If you’re a regular reader of this column then you know that we love big, fat purple cows — the fatter the better, actually.  You also know we’re all about being different and standing out when it comes to your brand. We’ve talked about making sure your unique selling proposition (USP) and messaging needs to be consistent across the board. That’s fine and dandy, you might be saying in your head right now, but how does that actually lead to more revenue?

Recently our marketing agency has been picking up a lot of new pay-per-click (PPC) accounts, primarily for dealers that provide residential and commercial security. In the month of September we picked up two accounts that wanted to spend the same amount when it came to their monthly budget of $3,000.

We handle numerous PPC accounts across the entire nation. Whereas the foundation of keywords from region to region is generally going to be the same based on the types of end users serviced, we typically start each account with a similar foundation of keywords and tracking. Thereafter, we begin to eliminate the keywords that are not converting and start to enter negative keywords for words that are being generated within the campaign that are either not very relevant or aren’t converting into leads (for example, some dealers do not provide wireless security cameras, so generating clicks on those keywords is not going to convert into viable leads).

So we started each campaign on the same day and with the same number of keywords. One security company was in Chicago and the other was in Los Angeles, so they were pretty even when it came to the playing grounds.

After letting the campaigns “marinate” for 30 days we noticed one campaign was doing a little better than the other. Baffled, we looked into why one was outperforming the other. It wasn’t their website because we designed both companies’ sites. After looking into the analytics we noticed that each of the sites was as sticky as the other; the bounce rates were fairly low and the number of clicks was pretty much the same. Stumped, we decided to ask both of our clients if it was all right for us to send a survey to the newly converted (installed) customers to see if we could gain some additional insight.

And after a total of 30 surveys were returned to us, the mystery started to unfold. The company in Los Angeles had been around for three years and the company in Chicago had been around for more than 20 years. Now you might say, “Well that’s obvious — the company that has been around longer is getting a higher volume of leads, right?”

Wrong. The security company in Los Angeles was actually pulling in more leads. The No. 1 reason customers explained that they chose the Los Angeles security company over others in the area was due to their bright green service vans driving all around the city. Many mentioned they connected their search with the service vans they had seen around town (some called them “those ugly green vans”) and when they landed on the “ugly green” website they felt more comfortable going with the company they had some type of familiarity with versus another company they did not.

Another question we had asked was “Did you fill out the website form or call ABC Security on your first visit? Or did you shop around?” Many of the new customers said they actually did not shop around but left the website to see their reviews on Yelp and Google, and once they saw the company was credible they decided to go back and pull the trigger.

Now, some of you might say, “I already knew this” and to that we say well played! But with the great feedback we get from our readers who approach us when we’re speaking at conferences or conventions, many of you say you appreciate the basics to help keep your company top of mind among potential customers.

Keep your brand consistent, keep it unique and if you truly believe your company is where it is because of great customer support, don’t just put it in a tagline — back it with client testimonials, video testimonials and white papers/case studies that support this claim. We guarantee your brand will be remembered and will pay off in the long run.

Should you have a question, feel free to send us an email for some free advice. Our mission is to educate the entire security industry about marketing best practices.