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One of the primary keys behind growing a business with long-term success lies within pest control marketing.
Use this complete, easy-to-follow manual for pest control marketing to ease your worries and access simplified marketing strategies to:
Discover the top pest control marketing strategies and easily begin implementing them today to quickly and sustainably grow your business.
Rather than selling the features of your services, it's important to sell the value of them. After all, clients typically make final decisions based on how they feel rather than logic.
As a result, it's important to center your marketing efforts around how clients feel after your pest control services are performed.
For instance, every homeowner needs to keep pests out of their home. However, they pay you to do it because:
In turn, selling the value (e.g. feeling) of your services allows clients to envision what it would feel like if they were to hire you.
Here's an example of a value-driven CTA (i.e. Call-to-Action):
On average, social media accounts for 48% bigger deals and a 31% higher ROI (i.e. Return on Investment).
Plus, the majority of consumers are on social media. For example, at 2.85 billion active monthly users (and 2.76 billion daily users), Facebook is the largest global social media platform.
In other words, 60.42% of the world's active internet users access Facebook monthly.
In turn, it's important to prioritize social media marketing in order to successfully market your pest control business.
Plus, social media is incredibly lucrative. In fact, it's more cost effective than printing hundreds of flyers.
Typically, Facebook charges between $.50 and $2 per click, and the average CPC (i.e. Cost per Click) across all industries is $1.72.
Which means, for roughly as little as $2 per day, you can run Facebook Ads. Additionally, you don't even have to run ads on Facebook and can post organically at no cost.
Also, take a look at a few other platforms to consider leveraging:
When done correctly, email marketing is one of the most cost effective marketing strategies because it's virtually free — the primary cost is your time.
Which means, email marketing allows for large, successful returns that allow you to automate marketing efforts. In fact, for every dollar spent on email marketing, there is an average $42 ROI.
Take a look at this basic three-step indoctrination email email series:
To start, begin passively collecting email addresses by hosting a lead magnet within a Facebook Ad or blog. Then, add the new leads to your email indoctrination series.
Plus, your lead magnet can be as simple as a checklist or calendar.
For example, you could provide a checklist for pest control maintenance in between scheduled services or a calendar with reminders for seasonal services.
Once you've acquired a lead's email address through the lead magnet, you can include them in your indoctrination email series to warm them up for conversion.
To start, lay out a welcome email series. Next, automate the campaign.
In this email series, be sure provide a wide variety of emails:
Even after converting a new lead into a client, it's critical to continue to nurture them. Continue to send clients a wide array of emails:
In order to fully take advantage of email marketing, you'll need a few different email campaigns:
Also, when you choose Service Autopilot, you'll have access to automations to fully put your email campaigns on autopilot. Simply set them up and forget them!
In addition, Service Autopilot's detailed email tracking allows you to easily improve your campaigns to increase effectiveness.
Using automations, you can set up conditional actions determining which email campaign sequence to divert leads into.
For example, you can redirect a lead from the indoctrination campaign into the nurture campaign after they've converted into a client.
Plus, in addition to emails, you can also automate other marketing contact points, such as texts and estimate follow-ups.
PPC ads (i.e. Pay per Click) allow you to target specific market segments actively seeking a solution to a problem your business solves.
For instance, the ads appearing at the top and bottom of search engines like Google and Bing are prime examples of PPC advertising.
Even though PPC advertising has more upfront cost than other pest control marketing strategies, it serves as an excellent way for your website to appear in the search results before the competition.
Additionally, you only pay for the ad when it's clicked, and you have the ability to set a daily or weekly maximum budget to avoid overspending.
However, if you don't have the time to explore this lucrative resource, yet have ample budget to do so, then you can hiring an AdWords Specialist to manage it.
While, it can take a while to get the hang of PPC advertising, it is a lucrative solution for getting ahead in a high-competition market.
Although, keep in mind, you don't have to be a professional marketing expert to use AdWords. Like any new skill, it's easy to take advantage of once you get the hang of it.
For many leads, your website will be their first impression of your pest control business. However, many businesses haven't updated their website in years.
Even though there's no hard deadline for updating your website, many experts recommend updating your website very 2-3 years.
Think of it this way, are leads more likely to choose a business with a professional-looking, fully-functioning website or an outdated, broken website?
