a list of different marketing articles.
4 Private Investigator SEO Myths Murdering Your Website
SEO”is a type of practice that get’s thrown around a lot these days. It stands for “search engine optimization,” it’s a strategy that helps your website increase in rankings on search engines like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of SEO myths murdering your website.
Branding Investigation Agencies for Dummies
Why do iconic companies advertise? Everybody knows who they are. They don’t need to win new customers. They need to make us feel something, and keep us buying.
Nobody but admen enjoys those beginning-of-the-year marketing meetings. The requisite questions bounce around the conference table: How much money should we allocate to our marketing campaign? What kind of advertising should we focus on? And most important of all, who’s the target?
Marquee-level, multimillion dollar companies have these meetings too, just like your (most likely) small, service-oriented agency does. But for them, the purpose of advertising is possibly a bit different: they’re not trying to let you know they exist. They want to remind you of who you are, or who you once were, or who you’d like to be. They want to evoke strong feelings of hope, nostalgia, or longing.
Case in point: Who remembers the amazing short-film BMW ads of 2001-2? I’m not convinced that anyone actually decided to buy a car because of them.
However.
Let’s say you’ve already bought a $100,000 BMW, and you’re experiencing twinges of buyer’s regret. You’re thinking, A Ford or a GM costs about $50,000… why did I buy this car?
Then you see Clive Owen punching his Beamer through a hail of bullets, using it to take down a helicopter, making Madonna wet her pants, even outrunning the devil (in Vegas, of course). You suddenly realize: you didn’t purchase a car. You purchased a time machine of awesome! You purchased a Vehicle of Heroes, a vehicle that can change the course of history, get the girl, and maybe even save your eternal soul.
Suddenly, you feel OK about your purchase.
This campaign is all about erasing buyer’s regret, and it pushes the buyer into becoming a “brand-loyal fan.” That’s when people start not just buying your product, but loving your product. It increases your brand value and your company’s worth—financially, physically, and physiologically.
If you’re still not sure what “branding” is all about, consider Coca-Cola, arguably the industry leader in branding. Be honest: Deep down, don’t you find yourself thinking, “It’s only Christmas when Coca-Cola starts running their polar bear ads!” That’s powerful stuff. People associate the celebration of Christmas, joy, presents, family, and the most emotional time of the year…with a red can of sugar water.
Coca-Cola is a master of insinuating itself into the culture so thoroughly that when you ask for a cola, soda, pop, or soft drink, chances are, you’re going to get a Coca-Cola. And in certain parts of the country (namely, the South), the word “Coke” equals soft drink, just like “Kleenex” equals tissue. Coca-Cola has mastered the art of associating its product with certain colors, a very specific taste, and nostalgia—a happy, positive place full of joy.
For a lifetime, Coca-Cola has been telling us what they stand for, even if we can’t put it into words. If you’re a bit older than I am, you may remember one of the most iconic Coke commercials of all time: the 1971 “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” ad.
As with so many things that seemed awesome in the 70s, this ad comes across as a bit creepy now, and you can’t help but wonder if the people singing were members of a cult. But at the time, it was groundbreaking. It helped to make Coca-Cola America’s drink.
That’s pretty miraculous when you consider that Coke tastes a whole lot like Pepsi, RC, and a few others. The difference is that Coca-Cola has for decades devoted vast advertising budgets toward making you “feel something.” And that feeling kicks in when you’re standing in front of a convenience-store fridge, looking for a drink. That’s the advertisement. The generations of advertisements. They’re in your brain, even when you’re not aware of them.
You don’t have to be an international corporation to use branding to make people feel something. If you offer a service, you can rest assured that you’ll have competitors in your area. All of them are going after the same customers and clients, and some of them are coming after yours. Brand-loyal customers are the people you need on your side. If you don’t remind them of who you are and what you stand for, a new competitor will push out a campaign that tells them: Get the same results, cheaper, from us.
When combined with excellent service, networking, and all the other things companies must do so succeed, simple brand advertisements (that remind your customers: We are here. This is what we do, and this is what we stand for) can turn your customers into loyal brand clients who will spread the word for you. Why? Because they believe in what you’ve created. You’ve produced a feeling in your customers, and that feeling is trust.
Your initial marketing strategy gets clients in the door; but your work isn’t done once people know who you are. Your company must continue to market its services, its image, and most importantly, its brand. A brand is what makes a company special. It will add value to a company, value that continues to grow even if the company is no longer expanding.
The main thing to remember is this: if your service can easily be synthesized and reproduced, why should customers choose you? How much is your company worth if it doesn’t have anything special behind it?
Your “branding” assignment is to find that special thing—about your company and about you—and tell the world what it is.
Where should I market my private investigations agency?
I own a small private investigations firm in North Dakota. I have a fairly small team, 3 investigators total. I want to market my private investigations website using SEO & Google Adwords. Should I market my website at a local level? Or should I cast a wider net to a state wide level?
As private investigators we don’t have service areas or specific regions in which we serve our clients. We’re technically limited to how far we’re willing to travel – assuming we’re licensed within that area. Because of that, you want to market your service in the areas that you can reach within your budget; City Wide, County Wide, State Wide, Regionally, or National. Regardless of your market area, you need to understand the costs associated with your decision.
I would recommend starting at a local level. Typically, this means having an SEO campaign to target “Your City private investigator”. This type of campaign makes it easy for people to find you online when they are searching for a private investigator in a specific city.
This type of marketing tends to help outsiders find your agency on major search engines. Try to place yourself in the position of a client in need: if you need a subcontractor in Arlington Texas, do you search for “Texas Private Investigator” or do you search for “Arlington Texas Private Investigator?” The chances are that you will start in Arlington since that’s the area you are looking to get covered. In general, we tend to search for very specific keywords when we’re searching for a service.
A common mistake that we oftentimes see our clients make, is geographically miss targeting their campaigns. They tend to setup their websites as a “County Private Investigator” or “South *insert state* Private Investigator“. For example, mostly everyone knows that Austin is the capital of Texas. As an outsider, when you need a private investigator in Austin, you tend to search for “Austin Texas Private Investigator”. Not many people know that Austin lies within Travis County. In this example, labeling your company as “Travis County Private Investigator” will exclude the outsiders searching for your company that have no idea that Travis is even a county in Texas. The same applies when you label your company in a region.
When was the last time you said “Let’s go to Cook County” when you were referring about Chicago Illinois?
Marketing at a county level, or state wide level does not typically work in your favor. With the advent of GPS in virtually every mobile device, most search engines are starting to focus on localized results. It would be advantageous for your company to be labeled as a local leader. Once you have established a local presence, then you can grow your website to target different cities within your vicinity. While this is typically more expensive and time consuming, the results are far better than focusing on an entire state.
Can you really afford the price of servicing an entire state?
A very important fact to consider when you cast a large net is the price associated with the cast. As an example, we’ve had clients market their services as State Wide Agencies only to realize that people are searching for their services as far as 8 hours away from home. Charging a client for mileage is simply not fair in this circumstance. Imagine if you hired a local plumber to fix your bathroom and he had to drive out to your location 8 hours away and charged you mileage. Is that your fault? Why is he advertising in your area if he’s not local? If you’re going to offer a service at a state wide level, it is usually recommended to clearly identify billing points – within reason; typically this includes all major cities. OR, you can hire sub contractors… which cuts into your profits, opens you up to liabilities, and puts your quality and “name” on other people’s hands.
In conclusion, I would focus on local oriented marking strategies and then grow your website and marketing plan as you begin to gain traction in your market area. If you need help, we can help you establish a viable and affordable marketing solution that fits your needs.
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