Many people don’t realize that professional locksmiths do much more than fix locks and make replacement keys. In fact, they generally offer a wide range of services including the sale and installation of electronic security systems, intercoms, and even gates and bars. Locksmiths are also responsible for many of the break-ins and thefts that never happen as a result of their burglar-proof devices and crime deterrent tips. They can also be credited for helping police identify successful burglars through recordings on their clients’ CCTV surveillance equipment.
Every city and town has at least a few locksmiths available to serve the local population. After all, if you’re suddenly locked out of your house, you want a service you can call 24 hours a day, not one that takes 24 hours to get to your door.
With “yellow pages” phone books on the brink of extinction, it’s increasingly important that locksmiths be easy to search and find on the Web. This means they must have a professional looking website with strong search engine optimization (SEO) features. The locksmith’s website should offer potential customers complete and concise written content that explains everything they need to know about a company’s products, menu of services, hours of operation, and contact information.
Just having a website may not be enough to draw attention to a local small business. Locksmiths and others are beginning to realize that traditional advertising methods are quite expensive and not as effective as before.
Many small businesses continue to run ads in weekly newspapers and Pennysavers, without even calculating return on investment (ROI). Several continue to repost their ads week after week despite receiving only a few customer inquiries and often none at all. What a terrible waste of time and money for so many hard working people. They often feel compelled to advertise in exactly the same way that they and their parents always did before the Internet age. Most have never taken quality time to consider less expensive and often more effective alternatives to newspaper, direct mail, radio and CATV ads like social media.
This locksmith may have found the key to success
Fidelity Locksmith Services has been serving the people of Los Angeles, California since 1975. Their clients include the general public, as well as many well-known Hollywood celebrities who often need much more sophisticated and expensive security systems for their magnificent homes and properties. . Having such a clientele has enough PR value in its own right, but what good is it if these high-profile associations don’t promote themselves?
During a series of Hollywood celebrity robberies in the fall of 2009, Fidelity Locksmith launched a special lock giveaway program aimed at preventing a repeat of the series of robberies that plagued the rich and famous of the Hollywood Hills.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re Hollywood royalty or a regular guy like me, living through a break-in is life-changing. The loss of a sense of safety that comes after a robbery is often even more devastating than the actual loss of security.” property”. said Roy Sivan, Head of Celebrity Services at Fidelity Locksmith. “We offer free deadbolts to celebrities to let them know that Fidelity understands what they’re going through and to encourage the public to think about beefing up their home security. Such a high-profile program certainly caught the attention of traditional members and social media.
While the celebrity lock giveaway program was certainly drawing attention, the company’s well-documented advertising and marketing philosophy may be even more remarkable. Fidelity Locksmith Services is in no way shy about sharing that it uses social media as a cheap way to reach its target audience. Through this cost-saving approach, they say they can offer the consumer far better prices than many of their industry competitors.
In fact, Fidelity Locksmiths has an active social (media) life on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where they have created some very funny and memorable short commercials to capture the imagination of their audience along with their business.
Finding the right mix of marketing is a cost saver and revenue generator
While not all small businesses like Fidelity Locksmith operate in a Hollywood-type business environment, all businesses can embrace the same level of creativity in taking advantage of all their own community has to offer. If you can’t take advantage of the New York Yankees, you can always run promotions with your local minor league team. What you have available to work with (in your community) is far less important than the type of marketing programs you can create yourself to inspire your target audience. More importantly, doesn’t it really come down to how well you execute your planning? attract and engage your audience; and convert them into paying customers?
Don’t forget to measure and analyze your activities and results accordingly. This is so critical to the success of a small business. If your traditional marketing efforts have been lackluster for the past six months, you can pretty well predict what they’ll bring you, if they don’t change, for the rest of your annual business cycle. At what cost to your business are such shortages unnecessary and why continue to finance them? Social media is much less expensive (often free) and often much more effective.
Try a modest mix of social media and traditional media to grow your business. Start with your main goals. Write them down and stick a note on your wall to refocus each morning. Those goals are closely linked: being easily found on the Web and making a good first impression.
Achieve these goals by creating a professional-looking website reinforced with fundamentally sound search engine optimization practices. With these goals in place, back up your website with some basic URL promotion activities (make sure your business URL is everywhere) and engage your target audience at the grassroots level on Facebook and maybe Twitter. just for a couple of hours each day. The results of this minimal activity may surprise you.