Paid vs. Organic Search Results

Earlier this month we discussed Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and how it relates to marketing your company. The goals of SEM is to ensure that your company has a presence in the search engines under relevant searches such as "bail bond agents" or "denver county bail bonds". This article on Paid vs. Organic Search Results is the second in a series that will give you tips on managing SEM yourself. If you have a website, clearly you want that site to be at the top of the search engines for the keyword searches that are most important to you. There are two ways this can be achieved: 1) Paid placement - also known as PPC (pay-per-click) or CPC (cost-per-click), and 2) Organic which is achieved through SEO (search engine optimization).

The results in the narrow column to the right in this image are the sponsored or paid for advertisements.

At AboutBail.com, we feel that you know your company and your goals better than anyone else. Hiring someone to do SEM for you is an option but it can be expensive and you have to be wary of so called "experts" making promises they can't keep. At the very least, this article will serve as a primer before engaging an SEM or SEO company. After you read this article, if you still have questions the team at AboutBail.com is available to discuss these topics. Please contact us at (866) 411-2245 or contact us online.

Paid Results (PPC, CPC) Both major search engines Yahoo! and Google have programs that allow you to instantly "buy" placement in their search engine results with a credit card. Although PPC or CPC campaigns can be very costly, they enable you to compete with your competition online quickly and easily. These programs allow you to bid on specific keywords (such as “bail bondsman pennsylvania,”) and create an advertisement that links to your website. The higher you bid, the higher and more frequently your advertisement shows on the page when someone searches for that keyword. You only get charged when a potential customer clicks on the link and goes to your site. Paid results are usually shown on the top and down the right hand side of search results pages. Please see the accompanying image for an example. Although these campaigns can be expensive, you have the advantage of deciding which keywords you want to show up under and how much you are willing to pay. Both Google and Yahoo! allow you to set a daily budget. Once your budget is reached, your ad stops showing up and it starts over again the next day. If you do decide to run paid campaigns, identify the keywords that are most important to you and don't get caught up in bidding wars. Although it will take time to fully understand how these systems work, you may find that you can get more exposure by bidding less and showing up second, third or fourth. There are studies that show being second or third can be just as effective as being first. Let your competitors max their marketing budgets, while you allocate funds to other forms of online marketing. Another warning about PPC or CPC campaigns is something called "click-fraud". This occurs when competitor click repeatedly on your ads with the intent of depleting your budget. Although the major search engines account for this, it still happens. At AboutBail.com, we spend money on paid campaigns in all major search engines so our advertisers don't have to. Organic Results and Search Engine Optimization As a result of the problems associated with PPC or CPC campaigns, many companies focus on organic results. Organic results are what the search engines see as most relevant to a particular search. These results are completely non-biased - meaning that the engine will not accept any amount of money to influence the rankings of any individual sites. Focusing on organic results is a more long-term approach to SEM, and organic results are seen as more relevant and trustworthy to potential customers. “Searchers generally hold organic results in higher regard,” said Terrence Joyce, AboutBail.com Brand Manger. “It’s similar to how a person reading a magazine would probably be more positively influenced by an article about a particular company than by a paid advertisement from the company.” As an example, AboutBail.com comes up first in google for the search term "bail bond agents". This means that Google's search engine algorithm has analyzed AboutBail.com and see's it as the most important site on the web relevant to "bail bond agents". Although how Google's algorithm works is largely a mystery, there are a number of factors that SEO experts feel are critical to good search engine results. Achieving Rankings with SEO SEO is the backbone of organic online marketing. SEO simply means that you do everything you can to make your website more relevant and interesting to search engines so that your website naturally appears near the top of search engine results pages – without you having to pay for it. It takes time to achieve high organic search results, and the search engines are continuously changing their search algorithms, which determine ranking criteria. SEO will always be an ongoing process. These are a few tips to help move your website toward the top of search engine results: 1) Market your website. Inbound links from authority sites such as AboutBail.com can increase your search engine rankings because they show search engines that others want to link to your site. Getting inbound links from authority sites, is perhaps one of the quickest ways to increase organic placement. 2) Develop great content. You will want to have good content with relevant keywords on your website. Think of the keywords you might bid on in Yahoo! or Google. Include these same keywords in articles and pages on your site. Have dedicated pages with specific content. For example, if you are based in Georgia you may want to have a page about "How Bail in Georgia Works." Without having relevant keywords or content on your site you will probably never rank for the keywords that are important to you. 3) Develop your website correctly. Use a simple design and make your website text-based rather than embedding your keywords and text within images. Keep your web site clean and simple, and have navigation that is easy for your customers to follow. Search engines try to mimic the user experience when they look at your site. If you design your site with your customers in mind, chances are the search engines will take notice. 4) Look at what the competition is doing. Who gets great search engine rankings in your area? Take a look at those web pages. What keywords are they using and how frequently are those keywords appearing on each page? What other places are they advertising? You often can learn a great deal about SEO simply by looking at what other successful bail agents are doing online. I know about Paid vs. Organic. Now what? In traditional marketing there is a term called "Marketing Mix". Marketing mix is the combination of marketing initiatives you employ to ensure you are reaching customers through all important mediums. As a business, you use a marketing mix because there is no one good place to focus all your marketing efforts. The same holds true with SEM or online marketing. You should use a combination of PPC/CPC campaigns (paid) and search engine optimization (organic) while identifying the places that already rank for your keyword and try to get a link or advertise with them. This will not only drive business to your company but will assist in your optimization efforts. What else would you like to know about SEM for Bail Bond Agents? If there are other topics you are interested in learning about related to search engine marketing, contact us online or call (866) 411-2245 and we will do our best to answer these questions throughout this series.

