Not what you want to hear

I've been reviewing a number of marketing materials from PIs who have taken advantage of the free critique they received as an extra, limited-time bonus when they purchased my latest e-book,  "PR for PIs: 73 Powerful Tips for Effective PI Marketing."  (Important note about this later in this article.)

One particular flyer I reviewed had a lot going for it: great use of testimonials, attractive layout, relatively brief copy, which mostly described services she provides.  This is often the case with the marketing materials of PIs; put up the old laundry list of services, with your company name as large as possible.

 But - - and this is what you do not want to hear - - people, your prospective clients - - and don’t take this personally - - they don’t really care about you; they care about themselves and what you can do to solve their problem(s). Identify that problem and tell them what you can do to solve that problem for them, and I your materials can really help you boost your business. What you do for attorneys is help them Win More Cases.  What you do for business owners is perhaps Protect Their Profits.  That sort of approach and messaging conveys the message that is really important to your clients, namely that you are there to solve their problems.  

Also, your brochure or website needs a persuasive headline rather than having your name be the largest text on the page.  Studies have shown that - - if everything else in an advertisement is the same- - the right headline can increase the effectiveness of an ad or promotional material ad by up to 21 times. So spend some time writing that message.

Now, the offer: last month I offered some additional bonuses for those who purchased my new ebook, "PR for PIs: 73 Powerful Tips for Effective PI Marketing." One of those bonuses was a brief but customized written critique of one of your marketing materials.  As a result I have been sending PIs my individualized comments about their websites or brochures and such.  Because of the success of that promotion - - and because most PIs are now thinking about their business at the start of a new year - -I've decided to extend the five extra bonuses, including the custom critique, to those who order the e-book by January 25, 2013,

During these still challenging economic times, private investigators need to stand out, engage new and existing customers and grow their business. If you struggle to know what you should do, invest $6.75 in your business and expand your marketing mindset and order my new e-book, "PR for PIs: 73 Powerful Tips for Effective PI Marketing."

To Order:

You can send your cash or $6.75 check payable to Mackowiak Communications to

Mackowiak Communications

755 Bronx Drive

Toledo, Ohio 43609

You can also order through Paypal to my email mackowiakcom@aol.com I can send you an electronic invoice if necessary.

When you order, be sure to include your email address, because the e-book .pdf will be emailed to you.

Bob Mackowiak

Mackowiak Communications

email: mackowiakcom@aol.com

website: www.letbobhelp.homestead.com

SEO tips

As I've said before, content is king when it comes to your website. The more you content and the more frequently you update your website with pertinent information, the more often your visitors return to come back again and again, which is always wonderful for promotion. And the more visits you get, the higgher your engines.

The simple reality is that you are not likely to rate high in Google rankings for terms such as private investigation. It's too broad of a category and there are too many investigators. But you can increase your likelihood of being found when people search by narrowing your categories, and repeating key terms, as well as slight variations of these terms, in your website.

So focus on terms such as Tucson Investigations, as people typically need an investigator in their own area. Or focus on missing persons investigations in Arizona, something along those lines The more precise the better. Even if it seems limiting, it will move up from the bottom of the pile

By the way - - and this is completely unrequested - -after writing the above paragraph and just randomly picking the words Tucson Investigations to use as an example, if you actually do that search the first result you will find is a map location showing several investigators in Tucson. The second you will see is for a firm located in Tucson called International Counterintelligence Services. They are located in Tucson but accept cases worldwide. I encourage you to visit their fantastic website and see the tremendous volume of engaging content on their site: info on pricing, press releases, case studies, staff info, various ways to contact them, on and on. Again, a great job, and a website I discovered purely by my chance selection of the term Tucson Investigations. Also, note that their actual firm name is not Tucson Investigations, but they still surface near the top of the list for a search of that name. Well done.