Marketing involves promoting your services to prospects to fulfill business objectives, which include generating revenue in the short term and building brand awareness in the long term. No locksmith company can succeed without it.
However, despite marketing’s multiple benefits, picking the wrong strategy defeats the entire purpose of the campaign. Your message may not reach the right audience, leading to wasted resources and low return on investment (ROI).
As the head of Lemon Seed Marketing, Crystal Wiliams, rightly points out, “There are a lot of great ideas out there, but not all of them are designed for your company.”
“Some tactics are specific to certain markets, your company size, or even what part of the United States you’re in.”
Considering Crystal’s words, we will explore 21 unique ways a locksmith company can generate leads and show how to use ServiceTitan to implement them.
As you review the list, pay attention to those that align with your company's specifics and marketing budget so that you can execute them immediately.
To learn more about how ServiceTitan can help you run your Locksmith business more efficiently so that it’s optimized for growth, you can request a demo with our team.
How to Market a Locksmithing Business with Digital Marketing
Digital marketing involves using digital channels to reach potential customers. It’s an important strategy since most customers rely on digital channels like search engines and social media platforms to find a locksmith. Furthermore, over 90 percent of the United State’s population are Internet users.
Here’s a summary of the digital marketing strategies we’ll cover.
Let’s explore them in more detail.
1. A great website
A website is the cornerstone of digital marketing. It’s essentially your digital storefront for welcoming and, hopefully, converting searchers into customers.
Beyond immediate conversions, a great website design demonstrates credibility and can entrench your brand in a potential client’s mind. It also dictates visitors' first impressions about your brand, impacting their response to your offers and promotions.
Creating a great website involves design and compelling copy—an appealing design makes it easy for visitors to read and understand the copy and take the recommended action.
Leave sufficient whitespace to avoid clutter, which limits your message’s impact. Use contrasting color schemes, like blue on a white background, to emphasize key aspects of your message, like services, value proposition, and CTAs.
Other locksmith website design principles for boosting lead generation include the following:
Add your contact information—phone number and address—at prominent positions on every page. Additionally, include click-to-call buttons, and Google Maps embeds to make it easy for customers to contact you.
Create separate pages for each service and location. This boosts your local ranking, allowing you to drive traffic and attract leads.
Include structured menus and keyword search bars to help visitors navigate your website.
Practice responsive design so your website adjusts to every device's width and screen orientation.
Optimize your loading speed. You can check your website’s loading speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
Use relevant right header markups to denote informational hierarchy—H1s for the major topic, H2s for section headings, etc.
Add testimonials and positive reviews to your website or landing page.
2. Search engine optimization (SEO)
Creating a website is the first step. The next important thing is to ensure you rank at the top of search results and that people can find your website even if they don’t know your domain name. This is crucial since searchers rarely visit the second page of search engine results pages (SERPs) but prefer to search with another term.
Furthermore, data from Semrush shows that a website’s click-through rate (CTR) increases with its ranking.
SEO ensures your website's visibility. It encompasses a range of strategies that improve your odds of ranking on the first page of SERPs for relevant search phrases and boost your website's visibility.
The first step of implementing SEO is finding your target audience's phrases and search terms for finding a locksmith online. Free tools like Google Keyword Planner and premium specialized tools like Semrush and Ahref are perfect for finding such terms. You can also use Google’s Autocomplete and Also Asked sections to find more terms.
Once that’s done, use the keywords you found in your headers, blog articles, and website copy. However, to avoid Google penalties, only use a keyword if it flows naturally and relates to the surrounding content.
3. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
This online marketing strategy involves locksmith companies competing for ad placements on Google’s properties, social media platforms, and other search engines.
The respective platforms use digital ad auctions and algorithms to pick the ads to display at any given time. The selected advertisers pay a certain amount whenever someone clicks on their ad.
A major reason why PPC advertising excels as a lead generation channel is that it allows locksmith companies to appear at the exact moment customers are searching for them. It’s also an excellent way to circumvent the long period needed for SEO to yield results and appear at the top of SERPs for relevant keywords.