About AboutBail.com
Since 2001 AboutBail.com has been a resource for locating bail bond agents, criminal lawyers and bail recovery agents anywhere in the United States. The goal of AboutBail.com is to help our users and their loved ones in their time of need.

Need to get a loved one out of jail? Visit us online at http://www.aboutbail.com or call (866) 411-2245.

AboutBail.com
12335 Santa Monica Blvd. #300
Los Angeles, CA 90025
T - 866.411.BAIL (2245)
F - 877.824.2482
Email Us

Marketing Effectiveness for Bail Professionals

What is Marketing Effectiveness?

There are a number of ways to market your bail bond business. Options include phone books, outdoor advertising (billboards, etc.), and of course, the Internet. As you spend more and more on marketing your business, it is of utmost importance to know which advertising initiatives are having positive results and which are not. Tracking the results of your marketing efforts is known as “Marketing Effectiveness”.

Outlined below are a number of marketing effectiveness components for bail professionals.

Don't Miss a Call

A bail bond professional’s lifeline to new customers is the telephone. A missed call is a missed opportunity. Regardless of how much you market your company, if you don’t answer your calls it is unlikely the full value of your advertising will be realized.

Missing a phone call can mean missing out on a large bond, or losing a potential client. In many cases, people don’t have time to wait for you to call them back. If you don’t pick up your phone it is likely that they will not leave a message and will contact another bail agent.

Most bail agencies are small businesses, making it impossible to be in the office to answer phones at all times. While you may not be in the office, you should have calls forwarded to your cell phone and get call waiting.

"It always surprises me when I call bail bond agents and get a busy signal," said Terrence Joyce of AboutBail.com. "Not having call waiting can mean missed business opportunities."

When answering the phone, remember to be professional and courteous. Most bail agents answer their phones "Bail Bonds!" The person on the other end of the phone often is nervous and scared, which means politeness will go a long way.

Track your Calls

The bail industry is highly competitive. You have to spend a lot of marketing dollars to promote your business, which means you want to know where your money can be best spent. Tracking where your customers find you is vital to your marketing effectiveness. The calls come in, but where are they coming from? Tracking your calls determines what is working and what is not and the only way to get this information is by asking.

This sounds easy, but getting accurate information can be much more difficult than it sounds.
With traditional marketing such as the phone book, tracking the response is easy. When a customer is staring at your ad on paper they know where they found it. Online, it isn’t as simple.

The nature of the Internet can make it difficult to track your online marketing. Customers do not always remember the path they took to find your phone number. They may have visited five or six sites before actually finding your contact information. When you ask, they may say, “I found you on Google” or “I found your website.” Does that mean they did a search for “maricopa bail bond agents” and found your website in the search results? Or, did they find a site where you advertise?

You may not even have a website, which means they found your information elsewhere – but where exactly?

“If you can accurately assess where your customers are finding you 50 percent of the time or more, we feel you are doing a good job,” states Joyce.

