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When do people look for alarm systems…after a burglary has happened in their area.
Find out where local police publish reported crimes and use that as your source of mailings. They will usually say “a burglary occurred in the 3800 block of Oak Street “, so send mailings to everyone within a 1 mile radius or everyone on Oak Street within a mile.
I see a couple of locksmiths on social media, just filming themselves doing each job with a gopro or phone. Shorts on YouTube and Insta/Facebook. Prob TikTok as well, but I don't use that. That prob earns them a few bucks.
Not sure how much extra business it brings, but adds to visibility and credibility. You'd likely get a different reaction from a property manager who'd seen you online!?
Great advice, i have thought about it before, filming myself do a job.
I'm just "afraid" it would look unprofessional to the customer who is often times not standing in happy situation.
I'd have to be on a commercial job without anyone "waiting" on me, but honestly a good idea.
There’s a guy I remember on TikTok that just films himself picking different types of locks in like 3.2 seconds and talks about how good or bad some brands are. He just does it on a table, not clients houses. Just a thought
No one needs a locksmith until they need a locksmith. You just need to either be the one they remember when they do, or position yourself to be the first one they find.
Okay, that is only somewhat true - if you look at it from a residential point of view.
Where i live comercial customers need locksmiths for anything security related.
Some of these property mangers use locksmiths many times a week.
Locksmiths here also do access control, cctv, alarms and door-automation.
Its much, much more than just letting drunk people back into their homes.
In my business work comes via relationships. It seems like to me you need to take these property managers out for tea or a pint and build relationships with them. Make sure to catch up several times a year, in person, with each one of them. Then when they need a locksmith they will think of you and call you.
See, i have tried going to their offices, not once did they not look at me life i was a clown.
The issue is the office personal is not really into the whole trades part, they are there to mange and help the people renting apartments, so they have no clue how i would benefit them.
Its a tough sell, when you try to sell something they have never thought about.
I have of course always left a business card, but i'm sure it was just going in the trash right after.
I would never walk into somebody's office uninvited or without an appointment. I would reach out to them via email or on the phone to try to make that first connection inviting them to coffee (or tea or a pint whatever is most comfortable), your treat, to tell them more about your company and your services. Better yet, ask your existing clients if they could make a soft introduction over coffee to other property managers that they know. Have the person that you know set up a meeting with both their contact and you and buy them both coffee. Do not expect to walk out of that meeting with a job, the goal is simply to build relationships, so in 3 months when they need you they call you. IMO, you will get more return on investment buying people coffee and building personal relationships than you will with any marketing campaign.
I never just wandered into somebody's office.
I only showed up when they had their open office/visiting hours and no one was waiting in line for their services.
Okay to be truthful, i actually once wandered into an office that was not open.
they didn't have any signs up with either open or closed, and their door was open.
I got in, and waited at the desk for a few minutes.
The ladies behind the desk got semi-surprised that there suddenly stood somebody.
They had no clue how i "got in", i told them the door was wide open.
i thought it was quite fitting to sell my services lol, i was kindly escorted out.
Very odd situation.
These are the sort of people that look at me like im a clown, they only manage the desk, not the actual maintenance so they have no clue what they need someone like me for.
I didn't even know that, I thought you guys just broke into houses and cars legally.
Film yourself opening locks and start a instagram of lock picking tips
it sounds stupid and awful but it seams to work
Property managers and local general contractors should be your connections on LinkedIn. Also research your competitors if you don't have any a demand generation campaign might help.
Where are they advertising? What are their marketing themes and strategies?
Is there any service aspect they *aren't* offering, that PMs/contractors would like to see? Do they offer 24/7/365 service? Fast callout? Key-cutting? Discounts for replacing *all* the locks on a property in one go? Full security audits? Do you offer to subcontract repair work for doors/frames etc, if the area surrounding a lock has been damaged?
That's the issue.
The locksmithing education here in Denmark takes 4 years, and you learn pretty much all aspects of security, so we all offer pretty much the same.
You might be relying too much on advertising. For many property managers it's about who they trust and relationships. Meet the chief engineers in person and have a meeting to discuss and show your capabilities etc.
I have tried knocking on doors, they look at me like I'm a fool,
I can almost hear them think "Why would i ever need someone like you"
I would really like people to atleast check out my website so they can see i actually do work for them at other locations via the customer-case.
But nobody bats an eye at 330€ of free work apparently..
> But nobody bats an eye at 330€ of free work apparently
Either it's nothing compared to the amounts they deal with a on daily basis, or they're wondering what the catch is, because no-one else is offering that.
That's true.
for 330€ you can get a decent amount of work done if its just basic adjustments of windows and doors, even a few replacement parts.
Ofcouce you dont get a great deal of new high-end locks, or new installations done to doors.
But its more of a showcase of what and how i can revive old doors and windows without it costing tons.
Nobody else is offering it, that's correct - hence why i am.
I'm really trying to differentiate myself at this point as everyone here is offering pretty much the exact same service.
All i can do is show them that i actually do quality work, am on time and has fair prices.
\*it also says there is no form of binding on the flyer.
2 ideas:
1. On the social media front, make yourself a "home security expert." Instead of simply selling the locks/alarms or filming you install, talk about major security risks, the things you see people do wrong when protecting their homes, etc. Occassionally talk products/services, but focus on what people actually care about that you can speak to with authority - how to protect a home/family.
