Everything you need to generate leads can be done simply from your mobile phone; heck, you can even generate leads while hanging out at Starbucks like I currently am writing this article, or while you’re lying out on the beach.

At Security Dealer Marketing, we’re always being challenged by our clients on affordable but effective ways to generate leads and ways to compete with the big boys. With some testing and some creativity we were able to do just that.

First of all pull out your phone, and if you have one of those old-school flip phones, you’re gonna have to sit this one out, since it’s strictly for those with a smartphone. Next, download these apps if you don’t already have them: The first one is Next Door, then Offerup or LetGo — and Instagram if you live under a rock and don’t have it.

First, the little app called Nextdoor is a great community tool that allows you to interact with your immediate neighbors within a radius by allowing you to join a virtual neighborhood watch. Remember those signs back in the day with meaningless meetings with your neighbors that did absolutely nothing to stop crime? Well, it’s kind of like that, but better. Events such as a break-in, car theft or suspicious person walking in the neighborhood can be reported immediately; plus, it will send out an alert notifying your surrounding opted-in neighbors of what has occured. 

As a security company owner, simply introduce yourself. We’ve found that the community within the app loves referring and buying from their fellow neighbors. There’s even a section to recommend local businesses, so why not suggest your own and create an offer only available to your community? Finally, there’s even a section where neighbors sell and offer items for free and another area for you to create some type of an offer to generate leads and sales while kicking back drinking a beer at your favorite sports bars.

Both Offerup and LetGo essentially do the same thing: They allow you to upload photos of items you wish to sell with a price and a description to sell using the app. It also will allow potential buyers to interact with you about the pink furry rabbit outfit you listed. But if selling pink furry rabbit outfits isn’t your thing, we encourage you to upload a picture of some security hardware with a price and a disclaimer that the security system requires a three- to five-year monitoring agreement and go generate some sales. It’s really a great idea for those of you that offer DIY products. If you have it on your phone, simply do a search for home security, security cameras or home alarms and you’ll come across some wannabe newbies doing exactly that, but imagine what potential buyers would think if you posted pictures of your tech fleet, office, products and happy customers.

Be creative and brand yourself in a way that will reach hundreds of thousands of people currently using their phones to shop.

Lastly, we’ve been able to generate leads for our customers using Instagram by simply taking some of the suggestions here for using Offerup and Letgo and applying the same techniques with your products, vehicle pics and hardware — but you’ll need to use the power of the hashtag: #. This little bad boy is your secret to getting found. 

Create a simple video, possibly giving back to your community, explaining who your company is and how it’s a local one, and upload it with a description and hashtags of your city, your surrounding service cities, maybe some hashtags on the type of equipment you offer — i.e., #SecurityCamera, #DVR, #LosAngeles, #SanBernardino, and any other combination.

So while you’re sitting there reading this article, pull out your phone and download the apps mentioned above and start generating leads.