Getting Back to the Police Recruiting Basics!

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Tried seemingly every police marketing solution known to man in effort to attract applicants to your agency only to end up right back where you were when you started?  Yeah, that’s not great for your police recruiting or for your excitement for the job.  😩

Here’s a new idea…how bout you get back to the basics, huh?  I’ll tell you all about them in just a minute...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO, and this week, let’s talk about your police marketing and more specifically trying too hard with your police marketing and overdoing it. 😳

Look, I get it.  You have vacancies and you see all the things that other agencies are trying to do to attract applicants online, so you figure you’ve got to really try to push the envelope if you wanna attract more than them, right?  🤷‍♂️

Let me let you in on a little secret…none of those fancy marketing packages, high tech websites, slow motion drone footage recruiting videos and trendy social media posts are working for them.  There…the cats out of the bag! 🤫

Don’t get caught up in what other agencies are doing.  They’re out of ideas and are just throwing anything and everything they can at the problem hoping and praying that something works! 🍝

You wanna know what does?  The basics…and if you want to start seeing better police recruiting results at your agency…it’s time to get back to them…with the quickness.  Here’s three areas to get you started…

1. Marketing Slogans

I’m leading off with this one because agencies have spent a ton of money with outside companies to craft these things hoping that an impressive sounding sentence developed by a marketing professional would be the answer to their problems.  That’s how it’s sold to them after all. 🗣️

Here’s the thing about them though…these messages rarely hit home with applicants because they’re too busy trying to make things sound cool.  Whether it’s forging this, rising above that, or encouraging people to do things your agencies way…they make no sense to applicants in the real world and miss the most important aspect of the whole thing…at its core, it doesn’t solve your applicants’ problems. 😞

Get back to the basics – slogans are great but only if they mean something to people.  Keep it simple, speak to what your applicants want – not what you want them to want, or think that they’ll want because it sounds cool…and watch your message start hit home! 🎯 

2. Police Recruiting Social Media Posts

This is another area where agencies are continually trying to push the envelope or tap into the latest trends in hopes of going viral and attracting more applicants. 🧲

Dance videos, lip-synching, AI generated action figures, and whatever else is popular and trending right now are all awesome ways for people to have fun on social media.  They’re not so great for getting people to see your agency as the place for them. 🙈

Get back to the basics – simple new hire pictures, celebrating promotions and milestones and showing the members of your agency enjoying their job…in a real and non-staged setting is the key to breaking through with applicants and getting them to associate you as the kind of place people like them work. 👯‍♀️

3. Technology

Whenever I bag on technology for police recruiting, I’m usually labeled as ‘set in my ways’, ‘too old’ in my thinking or just someone who is resistant to change and doesn’t want to use it. 👎

Here’s the truth though…I actually love technology, am an early adopter, and use it all the time.  I’m an AI nut and I use it quite a bit to help me with things like post scheduling, logo creation for national days, and a bunch of other stuff.  🤖  

So, with that in mind, listen very closely when I tell you…that while all of those space-age graphics and high-tech videos being placed all over your website look awesome, they’re actually distracting your visitors from what they really came for…information.  And when they don’t get it in the features you are prominently displaying…they’ll go elsewhere. 💨

Get back to the basics – you really don’t need anything fancy here and you certainly don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars for a website.  Keep it simple…show lots of smiling faces and give applicants what they came for…where to apply, the benefits and salary of your positions, information on testing dates, and tips to help them through the whole thing. 💪

When you do this…you’ll start seeing website visits turn into applications and you’ll marvel at how simple and easy recruiting in 2025 really is. 🤯 

Now…need some more direction on how to implement the basics into your overall police recruitment plan? 👇

My Road to Better Recruiting online training course has got you covered. 👋

Inside, I’ll teach you the exact same mindset, philosophy, and basic strategies that I’ve used at my own agency for the past decade plus to attract high quality Police Officer applicants who can not only make it through your hiring process but are dedicated to your agency for the long run! 🙌

Check it out now on my website by visiting forcopstraining.com/rtbr

Know someone in recruiting who has been complicating their police recruiting without even realizing it?  Share this newsletter with them so they can learn too.  Trust me, they’ll be so happy that you did, and I would appreciate it too. 🤝

As always, if you have any questions at all please reach out...I’m always here to help. 🙏

Until next week my Police Marketing Squad, happy recruiting! 😃

Tom

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👋 I’m Tom Sye, your Police Marketing FTO. I founded ‘For Cops’ Training to teach Police Departments how to attract more qualified candidates through the same tried and tested methods I’ve used for the past ten years at my own department to keep up with turnover and stay ahead of vacancies.

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