MATLIN NOT ALARMED BY ENTREPRENEUR’S LIFE.

If you’ve ever listened to the radio, you probably remember Joel Matlin. He’s the kind, caring voice who continually offered us 24-hour home protection and two-way voice service for just $25 a month. (If you don’t, you’ll certainly recall the officious voice actor who would scare the life out of would-be burglars by shouting: “This is the AlarmForce central station. Identify yourself immediately! The police have been dispatched.”)

Mr. Matlin founded Toronto based AlarmForce Industries Inc. in 1988 as a niche technology play after failing to convince his partner at Montrealbased commercial security firm Frisco Bay Industries, to expand into consumer markets. Matlin saw the industry as sleepy, fragmented and ready for disruption; with its twoway voice alarms that enabled worried homeowners to talk to real people when they heard a strange noise, AlarmForce became a national market leader.

The company even went public in 1997. While the stock stagnated for years, between 2003 and 2013 the shares soared from $1 to $13 as the company expanded into the United States and revenue grew to $49 million.

But that success didn’t stop AlarmForce’s board from voting in August 2013 to terminate Matlin as chief executive. Matlin bounced back, suing the company and launching a marketing firm to help entrepreneurs benefit from the chutzpah that built AlarmForce and made “The police have been dispatched” a household phrase.

Matlin was restricted by a one-year non-compete agreement from going back into the alarm business. So he and his son Joel, who had been doing marketing for AlarmForce for seven years, founded Matlin Marketing. They work for companies in such diverse industries as retail, golf, mortgages and weight loss. “It’s fun, challenging and nerve-racking, because their problems become your problems,” Mr. Matlin says.

So how does four decades of promoting alarm services help Mr. Matlin help other entrepreneurs? Mr. Matlin says he brings an entrepreneur’s optimism and persistence to the job: “What I’ve learned over the years is that every problem has a solution.”

He also has a simple approach to figuring out whether marketing is working. “Take all of your marketing and advertising costs and divide that by customer acquisition,” he says. That will tell you how much you’ve been paying to acquire each new customer, and help you decide whether to do more of the same or try something new.

He’s concerned many entrepreneurs have a skewed view of marketing. Some expect him to build their brand with a one-month campaign. Others want to use just one channel to promote their wares, whether it’s online, print or broadcast. Mr. Matlin insists it’s hard to learn for sure what message or medium drives a client to your business or website. “It was easier to build a brand 25 years ago than it is today,” he notes. “You need more experts,” to understand the different channels, and help you find the best combination of media and messaging.

To deliver creative services, from jingle-writing to web analytics, Matlin Creative, with five employees, draws on a network of about 25 freelance consultants across North America.

Asked how, specifically, he has helped some clients, Mr. Matlin cites client confidentiality. But he does offer a few clues. “I’ve learned that guarantees are a great form of marketing,” he says.

In addition, he says, find ways to let prospects try your product at a one-time reduced price. Combine a low-cost trial with a guarantee, and you’ll overcome the perceived risks of doing business with a new supplier: “The consumer will be much more confident about doing business with you.”

Given Mr. Matlin’s longtime status as a radio star, I had to ask: In the age of satellite radio and iPod playlists, is radio still a worthwhile advertising medium? “Radio’s not as strong as it was,” Mr. Matlin notes. “But if you find the right station, with the right audience for your product, radio can still be a very powerful medium.”

And does CEO-as-spokesman still work? Definitely, Mr. Matlin says: “It’s very effective to have the leaders of the brand talk directly to their market.”

Ironically, he says his new company has so many clients in Canada and the U.S. that it no longer needs to advertise.

Most marketing consultants will tell you selling on price is a losing proposition. But Mr. Matlin loves to say his company, with low overheads, “can do everything a big agency does, at a fraction of the cost.” Yet, he has trouble articulating a single powerful reason why people should choose his agency. And when asked to quantify the results he’s created for clients, he could only muster an example where he helped an unnamed client become “very successful.”

While he might not be as polished a marketer as some, Mr. Matlin insists his track record counts for more. Many entrepreneurs want to deal with a veteran decision-maker, not a newly graduated marketing student, he says. “You can’t put a value on experience.”