Just came across this great Facebook page that deals with Private Investigator Marketing. It's from L. Scott Harrell and CompassPoint Investigations, (now owned by Ruben Roel) so I know that the information he is posting to the page is not only important to building my private investigations business but is timely and relevant, too.
Before starting a new video marketplace, Scott was a fantastically popular and successful WORKING private investigator for 17 plus years, he understands what it really takes to build a successful private investigation agencies, as opposed to the other guy who's still trying to sell you phonebook ads, animal parts and a directory listing.
So far I've seen very original ideas about social media marketing, original idea about using Facebook to find and target media outlets for publicity and exposure. He described what EdgeRank and News Feed Optimization is and why it matters. I also liked the articles on building sales brochures and how to develop highly targeted marketing lists for certain types of investigations!
There is a lot more on this Facebook page that I could possibly get into here, and if I tried there would probably be a dozen more marketing and advertising ideas there before I got through.
Check out the Marketing for Private Investigators page, right now... you can't beet the price of FREE!
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Friday, April 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
A New Kind of Private Investigator Directory... and It's Free.
From the PrivateInvestigatorsInc.com website:
"Caution: Getting listed in this directory is all about visibility, search engine marketing and helping potential customers find you rather than finding your competitors. If you are OK with that then we invite you to submit your listing for consideration."
This is a new type of directory in that it is built in WordPress, a blogging tool, rather than upon the old directory scripts that everyone is putting out. In plain English, this means that the directory listings at the PrivateInvestigatorsInc.com website will be better optimized for search engine consumption than a typical directory listing.
I'm excited about it as I can see the REAL value to this type of listing. Scott Harrell understands search engines and understands how to reach the top of search engine listings as he has with almost all of his websites. He explains that this listing is not so much about being found in the website itself as it is generating the right kind of search engine traffic to the listed agency's website thus improving the visibility of the agency website rather than the directory.
Personally, I'd rather have potential clients find my website rather than find me and my competition in a PI Directory.
Find a Private Investigator in... makes sense. The listings are currently free but they do ask that you provide a link back to the website, which is a very small price to pay for the exposure.
Get listed in the Private Investigator directory today... go to Find a Private Investigator in and get more information.
"Caution: Getting listed in this directory is all about visibility, search engine marketing and helping potential customers find you rather than finding your competitors. If you are OK with that then we invite you to submit your listing for consideration."
This is a new type of directory in that it is built in WordPress, a blogging tool, rather than upon the old directory scripts that everyone is putting out. In plain English, this means that the directory listings at the PrivateInvestigatorsInc.com website will be better optimized for search engine consumption than a typical directory listing.
I'm excited about it as I can see the REAL value to this type of listing. Scott Harrell understands search engines and understands how to reach the top of search engine listings as he has with almost all of his websites. He explains that this listing is not so much about being found in the website itself as it is generating the right kind of search engine traffic to the listed agency's website thus improving the visibility of the agency website rather than the directory.
Personally, I'd rather have potential clients find my website rather than find me and my competition in a PI Directory.
Find a Private Investigator in... makes sense. The listings are currently free but they do ask that you provide a link back to the website, which is a very small price to pay for the exposure.
Get listed in the Private Investigator directory today... go to Find a Private Investigator in and get more information.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Small PI Agencies are Going Out of Business, Here's Why...
Hi All,
This will only take 5-10 minutes (max) to read, so please continue. And once you’ve read, please spread the word and remind your fellow PI that he, like you, is worth more than he thinks.
Many of you do not know me, but if you’ll indulge me, I would like to recount a little bit about my background. Before 1980, I helped manage a large multi-purpose agricultural business. Some may call it farming, row cropping, ranching, or refer to those associated with it by such pejorative phrases as "straw chewing hick" or "overall wearing hayseed." I don’t really care what you call it or me, but it was the best business experience I have ever had, bar none! Make no mistake though, “Mother Nature” is a landowner’s boss and don’t let anybody ever tell you differently. No matter what you may think, farming is not for the stereotypical, “backwoods redneck yokel.” Farming takes planning, organization, money, timing, a market, and a whole lot of LUCK! No other vocation falls at the mercy of year- round weather conditions than farming. What does all this have to do with anything? Well, I was hoping you’d ask.
