Police Marketing 101: No One Can Do It Better Than You!

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Before you go spending thousands, tens of thousands, or worse yet, hundreds of thousands of dollars on marketing strategies that look and sound great, but you don’t quite understand...give me five minutes to explain to you why no one can market you agency better than you...keep reading! 👀

Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your Police Marketing FTO and this week, I’m going to be a little more serious than I normally am in these newsletters and the reason why is...that from this point forward, with every decision you make about recruiting...you know, your agency’s very lifeblood, is at stake here. 💯

If this seems dramatic or hyperbolic...let me fast forward you to a year from now...when you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a fancy new website, branding slogan, recruiting video and third-party social media management...and you still have the same staffing problems you have today. 😳

There’s a reason why you don’t see agencies, who have spent a ton of money on these solutions, screaming from the rooftops to tell everyone else how successful they’ve been.  It’s not because they want to keep all the applicants for themselves, we all want to see our profession doing better...it’s because those solutions don’t work. 👎

Here’s why...

At the end of the day, when you hire a company to do things for you, they don’t really care.  🤷‍♂️

Sure...they want to do a good job for you and put out a quality product, don’t mistake what I’m saying here...It’s not unscrupulous what they’re doing...they just couldn’t care less if you actually filled your vacancies or not.  That’s not the product they’re selling you, despite what the sales pitch might tell you.  💡 

The only thing they really care about is if you are happy with the way everything looks when they present it to you.  That’s what they’re promising you, after all...a great-looking, new age product, that you’ve never had before.  And because you’re blown away by the way everything looks right from the get-go, that’s the goal, you’ll never complain and assume it must be something else that’s not working. 🤯

Unfortunately, there’s only two ways to figure out that recruiting videos, websites, and fancy slogans don’t really mean a whole lot in police recruiting... 👇

1.  Spend thousands and thousands of dollars and learn the hard way 😠

2.  Trust and listen to me 🙌

Now...what I’m about to tell you is literally going to save you a ton of money, time, effort, frustration, aggravation, and a myriad of other feelings that all come with staffing problems. 😅

👉 No one...and I mean no one...can market your agency better than you. 

Not one single company.  Not any product or solution on earth.  Not even your Police Marketing FTO, who really knows what he’s doing here. 👍

Here’s the three main reasons why...

1.  No one knows your agency better than you

There’s no creative thinking required when you’ve lived and breathed something for as long as you’ve worked for your agency.  You know exactly what makes your agency an awesome place to work...whether it’s the people, the community, the environment, or aspects of the job itself.  👮‍♂️👮‍♀️

You know how to connect with someone who is looking for what you have to offer and there are no amount of station tours, ride alongs, interviews, conversations, or tidbits you could provide an outsider to replace that. 😵

2.  No one knows your candidates better than you

When you work in recruiting, it doesn’t take long to figure out why people apply or want to work for you.  You gather that information at recruiting tables, police testing, and background interviews to name a few.  It may have never occurred to you to use this information in your recruiting efforts until this very moment, but the information is still there, in your head, nonetheless. 🧠

Outside companies tend to stick with generalities when appealing to candidates...the stereotypical things they think cops like...not necessarily what your applicants like.  There’s a big difference.  🍎🍊

3.  No one cares about the future of your agency more than you

Surely, you’ve heard the expression, the difference is in the details, and that’s what this one is all about.  Because you have a vested interest in the future of your agency...it’s your future too...you will do all the little things to make sure everything is right.  Posts, flyers, videos, and most importantly, the people that you hire.  It all has to be right for you to be successful.  🚀  

Just recently I read about the Minneapolis Police Department’s new recruiting campaign entitled ‘imagine yourself’ that the agency spent $975,000 on through a marketing company.  It’s an impressive campaign with all the HD video and feel-good stories you would imagine.  But remember, the difference is in the details... ☝️

Once the initial recruiting video was released, it didn’t take people long to figure out the slow-motion fly over drone footage of the neighborhood that you’ll be protecting as a Minneapolis Police Officer isn’t Minneapolis...it’s Baltimore. 😮

Money well spent.  💸

Look...I know you want to do well and recruit good people for your agency.  I see you out there trying hard to do everything you can to accomplish that.  I know it can sometimes feel like you’re grasping at straws and searching for answers.  I’m with you.  🤜🤛

Despite what you might think though...recruiting in 20254 isn’t hard...it’s just different... 😎

But you can do this.  I’m telling you...you can do this! 💪

It’s nowhere near as hard as you think, once you know what to do.  Need some help getting started? 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️

I've got the police marketing solution...

My Road to Better Recruiting course is now open and I've worked hard to make sure it's packed with everything you need to turn things around and get going in the right direction.  You can learn more at forcopstraining.com/rtbr.  🛣️

Know someone at another agency who’s struggling with recruiting too?  Give this newsletter a like or share it with them so they can learn too.  We’re all in this together, and it's going to take us all to change the future of police recruiting. 🤝

Have more questions about police recruiting, marketing or anything else you're struggling with? Don't hesitate to 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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