Like SEO, start with finding the keywords your audience uses to search if you’re running a PPC campaign on search engines or any of Google’s properties. Then, include them in your ads.
However, if you are running a PPC ad campaign on social media, first define your target audience. Discover their interests, hobbies, platform usage, and interactions with various content formats. This will enable you to craft ads that will grab their attention.
Finally, always track your campaign’s performance and reallocate your budget appropriately—spend more on high-performing ads. That’s where ServiceTitan’s Home Services Marketing software comes in.
The software empowers users to create and assign unique numbers to each marketing campaign. This allows the software’s system to attribute each call to the source campaign more efficiently than the inaccurate, manual attribution method involving support staff.
ServiceTitan’s Home Services Marketing software also ranks each campaign using generated revenue and displays campaign performance per service location. These data insights help you optimize your campaign for revenue.
4. Local Services Ads
This particular Google ad offering allows you to appear for local-intent queries such as “locksmith company near me.”
One good thing about Local Services Ads (LSAs) is that advertisers only pay when someone messages or calls them from the ad. Additionally, LSAs allow companies to appear in search results when a high-intent customer requires local locksmith services.
Locksmith companies can increase the odds of customers calling them from the ad by completing their Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) with accurate information and filling it with positive reviews. Another way is to use ServiceTitan’s Local Services Ads integration to collate leads’ contact information into ServiceTitan for follow-up.
The integration also lets you add a click-to-book button and empowers Google to fetch the unbooked days and times from ServiceTitan’s Service Scheduling tool. This allows customers to fill out their contact information, explain their issues, and book an appointment instantly without the help of your CSRs.
Such a streamlined process helps increase conversion rates.
5. Local SEO
Local SEO is optimizing your website for local intent keywords like “24-hour locked-out expert [location]”. This allows you to reach a high-intent prospect from your local service area who wants to hire a locksmith immediately.
Implementing local SEO strategies allows you to appear in two sections on local result pages: organic results and the local map pack. The latter, consisting of three businesses and their details, is a coveted search feature, given its position and the space on results pages for high-intent queries.
Maintaining an accurate and updated Google Business Profile (GBP) is the basic way to earn a position on the map pack. This is vital since Google’s bots glean information from GBPs and use it to determine local search rankings and companies to include in a map pack.
Therefore, claim your GBP. Then, fill it with the following up-to-date information:
High-resolution photos and videos
Operating hours
Accurate details (especially your name, address, and phone number, aka NAP)
Multiple positive reviews
Beyond creating a GBP, there are multiple other strategies business owners can use to feature in Google’s local map pack. They include the following:
Claim listings in local directories (more on this in the next section).
Maintain consistent NAP details across all online business mentions.
Create individual pages for each service location.
Earn mentions on local news websites.
6. Local business listing directories
These are online repositories of local businesses, along with their brief details such as location, service description, website address, and phone number.
Listing in local business directories helps customers find you easily. It also grows your online presence and brand awareness and helps Google understand your business better.
You can list in local directories such as Thumbtack, Nextdoor, HomeAdvisor, Yell (formerly Yellow Pages), Yelp, Angi, and Houzz.
Fill your profiles with positive reviews to enjoy the benefits of listing in local directories, as customers actively read them when picking a local business. And ensure your details are consistent across all listings.
You can use ServiceTitan’s Reputation Management platform to monitor your appearance across 60+ listing platforms to ensure your details are always accurate.
This allows you to easily update your details whenever there is a massive change, such as a location change or the acquisition of another company.
7. Social media
Social media is another excellent digital marketing channel for promoting your services. Locksmith companies can use it to engage with potential and existing customers, helping to build trust.
Developing a strong social media presence helps make your company the first one customers think of whenever they need to hire a locksmith.
Here are tips for leveraging social media as a marketing and lead-generation channel:
Prioritize having a consistent posting cadence so social media algorithms promote your account to more users. You can post once a week, three times a week, or even daily.
Maintain a consistent brand identity—messaging, tone, and logo—to leave an indelible brand impression on social media users.
Include hashtags like #LockSmithTips or #LockSmithgoals to boost visibility.
