’s your way of saying how you can add value or improve results for your clients.

Proving your value proposition is easier than it sounds. Drones solve problems. From making visual inspections faster, safer and easier, to offering a new perspective on the world through UAV photography and video. Many people don’t know exactly how much drone technology can help their business so it’s up to you to tell them.

How will your services improve business outcomes for your clients? You can demonstrate this by providing case studies or including testimonials or examples in proposals or presentations, but make sure your value proposition is clear on the homepage of your website and demonstrated through actual footage or data.

Show Off!

You started your drone business because you are good at something. Don’t forget to show it off. Every business has a unique selling point. It might be that you have X years’ experience as civil engineer so you understand the challenges your clients face. It could be that you have a fleet of drones which enable you to do work that many of your competitors couldn’t. Make sure that your potential customers know why they should choose you and not another drone business.

They say, “a picture paints a thousand words” and when people don’t have the time to read 1000 words to find out what you do, they will look to your imagery to give them more information in milliseconds. Drones are revolutionising different industries because of their visual data acquisition capabilities. Whether you are collecting imagery to be used for photogrammetry, carrying out thermal inspections or offering UAV LiDAR services, your drone’s data can be used to make a powerful statement to potential customers. Just remember, If you are using data or imagery that a client has paid for, make sure you always get their permission before sharing on your website or social media.

If you can’t get a client’s permission to use their data or imagery, or are just starting out, take the time to create a catalogue of work through test projects or free demonstrations. This will also help you to hone your skills without being under pressure to deliver results first time.

Top Tip: Use imagery to showcase your best work in an online portfolio, write blog posts about your recent projects and promote your best clients on social media. People want to know that you are an expert in your field so the more evidence you can provide, the more comfortable they will be that you can provide the results that they expect.

Commercial UAV technology is so new that whatever field you are in, you can be sure that you are already at the cutting edge. We can help you stay there! COPTRZ offer industry leading guidance and support for commercial drone businesses. We can help you with commercial training, integrating the right UAV technology and payloads, as well as creating and implementing the right strategic vision for your business. Speak to our experts today.

Just starting out? Take a look at our infographic report on the opportunities available to UK Drone Businesses

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