MARKETING YOUR DRONE BUSINESS How to Find New Customers By Erin Olsen Director of Marketing at Skyward
Starting a new business isn’t easy: From incorporation to accounting, hiring employees or contractors, investing in software, and setting up your systems, there’s so much to think about. And most of it isn’t directly related to the reason you started a business in the first place.
Lately, we’ve been hearing from a lot of first-time entrepreneurs who are launching drone businesses. On a recent webinar, we asked nearly 400 attendees about their biggest business challenges. Here’s what they had to say:
First up? Navigating regulations—no surprise in such a new industry with quickly changing rules.
But marketing comes in as a close second, with more than a third of entrepreneurs identifying it as their biggest business challenge. Over and over again, people ask us via email and on social media: “How do I market my drone business?” “How do I find new customers?”
Here’s the bad news: There is no short answer. I’ve devoted my career to marketing, and I still learn something new every day. Here’s the good news: Creating a strategy—and following through—will give you a place to start and help you understand where to dedicate your resources, both time and money.
If you can afford to hire an experienced business-to-business marketer, even as a contractor for a short time, do it. If not, we’ll be posting a series of articles over the next few months on different tactics for marketing your drone business.
Here’s the bad news: There is no short answer. I’ve devoted my career to marketing, and I still learn something new every day. Here’s the good news: Creating a strategy—and following through—will give you a place to start and help you understand where to dedicate your resources, both time and money.
If you can afford to hire an experienced business-to-business marketer, even as a contractor for a short time, do it. If not, we’ll be posting a series of articles over the next few months on different tactics for marketing your drone business.
If not, we’ll be posting a series of articles over the next few months on different tactics for marketing your drone business.
Step 1: Identify your customer
If you specialize in aerial surveying or wind turbine inspection, this will be relatively easy. However, if you’re a drone pilot-for-hire, the answer may seem wide open. But trying to be everything to everyone is a recipe for failure (because it’s impossible).
So think about your strengths, your weaknesses, your interests, and the area where you live.
If you live in Beverly Hills or Westchester County, you may find a ready market for luxury real estate photography. In that case, your customers will likely be high-end realtors. If you live in the heartland and most people you know work in agriculture, you might think about going into infrared crop imaging. The applications for commercial drone operations are numerous and expanding all the time—which means your opportunities are as well.
Step 2: What problems are you solving for your customer?
Too many businesses focus a ton of time and energy on “educating the customer.” Big mistake. Your customers don’t want to be educated, they want their problems solved. The difference? Getting educated feels like a lot of work; if you’re solving a problem I have, that feels like I suddenly have less work.