The small farmers of America are a thing of the past. Corporate farming and private land ownership has taken away America’s most precious identity – that of the family farmer. The family farmer has been exploited for years by poorly written laws (and the lawmakers who write them), greedy merchants, and avaricious big businesses – a situation not unlike what the PIs of this nation have been experiencing during the past three decades. Logic and commonsense have given way to political correctness and privacy hysteria. PIs are not completely free from fault. We are just The Last of the Mohicans - small enterprises that are being replaced by “national agencies” in the same way mom and pop farmers were pushed out to pasture.
Have you ever noticed how the ABA and AMA are nationally organized? Although the medical profession is on its ear, all the doctors I know still own nice homes and drive fancy cars. The reason lawyers and doctors are doing well: they recognize the need to form huge coalitions through their national and state run organizations. Farmers tried but, due to fragmentation within their ranks, failed, and look where they are now. Through tremendous solidarity, doctors and lawyers have gained bargaining power, clout, and a war chest to challenge bad legislation. Farmers were too divided, putting self-interest first, and you see what it cost them. Talk about fragmented, divided and emphasis on self-interest -these are all terms that can be applied to today’s licensed PI. It is true what is said about history repeating itself.
The PI vocation is doomed because of apathy, cynicism, and mistrust in our spokespeople, a lack of participation, factions of too many colors, and a serious lack of leadership. There are approximately 60,000 licensees nationally, yet the ranks of most PI organizations cannot even brag about having 30% of the total of each potential state’s licensees. It’s no wonder we have no voice; no unity. Laws are changing more frequently than some of you change your yolk-stained ties, and yet you do nothing or you bitch and moan about the impending doom and gloom. At the rate we are going, we are headed toward extinction. There are no teeth left in the tiger’s mouth to kick out, yet most of you sit on your tired rumps, too lazy to do anything about it. It’s pathetic. Where is your pride, people? Are we all so burned out we do not give a damn anymore?
We do not have enough resources to run a nationwide television ad. That too is deplorable. DO NOT STOP READING… KEEP GOING…I AM ALMOST DONE.
I wish to share an idea I have been mulling over for awhile. Seeing as how a great majority does not want to spend a nickel to support state and/or national organizations, perhaps this revelation will change your thinking:
Lift up your self-worth! I cannot believe what some of you are willing to sell your retail services for! It’s no wonder PIs and small agencies are suffering as they are.
The sole practitioner and the small agencies are being replaced by inexperienced wannabes who are supervised by a bunch of sophisticated business people who saw an opportunity to catch us asleep at the wheel. Try a little surfing on Google or Copernic and you’ll easily discover who the culprit is snatching the food out of your refrigerator. Out-of-state agencies are killing all of us. They are willing to exploit inexperienced (and oft-time bogus) PIs for $10-$15 dollars/hour, all the while misrepresenting themselves to their clients. The supervisors of these “agencies” are getting fat while your cupboard is looking more and more bare. With any luck, something will backfire on these so-called “national PI agencies.” You can only use/exploit “inexperience” for so long.
It is in all of our respective interests to recapture our instate work for our instate licensees. The longer we allow this downhill trend to manifest itself, the sooner we will arrive at the collective loss of our livelihoods before this decade ends. The national companies’ poor work product may be our saving grace. You cannot teach 27 years of on-the-job experience to a person in one year. It is impossible. Yet, companies are shunning experience in favor of cheap labor.
So, you may be asking yourself, how can we charge more if national agencies are charging less? Well, the objective is to come together and form an American PI Association, “APIA,” so we can build the resources to reclaim all that we have lost. No voice, no vote. No money, no change. We need both money and a voice. And, if any of you think a dollar amount that exceeds $99 a year is too much, please don’t bother to apply. We don’t want or need your apathetic attitude and/or shortsightedness. Save those qualities for your analysis of a witness’ statement under oath. I am not giving up. It is not in my nature, but you can rest assured I am not dragging the sorry lot of cynics and naysayers along for the ride. I just as soon start fresh and bring a new breed of educated, optimistic, and motivated people whose goals are to succeed in life and business. Work smart, not hard.
Although the Sherman Anti-Trust Act prohibits collusion in the free-market bidding process, it does not prohibit the offer of sage advice. I am not the only answer, but I’ll stand by my successes and failures over the many years I have been practicing as a PI entrepreneur. When a newbie asks me for advice or ideas about how to start a PI business, the very first thing I tell them is “Don’t sell your self short.” So many of you know what I am talking about, however, you are constantly discounting yourselves, ergo, the malaise we find ourselves in as our businesses dry up. Granted there are several factors that are squeezing the life out of some our markets, and, those for certain are the “national agencies” that are springing up like bad mold all over the U.S. There is no way a home office in Timbuktu will have the same experience and knowledge of the laws in another state than a home state PI will have in his/her own territory. Nevertheless, more and more “national agencies” are taking the food right out of our mouths. The primary reason this is happening is that this profession is so factious that we are biting off our own noses because of our own shortsightedness and cynical disinterest.