Respond to comments, messages, and brand mentions promptly. You can also participate in relevant discourse like “top home service systems.”
Demonstrate expertise by sharing educational tips. You can also post behind-the-scenes and funny images to connect with followers.
Use paid ads to promote your content to non-followers.
8. Locksmithing content
Prospective and existing customers always search Google for solutions to locksmith-related challenges, such as picking the right security system or resetting their home security passwords. You can provide answers to these queries by creating YouTube videos and blog posts.
Helping customers find a solution to their challenge can cause them to pick you over competitors when they need to hire a locksmith. Additionally, customers can share your content if they find it valuable and insightful.
Before creating any content, find the current challenges your customers are facing. Use SEO tools, ask your support staff about recurring customer concerns, read social media comments, and investigate what competitors are doing.
9. Email marketing
Email marketing is a powerful marketing tool. It grants you direct access to customers without the intervention of a middleman. You can use it to promote offers and upsell existing customers.
Beyond making an immediate sale, email marketing can be used to retain top-of-mind awareness and ensure customer satisfaction via job updates and valuable content such as home security tips.
However, despite email marketing’s usefulness, it has severe competition. People tend to subscribe to multiple newsletters and businesses all at once. Therefore, they are forced to either delete, ignore, or unsubscribe from newsletters occasionally.
The solution is to use the following tips to stand out and retain subscribers:
Avoid buying email lists. Instead, build your list by including newsletter sign-up forms, content, and digital invoices on your website.
Clean your list regularly by removing people who haven’t opened your emails. This will prevent your emails from being labeled as spam.
Always try to solve recipients' problems so they recognize the value of remaining subscribed to your newsletter.
Personalize your emails to their current needs.
To achieve personalization at scale, consider using ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro – Email software to segment your audience and send them content relevant to their current needs.
For example, you can offer a discount to customers who haven’t upgraded their security systems in months. This increases conversions and encourages engagement.
The platform also has multiple professionally designed email templates and analytics dashboards for tracking campaign performance across various metrics. These dashboards let you see the exact revenue each email campaign generates, empowering you to make the appropriate improvements.
10. SMS marketing
This involves texting valuable content to customers. Texting is an excellent locksmith marketing channel, given that it's customers’ second-most-preferred channel for engaging with brands.
Additionally, because customers are instantly notified whenever they receive an SMS, they are more likely to open and read it to confirm what it's about. This increases SMS marketing campaign open rates and makes it a powerful tool for delivering time-sensitive messages such as job updates and time-bound offers.
Companies sometimes send texts to both subscribers and non-subscribers. Although this allows them to simultaneously promote their services to multiple people, it can lead to heavy government fines and lawsuits.
So, only send SMS to subscribed customers and include an opt-out link. Also, limit your text to 160 characters and always identify yourself so customers know who the sender is.
Finally, ServiceTitan's SMS Platform can be used to create audiences and send personalized messages to subscribers. The platform’s opt-in and opt-out workflows can also help you comply with SMS marketing regulations.
The #1 newsletter for the trades.
11. Positive reviews
Online reviews greatly influence customers’ buying decisions. Ninety percent of customers say they are more likely to use a local business after reading reviews, and 85 percent trust reviews as much as recommendations from people they know.
Even better, positive reviews reassure customers of your ability to deliver quality services and resolve their challenges.
Generating positive reviews starts with delivering quality customer service, which should be the target of every employee. CSRs should answer calls within the first 3–5 rings; technicians should try to resolve any other locksmith-related issue the customer has beyond just the reported issue. Also, encourage dispatchers to share job updates with customers regularly.
Another way to generate multiple positive reviews is to send review requests once the job is completed, encouraging techs to request reviews before leaving the job site. Customers are more inclined to leave a review when job satisfaction is still fresh on their minds.
If you prefer a more efficient review collection process, use ServiceTitan’s Reputation Management platform.
The platform allows users to create customer review–request workflows, which are activated immediately after a technician completes a job. Customers can click on the link in the request message to leave their reviews on your listing.
ServiceTitan’s Reputation Management platform also notifies users whenever a customer leaves a review on any of their listings. Users can respond to the review immediately via the platform’s dashboard, which centralizes reviews from multiple listings.
