14 Step Pest Control Marketing Plan That Actually Works
If you want to grow your pest control business, you need to have a solid marketing plan in place. Without a plan, you plan to fail. In this post, you’ll learn a simple 14-step pest control marketing plan that will help you get more clients for your pest control company.
1. Establish What Makes Your Company Unique
The first step in creating your pest control marketing plan is to know your uniqueness to the marketplace. Basically, this means that you need to know what separates your pest control business from the competition.
Likely, you are one of many pest control businesses in your local area. Whether your average customer is a homeowner or if you do pest control for commercial businesses or a combination of both, most people see your pest control services as the same as any other.
The average person you are trying to reach, might not truly understand the subtle differences that make your pest control company stand out. It’s your job to educate them on what your pest control business does best.
Really take some time to figure out what your pest control business does better than anyone else. Is it your customer service? The fact that your employees become like family with clients? Maybe it’s that your pest control business is one of few that actually has a service guarantee.
Whatever it is, knowing your unique difference is a key part of your pest control business marketing plan as you will refer back to it again and again. You’ll talk about it in your company tagline, your content, to your employees, and even in your advertising. Figure this out first and it will help you down the road when you start to market your pest control business.
2. Know your target market and ideal customer avatar
Another critical element of your pest control business marketing plan is to fully understand your ideal customer and target market. If you don’t know your target market and niche, your marketing efforts will fall flat.
For example, if you focus on recurring pest control prevention treatments your target market is probably homeowners who have extra disposable income in nicer neighborhoods.
Start by creating an ideal customer avatar. This means that you create a representation of your customer and what they do, where they live, how they act, etc.
When you know these things it will help with your messaging, and with speaking to your ideal customer’s problems, needs, and interests. The correct targeting of your message makes a huge difference in success or failure when promoting your pest control business.
Spend some time to really understand your niche and target market and it will help with creating an effective pest control business marketing plan.
3. Your pest control business marketing plan should include local networking
Digital marketing as a means of promoting your pest control business is essential, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only option. Most pest control business owners don’t fully utilize the power of marketing their pest control businesses offline.
Your pest control business marketing plan should also include local networking as a part of your overall marketing strategy. A great place to start is by joining your local chamber of commerce or other networking groups like BNI.
Don’t go into these groups looking for something for nothing as that doesn’t work. You also shouldn’t go to these groups in “pitch mode” where all you do is talk about selling your pest control services.
You need to go to these networking groups to build relationships. When the timing is right, your pest control business will come up, and if appropriate you can ask for the business or referrals.
The idea behind networking is to participate and get yourself out there. As you develop relationships it can lead to new contacts and even leads and sales for your pest control business. Make sure that networking is a part of your pest control business marketing strategy.
4. Optimize your pest control company website
Getting traffic to your pest control company website is important, but there is more to getting pest control clients online than just traffic. Once someone lands on your site you need it to be set up appropriately to actually generate leads and grow your pest control business.
By using the key difference that you discovered in step one of the pest control business marketing plan, you will have the basis of messaging for your website. For example, it could be that you have superior customer service. You might set up a tagline on your page of something like, “The pest control company that is always there when you need us.”
Your tagline is the first thing people see when they get to your site, and it is likely the first reason they will stay on your site. You want it to resonate with your site visitor and create the feeling that people are in the right place and that you are the solution to their problems.
5. Focus your messaging on benefits not features
Focusing on the benefits your service provides to your customers and not just features applies to all aspects of your pest control company marketing plan. A common mistake we see pest control business owners make is that they are frequently only talking about company or service features.
For example, they say that they provide bed bug removal, rodent removal, termite removal, etc. While those are good things to have on your website, in general, you need more than that to generate pest control client leads and sales.
During your market research in step two of your pest control business marketing plan, you should have learned some of the benefits your ideal customers are looking for. If you know your target market’s problems, pain points, and common questions, you can start to talk about solutions to those issues.
When you are promoting recurring pest control prevention treatments you could talk about the peace of mind of having a pest-free home. If you are promoting your exclusion services you could talk about the residual benefits of effectively sealing your home to prevent future pest issues.
When your pest control business marketing is focused on highlighting benefits and not just features, your conversion rates of new clients will be much higher.