After years of bidding on RFPs, I have noticed a consistent trend by a majority of the bidders to come in at such ridiculously low hourly bids, its no wonder PIs and small agencies are dropping like flies into cow pies. The rule of thumb for calculating a proper profit margin for a business is to charge three times per hour [or what ever unit of measure] you would pay an employee to do the job. The math is so easy that I will not bore you with the minutiae, but it is patently apparent that many of you people are selling yourselves too cheaply. If you hold a license to practice Private Investigations, then take pride in the fact that you have something special to offer. When you price your wares ad hoc, you are not only doing a disservice to yourself, but you are royally screwing the rest of us. If you do not feel like you know what or how to operate a PI business so that you are maintaining a fair and reasonable standard, then I suggest you join a professional PI organization. Ask folk that have been in the business 20 plus years, go to the professional seminars, and/or take a few night classes at a reputable business school so you will know what you need to run a real business. I could go on for hours on this topic, but it is not necessary. The bottom-line: We as PIs are entitled to make a decent living for our efforts, thus we all need to take pride in our retail services so we actually can make a living. I have done well for a small agency, but given the current trend of low-ball tactics, unlicensed activity, fraudulent misrepresentation, out-of-state monster “agencies” coming into our various markets, and BAD LEGISLATION, something is going to have to give. I talk to many PIs during the course of a week and it never ceases to amaze me how many share the same sad tales of woe.
Thanks for reading, and like I said, spread the word. Hopefully, we can rally to make pride and integrity the standard for our industry - and not suffer the fate of the family farmer.
Bernard Cane
President & Director of Operations
Bernard George Investigations, Inc.
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1700
Bernard@BernardGeorge.com
BernardGeorge.com
This will only take 5-10 minutes (max) to read, so please continue. And once you’ve read, please spread the word and remind your fellow PI that he, like you, is worth more than he thinks.
Many of you do not know me, but if you’ll indulge me, I would like to recount a little bit about my background. Before 1980, I helped manage a large multi-purpose agricultural business. Some may call it farming, row cropping, ranching, or refer to those associated with it by such pejorative phrases as "straw chewing hick" or "overall wearing hayseed." I don’t really care what you call it or me, but it was the best business experience I have ever had, bar none! Make no mistake though, “Mother Nature” is a landowner’s boss and don’t let anybody ever tell you differently. No matter what you may think, farming is not for the stereotypical, “backwoods redneck yokel.” Farming takes planning, organization, money, timing, a market, and a whole lot of LUCK! No other vocation falls at the mercy of year- round weather conditions than farming. What does all this have to do with anything? Well, I was hoping you’d ask.
The small farmers of America are a thing of the past. Corporate farming and private land ownership has taken away America’s most precious identity – that of the family farmer. The family farmer has been exploited for years by poorly written laws (and the lawmakers who write them), greedy merchants, and avaricious big businesses – a situation not unlike what the PIs of this nation have been experiencing during the past three decades. Logic and commonsense have given way to political correctness and privacy hysteria. PIs are not completely free from fault. We are just The Last of the Mohicans - small enterprises that are being replaced by “national agencies” in the same way mom and pop farmers were pushed out to pasture.
Have you ever noticed how the ABA and AMA are nationally organized? Although the medical profession is on its ear, all the doctors I know still own nice homes and drive fancy cars. The reason lawyers and doctors are doing well: they recognize the need to form huge coalitions through their national and state run organizations. Farmers tried but, due to fragmentation within their ranks, failed, and look where they are now. Through tremendous solidarity, doctors and lawyers have gained bargaining power, clout, and a war chest to challenge bad legislation. Farmers were too divided, putting self-interest first, and you see what it cost them. Talk about fragmented, divided and emphasis on self-interest -these are all terms that can be applied to today’s licensed PI. It is true what is said about history repeating itself.
