Saying you’re a local security company to your potential customers is not enough. You can’t just talk the talk; you need to walk the walk.

Over the last year or so, we’ve noticed quite a few changes when it comes to generating leads for our clients via their websites. We've seen a large increase in mobile users, making it imperative to optimize website content for mobile devices. But we’ve also learned through experimenting and testing that it’s not enough to simply talk about how you’re a local company; you must also prove it.

If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and acts like a duck, it’s probably a duck, right? The same can be said about how you present your company online.

Recently we worked on a website for a customer on one of the Hawaiian Islands. As usual we dipped into the same stock photo company that other agencies use when designing a website, but when we presented it to our client he said, “Broddah, who do you think will believe that I am a local native company with those type of images you are using on the site? You trying to put me out of business?” we were taken aback at first, but we quickly realized he had a point.

If we want our customers to appear as if they are the right choice for their service areas, we need to do a better job showcasing and proving that they indeed understand the local demographics and are “one of them.”

But how do you do that? And more importantly, are we just blowing hot air or do we have proof? Come on — we’re the Marketing Mad Men, of course we have proof!

Through various landing pages for a local Southern California client we found that going out and taking pictures of local landmarks or downtown areas increased the number of phone calls and form submittals. The user believed a local security company would offer better support, knowing they could drive down to a local office.

So make sure to go out and take pictures to put on your homepage or landing pages of anything that makes you appear to be the local kid.

While using ethnicity on landing pages may be controversial to some, we had a Facebook ad running for a client in Mississippi with a white couple in it. The ad generated a few likes and two comments. Thinking of what we had learned on other customers’ campaigns, we ran the same ad with a black couple that generated 18 likes, 12 comments and one lead that converted. You know your area better than others; try using different pictures of different ethnic backgrounds with different landing pages and make sure to target those groups within your social media campaigns. We’ve even seen great results when it came to gay and lesbian communities by creating landing pages showing that our client supported the LGBT community in Long Beach, Calif., where they were from.

When it comes to your marketing content, throw in words only your local area would know. An example of this was when a client in Chicago explained only locals referred to Chicago as Chicagoland. So we used Chicagoland throughout his entire website, and he reported that many people who called mentioned they liked that special touch on his site.

If you’re creating blogs, don’t always write about security stuff.  In blog content we have been able to generate interest by talking about local community events. For example, we wrote about how the citizens were trying to fight the local water company that was overcharging for its services. This article was being pulled in local searches and was generating leads to our surprise.

If you feel like blending in and saying the same things your competitors are saying, take this article with a grain of salt and use it for your bird cage. But if you opened your security company because you truly believed you could do better than the company you were working for or believed in a better service/product, be different. 

If you’re hesitant to try these methods throughout all your marketing, do a few landing pages and target the exact demographic you are referencing and see if you notice a difference.

We love all the feedback from our articles; let us know if you tried this and how it worked.