Utilizing Your Website as a Marketing Tool
Where should you focus most of your marketing efforts in 2015? What are your competitors doing that you’re not? We would never give away customers’ secret recipes, but after dedicating our agency to the security industry and working closely with security dealers on a daily basis, we’ve narrowed down everything we’ve learned into four in-bound marketing efforts that every security dealer should be focusing on.
2. So you have a website. How do you get traffic to it? We highly recommend a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Why? Because the second your website is launched you could be driving traffic to it within minutes — literally. Research which keywords people in your service area are searching for. Google takes the guesswork out of advertising by telling you precisely how many times a keyword has been searched, how competitive that particular keyword is and how much you should bid to show up on the first page. Make sure you create multiple ad groups according to your keyword groups, create separate ads and create landing pages within your site relating to the keyword being searched. One major rule is to never take them to your homepage. Make sure the links they click on route them directly to the article or product associated with it.
3. So you have a great website, and you’re driving traffic to it; could life be any better? Yes, we say. We have found that enhancing your PPC efforts with search engine optimization (SEO) creates more targeted traffic and, therefore, more leads. As you begin using these tools to your advantage, your website will become far more efficacious. You’ve reached the trifecta when you’re within the top three of your PPC campaign, you’re in the top searches for your SEO efforts and you’re showing up within A-C in the map listings (the first three companies to populate an online map of the area).
When people search for home security, they often will choose the first credible company they come across, making your search engine rankings critical. Other potential customers base their choice mostly on the reviews. Get your map listing ranked high in the results, and be sure to encourage as many of your happy customers as you can to post positive reviews, and the leads will begin to skyrocket.
So let’s recap: A finely tuned website is a must, but a website is a ship — you need wind to push you toward your goals, and that’s where SEO and PPCs help lead people to your site, generating leads. But that’s not all. What about all your satisfied customers?
4. Testing has shown that most customers who are asked will give a referral at the time of install if they are happy with the work. However, if you’d prefer, send them an email or a follow-up postcard with a specific link to your website where they can go and share their happy experience with you. With this simple technique you can expect at least a 12 to 15 percent conversion on new online reviews. If you incentivize your installers with just $20 per review, throw in a gift card, a free door/window contact or one month of free monitoring, that number goes up to 18 to 25 percent.
Concentrate on these marketing efforts; adjust each month; set benchmarks; learn from your analytics; use captivating headlines in your website; make colorful call-to-action form; stand on your head (not really) and we promise you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results. Another benefit of focusing on these e-marketing efforts is instant results. They can be tracked and adjusted weekly, monthly or quarterly to be improved.
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