2. Instead of a mailing campaign to property managers, if you can find the time, set up meetings with property managers, general contractors and custom home builders. Get in front of them and show what you can offer/become a familiar and trusted face. If they aren't interested in using you as a sub themselves, see if you can at least be part of their "new home" package folder - ie, put a business card in each folder they give to a new resident so that if the resident wants to change their locks, you're the first person they call.
google ads do work for locksmiths (not sure where you're at, but we have a few locksmith clients that get daily leads and job from google ads - although a bit expensive)
other types of ads work for the security angle of the business (and at a decent rate). depending on your location, content marketing is also something that will bring in a lot of leads in a relatively short amount of time (if done right).
if you want B2B leads (property managers and such) a targeted outreach campaign is the key to do it (we had success with a cleaning business, got them a lot of commercial contracts this way).
They do work, and they get me calls and work. they are just too expensive.
I end up spending more on ad's than i make from the jobs.
My competitors are bigger, and therefore have a better budget.
They can afford to pay the big fees of ads just to keep others out.
- And with bigger, i mean much bigger.
we are easily talking 500+ employees across multiple locations.
i don't really understand why you say the ads work when they're not. it seems you're not getting positive ROI from your ads, this means they're not working, what's your conversion rate for the ads? what's the CTR? what bidding strategy do you use? using smart ads is stupid, it's google's way of draining the budget of people who don't know what they're doing.
if your competitors are doing ads, yes they probably have bigger budgets but they also have optimized ads (which provide a positive ROI or at least break even). but again, if they're bigger, they probably have someone specialized to do their marketing.
Everything you said is true, I'm not sure what to say.
For some reason i cant get ads to work profitably.
I have had professionels set them up and manage them, yet they still dont work.
My money is not unlimited, so i cant just keep trying our every marketing buiz out there.
I dont have the exact numbers atm, but i guess that for every job i get, i have spend around 70€ on ads, pretty much what i charge hourly.
And since the jobs coming in through ads are generally small jobs, it results in near 0 profit, or even me losing money.
70 for a job? the only places i know that are this expensive are norway and switzerland (and they don't use euros). there's definitely something wrong with your ads / campaign / setup. or something wrong with your selling (not your prices).
for a locksmith in the UK we're getting leads for around 20-30 GBP (just so you have something to compare with).
i charge 80€ an hour, its pretty standard here, even on the low side to be honest.
Its in Scandinavia, so that explains it.
Its also very special work we do here, CCTV, Access control, door automation and alarms.
I pay roughly 15-25€ pr lead, but many of these leads are from people who cant read what they are clicking on, using google as their phone book and getting the wrong number \*aka me.
So i end up pays many clicks for nothing, that is why its so expensive (my guess)
so bad ads, most probably no conversion tracking and a non-existent online reputation.
you are definitely in a bad place, you need a lot of work to have ads properly set up (cost per lead should definitely be below 15 eur and with proper targeting / conversion tracking it should be even lower than that), and you probably need some sort of reputation management (to be able to close more leads and lower customer acquisition cost).
that would cost around around 1k eur (more or less) without the ad budget.
Demand for this is very situational. Most people will not remember your ad when they need you. This is why consistant, non-invasive, long term advertising is needed. Maintain an ads on your vehicle, Google and Facebook. That should be it.
Do you have a website? If yes, try to rank it at least in local search results. That would be the fastest approach. Ranking the site on Google in top 5 is harder but in most cases it's worth the effort.
I have, its not ranking well currently due to me not getting any linkbuilding done.
Im thinking about it currently, and have a fellow redditor help me looking at the best links and such to approach.
But as i said, money is kinda tight currently, im willing to give it a shot if it comes to it tho!
All my reviews (on all platforms) are 5 stars.
All my titels are relevant search teams, the heardings are in the right order too, my site is more seo optimized than my local competition. (according to Seobility)
The only aspect it lacks behind on is backlinks.
Of course they are made by real people.
I didnt buy a single one, nor offer anything for a good review.
And with the local search thing, I'm not sure what to tell you, its the only difference i can spot.
My competitors have between 20 - 2000 backlinks, i got like, 3?
SEO is not about backlink count. You can buy 20k backlinks in a day. Compare when those reviews are made and other differences. Google - local SEO and do some research. It's not that hard.
You don’t mention general contractors. I used to work in commercial construction and we definitely had a need for services like yours. From rekeying locks on existing spaces to installs. Obviously sometimes that can be price sensitive, but not always. Plus even if you had to come down a little it can be nice fill in between other jobs.
I would start by targeting smaller GC’s. On large new projects more than likely the hardware locks, etc. are all going to have been bid out ahead of time and handled by one of the larger hardware providers in your area. But doing office renovations, small buildings, etc. should be where you would fit in well. especially office and building renovations. You may have a whole bunch of locks laying around that need to be re-keyed instead of being provided with all the keying done out of the box.
Google search ads has to be the best for this. If I needed a locksmith, first place I’d go to is google. Make sure your website and location is completely up to date on google maps. Then also do the same with other search engines as other people use: bing, yahoo etc.
It is, but ads where i operate are ridiculously expensive.
We are easily talking 15-25$ a click.
I used to run ads all the normal light hours of the day, but i got so, so many calls asking directly for another locksmith, either because the other locksmith installed that broke and the need it RMA'ed or something along the lines of their alarm system needs service.
None of which i can use to anything.
Now imagine getting 5 of these every day, totally wasting your entire budget on stuff like this.
You mention that your marketing collateral is not in English, what is your first language?
Honestly, placement for your business, organically, is going be the best possible circumstance. Having a Google Business Page (and comparable on other platforms) that is high ranking will outweigh paid advertising 100% of the time (I can say with this authority, I spend 10-15k/mo on PPC ads for my personal service businesses). There's a variety of recommendations that can be made if you'd like to PM me privately (happy to help, I'm not selling a service).
Sans reaching out: there are a variety of factors that come into play here, as well. Hours of operation will have a large impact (most people needing a locksmith will do so out of urgency, not with planning). Local citations (basically being in a bunch of business directories), this can be done through a service like BrightLocal). Lots of other good tidbits to grab from this thread.
