Website Do's and Don’ts for Bail Professionals

Most bail professionals today have websites. There is simply no better way to ensure that customers online can find you and to ensure that you have a space for attracting customers. That said, not every website markets bail professionals at the same quality. In fact, it's likely that poorly designed websites will cost your bail business. Customers often are reluctant to do business with a company that has a poor website.

At AboutBail.com we have spent countless hours looking at, consulting on and building bail-related websites. Over the years we have compiled an internal checklist of website do's and don'ts. The article below summarizes what we feel you should and should not be doing on a retail bail website. Website Do's If you want a website that gets great results, you should consider the following: A Professional Site. Viewers will see your website as a reflection of your company, so it’s important to have a site that puts your best foot forward. Unprofessional language, anecdotes, political banners or statements, and family photos do not belong on your business website. Although you may know someone who knows basic web design, your business site is too important to entrust to anyone but a professional. Investing in a professional web designer can continuously pay for itself in increased profits. A Phone Number on Top of Every Page. The primary goal of your website is to get your potential clients to pick up the phone and call you. Putting your phone number in the same place on the top of every page is going to dramatically increase the chances of this. Search engines will index every page of your site, so you don't know which page your customers will be "landing" on if they come in via Google or Yahoo. Whether they end up on your contact page, home page or any other page you want to make it easy for them to call you. Useful Content. Your website is really not about you – it is all about the viewer, who just happens to be your potential customer. Creating content that is useful and interesting to viewers will keep your viewers coming back. It also will attract more visitors to your site and lend you credibility in the search engines. Start by building pages about "The Bail Process" or include a list of jails in your areas of coverage. Over time, use your expertise to come up with more topics to cover. Update your content regularly, since new content will encourage readers and the search engines to come back. A Reason to Call. Motivate the viewer to call you by explaining the benefits of your agency. You might want to point out that you make the bail process easy or that your staff is courteous. Be sure to empathize with your viewer by pointing out that sometimes bad things happen to good people. People looking for bail professionals often are in a difficult position and some sympathy is much appreciated. Along these lines, you probably don't want to include images of someone behind bars or any imagery that is going to make light of the situation. A Well-Designed Space. Good design means a website that is not cluttered and is easy to navigate. Keep it simple. When it comes to building a site, keep in mind the old adage: "Less is More." Finding good designers can be a challenge. We recommend posting an ad on sites like Craigslist.org or contacting local art or design schools. Additionally, some web hosting companies (such as RedHatDomains.com) have free templates that take all the guesswork out of design and allow you use templates that have been proven to work. Website Don’ts At AboutBail.com we've seen it all. We've seen great sites and we have seen really bad sites in the bail industry. Based upon our experiences, we suggest you DO NOT do any of the following: Don't Have Too Many Images. Some search engines cannot read images and almost all images slow download time. Stick to a few images that are relevant to your site and keep them at a reasonable size. Don't Have Irrelevant Content. Don’t include information that doesn't help the reader. Your kids are cute and its really cool that you got a new Harley, but its not relevant to your readers. Include just enough information to motivate the reader to give you a call. This means that you should describe the process, give some sense of your rates, and demonstrate that you are a trusted professional. Don't Confuse Your Readers. Look over your website and make sure that everything is consistent. Don’t give a different phone number and address on each page. Make sure that the design of each page within your site has a similar look and feel. You want potential customers to know they are on the same website regardless of the page they navigate to within the site. Don't Add Music to Your Site. Some of your customer may have to view your website at work. You don't want to suddenly embarrass them by having a loud song play. Music also slows download time and can be annoying or distracting to readers. Music on sites is generally unprofessional. Flash Intros. Flash intros add nothing to your content and can actually fail to load properly on some browsers. Plus, some Internet surfers find them annoying. The same can be said of animation on your website. Your clients come to your website for information, not entertainment. Erring on the side of professional and clean, and providing useful content are the best ways to make your site works. If you want to see how your website stacks up, contact the marketing professionals at AboutBail.com for a FREE website assessment. For more information, contact Terrence Joyce at (866) 411-2245 or online. Additionally, at AboutBail.com, we also develop sites for bail professionals. For a no obligation quote feel free to contact us.

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Brush up on Branding Basics

What is a brand? Your “brand” is the overall image of your company. Your brand is made up of everything your company portrays to the public, and it goes beyond your logo. Everything that represents your company is part of your brand: logo, web site, letterhead, the way you dress and the way you answer your phone. Things that may seem small, such as typos in your e-mails to customers, can have a negative impact on your company's image. All businesses, especially small businesses, rely on a strong, recognizable brand to grow their customer base and attract word-of-mouth marketing. In the generic consumer world, it takes up to seven exposures to a brand to make a brand memorable and evoke a response. Ideally, you want your future customers to know who you are before they have to use you.

Why should I keep my colors, logos, etc. the same? When you are consistent, it creates something called brand recognition. Brand recognition is the reason you can identify the Coca Cola brand even when the style of the can or the advertisement changes. The company consistently uses the same shade of red, and the same font to spell out its Coca Cola logo, despite the change of design in its advertisements. Make sure to use logos, slogans, colors and fonts consistently so potential customers can properly identify your company regardless of the medium you use to market it. For example, one day you give your card to someone you meet. The next day that person is driving down the road and sees a sign for your bail business with the same logo on it and makes the connection. After some time, that same person may misplace your business card, and resort to looking through the phone book for your company. Upon seeing your logo in a phone book advertisement he makes the connection and recognizes it once again. When you are consistently branding your company you will begin to build brand recognition. What easy steps can I take to improve my branding? Think about how your logo represents your company. Does it accurately portray your company’s level of professionalism? Have a professional logo designed and make sure to use it on all of your marketing materials (letterhead, invoices, business cards, online advertisements, etc.) to build your brand. Consider how cartoon characters and inappropriate photos look to perspective clients. Do you have personal or irrelevant content on your company's web site? Take simple steps to remove these items. Some computers are not equipped to handle Flash, music or animation. Make your website as simple as possible to navigate by removing these items. On your web page, be sure to build a professional site. Make sure you have useful content and keep it current. Have your phone number on every page. Sell yourself by placing your business in the best possible light. Small businesses often gain business through referrals, which means that conducting yourself professionally is part of your branding. If your slogan is, “All Day and All Night – We’re the Best in the West” and a customer can’t reach you when he needs a bond at 4 a.m. it will reflect poorly on what appears to be one of your core principles. That person’s perception is now the reality of your business, regardless of your signage and slogans. Remember that the little things count to customers. Answering your phone saying, “Bail Bonds!!!” gives off a much different impression than, “Bill’s Bail Bonds, how can I help you?” These business practices build your brand just as much as having a professional web site or logo. Correctly building your brand, results in a brand that portrays trust, confidence and professionalism to the public.

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

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!