Security is based on trust; and if you don’t put out enough information, you won’t have customer trust in your services. You have to find out what your customers are expecting. That was among the messages of a one-hour Security Institute webinar on marketing. You should seek to build your brand, and find out what marketing works for you, the webinar suggested.
The webinar was hosted by Institute chief exec Rick Mounfield, who introduced Shivanshi Sharma, who is a specialist in marketing for the security industry, whether providers, risk consultancies or industry associations. Even though security is a huge market and there’s a huge appetite for marketing, few specialise in marketing support to the security industry. She went through the importance of building a brand; and setting a budget – although you can use free online tools, or spend very targeted amounts of time and money.
She began by describing how marketing has evolved: from advertising of a product, to the concept of a brand – that is, something more than the actual product or service. Examples are Santa Claus as used to sell Coca Cola; and Apple, which (like other corporates) may advertise only its name and logo – its colours, for instance (pictured, the Institute logo) – not anything it sells. (Because no-one wants a ‘hard sell’.) More recently still, it has become no longer enough to have a one-way relationship with customers; you can make attractive and engaging communications, and content. Companies want to create a loyal customer base.
Shiv added that marketing today, even though it still wants to build those long-term relationships, does not necessarily want and need not make mass communications, but streamlined ones. She spoke of ‘data driven’ marketing, that can target audiences whether by geography or preferences. She gave the example of a company (security or other) based in Kent; through online platforms, you can target audiences only in Kent, and not London. She went through the ‘plethora’ of platforms and tools around; not just Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Tiktok.
Directing her talk at small businesses, she acknowledged that a company – whether the owner and decision-maker, or someone charged with marketing – does not have the time for them all. But social media allows you to scale your campaigns, to reach as many people within your target audience as possible, she added.
Before you make your marketing plan, you should ask what are your goals, she suggested: more leads? Or sales – immediate or long term? If immediate, use your budget at once. Or do you see more awareness for your brand?
After her talk, during questions from the audience, Rick Mounfield pointed to the potential for security companies and individuals from marketing; a potential being missed, he suggested, as the industry is not particularly good at it. While organic growth from ‘word of mouth’ recommendation is common, you could open yourself to wider markets, ‘just with a bit of marketing’, he said.
A recurring point of the webinar was how to define, and express – and retain – your USP (unique selling point) in an industry with a lot of others with similar or the same product or services. One possibility is to stress sustainability; or your firm’s social responsibility, or support for charities, besides, ‘of course’, your pricing and quality of product or service. However, showing you’re sustainable and that you have other such credentials is not a USP any more because so many are doing it, Shiv suggested, but it’s become a ‘necessity to have’.
More in the April print edition of Professional Security magazine.
