About Your Business
First things first, you need to decide on a few important details before you start your pest control marketing. Take some time, sit down and think about the following questions.
Target Audience – Who Are You Trying to Reach?
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Deciding on your target audience is the first step to planning your pest control marketing. Who are you trying to reach? Where are they geographically? How old are they? For most pest control businesses, you’d be looking to target people close to where your business operates and who fit into the categories of people that need pest control. For example, this could include homeowners, landlords or even business owners. As the business owner, you should have a good idea of what your target customers look like just from experience alone. That’s a good place to start and you can always get broader over time.
Competitors – Who Else is Trying to Reach Your Target Audience?
Conducting a competitor analysis is a really important first step in your pest control marketing. Who else is trying to reach your target audience? Is it another small pest control company? Is it a franchise business that services your area? A quick Google search or skim through the yellow pages will help you figure this out pretty quickly. Otherwise, there are plenty of other tools available to help you figure this out. Things like SE Ranking and SEM Rush are great ways to analyze your competitors.
Unique Selling Proposition – What Makes You Different From Your Competitors?
What makes your company different from its competitors? This is known as your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). It’s about asking yourself, what makes your pest control business different from others? If your main competitor is a franchise and you’re a one-man operation, maybe your pest control marketing should be centred around being a small business that personally handles all jobs, and because of that, you can ensure the best quality work every single time. If you have a larger team, advertise your promptness and that your team can promise the best times or prices. Have a think about your business and what makes you special.
Tone & Voice
This is a bit of a bonus step, but it will help you a lot in the next phase of your pest control marketing. Now that you know who you are and what your USP is, what kind of tone does your business have? Think about it like this – if your business was a person who had a voice, what would it sound like? Does it sound like a teacher offering education in an authoritative way? Is it a larrikin who likes to crack a joke but knows what they’re on about when it really matters? Is it like the warm, comforting sound of a dad helping his child fix something? It’s up to you, but once you decide, make sure it’s consistent!
Getting Your Message Out There
Now that you’ve decided on the basis of your pest control marketing, it’s time to start implementing marketing actions. Keep reading to learn how you can start to execute your first marketing strategy.
Websites & SEO
First things first, in today’s day and age, it’s important to have a website. When you’re considering this, remember that it’s not just about having a website, it’s about using that website to leverage things like Google to drive traffic to your business. You can do this through something known as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Think about the keywords that your target audience will be searching for (for example, “pest control Brisbane”) and ensure that you use those terms throughout the website. You can use tools like Google Trends to see which terms are being searched for the most. Secondly, once you’ve got a website, you have to stay relevant. This can be done by creating regular blogs that continue to target your keywords and ensure that Google keeps ranking your website as something that is in date and well informed.
HINT: Keywords change! So make sure you continue to check on the search volume of your selected terms.
Collateral
The next step in your pest control marketing is to arrange for your physical collateral. We’re talking handouts for letterbox drops, pamphlets and business cards. These things are almost essential for pest control marketing, as you’ll often be targeting local areas and trying to retain customers that you’ve already reached. Create yourself something schmick using Canva, or hire a graphic designer for a few once-off designs, and ensure that you get a good quality print. Every time you visit a client, be sure to give them a business card.
If you’re able to splash a little cash and become really memorable, consider things like magnets, too – these are a little more memorable, as they often end up stuck on a previous client’s fridge for years to come.
Organic Presence / Social Media
As mentioned above, online presence is a must in 2022. So, ensure that you’ve got a social media page as well. Facebook and Instagram are both good starts for pest control marketing. There is more and more evidence to show that proof of work builds great rapport with audiences, so try to show images of you and your team in the field. This is where tone and voice really come into play as well. If you’re going for a larrikin route, you should ensure to share funny tidbits from your days. If you’re going for an educational route, tell your audience about the pest control job and the solution you came up with. Just be sure to be consistent and post as much as you can without becoming stale or too sales-orientated.
Paid Online & Offline Advertising
Something that can be really beneficial if you have a small budget for pest control marketing is paid online and offline advertising. This can be in the form of Google Ads and Facebook Ads if you’re thinking of the online option. We’d recommend trying Google Search Ads and targeting things like “pest control near me” within your catchment area to capture any traffic coming through those search terms. If you’d prefer to go offline, think billboards, radios and TV. Unless you’re in a capital city, these things aren’t as expensive as you might think. A lot of off-peak TV ads don’t require a huge spend, and many community radio channels will offer editorial or extra bonuses if you’re happy to pay for some ad spend or simply join their members’ subscriptions as a business.
How to Know It’s Working & Retaining Good Clients
Lastly, it’s important to check your pest control marketing and ensure it’s working, and it’s equally as important to retain your clients as long as you can. It’s much cheaper and easier to reach your existing audience than it is to gain new clients. Obviously, you need to prioritise a good service, but second to that, it helps to ensure you’re touching base and offering them a good deal for returning to you. Keep reading to learn how we’d recommend doing this.
Check Google Analytics
If you want to check the effectiveness of your SEO and your paid online advertising, check your Google Analytics! This is an excellent tool to check your website traffic and see where the source of your traffic is coming from. You’ll need to ensure that you install Google Analytics on your website, but this can be done fairly easily once you’ve created an account and found the instructions relevant to your type of website. If you’re not sure how to work your way around Google Analytics, they’ve got plenty of help articles that explain exactly what to do.
Offer a Loyalty Discount
If your clients continue to return, it’s best to reward them in some way. Create a loyalty discount system and/or a referral system. Whether you offer them half-price pest control on their 5th service, or you offer them a discount for sending their friends to you, they’ll be pleased that you thought of them, and they’re more likely to keep coming back again and again.
Create an Email List
Lastly, one of the easiest ways to continue to reach your clients and give them the best experience with your business possible is to create an email list and touch base every now and then with discounts, different blog content, announcements and more. You can do this by collecting an email when you take a booking and popping it straight into a spreadsheet where you can easily filter and access this data.
HINT: Be sure to use a service like Mailchimp that offers an unsubscribe button so that your customers don’t receive any unwanted emails – as this may deter them from using your service! Plus, services like these make creating beautiful emails simple and easy for you too. It’s a win, win.
If you’re still reading at this point, it’s clear you’re pretty serious about starting a business and beginning your pest control marketing. And you’ll be glad to know that Austates is here to help! While we may not be able to help you with your marketing, we can help supply you with top-quality tools for the trade. Whether you need a toolbox or a complete vehicle spray unit, we’ve got you covered. Visit our online shop, or contact one of our friendly staff members for more information now.