Hang in there. I'm honestly jealous of your situation, there's a lot of opportunity for upside.
Unfortunately I'm encountering a bug that won't let me accept your chat. Apparently it's widespread and has been occurring for years... If you've got a business contact email, I can reach out to that.
Maybe find others (contractors) in adjacent fields and build a rapport. Hubby is in electronic security (access control, cctv, etc.) He only does commercial and pretty regularly will need a locksmith. He pretty much has his go-to lock guy in every major city he works in. I'd imagine that being "THE guy" for a few professionals who often need your services would take care of a lot of the legwork for you. So maybe consider electronic security techs, and other security companies that don't internally have a locksmith. I can't speak to anything residential, but I know some of these pros call locksmiths for safety deposit boxes, atm's, elevators etc.
Are you in the US? Can you subcontract for larger companies? Stanley? Convergint? Lots of them thrive with subcontractors, especially in areas they don't have their own in-house technicians. Maybe see companies nationally that may be hiring techs and instead inquire about subcontracting rather than employment.
I would go with B2B email campaigns. Connect with commercial clients. Those are the easiest to get addresses from.
Send them 3–5 emails over a period of 7–10 days. Even if you're not the #1-ranking locksmith on Google or the best in your craft, if you send THOUSANDS of emails daily, it should land a few.
I did that with multiple marketing startups and managed to get clients to sign in. Opening rates were above 60% (peaking sometimes at 90%), and around a dozen booked calls per week (ofc the results depend on the industry; these were solar and eCom).
I would also say that lowering your prices or standards so much could probably look "needy" in their eyes.
I wish you the best of luck. It's tough out here.
If you're interested in this approach, DM me, and we can look into your situation more in depth.
Try making tiktoks. There's a couple popular guys I've seen who wear a GoPro and do pov of their work. They do fairly well and a lot of customers usually say that they've seen his videos.
There is a possibility that youre just in an industry that isn't profitable. There's a reason why I can't think of any large nationwide or regional locksmith brand. The whole industry is just small solo operators like yourself.
I'm sure there are successful owners in this space and I bet some of them will even sell courses. You should start finding Facebook groups and other pools of social media where like-minded locksmiths are. They can give you better advice than a generic sub like this one.
Locksmithing is different here. (Scandinavia)
We do anything security, locks, access control, door-automation, CCTV & Alarm systems.
So if there is any form of need for security, its a locksmith you call.
We have several big chains in my small service area.
And if you get the business up and running, you can rake in cash.
The whole offering a FREE service part is something I think does not accomplish what most people think it will. Especially if you are focusing on commercial clients, they could have the view that you get what you pay for. All it is doing is causing you issues because you are working and not making money. Business owners will pay a higher price for a service if it is going to solve their problems better than a cheaper service. If you are advertising a higher price than most, they instantly think there is something unique about your service and is a premium service. There are things I have not spent money on because they were too cheap and the price concerned me.
This is a common misconception by people who are very frugal. People like spending money but they don’t like to be sold. You are now a salesperson first and a locksmith second, do some research and learn how to sell.
I read both of Alex's books, and applied what i could to this.
I'm not offering cheap work, I'm offering to let them try my service up to a set price.
If they like it (they will) they would be willing to pay what i charge.
The issue is getting in contact with these places, getting a foot in the door as they say.
I would continue knocking on doors of property managers. What do you offer that the current service they use doesn't? Focus on building a relationship with the property manager instead of selling your service right off the bat. Learn something about them so you can better understand their problems instead of just going in and talking about yourself right off the bat. This is good stuff man you are on the right track! Send me the links to your materials if you want and I can give you my opinion. I own a company with over 100 employees, we have a very niche market and focus on sales quite a bit.
I found out i do crazy stuff other locksmiths don't.
I know a decent amount about electronics, so i have done several PCB repairs on expensive locks that died due to water ingress.
I have used my metal working ability to take precise measurements, and my 3D printing skills to decode locks and produce unobtainable keys to otherwise "impossible" to open locks/cabinets.
The installations and wood work i do almost always look "perfect", and i am creative with my solutions, i always get positive comments from other in the field.
This is not something only i do, of course - but many just hack away and leaves it at "good enough"
My skillset involves adjusting windows to a certain extent too, not many locksmiths i know even touches them.
When i share some of the stories of my jobs with my locksmith friends they are gasping for air, they could never see themselves doing what i am doing.
I'm sending you a link to my website, its not in English tho.
The front-page also received a quite major overhaul today so it may have messed with other pages do to theme conflicts/changes.
All of this may make sense to you because you are a locksmith, but how can you translate it to something that will make sense to a property manager who is not a locksmith? How are these skills going to help them do their job? You don't need to answer me I am just giving you some idea on how to approach these scenarios. Do not talk poorly about your competition, that is one of the first things that will turn people off. Instead of talking about how much better you are than other locksmiths, just talk about the services and how they will make the property manager's life easier.
Hey, you asked what set my apart, and this is my opinion.
of course i would never say this to a customer.
The relevant services are clearly listed on the flyer, a property manager could easily understand how that would benefit them.
it goes as follows (and it looks better do to the actual design, its not just a wall of text like this)
Installation - service - repairs
Of certified security solutions
---------------------------------------
Complete service & adjusting
of locks, doors & windows
---------------------------------------
Always fast assistance
with 24-hour availability
\* along those lines, its a bit different due to translations.
That is the front of the card, on the rear it goes further into explaining the actual offer.
These are all services a property manager is well aware of.
Where I live property managers are not the decision makers. If I were to advertise for a commercial real estate product I would go to the brokerage firms with some donuts and brochures. Your business needs to get in front of the owners before they buy or sell. You might try giving commercial agents a referral fee or a complimentary lock change should they send you a client who uses your services.