Asking the Question – How did you find me?

A customer calling for a bail agent may be in a frantic state of mind – they may not know where they found you. Therefore, some are hesitant to ask.

However, it can be fairly easy to present this topic in a way that won’t annoy or put off your client. For example:

“Thank you for your business. We are marketing our business in a number of ways. Would you mind telling me how you found us today?”

Some people will know exactly how they found you and will be quick to respond. If they are not exactly sure where they found you, it’s probably best not to probe too much. Asking them for more details could be frustrating.

Training your Staff

Many of you are fortunate to have hard-working and dedicated front office staff that is the lifeline of your business. They are the people answering your phones and interacting with your clients. As you spend more to generate new business, you must educate them on the importance of tracking your marketing results.

Having a place where they can aggregate this data, such as a spreadsheet or call sheet, is a good way to achieve this. In addition, having a sheet in front of you will serve as a reminder to ask your customers where they found you.

Here is an example of a call sheet you can download and print:

Download: Call Tracking Spreadsheet (PDF)

If you would like more information on marketing effectiveness, or if you are interested in getting listed on the AboutBail.com directory, please contact us at info@aboutbail.com or toll-free at (866) 411-2245.

10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Bail Business

The bail industry can be very challenging to break into, but a properly managed agency can be very lucrative. There are a number of things that bail bondsmen must do to ensure professionalism and success.

1. Answer your phone.
At the risk of offending or being redundant, we are going to preach the obvious. Answer your phone. Making sure your calls get answered is the easiest and least expensive way of gaining more business. You may have to forward your calls to your cell phone, invest in a more sophisticated phone system or even hire an office assistant, but if calls go unanswered you are missing out on business.

We have heard people say, "I don't answer blocked calls" or "I don't answer calls from out-of-state", but if you are doing ANY form of advertising this thought process is very flawed. These could be calls from potential clients.

2. Be Professional and Courteous
“Bail Bonds!” – this is how the majority of bail agency phones are answered – usually with an unprofessional and harsh tone. You are in a growing industry – your potential clients have choices. Can you afford missing out on a bond because the person answering your phone was rude or unprofessional? Your potential clients are already scared, embarrassed and confused. Treating them with professionalism and respect can put them at ease and have a dramatic impact on your bottom line.

3. Understand Marketing Basics
The only difference between you and the most successful companies in your industry is how you market your agency. There are a lot of inexperienced and unprofessional companies in the bail and bail recovery industries that make a lot of money simply because they market themselves. The old adage “you need to spend money to make money” holds true today more than ever. Marketing is what gets your customer to pick up the phone and literally touches every aspect of your company including:

- communication with your clients (conversations, emails, reports, invoices, letters)
- your company name
- how you answer the phone
- marketing materials (brochures, business cards, letterhead, signs, advertisements, web site)

Next time you are near a bookstore, pick up a book on marketing basics. Even if you have a degree in marketing, keeping a book like this handy will prove to be useful. Additionally, there are numerous e-newsletters and blogs you can find on the web that have great marketing ideas and tips. Spending just a few hours per week on marketing can have a dramatic impact on your business.

4. Advertise when business is good
As long as you are in business, you should always continue to market your services. It doesn’t matter how well-known you are, you constantly need to have your brand in front of the buyers of your services. This is why you will see Budweiser, IBM and other Fortune 500 companies investing in multi-million dollar ads during the Super Bowl. A major component of marketing is brand recognition. When your customers see your company advertised on the web, billboards, or yellow pages, it helps build trust in your brand and will likely result in them calling you over your competition.

5. Advertise MORE when business in slow
The first thing people tend to cut when business is slow is their marketing and advertising. This knee-jerk reaction is often an effort to save money, but can be counterproductive to the success of your business. This is when you should be marketing the most, not only because you need to increase business, but you have the time to reevaluate your marketing and advertising options. Take this time to identify new places where your customers may be going to locate bail agents and think about additional marketing initiatives.

If you are just starting to market your business don't get frustrated if your marketing does not work overnight. Statistics show that it can take many exposures to elicit a buying reaction from your potential customers.

