Police Marketing 101: Passion Poaching!

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Hey everyone, it’s Tom Sye your police marketing FTO and this week we’re talking inspiration...😇

And more specifically...where to come up with ideas for your agency’s social media pages when you’ve got nothing in the tank! ⛽

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a lot going on at work! 😵

Between background investigations, interviews, meetings, phone calls, emails, training...oh and handling the department’s marketing and social media recruiting pages, there’s not always time to sit around and brainstorm for new concepts or to keep up with the latest trends in marketing. 🕔

Sometimes you just need a little help to get the inspiration flowing. 🚿

Now...before I go any further...I want to make it clear that I am not advocating stealing other people’s work as your own.  That’s wrong. 🛑

Also, you should never swipe another agencies slogan, concept, or idea just because it’s doing well, and you want yours to do well too. ©

That’s a really quick way to out yourself as a fraud and you’ll lose a lot of respect with your colleagues as well. 👎

OK?

All right, so like I was saying...

You’ve got a lot going on and sometimes you just need some help.  Whenever that happens to me, I become, what I like to call, a passion poacher! 🏹 

A passion poacher? 

Here’s what I mean...👇

We all have passions in life.  For some it’s music...others, it’s exercising, cooking, fishing... or being tactical...whatever it is...that something special that just gets you going.  For me, I’m a HUGE fan of baseball and college football. ⚾🏈

So, whenever I hit one of these creative blocks, I head over to the MLB social pages or check out a Miami Hurricanes post and bam...💥

Hey, that’s a great idea...or I really like the way that design looks! 😍

All of a sudden, my mind is off and running and coming up with ideas again! 💡

The reason this happens is twofold. 

First, famous companies and people all utilize professional marketers for their advertising.  These are the folks who get paid to have the best stuff on their pages.  Their life IS marketing, and they have spent, in some cases, millions of dollars on market research and finding out what works best for an audience. 📊

Translation...

They’ve paved the road for you to drive on! 🛣

Secondly, when you visit the page of something you have a passion for, you’re priming your brain to start working again!  You see, at its most basic function, your brain is constantly breaking things down into two categories: pain and pleasure. 🎭

That’s why you get excited the second you visit the page of something you’re interested in because somewhere deep down in that ancient software you’re running on, your brain says hey I like this, and you get excited. 😁

Translation...

You’re never finding ideas on a page you couldn’t care less about. 🤷‍♂️

Obviously, the more that you like something, the more ideas you will get from it.  And the more successful a source is, the more likely the marketing will work for you too!  🚀

The most important factor, above all, is to make sure that whatever the inspiration, it fits with what you are doing!  Don’t just use something because it works for someone else. 👯

I’ve talked about it a million times and I’ll say it again when it comes to your police marketing... 

Your brand message is everything! 💯

And everything that you do should be reflective of that message and who you are as a marketer and an agency. 🚓

So next time you’re stuck...give it a try!  I’d love to hear where your passion poaching has taken you. 👍 

Until next week, 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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