In fact, 96% of leads aren't ready to buy when they visit your website. Furthermore, you have the potential to double sales just by revamping your website.
Fortunately, you can update your website on your own using a free, user-friendly website builder (e.g. Wix, SquareSpace, etc.).
However, if you don't have the time or necessary skillset, then you'll need to hire someone to do it for you. A freelance web developer (e.g. from Upwork, Fiverr, etc.) can serve as a great solution.
What's better than a phenomenal, fully-functioning website? A website appearing at the top of the search engines... organically.
SEO (i.e. search engine optimization) involves a combination of healthy web practices and correct keyword usage to reach the top of the search results.
Additionally, businesses prioritizing SEO see over 50% of web traffic — making SEO one of the most lucrative pest control marketing strategies to focus on.
Did you know 88% of consumers trust online reviews just as much as referrals? In other words, getting 5-star reviews needs to be one of your top priorities.
Which means, you need to be asking for reviews...
Even better, set up a fully automated and intuitive text or email campaign focused on driving clients to leave reviews.
To start, focus on getting reviews on platforms like:
Although, it's important not to rush everyone to one platform at once.
Sending mass email blasts asking for reviews might set off a trigger on one of the platforms. Most platforms have triggers to stop both positive and negative brigading.
Plus, to avoid bad reviews from potentially disgruntled clients, you should only directly ask clients for reviews after they've performed a desired action (e.g. given a compliment).
Also, don't forget to respond to bad reviews too.
Try to publicly respond to bad reviews within 24 hours. If possible, identify the client and contact them privately too.
Here's an example of an ideal response:
Remember, never deflect responsibility or make assumption. Simply acknowledge their concerns publicly, and then reach out to them privately for more details.
Never try to hash out the details publicly in an attempt to resolve the situation.
Also, if you can't identify the client, then ask them to contact you instead.
Flyers and 9-arounds are one of the most cost-effective pest control marketing strategies that allows you to dominate entire neighborhoods.
Simply have your technicians pass out flyers and door hangers to the neighboring nine houses of their jobs.
Keep in mind, effective flyers help:
To maximize flyer effectiveness, just be sure to include:
Alternatively, you can even leave behind different print marketing materials too, such as business cards.
Pro Tip! Take your flyers virtual with Facebook Ads! This further amplifies the impact of flyers by allowing you to target set areas and ideal clients to better dominate your local market.
Your knowledgable technicians typically know your clients better than anyone and become your best salespeople.
Training them to become excellent sellers essentially boils down to three main categories:
Plus, these core principles also help your techs to better perform their jobs because of known expectations.
Be sure all technicians not only know how to convert leads into clients, but that they also know how to upsell and cross-sell too.
As your technicians are out completing jobs, you can use their trucks and vans as moving marketing assets to increase reach and awareness of your business.
Don't miss the opportunity to use your vehicles to market your business everywhere your technicians are going.
By far, vehicle wraps are the most ideal way to achieve this, especially since they're removable. However, magnets might be more cost-effective for some businesses until the budget allows for wraps.
When designing your wraps, keep these core principles in mind:
Also, consider hiring a freelance graphic designer to create the initial design.
Since new leads don't trust you just yet, it's important to harness the power of referrals in order to boost conversions.
Plus, referrals have a tendency to generate chain reactions of client-after-client referring you out. As a result, they're a great way to automatically generate new clients.
Here's how to win the best referrals:
Remember, even the simplest referral offers with a 10% discount or free upsell will go a long way in increasing referrals.
Also, always ensure technicians do 100% effort or better on every job, especially when it's a new or referred client. In return, clients usually are more willing to pay higher prices.
Plus, clients will likely be more understanding of inevitable mistakes later on when they know the high-quality work your techs are capable of performing.
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Manage your clients and employees all in one system
By far, pest control marketing is one of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to quickly and sustainably grow your business.
Use this manual to simplify the best marketing strategies in the industry to:
Finally, you have the power to use this manual for pest control marketing to skyrocket growth and maximize profits today!
Related: The Ultimate Pest Control Hiring Guide
Originally published July 11, 2019 7:00 AM, updated June 22, 2022 12:05 PM
Tags: Business Operation
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