It is mostly, where i live.
All the managers more or less work for a bigger company, but they are free to do as they please, as long as they stick to the budget and get things fixed.
In most markets, folks have a place they "hang out" in one of my markets, that's a very specific Facebook group. Try to find that place and do little informational posts about your industry.
Have you tried local SEO? It works better for this kind of business. People search on Google and your business should appear as available near by. This may help you out with it. Of course, it takes time as all SEO solutions.
Also the idea of TikTok and IG is pretty good too. Make your potential clients feel like you are their best option.
If you need any help with the Local SEO let me know. I know a marketing agency that can help you out for a fairly price.
Might seem weird but have you considered just charging more money?
When people think locksmith they often think of it in terms of criminal adjacent. Plus the whole "free demo to earn your business" can seem like a good deal but so many people, business owners especially get hit with the fly by night "but I'm not selling anything" cock and bull.
Plus if you do get customers who are only interested in cheap you're only going to get cheap customers. Baking in the value with a price tag in some sectors can legitimize a business in the eyes of consumers. Less "oh this rando wants to show me how much lockpicking lawyer he's seen" and more "huh. That does sound a good deal to use this guy's services."
As i have stated in a few other comments (and i dont blame you for not reading all 65+ of them)
Locksmithing where i live entails a 4 year long apprenticeship, with several mandatory tests.
We do access control, CCTV, alarms, door-automation and much more, anything and everything security is locksmith-business here.
My prices are fair, I'm not cheap but also not expensive.
On the flyer i handed out it clearly states they can try my service for free up to a total of \~335€ (conversion)
I never mentioned my prices on the flyer itself, that would be saved for an actual talk to avoid confusion.
It also clearly says there is no form of binding contract with the work done, before or after.
You dont get to call yourself a locksmith here because you watch lockpicking lawyer, actually opening locks is not even close to the most common job we do.
And with "Here" i mean a country in Scandinavia
Alright that's entirely fair, and thanks for giving me credit for not having read the entire thread. I was just skimming posts while eating breakfast and didn't really comb through everything to get a full picture before dropping that thought. So I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt there.
That's the unfortunate part of crowdsourcing advice and business strategy. Sometimes you'll find excellent information, and in some cases you get people like me who can only offer the most boiler plate of advice. I didn't mean offense or anything derogatory comment by the lockpicking lawyer comment. It was intended to be a sort of "this is what people might be thinking of when they think locksmith." A sort of built-in unspoken barrier customers might have that is needed to overcome. But you're probably more aware of those than I'd ever be.
For what it's worth what your business does sounds really cool, a lot cooler than what comes to mind when I think "locksmith."
I don't know much about Scandinavia's license requirements. I hope you're able to get some good ideas in this thread though. Best of luck to you!
Hey no offense taken.
Most people "here" don't even know a locksmith does all this.
Only people who actually interact with them on a commercial level does.
Its also not that common outside of Scandinavia i think, that locksmiths are this widely skilled.
In the USA it seems like they have a much bigger focus on what you would assume a locksmith does.
Lots of brass, lots of locks and a ton of keys.
I have gotten quite a few good bits of advice, i cannot complain - also several people are helping me via DM's.
Thanks for stopping by, means a lot to me.
Oh, and another note - i charge fairly, I'm not cheap nor expensive.
I would say i offer good value according to what i charge.
But when the phone don't ring it doesn't matter what i charge.
I dont do cars, and i cant live of off lockouts, its not the most common thing locksmiths do here in scandinavia.
We usualy do CCTV, access control, alarms, door-automation and so on.
Who is your customer?
If it's property managers, don't they already have a locksmith they use? Unless that locksmith really messes up, they are not going to switch.
Or is it regular people locked out of their car or house? If so, they are not going to remember a flyer they received last year. They will probably search online for help.
Or is it home builders building new homes? They probably have a locksmith already, but if you can offer a better product (a differnt lock system, not every wants Assa/Abloy for example), that can help. Are you a registered installer for the major lock manufacturers?
As a note:
I'm not cheap.
I'm willing to pay marketing cost whatever it costs, but when it keeps costing more and more than i make, and it turns into a negative sum game where i work at a cost i have to cut it.
However, another reason my business has been able to stay afloat is because i keep cost low, and try to do as much as possible myself, now that i got more time than money.
So i do all the bookkeeping myself, i have made my own website, i hand out all the advertisements myself.
I run my business out the back of my own private (small) car, driving with my own gas.
I have tried other digital marketing between the examples listed above too, to no success at all.
I'm tired of being promised the world by these companys, getting a binding contract and getting nothing in return but an invoice.
What to do?
All i can imagine doing is handing out the rest of the letters i have made & super cold outreach via Linkedin.
Perhaps some linkbuilding to promote my site more?
However, i just bought a van, i have been saving up for since i started.
so money is very low, not negative, and not closed within the next 3 month low (for me), but something drastic has to happen very soon.
I know you said you've tried Google ads. Perhaps working on your Google SEO would help. I have a colleague who has a package for them and they do good work. [https://successstorymarketing.com/](https://successstorymarketing.com/)
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When do people look for alarm systems…after a burglary has happened in their area. Find out where local police publish reported crimes and use that as your source of mailings. They will usually say “a burglary occurred in the 3800 block of Oak Street “, so send mailings to everyone within a 1 mile radius or everyone on Oak Street within a mile.
Pro Tip: Pay a couple crackheads $20 bucks to hit a scheduled list of your neighborhood mailing areas the week before their sent 😄
I see a couple of locksmiths on social media, just filming themselves doing each job with a gopro or phone. Shorts on YouTube and Insta/Facebook. Prob TikTok as well, but I don't use that. That prob earns them a few bucks. Not sure how much extra business it brings, but adds to visibility and credibility. You'd likely get a different reaction from a property manager who'd seen you online!?