The PI vocation is doomed because of apathy, cynicism, and mistrust in our spokespeople, a lack of participation, factions of too many colors, and a serious lack of leadership. There are approximately 60,000 licensees nationally, yet the ranks of most PI organizations cannot even brag about having 30% of the total of each potential state’s licensees. It’s no wonder we have no voice; no unity. Laws are changing more frequently than some of you change your yolk-stained ties, and yet you do nothing or you bitch and moan about the impending doom and gloom. At the rate we are going, we are headed toward extinction. There are no teeth left in the tiger’s mouth to kick out, yet most of you sit on your tired rumps, too lazy to do anything about it. It’s pathetic. Where is your pride, people? Are we all so burned out we do not give a damn anymore?
We do not have enough resources to run a nationwide television ad. That too is deplorable. DO NOT STOP READING… KEEP GOING…I AM ALMOST DONE.
I wish to share an idea I have been mulling over for awhile. Seeing as how a great majority does not want to spend a nickel to support state and/or national organizations, perhaps this revelation will change your thinking:
Lift up your self-worth! I cannot believe what some of you are willing to sell your retail services for! It’s no wonder PIs and small agencies are suffering as they are.
The sole practitioner and the small agencies are being replaced by inexperienced wannabes who are supervised by a bunch of sophisticated business people who saw an opportunity to catch us asleep at the wheel. Try a little surfing on Google or Copernic and you’ll easily discover who the culprit is snatching the food out of your refrigerator. Out-of-state agencies are killing all of us. They are willing to exploit inexperienced (and oft-time bogus) PIs for $10-$15 dollars/hour, all the while misrepresenting themselves to their clients. The supervisors of these “agencies” are getting fat while your cupboard is looking more and more bare. With any luck, something will backfire on these so-called “national PI agencies.” You can only use/exploit “inexperience” for so long.
It is in all of our respective interests to recapture our instate work for our instate licensees. The longer we allow this downhill trend to manifest itself, the sooner we will arrive at the collective loss of our livelihoods before this decade ends. The national companies’ poor work product may be our saving grace. You cannot teach 27 years of on-the-job experience to a person in one year. It is impossible. Yet, companies are shunning experience in favor of cheap labor.
So, you may be asking yourself, how can we charge more if national agencies are charging less? Well, the objective is to come together and form an American PI Association, “APIA,” so we can build the resources to reclaim all that we have lost. No voice, no vote. No money, no change. We need both money and a voice. And, if any of you think a dollar amount that exceeds $99 a year is too much, please don’t bother to apply. We don’t want or need your apathetic attitude and/or shortsightedness. Save those qualities for your analysis of a witness’ statement under oath. I am not giving up. It is not in my nature, but you can rest assured I am not dragging the sorry lot of cynics and naysayers along for the ride. I just as soon start fresh and bring a new breed of educated, optimistic, and motivated people whose goals are to succeed in life and business. Work smart, not hard.
Although the Sherman Anti-Trust Act prohibits collusion in the free-market bidding process, it does not prohibit the offer of sage advice. I am not the only answer, but I’ll stand by my successes and failures over the many years I have been practicing as a PI entrepreneur. When a newbie asks me for advice or ideas about how to start a PI business, the very first thing I tell them is “Don’t sell your self short.” So many of you know what I am talking about, however, you are constantly discounting yourselves, ergo, the malaise we find ourselves in as our businesses dry up. Granted there are several factors that are squeezing the life out of some our markets, and, those for certain are the “national agencies” that are springing up like bad mold all over the U.S. There is no way a home office in Timbuktu will have the same experience and knowledge of the laws in another state than a home state PI will have in his/her own territory. Nevertheless, more and more “national agencies” are taking the food right out of our mouths. The primary reason this is happening is that this profession is so factious that we are biting off our own noses because of our own shortsightedness and cynical disinterest.
After years of bidding on RFPs, I have noticed a consistent trend by a majority of the bidders to come in at such ridiculously low hourly bids, its no wonder PIs and small agencies are dropping like flies into cow pies. The rule of thumb for calculating a proper profit margin for a business is to charge three times per hour [or what ever unit of measure] you would pay an employee to do the job. The math is so easy that I will not bore you with the minutiae, but it is patently apparent that many of you people are selling yourselves too cheaply. If you hold a license to practice Private Investigations, then take pride in the fact that you have something special to offer. When you price your wares ad hoc, you are not only doing a disservice to yourself, but you are royally screwing the rest of us. If you do not feel like you know what or how to operate a PI business so that you are maintaining a fair and reasonable standard, then I suggest you join a professional PI organization. Ask folk that have been in the business 20 plus years, go to the professional seminars, and/or take a few night classes at a reputable business school so you will know what you need to run a real business. I could go on for hours on this topic, but it is not necessary. The bottom-line: We as PIs are entitled to make a decent living for our efforts, thus we all need to take pride in our retail services so we actually can make a living. I have done well for a small agency, but given the current trend of low-ball tactics, unlicensed activity, fraudulent misrepresentation, out-of-state monster “agencies” coming into our various markets, and BAD LEGISLATION, something is going to have to give. I talk to many PIs during the course of a week and it never ceases to amaze me how many share the same sad tales of woe.
