Police Marketing Branding Basics

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If you are new to police marketing and the concept of branding, let me sum it up for you in one sentence...

Branding is everything, and everything is your brand! 🤯

That's it. That's the lesson. 🤷‍♂️

It really is this simple 👉 every single thing that you do, from advertisements, to social media posts, to information on your website, what's in the signature line of your email, how your booth looks at the recruiting event, the way you answer your phone, how you interact with applicants, the contacts your employees have with citizens, all of it...it's all your brand. 

And despite what people tell you about money, benefits, location, family legacy, retirement, sense of purpose, service to the community, et. al., your brand, and more importantly, how it makes someone feel, is the deciding factor between someone choosing to work for your agency or not. 🤝

Without getting too deep into the psychology of marketing to explain the above (that's a blog for another time), the reason this is true is found in a hard wired and tribe like phenomenon marketing genius Seth Godin calls, 'People Like Us'. 

To best utilize your brand to help fill your police vacancies the goal is simple: 

Show applicants that people like them, work for you! 👮👮

But how do you do that? 🤔

Here are three basic branding areas you can start focusing on to start attracting your kind of applicants! 🧲

1. Content Branding

If you're going to show applicants that people like them, work for you...it should be crystal clear who the you is in the equation!

Imagine if you will...you're scrolling through your favorite social media platform. Scrolling and scrolling and scrolling...just waiting for a photo or headline to grab your attention. You know, the same way everyone else on the planet does it. 

Now I ask you...

Based on the picture alone (again, the main thing someone is looking at when they're scrolling) who made this post?

OK...how about this one?

This is the difference in content branding. 

While yes, you could simply just look for the name of the agency who made these recent job posts either above or below the picture (depending on the platform) try out this simple scroll test to really see the power of branding. 

Go back to the two pictures and scroll up and down between them a few times. Did you notice your eyes locking on the coin logo in the upper picture? How about on the clearly visible patch on the shoulder? What did you notice about the bottom picture other than it's a guy standing there in a police hat?

Let's take this one step further...

Guess what else has happened in the past couple of minutes of you looking at these photos? 

You have either thought about or said aloud the name of the Glendale Police Department at least three times and until just now, I haven't mentioned them once. That's content branding. 

Now imagine seeing that coin logo, day after day, week after week, every time you scroll through your feed, there it is. This practice builds familiarity and familiarity leads to trust. 

The basics: at a minimum, every photo you post should have your agency logo prominently displayed. For maximum familiarity, try and place it in the same location (i.e., top left corner, bottom right, etc.) in every picture. If you can also show a patch, vehicle, or building with the name of your agency in the photo you double down on this effect. Lastly, a branded website or slogan adds the chance of a third eye-catcher and puts your name, on their brain, without having to read through any captions. 

2. Police Marketing Agency Branding

Much along the same lines of content branding...it is also important to be crystal clear on who you really are as an agency and to communicate that in everything that you do. 

So, who are you?

Are you 'the best'? Are you 'elite'?

Truth 💣: you're neither of those things...

The best for who? Elite as compared to what?

More than ever, people are looking for a place they belong. Somewhere they can be happy. The sooner that you realize your agency is not a 'one size fits all' solution for every person wanting to get into law enforcement, the quicker you can start focusing on those applicants who are right for you and start speaking directly to them. 

Are you a large, midsize, or small agency? Why is that good? Do you have lots of opportunities for advancement, specialties, or assignments? Do you offer great pay, benefits, and a retirement? What perks are unique to your agency that no one else has? Are people happy working there? What do people like about you? 

These are the kinds of things that make up your agency brand and are what set you apart from everyone else. 

At the end of the day, you aren't really competing against other agencies. 

Read that again. 

It seems like such a foreign concept, but you really aren't competing against another agency.

If you were, you wouldn't stand a chance as everyone would simply go to the biggest agency with the most pay/benefits. The fact that every agency, big or small and regardless of pay, has someone working for them only proves the point of 'people like me, work here'. 

Your agency branding needs to show that. 

The basics: have real conversations that convey who you are and what your agency is all about. No fluff. No exaggerations. Just what people can expect when they work for you. Smiling faces and a variety of people and positions. 

3. Personal Branding

This area is easily the most overlooked aspect of police marketing and recruiting and if you don't get it right, it will absolutely cost you applicants and leave you with no clue as to why!

Whenever you are working with applicants, whether directly (i.e., their recruiter or background investigator) or indirectly (i.e., test facilitator, Sergeant, or other staff involved loosely in the process), you have to remember that not only are you the first impression of your agency, but the way you behave is how people are going to assume everyone at your agency behaves. That's a really important thing to realize.

Enter 👉 personal branding. 

Now knowing that everything you do is a reflection of how things are...

What does the way you answer your telephone say about your agency? Are you gruff and short with your greeting or friendly and engaging. 

What about your emails and their tone?

How about when you introduce yourself? Do you say your first name (I'm just like you) or do you provide your title and last name (I'm in a place of authority over you)?

Do you yell at people for not having the correct paperwork or documents or do you convey understanding and a mellow chance to correct it later? (this does not equate to you having to like it, mind you)

I can't even begin to tell you how many times an applicant has told me, 'this is so much better than my last one" after I finish a Background Interview with them. And I'm talking about with good applicants! People who clearly meet all of our standards, have the right intentions for wanting to be Police Officers, and are by all measures, easy people to hire. 

The basics: maintain a friendly, positive, and welcoming demeanor at all times. Even if it is with someone you aren't going to hire. Just because they don't make it through your process doesn't mean they don't know someone who can! Be normal with people and talk to them like you would a friend. Everything you do and say should be a reflection of how awesome it is to work for your agency. 

I hope these three branding tips help to get you headed in the right direction! Have a SUPER September and until next month, 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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