SAMMY Winners Share Best Practice Marketing Tips
Winners of the 18th annual SAMMY Awards illustrate how creative and economical marketing collateral helps build brand awareness and business success. Learn who won in each category and pick up effective concepts for your own company.
Program sponsors present SAMMY Awards to industry’s top marketers.
![“Having a strong Web presence [permarsecurity.com] that talks about technology assures customers that you’re going to provide them with what they want, when they want it, not when you want them to have it,” Per Mar Director of Corporate Support Tim Smith says.](https://www.securitysales.com/_Images/articles/M-ss6sammys-Website.jpg)
Per Mar Security Services
Best Web Site Design
Sponsored by Tri-Ed
Improved SEO Leads to More Unique Visits
Davenport, Iowa-based Per Mar Security Services launched its first Web site in 1998. With only 14 pages, the rudimentary site mostly languished for more than a decade without any enhancements — until one fateful day.
“We reviewed the Google Analytics report and just about fell on the floor,” Per Mar Director of Corporate Support Tim Smith exclaims. “They weren’t looking at our Web site because it was so archaic, outdated and nothing was going on.”
To give its site a much needed facelift, Per Mar contracted with Rocket Media, an Internet marketing and creative services firm, through the Honeywell First Alert Professional dealer program. What resulted was a Web site that boasts more than 90 pages with a vast amount of information that can be easily navigated. Customers can now manage their accounts and pay bills online, as well as view requested background checks. Visitors can also watch videos, read marketing materials, and most
importantly, contact Per Mar personnel.
“We did all our homework to make sure on every page visitors can find how to get a hold of us in several different ways, in a number of different spots,” Smith explains. “That is what people really want.”
The old site brought in single- to double-digit visits per day, with many visitors exiting after clicking on one page. Since its revamp in December 2012, the site gets hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of visitors per day.
“We’re seeing that the unique views on our site average three to five pages,” Smith says. “Part of that is because we’ve increased our paid-per-click [PPC] and search engine optimization [SEO] campaigns.”
Protect America
Best Company Newsletter
Sponsored by ESA
Creating a Customer Touch Point That Actually Works
The first thing to know about the philosophy behind Protect America’s monthly electronic newsletter is that it aims to combine entertaining informational tidbits with important home security advice and promotional offers. The gist is elementary but no less critical: Every home security company needs to stay in contact with their customers. Sure, you have a newsletter, but can you keep your target audience engaged with the material?
If the collective opinion of SAMMY judges is any indication, Protect America’s e-newsletter succeeds in its mission. Newsletters, electronic or otherwise, are used to disseminate useful information as the format is ideal for presenting various materials in a streamlined style. Such is the design concept at Protect America. Bold, sometimes whimsical graphics anchor the newsletter and convey a given theme, such as the holidays. Then a prominent placement of a monthly promotional offer draws a connection to the newsletter’s theme.
“Each monthly newsletter has its own unique concept derived from the promotional offer. The design seeks to guide customers from an informative blog article to our promotional offer and a security tip,” explains Andrew Egan, who serves as a copywriter with the Austin, Texas-based company. “The newsletter also contains a customer testimonial and a link to our reward and referral program.”
The bottom section is generally reserved for little-known facts about Protect America, as well as links to its various social media and other contact information.
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