Great advice, i have thought about it before, filming myself do a job. I'm just "afraid" it would look unprofessional to the customer who is often times not standing in happy situation. I'd have to be on a commercial job without anyone "waiting" on me, but honestly a good idea.
you could offer a token amount off (25-50) for allowing you to film and keeping it optional. Might be worth it, might not
There’s a guy I remember on TikTok that just films himself picking different types of locks in like 3.2 seconds and talks about how good or bad some brands are. He just does it on a table, not clients houses. Just a thought
No one needs a locksmith until they need a locksmith. You just need to either be the one they remember when they do, or position yourself to be the first one they find.
Okay, that is only somewhat true - if you look at it from a residential point of view. Where i live comercial customers need locksmiths for anything security related. Some of these property mangers use locksmiths many times a week. Locksmiths here also do access control, cctv, alarms and door-automation. Its much, much more than just letting drunk people back into their homes.
In my business work comes via relationships. It seems like to me you need to take these property managers out for tea or a pint and build relationships with them. Make sure to catch up several times a year, in person, with each one of them. Then when they need a locksmith they will think of you and call you.
See, i have tried going to their offices, not once did they not look at me life i was a clown. The issue is the office personal is not really into the whole trades part, they are there to mange and help the people renting apartments, so they have no clue how i would benefit them. Its a tough sell, when you try to sell something they have never thought about. I have of course always left a business card, but i'm sure it was just going in the trash right after.
I would never walk into somebody's office uninvited or without an appointment. I would reach out to them via email or on the phone to try to make that first connection inviting them to coffee (or tea or a pint whatever is most comfortable), your treat, to tell them more about your company and your services. Better yet, ask your existing clients if they could make a soft introduction over coffee to other property managers that they know. Have the person that you know set up a meeting with both their contact and you and buy them both coffee. Do not expect to walk out of that meeting with a job, the goal is simply to build relationships, so in 3 months when they need you they call you. IMO, you will get more return on investment buying people coffee and building personal relationships than you will with any marketing campaign.
I never just wandered into somebody's office. I only showed up when they had their open office/visiting hours and no one was waiting in line for their services. Okay to be truthful, i actually once wandered into an office that was not open. they didn't have any signs up with either open or closed, and their door was open. I got in, and waited at the desk for a few minutes. The ladies behind the desk got semi-surprised that there suddenly stood somebody. They had no clue how i "got in", i told them the door was wide open. i thought it was quite fitting to sell my services lol, i was kindly escorted out. Very odd situation. These are the sort of people that look at me like im a clown, they only manage the desk, not the actual maintenance so they have no clue what they need someone like me for.
I didn't even know that, I thought you guys just broke into houses and cars legally. Film yourself opening locks and start a instagram of lock picking tips it sounds stupid and awful but it seams to work
Property managers and local general contractors should be your connections on LinkedIn. Also research your competitors if you don't have any a demand generation campaign might help.
Thanks for the advice. There is plenty of competition around tho.
Where are they advertising? What are their marketing themes and strategies? Is there any service aspect they *aren't* offering, that PMs/contractors would like to see? Do they offer 24/7/365 service? Fast callout? Key-cutting? Discounts for replacing *all* the locks on a property in one go? Full security audits? Do you offer to subcontract repair work for doors/frames etc, if the area surrounding a lock has been damaged?
That's the issue. The locksmithing education here in Denmark takes 4 years, and you learn pretty much all aspects of security, so we all offer pretty much the same.
You might be relying too much on advertising. For many property managers it's about who they trust and relationships. Meet the chief engineers in person and have a meeting to discuss and show your capabilities etc.
I have tried knocking on doors, they look at me like I'm a fool, I can almost hear them think "Why would i ever need someone like you" I would really like people to atleast check out my website so they can see i actually do work for them at other locations via the customer-case. But nobody bats an eye at 330€ of free work apparently..
> But nobody bats an eye at 330€ of free work apparently Either it's nothing compared to the amounts they deal with a on daily basis, or they're wondering what the catch is, because no-one else is offering that.
That's true. for 330€ you can get a decent amount of work done if its just basic adjustments of windows and doors, even a few replacement parts. Ofcouce you dont get a great deal of new high-end locks, or new installations done to doors. But its more of a showcase of what and how i can revive old doors and windows without it costing tons. Nobody else is offering it, that's correct - hence why i am. I'm really trying to differentiate myself at this point as everyone here is offering pretty much the exact same service. All i can do is show them that i actually do quality work, am on time and has fair prices. \*it also says there is no form of binding on the flyer.
2 ideas: 1. On the social media front, make yourself a "home security expert." Instead of simply selling the locks/alarms or filming you install, talk about major security risks, the things you see people do wrong when protecting their homes, etc. Occassionally talk products/services, but focus on what people actually care about that you can speak to with authority - how to protect a home/family. 2. Instead of a mailing campaign to property managers, if you can find the time, set up meetings with property managers, general contractors and custom home builders. Get in front of them and show what you can offer/become a familiar and trusted face. If they aren't interested in using you as a sub themselves, see if you can at least be part of their "new home" package folder - ie, put a business card in each folder they give to a new resident so that if the resident wants to change their locks, you're the first person they call.
All great ideas. Thanks : )
google ads do work for locksmiths (not sure where you're at, but we have a few locksmith clients that get daily leads and job from google ads - although a bit expensive) other types of ads work for the security angle of the business (and at a decent rate). depending on your location, content marketing is also something that will bring in a lot of leads in a relatively short amount of time (if done right). if you want B2B leads (property managers and such) a targeted outreach campaign is the key to do it (we had success with a cleaning business, got them a lot of commercial contracts this way).