6. Use positive reviews to build social proof for your pest control business
If you are looking to increase sales and conversion rates, social proof needs to be a part of your pest control business marketing plan. Even if you had the best pest control service in the world, people won’t necessarily take your word for it.
However, if your customers say that you have the best pest control service in the world, it’s a different story. If a third party, like your satisfied customer, says your service is great, people are more likely to believe them vs you saying it. Along with this idea, people buy into your customer’s stories and how your pest control business helped them.
For example, maybe you had a customer who was dealing with a roach issue that kept coming back after another pest control company treated it, but your treatments finally stopped the issue for good.
Potential customers are more likely to resonate with a story about your business vs the facts about your business. This is especially true when a past customer has the exact issue your pest control business solved that a new potential customer is dealing with. Use reviews and testimonials as a powerful marketing strategy to promote your pest control business.
You can even use them in your pest control advertising strategy to improve conversion rates.
7. Building an email list is essential to your pest control business marketing plan
As people visit your pest control company website they might not be ready to buy the first time. This is totally fine, but most pest control business owners drop the ball at this point.
They have the wrong expectation that each person that comes to their site is ready to buy, and all they need to do is have the option to get a quote and sales will happen. Unfortunately, that leaves a lot of money on the table and people who never come back to your site.
This is why building an email list is an essential step to your pest control company marketing plan. When someone lands on your site for the first time you need methods of retargeting them with information about your business in the future.
If you don’t have a method of capturing this information they are likely to never return again. With a lead magnet, (something of value you give away for free), you can request a visitor’s name, email, and phone number in order for them to get access to it. This could be something like a pest prevention checklist or something similar.
Often people are more likely to be in research mode and are deciding on what pest control company to go with, the first time they visit your site. If you can capture their information and add them to your email list, you can continue to provide value to them and build a relationship with them.
As you continue to do this, eventually when the timing is right, they buy your service instead of your competitors. Be sure to implement email marketing as it’s one of the best pest control marketing ideas you should use.
8. Use content marketing to promote your pest control business
In conjunction with the last step of email marketing, you also need something to send to your email list. A common mistake we see people make is once they start building their email list, the only thing they send out is offers, discounts, or sales pitches on their pest control services.
There is certainly a time and a place for sales messages in your pest control business marketing plan, but it shouldn’t be the only messages you send to your audience and email list. The majority of the content you create should be leading with value first, that informs, educates, or entertains them.
Then throughout the content, you subtly plug your pest control business instead of directly pitching it. Doing this content marketing strategy is more favorable to people and it will attract new people to your site on a regular basis.
Also, we know creating content can be a time-consuming process. That’s why it’s one of the services we provide to our clients. If you’d like to learn more about us using content marketing to promote your pest control business, click here to fill out a quick survey about your business so we can learn how to help you best.
9. Use local SEO in your pest control business marketing plan
Another key component of your pest control business marketing plan is to have a strategy for local SEO. As a service business that does business in a specific area, the positioning of your pest control company in local search matters.
In fact, when your local SEO is optimized you can generate a significant amount of traffic and leads from the local community. Two of the best ways to do this are through the use of location pages on your website and with Google My Business.
Creating location pages for each major city that you service can draw in traffic from people looking for things like “pest control service near me”, “pest removal near me” or pest control service in a specific city, and more.
With an optimized Google My Business page, you can start to increase your company presence on Google Maps. This way when people search for a pest control business in your area you have the potential to show up first.
This can create a lot of free exposure for your pest control business and is why it is an essential part of your pest control business marketing plan.
10. Provide quality service to your customers
This step of your pest control company marketing plan might seem a bit obvious, but exceptional service can increase your revenue in a number of ways. The first reason this can help you get pest control clients is through word-of-mouth marketing.
When people experience exceptional service from your pest control business they are likely to spread the word. Another part of this ties into the earlier step of getting reviews and testimonials.
When your customers are extremely happy with your service the likelihood that they will leave a positive review is much more likely. More positive reviews on your Google My Business page can actually help your local SEO improve as well.
Google tends to prioritize Google My Business pages of pest control companies with the most reviews. Plus as we said earlier, the more social proof you have to back up your claims of how exceptional your company is, the more likely people will choose you over competitors.
As you can see below companies with lots of reviews show up on the first page of Google Maps.
