Effective digital marketing strategies for fire and security providers

In a crowded market, it has become increasingly clear that digital marketing is one area that can’t be ignored for businesses looking to grow – fire and security companies are no exception. Here, Dakota Murphey provides advice into effective online lead-generation strategies and how to use them to promote and grow your brand.

The security needs of the modern consumer and business have evolved, exacerbated by the pandemic and digitisation of services. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult for security providers to stand out from the crowd, from video surveillance operatives to installation companies, and everyone in between.

Even if there are more potential leads and prospects to be found online, the key to success is executing a winning digital marketing strategy from the outset, one that captures your audience’s attention, addresses their pain points and presents your company, product or service as a viable solution to their problem(s), regardless of its niche.

How to effectively market your security firm online

The security sector encompasses a broad range of service providers and as such, different potential customers exist within a wide spectrum of target audiences.

Whether you provide the integration of home or business CCTV security systems, conduct private investigations, or are an outsourced fire safety consultant or agency, your specialisms or expert areas will mean that you have to be selective of the types of businesses or consumers that you target.

The extent to which you undertake the following strategies will vary depending on your current market position and business size, but as a loose guide, you can take influence from the below steps to begin effectively marketing your company online.

Identify your target audience

Beginning any effective digital marketing activity starts by understanding your audience. Who are the types of people that are most likely to buy from you? What are they looking for? Understanding your audience’s unique needs and problems is the basis on which you can build presenting your product or service as the most ideal solution that they could hope for.

To begin understanding the crucial aspects and characteristics of your audience and buyers, you can conduct:

• Audience market research: You can conduct surveys or polls to determine the broad and specific pain points that your target buyers would have when faced with a dilemma that warrants the use of your product or service.
• Buyer persona curation: Buyer personas make up the ideal customer of your business, consisting of their job title or position, demographics, as well as motivations and buying behaviours. Refer to this recommended guide on buyer personas.

Analyse your competitors

It’s important to observe the behaviours and strategies of your top competitors. They may be similar competitors in terms of their location, product, or service, or they may simply be a household name in your particular security niche.

By observing and understanding what your competitors are doing – or rather, what they are not doing – you can strategise on how you can do it better. You can get started with some competitive analysis with some easy-to-use online tools.

Determine your short- and long-term goals

Before you begin reaching out to prospective customers, make sure you have set yourself clear and actionable goals. It’s important to understand their specific security needs and come up with ways that you can feasibly and logically obtain their custom.

While it may be tempting to lure buyers in with temporary low prices, sometimes this can have a negative long-term impact as you risk failing to meet overheads and costs. As you think about the potential leads you can target, think about how you can nurture them and obtain viable short- and long-term business. Setting goals will also hold your marketing team accountable for performance.

Create a strong online presence

Recruiting someone with the right digital skills, a broad understanding of online marketing techniques, savvy SEO know-how and experience using up-to-date tools is important.

Website and SEO

Your website needs to be professional and reflect your brand identity and values well while providing a fast and seamless user experience for your customers (especially on mobile devices). You should also research what people are searching for in your industry or niche, and make sure those valuable keywords and search terms are threaded strategically throughout your site.

Keep your site simple and easy to navigate (with plenty of internal links). Ensure that it has high-quality imagery, engaging and valuable content, and definitive calls to action (CTAs) that do not confuse or annoy your prospects. Give your visitors an incentive to stay on your site and clear instructions for how they can take advantage of your services.

Make sure that you are also following SEO best practices for search engine visibility, whether this is patching your CMS with core security updates or ensuring all new pages have relevant, compelling meta descriptions, or anything in between. This will help you generate more traffic, leads, and conversions online.

Social media channels

In addition, build and retain a presence on social media. Make sure your pages are professional and mirror your brand, respond to comments and messages, share helpful resources and don’t be afraid to showcase your company culture and values.

Promote your website pages and blog posts to drive more traffic back to your site.

Create email and PPC marketing campaigns

Branch out to more businesses or consumers directly with effective PPC ads or email marketing campaigns. These strategies help you to promote personalised and targeted content to people that have specified an interest in your services.

Send emails to the right people (based on demographics, behaviours or interests), and make sure your CTA, subject line, and messaging are unambiguous, clear, and engaging. Personalise your email copy and make it simple for them to take the next step.

As far as PPC is concerned, make sure you bid on the correct keywords and that your landing page reflects your brand as your primary website pages do.

Ensure you are targeting your ads to the right people, and make sure your ad copy is punchy, engaging, and not too sales-orientated.

Listen to the IFSEC Insider podcast!

Each month, the IFSEC Insider (formerly IFSEC Global) Security in Focus podcast brings you conversations with leading figures in the physical security industry. Covering everything from risk management principles and building a security culture, to the key trends ahead in tech and initiatives on diversity and inclusivity, the podcast keeps security professionals up to date with the latest hot topics in the sector.

Available online, and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, tune in for an easy way to remain up to date on the issues affecting your role.

Listen to the podcast today