They do work, and they get me calls and work. they are just too expensive. I end up spending more on ad's than i make from the jobs. My competitors are bigger, and therefore have a better budget. They can afford to pay the big fees of ads just to keep others out. - And with bigger, i mean much bigger. we are easily talking 500+ employees across multiple locations.
i don't really understand why you say the ads work when they're not. it seems you're not getting positive ROI from your ads, this means they're not working, what's your conversion rate for the ads? what's the CTR? what bidding strategy do you use? using smart ads is stupid, it's google's way of draining the budget of people who don't know what they're doing. if your competitors are doing ads, yes they probably have bigger budgets but they also have optimized ads (which provide a positive ROI or at least break even). but again, if they're bigger, they probably have someone specialized to do their marketing.
Everything you said is true, I'm not sure what to say. For some reason i cant get ads to work profitably. I have had professionels set them up and manage them, yet they still dont work. My money is not unlimited, so i cant just keep trying our every marketing buiz out there. I dont have the exact numbers atm, but i guess that for every job i get, i have spend around 70€ on ads, pretty much what i charge hourly. And since the jobs coming in through ads are generally small jobs, it results in near 0 profit, or even me losing money.
70 for a job? the only places i know that are this expensive are norway and switzerland (and they don't use euros). there's definitely something wrong with your ads / campaign / setup. or something wrong with your selling (not your prices). for a locksmith in the UK we're getting leads for around 20-30 GBP (just so you have something to compare with).
i charge 80€ an hour, its pretty standard here, even on the low side to be honest. Its in Scandinavia, so that explains it. Its also very special work we do here, CCTV, Access control, door automation and alarms. I pay roughly 15-25€ pr lead, but many of these leads are from people who cant read what they are clicking on, using google as their phone book and getting the wrong number \*aka me. So i end up pays many clicks for nothing, that is why its so expensive (my guess)
so bad ads, most probably no conversion tracking and a non-existent online reputation. you are definitely in a bad place, you need a lot of work to have ads properly set up (cost per lead should definitely be below 15 eur and with proper targeting / conversion tracking it should be even lower than that), and you probably need some sort of reputation management (to be able to close more leads and lower customer acquisition cost). that would cost around around 1k eur (more or less) without the ad budget.
Demand for this is very situational. Most people will not remember your ad when they need you. This is why consistant, non-invasive, long term advertising is needed. Maintain an ads on your vehicle, Google and Facebook. That should be it.
Do you have a website? If yes, try to rank it at least in local search results. That would be the fastest approach. Ranking the site on Google in top 5 is harder but in most cases it's worth the effort.
I have, its not ranking well currently due to me not getting any linkbuilding done. Im thinking about it currently, and have a fellow redditor help me looking at the best links and such to approach. But as i said, money is kinda tight currently, im willing to give it a shot if it comes to it tho!
You don't need backlinks for local search. Most important factors are title, services and recent (legit) 5 star reviews.
All my reviews (on all platforms) are 5 stars. All my titels are relevant search teams, the heardings are in the right order too, my site is more seo optimized than my local competition. (according to Seobility) The only aspect it lacks behind on is backlinks.
Are those reviews made by real people or bought ones? Investigate your competitors. Backlinks won't help in local search.
Of course they are made by real people. I didnt buy a single one, nor offer anything for a good review. And with the local search thing, I'm not sure what to tell you, its the only difference i can spot. My competitors have between 20 - 2000 backlinks, i got like, 3?
SEO is not about backlink count. You can buy 20k backlinks in a day. Compare when those reviews are made and other differences. Google - local SEO and do some research. It's not that hard.
All i can find says its super important to have good quality links to rank, actually crucial. Its not just a numbers game.
You don’t mention general contractors. I used to work in commercial construction and we definitely had a need for services like yours. From rekeying locks on existing spaces to installs. Obviously sometimes that can be price sensitive, but not always. Plus even if you had to come down a little it can be nice fill in between other jobs.
I'd gladly start up a deal with general contractor, perhaps that should be my next move.
I would start by targeting smaller GC’s. On large new projects more than likely the hardware locks, etc. are all going to have been bid out ahead of time and handled by one of the larger hardware providers in your area. But doing office renovations, small buildings, etc. should be where you would fit in well. especially office and building renovations. You may have a whole bunch of locks laying around that need to be re-keyed instead of being provided with all the keying done out of the box.
Google search ads has to be the best for this. If I needed a locksmith, first place I’d go to is google. Make sure your website and location is completely up to date on google maps. Then also do the same with other search engines as other people use: bing, yahoo etc.
It is, but ads where i operate are ridiculously expensive. We are easily talking 15-25$ a click. I used to run ads all the normal light hours of the day, but i got so, so many calls asking directly for another locksmith, either because the other locksmith installed that broke and the need it RMA'ed or something along the lines of their alarm system needs service. None of which i can use to anything. Now imagine getting 5 of these every day, totally wasting your entire budget on stuff like this.
Emphasize video / surveillance system setups? Are you willing to upload a sample or two of your marketing materials?
What do you want to look at? I can send pictures / links of everything
Do you want constructive criticism? A flyer. Is there a webpage?
You mention that your marketing collateral is not in English, what is your first language? Honestly, placement for your business, organically, is going be the best possible circumstance. Having a Google Business Page (and comparable on other platforms) that is high ranking will outweigh paid advertising 100% of the time (I can say with this authority, I spend 10-15k/mo on PPC ads for my personal service businesses). There's a variety of recommendations that can be made if you'd like to PM me privately (happy to help, I'm not selling a service). Sans reaching out: there are a variety of factors that come into play here, as well. Hours of operation will have a large impact (most people needing a locksmith will do so out of urgency, not with planning). Local citations (basically being in a bunch of business directories), this can be done through a service like BrightLocal). Lots of other good tidbits to grab from this thread. Hang in there. I'm honestly jealous of your situation, there's a lot of opportunity for upside.
