SAMMYs 2009: Making Marketing Magic
Celebrating its 10th anniversary in May, SecurTek Monitoring Solutions has become a leader in the monitoring and security services business in Canada. Based in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, the company’s authorized dealer network — supported by two UL-Listed central stations — stretches across the country providing commercial and residential customers with video monitoring solutions, medical alert systems, guard services, home automation and much more.
A testament to the company’s success in building personable relationships with its clientele unfolded March 31 at SSI‘s 14th Annual SAMMY Awards. As a finalist in four sales and marketing categories, including best broadcast ad, company newsletter, sales brochure and promotional giveaway, SecurTek captured two coveted trophies.
“It’s a happy pat on the back for the entire team and the entire company to say the industry thinks we are moving in the right direction, we are doing the right things,” says Leanne Woodhouse, general manager of marketing and dealer relations.
The methods employed by SecurTek are worthy of review by other companies in the industry on the hunt for the “right” answers to their own promotional conundrums. Of utmost importance to an overall marketing strategy is never lose focus on your core business of selling alarm and monitoring services, says SecurTek President Barry Rogers.
“You get focused on the product and service development and you kind of forget that maybe if you don’t tell customers that you are in the business then you are not going to sell a lot,” he says. “It is really critical to have that brand out front and to be consistent. It can be a big challenge.”
It Pays to Collaborate
At the core of SecurTek’s marketing endeavors is a small, tightly knit staff led by Woodhouse. Her team includes three product research analysts, a senior clerk and other support staff. SecurTek also contracts with an advertising agency that provides all of its graphics design and production chores, along with helping flesh out creative ideas that are born in-house.
“We have the concepts or general ideas. We will go to the agency and they will maybe tweak the look or the presentation or come back with suggestions and we go back and forth until we find what we are looking for,” she explains.
To develop, as well as help fine-tune its marketing tools and messages, Woodhouse relies on an outbound calling team that is charged with touching bases with existing customers.
“We do regular surveys and solicit feedback from our customers to try and really identify what their needs are and what their wants are,” she says. “We want to know what the driving forces are behind their purchasing decisions.”
SecurTek does not employ a traditional sales team to proffer its monitoring, security services and product offerings. Instead, it staffs a dealer relations team that interfaces with the company’s band of authorized dealers located across Canada. Working in partnership with the dealer relations team is central to creating the company’s marketing collateral.
“We are very much a collaborative team. We talk to the dealer relations managers to find out what is going on in their markets, what they are hearing and seeing from their customers in terms of what their needs are,” Woodhouse says.
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About the Author
Rodney Bosch, Senior Editor
Although Bosch’s name is quite familiar to those in the security industry, his previous experience has been in daily newspaper journalism. Prior to joining SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION in 2006, he spent 15 years with the Los Angeles Times, where he performed a wide assortment of editorial responsibilities, including feature and metro department assignments as well as content producing for latimes.com. Bosch is a graduate of California State University, Fresno with a degree in Mass Communication & Journalism. In 2007, he successfully completed the National Burglar and Fire Alarm Association’s National Training School coursework to become a Certified Level I Alarm Technician.
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