How basic do you need to be when it comes to your marketing efforts?

Basic enough for your grandma to understand, or just enough for someone to get the gist?

When we get wrapped up in security for so long, we often forget that not everyone understands exactly what home security is and how it works. Yes, we know that’s hard to believe, even for us since we all eat, sleep and drink security. But, as we often say, the proof is in the pudding and the numbers don’t lie.

Recently we helped a client of ours generate SEO (search engine optimization) landing pages that were hardware specific. The goal was to help our client generate some traffic organically when someone locally was searching for specific cameras, panels and other specific pieces of hardware.

These landing pages consisted of images, infographics, manufacturer-provided videos and some content to help our landing pages get ranked high. Three months later, we learned it didn’t just benefit our client with natural rankings, but it helped with user experience and lead generation.

This client’s site averaged around 3,000 to 3,500 users (unique visitors) per month. After adding the hardware pages, much like a SIMS game, we sat back and watched the visitors weave in and out of the website’s pages.

What we learned after watching three months of traffic was that 30 percent of the visitors that were brought in via SEO, PPC and social media and that were directed to specific landing pages clicked on the new tab we generated for SEO “Security Equipment.” The average amount of time spent on these pages was around three minutes, which is impressive. 

Our heat-map tracking (which tracks where visitors click, how low they scroll on a page and even mouse movement) revealed a wealth of activity within these pages, reminding us of how important it is to educate your Web visitors on how home security actually works.

The SEO pages also generated phone calls with Web visitors wanting to learn more about the hardware they were visiting on the website, i.e., Alarm.com’s cameras. Some visitors wanted to know if it recorded all the time and if so, where was it stored, or can the cameras be put outside, etc.

So, never underestimate the power of basic 101’s when it comes to your website’s content to help educate Web visitors or to generate leads. Ask yourself, if grandma landed on my site would she understand how security worked?

After making these discoveries we decided to take it even further. We have been creating e-commercials and releasing them on Facebook and Instagram for brand awareness with successful results, so we decided to create the same concept but through videos.

We advised our client to take his iPhone and to set up a table with a complete basic system — a panel, a motion sensor, a video camera and contacts — and to pick each piece of hardware up and describe in detail where it goes, how it works and what each roughly costs. We would go even further by taking the manufacturers’ videos and editing them with narration and animation and describing how each product functioned.

After 1.5 months of having the videos up playing within a 30-mile radius to men and women between the ages of 28 and 45, in a group who showed an interest in infants, newborns or toddlers, the video of our client simply talking about the products has garnered more interest than the video we professionally edited.

When it comes to social media, simple, raw videos with real people have much better results than anything that seems maybe too salesy or professional. The video has, to date, 300 likes, 42 comments/questions and has generated four leads. And that doesn’t even take into account the emotional connection the video has generated between its viewers and their local security company.

So what’s the point? Try to create 101 basics when it comes to your Web efforts. Take out your iPhone to create 101 videos to release on social media; don’t make it a large production because social media isn’t meant for that style. Relax, talk one on one and help create brand awareness, emotional connections and, most importantly, some leads.