Search Engine Marketing 101

According to statistics released by a global marketing firm, approximately 1.2 billion people worldwide, which is about 19 percent of the world’s population, are online. Domestically, about 70 percent of North America had access to the Internet in 2007. Based on those statistics there is one obvious conclusion: if you are not promoting your business online, you may not be reaching all your potential customers.

Most bail bond professionals specialize in the justice system, not online marketing. However, with the proliferation of the web as a marketing channel, every small business owner should know the basics of promoting their company online. For bail bond professionals the message is clear: you need to make sure that potential customers can easily find you when looking for bail bond services and the most effective way to achieve that is through a concept called Search Engine Marketing (SEM).

What is SEM?

SEM is a marketing plan to ensure that your company has a presence in the search engines under relevant searches. To understand this, imagine a potential client needs a bail agent. This person knows nothing about your company and nothing about bail bonds. How would this potential customer find more information? Chances are good that he or she would go online and type in keywords such as "bail bond agents" or "maricopa county bail bonds" into a search engine like Google to find a local bail agent. In turn, the search engine will generate a ranked list of websites that it deems most important to the search terms.

As a bail bond agent, you want to make sure your company appears near the top of that list. Studies show that nearly 50 percent of searchers will click on the first or second result, while 75 percent of searchers never go beyond the first page. This is especially true of your clientele. Worried and pressed for time, your potential client will click on the first few links that appear and choose the first bail bond professionals who seem like a good match. This means that if you do not have an SEM strategy and your site does not appear on the first page of a Google, Yahoo! or MSN search, your services will not even be an option for this customer. Practicing baseline SEM will help drive targeted customers to your business.

Practicing SEM

The most important component of SEM is having a presence on the Internet -- either with a company website or as an advertiser on sites such as AboutBail.com. There is a common misconception that as a small business owner without a website you don't have to worry about SEM. Nothing could be further from the truth. SEM is an essential component for small businesses with a website and critical for those without.

Recent Bail Reports have addressed both types of bail professionals. In 6 Reasons Bail Professionals Need to Market on the Web we provide the top reasons why you NEED to use the internet as a profitable marketing tool. In Website Do's and Don'ts for Bail Professionals we provide a strong set of guidelines for your website.

You can either do your own SEM or hire a company to do it for you. This article on search engine marketing is the first in a series that will give you tips to do it yourself.

While you want to raise your ranking in the search engines as quickly as possible, beware of companies with promises that are too good to be true. "We often see companies advertising promises of instant rankings of one or two in search results," said Terrence Joyce, AboutBail.com's Brand Manager. "That's just not going to happen immediately. SEM is not easy and is always changing. You need to invest time and effort into obtaining a high ranking."

While there are quick ways to get your company showing on page #1, it's still important to have an "organic" strategy to your online marketing. A future article will cover the topic of Paid vs. Organic results. Other topics in this series will cover designing for SEO and link building. Being linked to sites such as AboutBail.com, can increase your search engine rankings as this shows search engines that others want to link to your site -- making it more important.

What do you want to know about online or search engine marketing?

If there are other topics you are interested in learning about related to search engine marketing, contact us at info@aboutbail.com and we will do our best to answer these questions throughout this series.

6 Reasons Bail Professionals Need to Market on the Web

The Internet has quickly gone from being a luxury to an essential. People turn to the internet for almost everything – including finding help for their bail needs. Here are six profitable reasons to market your bail business on the web:

1. Your customers are there
Studies show that 70 percent of the population has Internet access and 98 percent of lawyers use computers. People now use computers all day in their workplace, and turn to the Internet to find service providers. If your customers are in front of a computer, they are more likely to do a search online than get up and look for the phone book.

2. Most cost-effective form of advertising
Most bail professionals know how expensive it can be to compete. One advertisement in the phone book can cost thousands of dollars per month. The limitation of phone books is that you are only reaching the people in the city or county who receive that phone book. By advertising on the web, you are reaching more people at a much lower cost.

3. Grow your business by reaching new markets.
Not only are you getting more exposure on the web, but you are reaching customers that you probably wouldn't have acquired otherwise. Indemnitors who are not in the same city as the friend or loved one they need to bail out don't have access to a local phone book. Going to online bail directories such as AboutBail.com or doing a web search gives them the ability to find what they need quickly and easily.

4. Larger, more quality bonds
Bail professionals who advertise on the web notice that they receive better bonds, and they see more business-related charges. Those who use the web tend to be in a more affluent demographic. The indemnitors who find bail businesses online are more likely to be parents or loved ones who have collateral and money for the premium.

5. Most effective form of advertising, moving forward
If you haven’t done so already, you need to build your foundation on the web. The web is like real estate. Perhaps you wish you would have bought a property for $50,000 10 years ago because today it is worth $500,000. You want to start investing in your business’ future today; stake your claim now.

6. Your competition is there
Take a look at some of your most successful competitors. Chances are they established an online presence awhile ago. The web can be a great equalizer. It allows small or growing companies to compete with the largest businesses on an even playing field. If you embrace the web as a marketing channel for your bail agency, you can gain ground and increase your lead on the competition.

Marketing your bail business on the web is essential. Not only is advertising online cost-effective, but it is a great way to reach new demographics. The web can help you reach new customers, get high-quality bail bonds and stay competitive with similar bail businesses. Putting your bail business on the web is one of the best ways to position your company as a leader in the industry for years to come.

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.

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.