The security industry is one of the most in-demand sectors in the United States, especially as it provides services to almost all kinds of individuals, enterprises, and properties. It covers a lot of safety and protection needs for different sectors including technology, commerce, household, and hospitality, just to name a few.
Security companies offer various types of services, from cybersecurity and smart systems to security personnel and equipment installation. There is no doubt that all kinds of consumers have looked into getting security-related services and products in the past.
Given the access to all kinds of information provided by the Internet, looking for a security company to work with will not be a problem for these consumers. However, this can pose a challenge for companies as it elevates the need for a more effective marketing strategy in order to contend with their competitors, direct or indirect.
If you work in a security company or you own one, you want to make sure that you properly market your business and its services. Your best bet is to check out the latest marketing trends and see how you can apply them to your business and brand. Keep reading to know more about this.
The Need for Security Services
To give a clearer picture of the need for a proper, effective, and efficient marketing strategy, let us first talk about the security landscape. The fact is security is not only one of the most in-demand in the country, but also across the globe, especially when talking about cyberspace and technology.
In the US, the market size attributed to this industry is $46 billion, with 14,760 active businesses employing an estimated number of 861,045. These figures are only bound to increase thanks to the current social and economic climates. Crimes happen every day, making security measures much more necessary than ever.
Take burglaries, for example. According to Bank Rate, statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation say that more than 1 million burglaries occur yearly, with 1 incident occurring every 25.7 seconds for a total of 3,300 every day. Now, take into consideration that security also encompasses cybersecurity and cybercrimes have increased over the past year.
FBI numbers cited by GovTech also reveal that there were 791,790 cyberattacks in 2020, which shows a spike of over 300,000 from 2019. From March 2020 to May 2021, the total number of cybercrime rose from 5 million to 6 million.
Given these numbers, security companies that provide relevant services are sure to be more in-demand and that more customers are looking for ways to improve their security. However, you want to make sure that these potential customers will be able to find your business. Proper marketing is your way to achieving this.
Assessing Your Existing Marketing Strategy
Now, whether you have been in the business for a long time or you are new, you want to make sure that your marketing strategy works to your advantage. Doing so lets you evaluate your current marketing strategy and see elements that are working. Moreover, it enables you to find points to improve and incorporate more effective and efficient techniques.
Avoiding this step can be detrimental to your business. What you need to keep in mind is that marketing is a combination of techniques and activities that promote and sell your offerings. In short, it plays a vital role in the success of your business. Poor marketing strategy can doom your business into oblivion, no matter how well you have built your business and brand.
Meanwhile, a well-thought-out strategy can result in a successful conversion funnel that can turn your target market from potential customers to visitors, leads, and finally, sales.
During this step, a marketing audit is in order. There are different ways to do this. You can take a look at the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that your current strategy faces. You can also take a look at the political, economic, sociocultural, and technological aspects of your model, taking into account the internal and external forces that affect your strategy.
Finally, you can use the five forces analysis, which concentrates on external elements of the business including new competitors, suppliers’ and buyers’ bargaining power, substitute products, and rivals.
Top Marketing Trends for Security Companies in 2021
Your marketing audit offers an opportunity to learn new ways to market your security business while reinforcing the ones that show potentials for success. Along the way, you will find that digital platforms play a huge role in marketing in all kinds of industries, not only in security. Digital marketing has been the trend over the past years, and it is not going away anytime soon.
If you want to improve your security company’s marketing strategy, you want to incorporate this trend and some of its most important elements. Here’s what you need to know.
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Mobile Optimization
Having a website is the first real step toward establishing your digital marketing campaign. Users can easily access this platform on a web browser using a laptop or a desktop. However, you should remember that your target market does not exclusively use these machines to access the Internet. They also likely use smartphones for Internet browsing.
In fact, Statista revealed that there are over 290 million smartphone users in the US and you can bet that a portion of this covers your target market.
Now, imagine accessing your website designed only for desktop and laptop browsing using a smartphone. You definitely can get into your site, but the thing is, the experience will not be pleasant. Chances are you may need to scroll up, down, and side to side in order to view everything on the page.
Mobile optimization ensures that your website is accessible in a readable, viewable, and adjusted manner on smartphone browsers. This is a part of creating a responsive website, which offers a lot of potentials for business site owners.
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Emphasize Cybersecurity
As a security company, you offer a set of services meant to keep your clients safe. Whether you provide security personnel for events and establishments, or you install home security systems and CCTVs, you want to emphasize cybersecurity. Remember, your customers’ data and privacy is a huge part of security, even on the Internet.
You need to keep in mind that cyberattacks have become rampant over the past year, with big companies falling victims to attackers. As a security company, part of your duty is to make sure that your customers and their data are safe.
Take CCTV cameras, for example. Such equipment provides a way for your clients to monitor what is going on on their premises in real-time or as recorded footage. It would be unfortunate to have such a system hacked by a malicious party.
Cybersecurity concerns are not only applicable to security equipment. You probably keep a record of your clients in your database and you want to assure them that their records are safe with you.
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Search Engine Optimization
Another thing you should consider when coming up with a marketing strategy is search engine optimization. Yes, you might have a responsive and mobile-friendly website. The question is, how will your potentials customers find you?
Usually, they look to the Internet for answers by entering keywords like “security cameras near me” or “security services in my area” on search engines such as Google. You want to make sure that your website appears in the search results and you can do this through search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO is the process of implementing different techniques to ensure that your website and pages rank on search results. This involves a combination of on-page and off-page practices that can help Google find your website.
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Pay Per Click
The thing about SEO is it can take time before you see organic results. What you can do is to use Paid Ads by Google, which can help you boost your website visits until you can get more grounding enough for your site to gather visitors on its own.
In order to get organic results, you will need to get a lot of visits and be referred by popular and trusted websites, also known as affiliate marketing. So, you can expect organic results from Google with a combination of Pay Per Click Advertising and affiliate marketing.
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Utilize Social Media and Content
At the beginning of your company, you probably utilized social media to reach your target audience. This is the right move. Combined with your website, social media can help you improve your online presence. With the right content, your brand can get more traction on social media.
An active social media account shows users that you are on top of your business. Social media business accounts with updated posts are likely to get more engagements from those that have been stagnant for weeks and months, even years.
A security company such as yours is bound to do well, especially as it will continue to be in demand, but only if you use the right marketing strategy. Knowing the current marketing trends in the security industry, you can successfully get more clients and sales, and see your business succeed.