About to disappear

For a few years I have been selling an e-book I wrote called: PR for PIs: 73 Powerful Tips for Effective PI Marketing.  In about two months my new marketing book will be coming out, one I have been working on for some time and which is not exclusively focused on the private investigation business. Rather, it is for all business owners (although a PI could benefit from it). At that time the PR for PIs book will disappear.

It occurred to me that before the  PR for PIs  book is no longer available, some people may yet want to order it.  So I’ll make its farewell even more attractive by offering it at the lowest price ever, just $2.50, payable by PayPal. (Don’t worry, it’s still worth it, with dozens of useful marketing tips in the approximately 20,000 words of the book). Just send me an email, I’ll send you a PayPal invoice and upon payment I will send you the ebook.

I realize this is definitely not the perfect Mother’s Day or Father's Day present, but if you buy and use this book this year, you just may be able to buy your mother a bigger Christmas present this year.  

Best wishes for your success.

Bob Mackowiak

Mackowiak Communications

755 Bronx Drive

Toledo, Ohio 43609

email: mackowiakcom@aol.com

Providing marketing assistance to private investigators since 1988

Lectured about marketing at PI conferences - - by invitation - - from Florida to Alaska, from Pennsylvania (on 9/11) to Texas 

18 years healthcare marketing and communications

7+ years in marketing communications at a major university college of business 

Check out my LinkedIn profile if you really want to know more.

The List

There is tremendous value in your “list.” Hopefully, you even have several lists: current clients with whom you probably already do a good job in keeping in touch with; former clients; potential clients; and the A-list of people you want to be potential clients.

The most often missed opportunity is found in the former clients list. Too often we think they are long gone and of no value. After all, chances are very good that many of them have already moved or are no longer in business, so we would be wasting postage sending a letter to people who aren’t even there to receive it, right?

(Imagine, the horrible danger of losing 50 cents on someone no longer there versus the opportunity of making hundreds, even thousands of dollars from someone who is still there and whom we just think is a cold fish. On which side do you think you should error?)

There is no way you can know exactly why everyone on your “cold” list is not doing business with you unless you keep in touch with them. They may have had to deal with a dying parent, been in ill health themselves, been too busy with their own projects, moved to Australia but now are back, going to school....you know, busy with other aspects of their own life. But we all too quickly assume they simply have made some conscious decision to no longer do business with us, so we write them off without so much as a postcard to say “Hi. How ‘ya doing?”

Your list is your lifeblood. Who is on your list who is waiting to hear from - - and do business with - - you?

One more call

When you reach the end of your normal work day, and are ready to pack it in and go home, take a couple extra minutes before you leave and make one more phone call. You can call someone who is a current client, someone whom you have wanted to become a client, a friend whom you have not talked with for some time, someone who owes you money, someone with whom you have been playing phone tag for days, or anyone with serious value in your life or for your business.

The concept behind this is that, while most people have decided that business is done for the day, you are
making that one extra effort, that one extra call, and if you do it every business day, you’re looking at some 250 contacts that you will make above and beyond what your competitors are doing. The payoff could be tremendous.

And you will be surprised how many other business people are still in their office after 5 p.m…and pleased that another professional is also hard at work after 5. It’s going that extra mile, doing that one extra thing, every day, that can produce huge profits for your business and clearly set you apart from all your competition.

And if you’re asking yourself if this is really a marketing technique, the answer is yes. Marketing is getting the right message to the right person (see the very first section of my PR for PIs marketing ebook about creating your written marketing plan). If sending a message thatyou are still hard at work when others have called it a day is not getting a great message out to clients and potential clients, I don’t know what is.

Test, test, test

An information broker had a dilemma. He was looking for a way to beef up his profits and was wondering if he should try lowering his prices.

On the one hand, he knew his business was good, that he had a great product and great service. And he charged for it, nicely above the norm.

On the other hand, he realized that if he did indeed price his services at what his competitors did, he could still make an okay profit from each transaction and probably dramatically increase the number of regular clients he has. That would force him to hire some additional staff, which he was not sure he wanted
to do, but he was looking for a way to expand his client base.

Such a problem, eh? Too much profit or too much business?

While it is important to have a USP (Unique Selling Postion) to call your own, basing your USP solely on

price is typically not a good thing, especially for investigators. The problem is that, at any given time,
someone - - who may be momentarily hungrier than you - - can lower their prices; you lose your USP, need to decide if you want to go even lower in your pricing, or are forced to do something else. However, you can test the concept of lower pricing on a small portion of your target audience. Or lower the prices to everyone but only for a limited time. Remember, you can and should test new offers with a target audience for a limited time.

Examine Everything

Seize a couple minutes away from your normal business routine to examine your marketing tools. Put
all of them, everything you use, on the table in front of you. Do they work together? (Do they work at all?)

Do you have the same static letterhead design you used for the last 20 years, giving the impression that you may be out of touch with the latest technology, the most recent developments in investigations, etc.?
Maybe it’s time to redesign your basics, your letterhead and your business cards. Hire a graphic designer
if possible. Don’t be afraid to hire the professional help you need to be perceived as a professional. Be sure you include on your business card every way to contact you, including home, cell phone, email, website, your blog, etc.

Be sure to include your area code with your phone number. (No, not everyone knows it, especially if you live outside of a major metropolitan area and your mailing is going to people in that area. And I’ve actually seen someone’s business card this year that didn’t even list what city they were in.

Don’t assume anything. Make it easy for people to find you.