This streamlined review request process helps locksmith companies generate multiple reviews quickly. This gives them a competitive edge.
How to Market a Locksmithing Business with Offline Marketing
Offline marketing strategies (also known as traditional marketing strategies) encompass all non-digital promotion channels. They are a great tool for locksmith businesses to connect directly with prospects and entrench their brand in the minds of residents.
We have curated ten effective offline locksmith advertising strategies for attracting new customers and retaining existing ones.
Let’s explain them further.
1. Outdoor advertising
Outdoor advertising is marketing to customers on the go or outside their homes. It features attractive designs, signage, and attention-grabbing displays.
Examples of outdoor advertising strategies include the following:
Banners
Yard signs
A-frame signs
Outdoor advertising can reach a broad audience and entrench your brand in the customer’s mind. However, passersby may not pay attention to outdoor advertising signs, and there’s usually a low probability of generating high-quality locksmith leads. You can counter these challenges with these tips:
Craft your messaging to resonate with your target audience.
Place your advertising materials in areas frequented by your target audience, known for high foot traffic patterns, and exposed to low competition.
More visuals, less text.
Use quality images to capture attention.
Experiment with different creative formats to stand out.
2. Flyers
Flyers are printed sheets of paper businesses use to promote their services. They are easy to create, print, and distribute, making them an efficient way to generate leads.
Furthermore, they are an excellent way to generate future job bookings, as customers can hold onto and read them long after the initial interaction.
Use the following tips to create yours:
Focus the reader's attention on your central message or offer.
Include a call to action. This can be visiting your website, calling your office, etc.
Disclose the benefits they stand to enjoy by using your company instead of competitors.
Keep your design simple. Remember, less is more.
Use high-quality materials to accentuate your design and encourage durability.
3. Direct mail
Direct mail is another offline marketing strategy proven effective, contrary to conventional assumptions. Its tangible nature helps you create a lasting impression with customers and prospects.
Temple University and the United States Postal Service recently carried out a study to investigate direct mail’s effectiveness, and they discovered that:
Direct mail is more memorable than digital ads.
Recipients unconsciously have a desire to buy the item after reading direct mail.
Direct mail triggers an emotional reaction, increasing the conversion rate.
People understand direct mail content better than digital ads.
You can further increase the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign using content personalization (sending content relevant to the recipient's needs).
For example, a membership upgrade brochure sent to a customer who updated their service contract will end up in the trash. Conversely, a customer whose service contract expires in a week will possibly take action on the offer or keep it as a reminder.
ServiceTitan’s Direct Mail platform allows you to divide your customers into segments and send them personalized, hyper-relevant content, boosting conversion rates.
You can also create mailings in seconds using the platform’s template library. ServiceTitan will help you send them, charging you only for each one delivered to the customer.
Finally, you can track your campaign’s deliverability using an analytics dashboard. This enables you to monitor performance and identify deliverability issues before they worsen.
Using ServiceTitan’s Direct Mail platform, you can create, launch, and track campaigns from one hub. This allows you to focus more on crafting marketing messages that deliver lasting impressions and generate leads.
4. Radio ads
In a recent survey, 70 percent of customers said they listened to the radio at least once a week. Judging from these findings, running radio ads is an effective way to reach a broad audience.
Radio advertising also lets you target people within your local coverage area by advertising on local radio stations during programs they frequently listen to. You can also gain customer trust by contracting the hosts they follow to read your advertisement live on their program.
Arguments against radio advertising revolve around the channel’s high cost and difficult-to-track performance. However, the revenue and brand awareness generated can justify its costs. Modern solutions like Veritone Attribute and trackable phone numbers can help you track its performance.
Here are tips to generate more revenue for every dollar you spend on radio ads:
Hire an expert script writer to create the script.
Use your website address or physical location to make it easy for customers to remember your ad and contact you.
Create a catchy jingle to boost ad recall.
5. Business cards
Business cards are excellent tools for networking with other businesses, suppliers, and customers. They demonstrate professionalism, which builds prospect trust.