Thanks for reading, and like I said, spread the word. Hopefully, we can rally to make pride and integrity the standard for our industry - and not suffer the fate of the family farmer.
Bernard Cane
President & Director of Operations
Bernard George Investigations, Inc.
Santa Monica, CA 90401-1700
Bernard@BernardGeorge.com
BernardGeorge.com
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
More on Marketing for Private Investigators
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
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
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Private Investigator Advertising and Marketing Help
Other than the standard 'yellow pages' advertisements, what sort of marketing do you find brings you the best results in terms of quality andquantity of paying clients? Where do you get your best draws from? Thank you. -M
From Community support. Such as sponsoring Girls Softball teams, Boys baseball, giving scholarships to school kids. I sponsor 2 or 3 ball teams a year. Much less than a good newspaper ad. No one reads the newspaper ads anyway. But the whole town and visiting teams and other towns when your team goes out of town to play. Will see your T shirts with your name and phone number. Give it a try. -WR
Hello, I find that the first most important place to advertise for PI's is the yellow pages and small ads in out of state markets and out of city markets. Then, the next layer of advertising is sponsering sports teams like hockey, baseball and soccor teams etc. That gives you local reconigition with the community. I dont think the chamber helps much but like sports teams lets people see your name in another place. Now joining groups like ours and ASIS and other PI groups is very valuable but we all forgot the telephone elect web sites also is great because most people look into the computer first to establish who or what companies are around. Hope i helped. -BR
Where you advertise really depends on what type of services you aremarketing, and you many want to advertise in different places for different types of services. For instance. We do a fair amount of Pre-employment background checks for local companies. Last fall we had a nice heavyweight multi-color flyer printed. Our local Chamber of Commerce sends out about 2000 newsletters every month to local members. For the cost of the flyers,and $150 to the chamber, they insert the flyers in their newsletter. I have received a ton of new background check clients over the past few months fromthat. Another thing WE do, but may not work in your market is the following: We have two local college sports play by play announcers that have a 6-9am morning talk show. They basically just sit around and BS, but they have a huge following of business owners and middle aged men. I go on there live twice a week. We BS, talk about local events, and then talk about my business. It is pretty cheap, and I have built quite a following locally to where I run into people I know on the street, and they talk to me about what they heard on the radio that week. The other thing is, I get a lot of calls from business owners, and some from the public calling to hire us because they heard me on the radio and "felt like the know me". It makes them much more comfortable calling someone with their problems when the feel like they have a connection.
We also advertise on the radio in certain markets and situations, State Bar newsletters and magazines, just a name mention in the yellow pages, and several other areas. Other areas you might look into, depending on what you provide, is that Every year they have a statewide Para-legal convention, and we always sponsor that and they hand out our brochures and business cards. I also keep good connections with some of the newspaper reporters here and whenever we do something that is of interested to the news, AND is ok to talk about publicly, we get together and they write a story. You can't beat the free advertising you get in those stories of reuniting siblings separated 20 years ago, or the interview on how to protect yourself from identity theft, or why do background checks, etc. there are a ton of ideas to get you good FREE press, but be careful with that. I have been doing this for 16 years, and it has taken a long time to cultivate relationships with reporters to where you know when and what you can talk about and when to keep your mouth shut. Also in 100% of my marketing I make sure and refer them to our website for more information. If you have any questions, feel free to email me privately. Hope I may have given you at least one idea to help out. -RH
You shot gunned the group on that question, so maybe if you narrow it down you'll get the answer you are looking for.
1. What area (if any ) do you specialize in?
2. Some investigators don't even have a number in the phone book.
3. Others place a huge quarter page ad in the book and does nothing but government contracts, ( go figure)
4. If you are a jack of all trades you will have to resort to outside marketing. Mass advertising, i.e. phone book, newpapers, flyers, business cards (and a lot of them to everyone you see, give one!)
5. If you narrow your list of work to one or two areas you really like, for example looking for people, push skip tracing. People are always wondering "what would of happened if......" then are curious as to where they are.
