Marketing Advice By Business Type
Marketing a Security Guard and Patrol Services Business
The key to success in marketing a security guard and patrol services business is to combine time-tested marketing techniques with the most cutting edge strategies in today's marketplace.
We see marketing as the great equalizer, a business discipline capable of dramatically increasing a small company's footprint in the marketplace.
In general, good business owners make good marketers. But to rise to the top of the industry, you'll need to gain a deeper understanding of the strategies that other security guard and patrol services businesses utilize in the marketplace.
Hiring A Marketing Firm
Eventually nearly all security guard and patrol services business operations turn to marketing firms for guidance. Unless you have a marketing background, you won't be able to touch the ROI you'll receive from a professional firm. Does a marketing firm cost money? Sure, but not as much as you may think. When it's time to look for a marketing firm to represent your security guard and patrol services business, experience should trump other considerations. Avoid young marketing firms staffed exclusively with inexperienced hot shots. Novice marketers bring a lot of passion to the table, but they also tend to embrace high-risk marketing strategies that lack the payoff you'll get from an established firm.
Price Matching
In a difficult economy, consumers expect businesses to engage in a certain amount of price matching. The principle is simple: Since pricing is a primary factor in product selection, your business agrees to match advertised competitor pricing. Without price matching, if they can locate lower pricing from a competing security guard and patrol services business, potential clients will abandon your brand in droves. Today's consumers are educated and informed. They use social media and other tools to identify the best pricing, making it imperative for small business to consider the value of a well-publicized price matching strategy.
Media Monitoring
Some marketing initiatives lend themselves to simple measurement while others are more challenging. Direct mail can be evaluated by tallying the cost of inputs (e.g. a premium mailing list, printing, postage, etc.) and measuring the number of customer responses you receive from the campaign. The difficulty comes when you are tasked with quantifying market presence and brand influence. To gauge brand reputation and presence, many security guard and patrol services businesses turn to media monitoring. If executed properly, media monitoring can help your brand get ahead of negative messaging and exert greater influence over news cycles.
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