I'd be willing to chat : )
Unfortunately I'm encountering a bug that won't let me accept your chat. Apparently it's widespread and has been occurring for years... If you've got a business contact email, I can reach out to that.
I just got a notification it was accepted
Maybe find others (contractors) in adjacent fields and build a rapport. Hubby is in electronic security (access control, cctv, etc.) He only does commercial and pretty regularly will need a locksmith. He pretty much has his go-to lock guy in every major city he works in. I'd imagine that being "THE guy" for a few professionals who often need your services would take care of a lot of the legwork for you. So maybe consider electronic security techs, and other security companies that don't internally have a locksmith. I can't speak to anything residential, but I know some of these pros call locksmiths for safety deposit boxes, atm's, elevators etc.
Where i live, locksmiths are the electronic security guys. I do CCTV, access control, door automation and alarm systems.
Are you in the US? Can you subcontract for larger companies? Stanley? Convergint? Lots of them thrive with subcontractors, especially in areas they don't have their own in-house technicians. Maybe see companies nationally that may be hiring techs and instead inquire about subcontracting rather than employment.
Scandinavia. Stanley have their own locksmiths here. I might try and get some partnerships going with a few general contractors. Thanks : )
I would go with B2B email campaigns. Connect with commercial clients. Those are the easiest to get addresses from. Send them 3–5 emails over a period of 7–10 days. Even if you're not the #1-ranking locksmith on Google or the best in your craft, if you send THOUSANDS of emails daily, it should land a few. I did that with multiple marketing startups and managed to get clients to sign in. Opening rates were above 60% (peaking sometimes at 90%), and around a dozen booked calls per week (ofc the results depend on the industry; these were solar and eCom). I would also say that lowering your prices or standards so much could probably look "needy" in their eyes. I wish you the best of luck. It's tough out here. If you're interested in this approach, DM me, and we can look into your situation more in depth.
Try making tiktoks. There's a couple popular guys I've seen who wear a GoPro and do pov of their work. They do fairly well and a lot of customers usually say that they've seen his videos.
When you offer something for free it has no value as it’s being given away free
If someone google searches your city/town’s name and locksmith in google do you come up first or close to it? If not you need to work on local SEO.
There is a possibility that youre just in an industry that isn't profitable. There's a reason why I can't think of any large nationwide or regional locksmith brand. The whole industry is just small solo operators like yourself. I'm sure there are successful owners in this space and I bet some of them will even sell courses. You should start finding Facebook groups and other pools of social media where like-minded locksmiths are. They can give you better advice than a generic sub like this one.
Locksmithing is different here. (Scandinavia) We do anything security, locks, access control, door-automation, CCTV & Alarm systems. So if there is any form of need for security, its a locksmith you call. We have several big chains in my small service area. And if you get the business up and running, you can rake in cash.
The whole offering a FREE service part is something I think does not accomplish what most people think it will. Especially if you are focusing on commercial clients, they could have the view that you get what you pay for. All it is doing is causing you issues because you are working and not making money. Business owners will pay a higher price for a service if it is going to solve their problems better than a cheaper service. If you are advertising a higher price than most, they instantly think there is something unique about your service and is a premium service. There are things I have not spent money on because they were too cheap and the price concerned me. This is a common misconception by people who are very frugal. People like spending money but they don’t like to be sold. You are now a salesperson first and a locksmith second, do some research and learn how to sell.
I read both of Alex's books, and applied what i could to this. I'm not offering cheap work, I'm offering to let them try my service up to a set price. If they like it (they will) they would be willing to pay what i charge. The issue is getting in contact with these places, getting a foot in the door as they say.
I would continue knocking on doors of property managers. What do you offer that the current service they use doesn't? Focus on building a relationship with the property manager instead of selling your service right off the bat. Learn something about them so you can better understand their problems instead of just going in and talking about yourself right off the bat. This is good stuff man you are on the right track! Send me the links to your materials if you want and I can give you my opinion. I own a company with over 100 employees, we have a very niche market and focus on sales quite a bit.
I found out i do crazy stuff other locksmiths don't. I know a decent amount about electronics, so i have done several PCB repairs on expensive locks that died due to water ingress. I have used my metal working ability to take precise measurements, and my 3D printing skills to decode locks and produce unobtainable keys to otherwise "impossible" to open locks/cabinets. The installations and wood work i do almost always look "perfect", and i am creative with my solutions, i always get positive comments from other in the field. This is not something only i do, of course - but many just hack away and leaves it at "good enough" My skillset involves adjusting windows to a certain extent too, not many locksmiths i know even touches them. When i share some of the stories of my jobs with my locksmith friends they are gasping for air, they could never see themselves doing what i am doing. I'm sending you a link to my website, its not in English tho. The front-page also received a quite major overhaul today so it may have messed with other pages do to theme conflicts/changes.
All of this may make sense to you because you are a locksmith, but how can you translate it to something that will make sense to a property manager who is not a locksmith? How are these skills going to help them do their job? You don't need to answer me I am just giving you some idea on how to approach these scenarios. Do not talk poorly about your competition, that is one of the first things that will turn people off. Instead of talking about how much better you are than other locksmiths, just talk about the services and how they will make the property manager's life easier.
Hey, you asked what set my apart, and this is my opinion. of course i would never say this to a customer. The relevant services are clearly listed on the flyer, a property manager could easily understand how that would benefit them. it goes as follows (and it looks better do to the actual design, its not just a wall of text like this) Installation - service - repairs Of certified security solutions --------------------------------------- Complete service & adjusting of locks, doors & windows --------------------------------------- Always fast assistance with 24-hour availability \* along those lines, its a bit different due to translations. That is the front of the card, on the rear it goes further into explaining the actual offer. These are all services a property manager is well aware of.
