A couple comments on the Private Investigator Marketing topic: "Brochures: are they worth it" issue.
The correct answer is a good brochure is worth it, and a bad one is worthless.
A brochure is more than "Who we are." If that is all it is, then it is not worth it.
If you print a brochure that says "Jones Investigations" on the front and gives a laundry list of services inside, and then wonder why no one comes banging on your door, you are fooling yourself and wasting time and money.
If you produce a brochure that answers the question, "Why should someone hire me over all the other investigators out there?" then your brochure helps distinguish you from your competition.
If you produce a brochure that helps identify a problem your target audience has, and then you explain how you can address that problem, then you are actually helping someone out in a way that can lead business to you.
In some cases you do not need "A" brochure. You need several brochures.
Your business card is not enough. A brochure gives you a chance to tell your story...but then you have to use it to tell your story, not just repeat your name and the fact you have been in business 20 years. People don't care that you have been in business for 20 years. They care what you can do to help them out.
And it's not an either/or situation: do I have a brochure, or do I have a website? You need both. They are both only tools used to promote your business. If your brochure is so ineffective that it doesn't help persuade someone to contact you, why would you think your website would have a vastly different effect? And what are you doing to get people to your website?
L. Scott Harrell has the right idea. He produced a quality brochure, invested some money in it, and had realistic expectations. He didn't send out 2,000 brochures expecting an instant 2,000 clients. (Well, maybe he hoped would.) He got one response that immediately more than paid for his efforts. A one percent return rate on a direct mail effort is great. Let's say he only gets a total of 4 responses: Look at the lifetime value of each of those clients. How much money is he going to make from them over the course of a few years? How many referrals will each of these new customers generate? Was it worth it?
The question should not be do you need a brochure. You need to develop a marketing plan. You need to use various tools. Referrals and word of mouth are great, but they don't just happen. You need to take action and also get private investigator continuing education.
-BM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Thank you for your article, very informative. As a private investigative firm headquartered and specializing in Mexico, we ought to look for different ways to promote our service. Your article has helped us with a couple of ideas we are looking to implement.
Regards,
Steven
MEXICO INTELLIGENCE SERVICES
Private Investigative Solutions
www.MexicoIntell.com
Veracruz, Mexico
Yes, this article was brief but informative. Here at Aspen Information Services in NE Thailand, we partner with Malachite Investigation Services in Bangkok to provide specialized field investigations in the region. Thailand's NE provides a substantial portion of the country's labor market, and indeed, many of the mixed marriages between expatriates and Thais seeking security. Our services include native Thai and fluent Thai-speaking American investigators. When we try to market our services, it is by going over such articles as this that we can benefit in reassessing what we are doing and how.
Post a Comment