We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our Domestic and Commercial customers a Happy and Prosperous 2010.
And also to our growing readership who seem to enjoy our monthly Blog and occasionally contribute by leaving comments each month. We would also welcome more comments from Independent locksmiths who share our views and would like to add to the discussion we create.
Even if you don't agree with some of our views, you can still leave a comment letting us know what you really think of us.
We won't take offence - honest!
What we did in December
We were looking foward to winding down on the lead up to Christmas Day, but it turned out to be the busiest month for Domestic work since Pentland Locksmiths Services opened for business in December 2006. A week into 2010 we are finally getting some time to let our customers know how much we appreciate the support they have given to us over the past 12 months.
Over the last 3 years Pentland Locksmiths has grown continually year on year as a business, and built up an excellent commercial client base in West Lothian.
We had a higher number of domestic lock-outs than usual as frustrated customers rushed to the shops to get their Christmas shopping leaving their keys at home or losing them while out amongst the crowds.
Crime in West Lothian
Looks like our warnings in last months Blog about thieving bag snatching gangs has been heeded, because there were no serious problems over the Christmas and New Year period. However, we did attend a higher number of lock changes than the previous month due to domestic problems.
Our website seems to be proving popular with our customers who continually tell us that they like to search around the various locksmith websites in livingston, West Lothian before returning to our Website because we offer so much more information about our services than the others. Our website will continually be updated over the next 12 months with more customer related information becoming readily available.
- Do you really think you are getting value for money for your £100 per month?
- Do you get regular and genuine statistics that shows the campaign is actually working?
- Do you know your Click to Job ratio?
- Do you know how much they (marketing company) spend from your £100 towards your adwords?
All these questions are very important because you could be comitting yourself to minimum of £300 with very little return.
Not to give to much away but we run 14 very successfull Google Adwords campaigns and don't spend anywhere near as much as the marketing companies are charging. I would be very surprised if 20% of the monthly amount will actually go to paying the adwords campaign with the other 80% to the greedy and lazy marketing company.
One of the biggest problems with a poor Click to Job ratio is not down to the actual Google Adwords, but simply because the Locksmith has such a poor website with very little content, poor grammar and too many spelling mistakes.
A cheap and nasty ONE page website with spelling errors is a huge turn off for customers who invariably look elsewhere. Customers like to shop around for the most honest and genuine locksmith they can find and searching Google adwords is no different. They will click on a few Google ads until they find the one they think is the best suited to their needs.
This is where the problems start for all those lockmiths using adwords who get regular daily clicks but NO jobs. Clicks cost money and if there is NO call to back it up then a sense of paranoia can develop.
- Why do I get clicks and NO calls?
- Is the Marketing company doing what they are paid to do?
- Are there locksmiths deliberately clicking my adwords?
These are all the emotions that go through your head when you're paying good money and getting NO return. I recently spoke to a locksmith who operates in a different county and he told me that he got so frustrated with getting clicks and NO jobs that he sat at his computer one night and clicked all the other locksmith adverts on numerous occasions.
This is not a good way to deal with it because its not your competition who are preventing you getting work, but yourself. If we all started clicking each others ads then where would it all end?
To be totally blunt - if you have a crap website that's linked to your Google Adwords then thats the reason its costing you money with no return.
But if can't build a good website without having to pay some marketing company hundreds of pounds for the privilege, then you are stuffed!
I was hoping to write more about the numerous hoax calls we have been getting from Livingston about lost car keys, but I've run out of space. These idiots know full well we don't advertise for car entry and therefore don't do it and thats the only reason they phoned us.
Hopefully, they will realise that even 24 hour locksmiths are entitled to spend time with their families on a Sunday without being continually harrased by some twats who have nothing better to do with their time.
Finishing on a sour note we hope you enjoyed reading and don't be shy with your comments.
Chris
Pentland Locksmiths Services est.2006