6. Homocide investigations. (go after criminal defense attorneys)
7. Insurance: go after insurance adjustors
8. an on and on.
Think about this, I have a feeling you haven't been a PI long and are taking anything that comes in. This is very normal and don't think otherwise. Find your own niche and work it till your nuckles are white. You'll make it if you have the creativity, ambition, drive and desire to eat. Be cautious in your quest to take files on. You take too many of different types and you are bound to make errors. Keep in mind this is a long term thing. Eventually word of mouth will be your best advertising. -BB
From Community support. Such as sponsoring Girls Softball teams, Boys baseball, giving scholarships to school kids. I sponsor 2 or 3 ball teams a year. Much less than a good newspaper ad. No one reads the newspaper ads anyway. But the whole town and visiting teams and other towns when your team goes out of town to play. Will see your T shirts with your name and phone number. Give it a try. -WR
Hello, I find that the first most important place to advertise for PI's is the yellow pages and small ads in out of state markets and out of city markets. Then, the next layer of advertising is sponsering sports teams like hockey, baseball and soccor teams etc. That gives you local reconigition with the community. I dont think the chamber helps much but like sports teams lets people see your name in another place. Now joining groups like ours and ASIS and other PI groups is very valuable but we all forgot the telephone elect web sites also is great because most people look into the computer first to establish who or what companies are around. Hope i helped. -BR
Where you advertise really depends on what type of services you aremarketing, and you many want to advertise in different places for different types of services. For instance. We do a fair amount of Pre-employment background checks for local companies. Last fall we had a nice heavyweight multi-color flyer printed. Our local Chamber of Commerce sends out about 2000 newsletters every month to local members. For the cost of the flyers,and $150 to the chamber, they insert the flyers in their newsletter. I have received a ton of new background check clients over the past few months fromthat. Another thing WE do, but may not work in your market is the following: We have two local college sports play by play announcers that have a 6-9am morning talk show. They basically just sit around and BS, but they have a huge following of business owners and middle aged men. I go on there live twice a week. We BS, talk about local events, and then talk about my business. It is pretty cheap, and I have built quite a following locally to where I run into people I know on the street, and they talk to me about what they heard on the radio that week. The other thing is, I get a lot of calls from business owners, and some from the public calling to hire us because they heard me on the radio and "felt like the know me". It makes them much more comfortable calling someone with their problems when the feel like they have a connection.
We also advertise on the radio in certain markets and situations, State Bar newsletters and magazines, just a name mention in the yellow pages, and several other areas. Other areas you might look into, depending on what you provide, is that Every year they have a statewide Para-legal convention, and we always sponsor that and they hand out our brochures and business cards. I also keep good connections with some of the newspaper reporters here and whenever we do something that is of interested to the news, AND is ok to talk about publicly, we get together and they write a story. You can't beat the free advertising you get in those stories of reuniting siblings separated 20 years ago, or the interview on how to protect yourself from identity theft, or why do background checks, etc. there are a ton of ideas to get you good FREE press, but be careful with that. I have been doing this for 16 years, and it has taken a long time to cultivate relationships with reporters to where you know when and what you can talk about and when to keep your mouth shut. Also in 100% of my marketing I make sure and refer them to our website for more information. If you have any questions, feel free to email me privately. Hope I may have given you at least one idea to help out. -RH
You shot gunned the group on that question, so maybe if you narrow it down you'll get the answer you are looking for.
1. What area (if any ) do you specialize in?
2. Some investigators don't even have a number in the phone book.
3. Others place a huge quarter page ad in the book and does nothing but government contracts, ( go figure)
4. If you are a jack of all trades you will have to resort to outside marketing. Mass advertising, i.e. phone book, newpapers, flyers, business cards (and a lot of them to everyone you see, give one!)
5. If you narrow your list of work to one or two areas you really like, for example looking for people, push skip tracing. People are always wondering "what would of happened if......" then are curious as to where they are.
6. Homocide investigations. (go after criminal defense attorneys)
7. Insurance: go after insurance adjustors
8. an on and on.
Think about this, I have a feeling you haven't been a PI long and are taking anything that comes in. This is very normal and don't think otherwise. Find your own niche and work it till your nuckles are white. You'll make it if you have the creativity, ambition, drive and desire to eat. Be cautious in your quest to take files on. You take too many of different types and you are bound to make errors. Keep in mind this is a long term thing. Eventually word of mouth will be your best advertising. -BB
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