I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, selling security guard services is no easy task. Security guard service is a highly commoditized service, meaning that there are a lot of security guard companies out there selling security guard services AND in addition, there is such a LOONNNGG sales cycle for adding new customers. To help ease the pain, let me share a tool you can use in your security guard company marketing toolbox. The tool is called “Marketing Automation” and it is a serious force multiplier for your sales and marketing efforts.
So what is Marketing Automation? Marketing automation refers to the software and processes that exist with the goal of automating your marketing. I know it sounds complicated, but I GUARANTEE you that the concept and techniques that I am about to teach you are extremely easy to understand, use, and implement.
STEP ONE: You Security Guard Company CRM
The first step in this process is aligning your Customer Relationship Management software, otherwise known as your CRM with your Email Marketing software of choice. In order for this simple process to work and stay simple, the two platforms have to be able to communicate with one another.
In my case, I use Salesforce.com and MailChimp.com. Again, that is my choice but this process will work with many of the available CRM and Email Marketing platforms out there.
STEP: TWO
The second step is to come up with between 21 and 42 emails that your potential customers would be interested in receiving. These emails have to be tailored to ensure that they bring actual VALUE to your potential customer. This means that MOST if not all of those emails will have nothing to do with the service you perform.
As an example, one email to a property manager might be an article on saving money on maintenance-related cost, or a Free LEED Exam prep. Again, the key is to make sure that each of these emails is something that your prospect will find useful. This might take a little research on your part, but that’s easy enough.
Now for every 7 of those high-value emails that you come up with, you will also come up with 1 email that pertains to your company and services.
STEP: THREE
The last step in this process is to setup a “trickle campaign” within your email marketing platform. In other words, you will take all of the email ideas that you came up with, create them within your email marketing platform, and then set them up to AUTOMATICALLY be sent out over the course of 6 months to a year. I know that within MailChimp this is done through creating Automated emails, but it may be different for your platform.
STEP: FOUR
After completing steps 1 – 3, you’re ready to put your automation to work. Any time that you’ve talked to a prospective customer who is open to you following up with them in the future, simply jump into your CRM and trigger your emails to start trickling out.
Now that your trickle campaign is running with that prospect, you don’t have to invest a lot of time trying to stay top of mind with them. Your well crafted and customer-centric email campaign is cultivating that relationship for you. So the next time you contact them, not only will they know who you are, you’re that guy that sent them all of those great emails that helped them manage their business. That’s the way that you want to start a conversation.
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By Courtney Sparkman
OfficerReports.com is a software company that provides security guard companies with an easy way to monitor their officers, better manage their operations, and win new business. Take a tour of our software to see how we combine Electronic Reporting, Real-Time GPS based Tour Tracking, and GPS based Clock In and Out into one easy to use platform.