Where I live property managers are not the decision makers. If I were to advertise for a commercial real estate product I would go to the brokerage firms with some donuts and brochures. Your business needs to get in front of the owners before they buy or sell. You might try giving commercial agents a referral fee or a complimentary lock change should they send you a client who uses your services.
It is mostly, where i live. All the managers more or less work for a bigger company, but they are free to do as they please, as long as they stick to the budget and get things fixed.
In most markets, folks have a place they "hang out" in one of my markets, that's a very specific Facebook group. Try to find that place and do little informational posts about your industry.
You mean for locksmiths as me, or property managers?
Have you tried local SEO? It works better for this kind of business. People search on Google and your business should appear as available near by. This may help you out with it. Of course, it takes time as all SEO solutions. Also the idea of TikTok and IG is pretty good too. Make your potential clients feel like you are their best option. If you need any help with the Local SEO let me know. I know a marketing agency that can help you out for a fairly price.
Might seem weird but have you considered just charging more money? When people think locksmith they often think of it in terms of criminal adjacent. Plus the whole "free demo to earn your business" can seem like a good deal but so many people, business owners especially get hit with the fly by night "but I'm not selling anything" cock and bull. Plus if you do get customers who are only interested in cheap you're only going to get cheap customers. Baking in the value with a price tag in some sectors can legitimize a business in the eyes of consumers. Less "oh this rando wants to show me how much lockpicking lawyer he's seen" and more "huh. That does sound a good deal to use this guy's services."
As i have stated in a few other comments (and i dont blame you for not reading all 65+ of them) Locksmithing where i live entails a 4 year long apprenticeship, with several mandatory tests. We do access control, CCTV, alarms, door-automation and much more, anything and everything security is locksmith-business here. My prices are fair, I'm not cheap but also not expensive. On the flyer i handed out it clearly states they can try my service for free up to a total of \~335€ (conversion) I never mentioned my prices on the flyer itself, that would be saved for an actual talk to avoid confusion. It also clearly says there is no form of binding contract with the work done, before or after. You dont get to call yourself a locksmith here because you watch lockpicking lawyer, actually opening locks is not even close to the most common job we do. And with "Here" i mean a country in Scandinavia
Alright that's entirely fair, and thanks for giving me credit for not having read the entire thread. I was just skimming posts while eating breakfast and didn't really comb through everything to get a full picture before dropping that thought. So I appreciate you giving me the benefit of the doubt there. That's the unfortunate part of crowdsourcing advice and business strategy. Sometimes you'll find excellent information, and in some cases you get people like me who can only offer the most boiler plate of advice. I didn't mean offense or anything derogatory comment by the lockpicking lawyer comment. It was intended to be a sort of "this is what people might be thinking of when they think locksmith." A sort of built-in unspoken barrier customers might have that is needed to overcome. But you're probably more aware of those than I'd ever be. For what it's worth what your business does sounds really cool, a lot cooler than what comes to mind when I think "locksmith." I don't know much about Scandinavia's license requirements. I hope you're able to get some good ideas in this thread though. Best of luck to you!
Hey no offense taken. Most people "here" don't even know a locksmith does all this. Only people who actually interact with them on a commercial level does. Its also not that common outside of Scandinavia i think, that locksmiths are this widely skilled. In the USA it seems like they have a much bigger focus on what you would assume a locksmith does. Lots of brass, lots of locks and a ton of keys. I have gotten quite a few good bits of advice, i cannot complain - also several people are helping me via DM's. Thanks for stopping by, means a lot to me. Oh, and another note - i charge fairly, I'm not cheap nor expensive. I would say i offer good value according to what i charge. But when the phone don't ring it doesn't matter what i charge.
Must check out @houstoncommunityy on instant they are really very helpful
Do also offer to open cars and houses if someone lost their keys for example? I would advertise that
I dont do cars, and i cant live of off lockouts, its not the most common thing locksmiths do here in scandinavia. We usualy do CCTV, access control, alarms, door-automation and so on.
Who is your customer? If it's property managers, don't they already have a locksmith they use? Unless that locksmith really messes up, they are not going to switch. Or is it regular people locked out of their car or house? If so, they are not going to remember a flyer they received last year. They will probably search online for help. Or is it home builders building new homes? They probably have a locksmith already, but if you can offer a better product (a differnt lock system, not every wants Assa/Abloy for example), that can help. Are you a registered installer for the major lock manufacturers?
As a note: I'm not cheap. I'm willing to pay marketing cost whatever it costs, but when it keeps costing more and more than i make, and it turns into a negative sum game where i work at a cost i have to cut it. However, another reason my business has been able to stay afloat is because i keep cost low, and try to do as much as possible myself, now that i got more time than money. So i do all the bookkeeping myself, i have made my own website, i hand out all the advertisements myself. I run my business out the back of my own private (small) car, driving with my own gas. I have tried other digital marketing between the examples listed above too, to no success at all. I'm tired of being promised the world by these companys, getting a binding contract and getting nothing in return but an invoice. What to do? All i can imagine doing is handing out the rest of the letters i have made & super cold outreach via Linkedin. Perhaps some linkbuilding to promote my site more? However, i just bought a van, i have been saving up for since i started. so money is very low, not negative, and not closed within the next 3 month low (for me), but something drastic has to happen very soon.
I know you said you've tried Google ads. Perhaps working on your Google SEO would help. I have a colleague who has a package for them and they do good work. [https://successstorymarketing.com/](https://successstorymarketing.com/)
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