Compared to digital ads, business cards are a tangible reminder of your services. This keeps your company top of mind until the customer needs a locksmith or security expert.
Use free templates on design platforms like Canva, Small SEO Tools, and BrandCrowd to create your business card. Limit the amount of information you include to enhance legibility and eliminate clutter.
6. Trade shows
Trade shows are an excellent traditional marketing strategy. They allow face-to-face interactions with suppliers, prospects, and even existing customers, fostering stronger connections and increasing customer retention and acquisition rates.
Attending trade shows also helps you monitor changes in the locksmith industry and customers’ evolving needs. These insights are helpful in creating services and value propositions that resonate with customers' pain points.
To maximize resources spent on attending trade shows, hand out business cards and other promotional materials to create a lasting impression. Then, collect leads’ email addresses or phone numbers to set up targeted follow-up emails and cold-calling campaigns. This way, you can nurture and ultimately convert them into customers.
7. Partnerships with other businesses
Collaborations with complementary local businesses—companies that serve customers likely to need your services—can be low-cost referral sources. They can also broaden your local reach and brand awareness.
Here are some examples of businesses you can partner with:
Property managers
Realtors
Local hardware stores
Interior designers
Real estate agencies
For business partnerships to work and survive, both parties have to be getting something in return.
For example, say you're partnering with a local hardware store. You can offer to source all your materials and locksmith tools exclusively from their shop and direct customers to do the same. In exchange, they will refer customers to you and let you place advertising materials at their store.
Finally, research the company’s customer base to ensure it overlaps yours before partnering with it.
8. Sponsorships
Sponsorships are ideal for getting involved in the community and building trust and brand awareness. Customers who trust you will likely use your company and recommend your services to others, even if you didn’t tell them to do so.
To protect your bottom line, set aside a specific amount for sponsorships quarterly and ensure you don’t exceed it. Typically, it should be a specific percentage of your marketing budget.
Set up a committee to evaluate sponsorship requests and pick those to support based on merit, importance to the community, impact, and alignment with your brand.
9. Incentive and referral programs
This involves offering incentives such as discounts and free educational materials to customers so they recommend your services to others.
Two things make referral programs an effective marketing tool.
First, most customers prefer hearing about a business from someone they know rather than brand advertisements because they're more believable. Secondly, referral marketing has been shown to have a conversion rate of 40 percent, exceeding other marketing channels.
Furthermore, research by the Wharton School shows that referred customers spend more with a business over time. This is expected since referred leads arrive with built-in trust, believing the words of their family member, colleague, or friend.
The foundational best practice for setting up referral programs is offering perks or incentives that appeal to customers. You can use referral programs from other companies as a guide or ask customers directly using a survey.
After creating a referral program, actively promote it. Include it at the bottom of invoices, encourage techs to promote it to customers, and add it beneath job update messages.
10. Canvas your local area for locksmithing leads
Going door to door to promote your services may seem archaic. However, it helps you interact directly with prospects, who may hire you later after having connected with and trusted the person behind the brand.
The ideal opportunity to canvas your local areas is immediately after a locksmith job. Remember to reference the job you did for their neighbor and offer a discount to those who book an appointment immediately.
Other tips for achieving maximum results with this strategy include the following:
Be courteous even if the customer behaves negatively.
Have a pre-written script and practice before a mirror.
Hand out fliers and your business cards.
Have a goal in mind. It could be to get the prospect to book an appointment or give their contact information.
The Bottom Line
Creating an effective marketing plan can be overwhelming. However, you can overcome this challenge by choosing the right digital and traditional channels that align with your company’s unique needs.
You can also consult our other resources for growing your business:
Increase your marketing campaigns’ conversion potential by using ServiceTitan to automate them and track performance using easy-to-understand dashboards.
ServiceTitan is an all-in-one, cloud-based software that trade companies use to streamline and track marketing campaigns to grow revenue. Join thousands of service providers nationwide who use the software to grow their revenue.
ServiceTitan Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform is used by thousands of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, garage door, and chimney sweep shops across the country—and has increased their revenue by an average of 25% in just their first year with us.
