Takin' it to the street

One more marketing lesson (good for all of us) from a few days of vacation. (See my previous post for the thread.)

If you ever get the chance to head north of Detroit, there's a fantastic town called Frankenmuth. This town understands that it is a tourist destination, proud to call itself a little Bavaria, and it's two most famous features are Bronner's, the World's Largest Christmas store (truly inspirational) and the chicken dinners. (Actually there are two restaurants, right across the street from each other, that provide these wonderful dinners with the same family recipe.)

Well, these economic times have been particularly unkind to Michigan, requiring businesses to be more creative to attract the tourists to eat at their restuarant...even if it is the home to world famous chicken dinners. So this week we saw that one of the restuarants had added a couple tents on their parking lot where you could listen to live polka music in the middle of the afternoon, buy a beverage (yes, including beer) and a bratwurst. Several patrons were doing so, making me marvel at the innovative, and obviously effective, marketing tactic they implemented. When the time came for these patrons to get out of the heat and sit down to their wonderful chicken dinner, where do you think they would go: to the restaurant across the street that did not entertain or relax them?

So what does this have to do with your PI business? Just another example of learning lessons wherever you can: What can you offer clients that your competition does not? A free analysis of a business' security system? A free seminar on computer forensics? A lunch and learn about identity theft?

What can you offer that you may never have offered before? Domestic cases? A batch discount on background checks?

Marketing efforts do not need to be exotic or expensive; they need to be effective, and maybe just creative enough to attract attention away from your competition.

www.letbobhelp.homestead.com

Are you worth the trip?

My wife and I took a two hour vacation drive into Amish country in Indiana yesterday, having heard about how great the food is, how beautiful and solid Amish furniture is, etc. One restaurant, the largest in town, was so good we had both breakfast and dinner there. And a couple of the shops had truly well-crafted, wonderful furniture and collectibles.

We must have gone into about two dozen other stores, where we often saw the same merchandise, the same kind of antiques, the same, the same, the same.... In fact, I don't even think I could remember the names of any of the other stores.

When I go on vacation like this, I still try to challenge myself to learn something from the experience: what can I learn about marketing even in a small town in the middle of Amish country. And what I discovered also applies to your investigative business.

Namely, there is a lot of mediocrity out there, with little to distinguish one company from another. So ask yourself, what sets you apart from your competition? It is not necessarily how long you have been in business. What is it about your quality, your price, the extent of your services, the ease with which people have access to you, how much you demonstrate to your clients that you truly care about them. It can't be something abstract; it must be something you can specifically identify, and you must know what it is.

In marketing lingo, it's your USP, or your unique selling proposition. Ask yourself why someone should do business with you instead of with anyone else. Is dealing with you worth a 100 mile trip?

If you don't know this answer, then you have some serious work to do.

http://www.letbobhelp.homestead.com/

Roommates

Next month tens of thousands of recent high school grads will be going away to college, living in dorms for the first time. Often they will be rooming with someone they have never met before. Many colleges have programs to help the roommates become friends and resolve any issues that may arise. I'm not sure if all those programs fully solve concerns of anxious parents.

Let's see, who could help parents find out information about someone, be it a young adult, or their family? What sort of economical package could be offered to parents to obtain some basic background information?

Most PIs recognize the value of a great referral from an existing client. Sometimes new work can develop by looking in new directions.

www.letbobhelp.homestead.com