6. Join and Support industry associations.
There are a number of state and national associations that gives you access to training, networking, and member resources that can be key to growing your business. More importantly, these groups come together to form teams that fight legislation that may negatively impact the bail industry as a whole. For a nominal membership fee, you are helping to assure your job security and joining a group of like-minded business professionals.

7. Delegate Tasks
You can't do everything yourself and continue to operate a growing business. Eventually, you need to bring in help with bookkeeping, collections, data entry and other administrative tasks. Whether you get the help from a part-time employee or a family member, you need to delegate time-consuming tasks to others so you can focus on managing your customers and growing your business. If you already have additional human resources in the office, look at ways in which you can increase efficiency by assigning specific tasks to your employees.

8. Use Technology to Improve Efficiency
With software and mobile technology, we now have the ability to run our businesses from our home, hotels and even the road. Smart phones and broadband cards for your laptop are becoming "must-haves" for bail agents that spend a significant amount of time out of the office.

Additionally, many software packages exist that were developed specifically for bail agents. These applications enable you to manage bonds, communicate with surety companies, automate your accounting and much more.

Take the time to do an audit of your daily operations. What tasks are the most time-consuming? Chances are that technology exists that can help you automate some of these processes, saving you time and money.

9. Build or Update Existing Web Site
If you don't have a web site yet, you need one. If you already have web site, but you haven't updated it in a few years, take the time to go through it to make sure all your information is accurate and up-to-date. You should be doing this at least a couple times per year. You should also avoid putting anything on your site that will require frequent updates such as a news or newsletter section. Most people don’t have the time or resources to keep this current.
Use your web site as a tool to sell your company as experts in your field. The main goal of your web site as a bail agent is to get customers to pick up the phone to call you. Your web site should be professional, clean, educational and precise. Make sure your phone number is clearly visible at the top of each page.
Educate the client on the bail process and why they should contact you to assist them.

10. Set, Plan and Track your Goals
To be successful in anything you need to have goals. To reach your goals you must have a plan. To make sure your plan is working, you must track your progress.

If your plan for 2007 is to double your business, what do you need to do to achieve this? Do you need to advertise more or hire more people? Make a plan to achieve this goal then check in on a monthly basis to see where adjustments need to be made. Just by being cognizant of your goals and your progress, you will put yourself in a positive mindset to help you achieve them.

We hope that this information helps you with your planning for 2007, or at least gives you something to think about. Not all businesses are the same and not all of these ideas are right for every company, but we all have room for improvement. If you are an AboutBail.com, we invite you to contact us at (866) 411-2245 or sales@aboutbail.com to talk about your marketing and advertising in 2007. Additionally, if you have feedback for us regarding how we can improve our services, we would like to hear from you!

Marketing Your Bail Agency Online

I am sure by now that you have heard of the Internet. The question you may ask yourself is, what does the Internet have to do with the Bail Industry? The answer is - a lot.

There are already Bail Agencies across the country reaping the rewards of larger and higher quality bonds because of Online Marketing. To give you an idea, there are currently over 200 million U.S. Internet users. The fastest growing segments of new Internet users are Women, Minorities and Baby Boomers according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Broken down, this means that more than 1 out of 2 people in the Unites States have access to the Internet.

The most expensive aspect of running a Bail Agency, aside from having skips, is getting your phone to ring. Telephone book advertising is expensive and has a limited reach; this is exactly where the Internet comes into play. With a web site and some cost-effective online advertising, your company can be found in every City, County, State and Country including where you advertise locally. If the contact is in another City, County or State there is a good chance that they will not have access to your local advertising. How will they find you? Everyone knows that the Internet is an unparalleled source of information so they turn to the Web. This also applies even when local advertising is available. When customers call, they are usually scared, confused and embarrassed. Finding a Bail Agency and Information on the Internet allows the loved one/contact to maintain their anonymity until they are ready to make contact over the phone. Bottom line: your customers are getting online to find information about Bail Bond services.

Not everyone has a computer but almost everyone has a cell phone. The Internet will continue to grow as a marketing tool as the Web becomes more available to your potential customers using the browsers in their mobile phones as well as wireless pda’s (personal digital assistant)

Agencies effectively utilizing the Internet as a marketing channel have had strong returns. Bottom line: Better exposure means an increased volume of bond calls.

To Browse the AboutBail.com Directory or to learn more about the Bail Bond, Legal, or Private Investigative industries please visit http://www.AboutBail.com.