11. Set up a reward program for referrals
Now that you have set the foundations of exceptional customer service and are getting reviews from happy customers, your next step is turning that into new pest control clients. Setting up a referral rewards program should be the next step in your pest control business marketing plan.
A great concept to learn is that you want to “celebrate what you want to duplicate.” This means that if you want better employees, you need to praise, celebrate, and reward their good behavior.
You can apply the same concept with your existing pest control clients. Not only could you incentivize them to leave reviews for your company, but you could also incentivize them to refer new customers.
There are many ways to do this. You could offer gift cards for referrals, use something like refer 10 pest control clients, get a free indoor and outdoor treatment. You could also add in additional services, like an exclusion service or free rodent traps, for people that give you referrals.
Really the opportunities are endless. Just make your referral incentive congruent with the amount of business the referral generates for you. When you add this referral rewards program into your pest control marketing plan the value of each customer could multiply greatly.
12. Use Door-to-Door Sales to market your pest control business
For a local business like a pest control company that does regular service calls to a neighborhood, door-to-door sales can be a great way to expand your business. The reason for this is that when you have a customer in a neighborhood it’s easy to reach out to neighbors and offer them a discount to join the service route.
One of your biggest costs will likely be to pay a service technician to drive to your client’s home, so if you have a bunch of houses in a row that all need service, it can maximize your profits for both you and your technicians.
Another benefit of this marketing strategy for pest control companies is that you can contact neighbors without being overly salesy or pushy. You can position your pest control service as a great deal without being intrusive by simply letting neighbors know you’ll be servicing the area in the next week and if they want to get started as a customer you can get them a lower rate since your technicians will already be in the area.
Plus, as you expand your customer base you really only need to pay the door-to-door sales rep on commission so you only increase expenses as sales are made. Want more info on setting up a door-to-door sales program for your pest control business? I recommend picking up a copy of the book Door-To-Door Millionaire by Lenny Gray.
13. Use Video Marketing on YouTube to generate leads and additional income
Another great strategy for pest control marketing is video marketing on YouTube. Similar to creating content on your website, YouTube videos can be optimized for SEO.
This means that you can create evergreen content that can drive targeted traffic and generate leads on a continual basis for your pest control company.
As your YouTube channel grows, you can even reach monetization status and this can allow you to get paid when people watch your videos. Basically, you get paid to advertise your pest control company! Plus, this can give you additional income you can funnel back into marketing your pest control company.
A topic idea that can work well is pest control tips videos that help people prevent pest issues. Videos on warning signs for various kinds of pests are another great option. Pest identification videos can also work very well. As you showcase your expertise in these videos, it builds credibility for your business in addition to leads and traffic to your website.
14. Scale your pest control marketing with paid advertising
With your organic marketing strategies in place for your pest control business, it’s time to consider scaling with ads. Social media advertising doesn’t have to be the final step of your marketing plan, but it can work better if other aspects of your pest control marketing are in place.
Running paid advertising like Facebook ads is a great way to generate leads quickly for your pest control business. Instead of waiting for your organic marketing strategies to bear fruit, you can target your ideal customers immediately with high-converting ads.
Unfortunately, most people think that advertising is going to fix all of their marketing issues. Certainly, advertising can generate leads quickly compared to some organic marketing strategies, but it still takes time to optimize. Plus if you don’t have the right foundations in place with the earlier steps we covered, or a good sale process on the back end, your advertising could fall flat.
It’s often best to outsource your paid advertising management to an agency that knows exactly what they are doing so you don’t waste money on advertising that doesn’t convert. If you’d like to learn more about our agency running your advertising campaigns fill out this quick survey about your business.
Conclusion
Overall, there isn’t one single marketing strategy that can be solely responsible for a successful pest control marketing plan. Each step of this pest control marketing plan works together to maximize results.
For example, if you don’t know your target market, the messaging of your pest control marketing will be off and people won’t buy. If your pest control business website isn’t optimized and you only talk about features, sending visitors to your site may not lead to additional conversions.
If you don’t have quality reviews, people are less likely to take your pest control business seriously and your ads may be less effective. Without an email list, you won’t capture the information of visitors that came from ads. This means many potential customers slip can slip through the cracks.
Without exceptional service, the leads you get from advertising won’t turn into repeat customers, and they won’t give you referrals. So while one aspect of marketing like advertising your pest control business is essential, you can see without the other steps of the pest control business marketing plan in place, it can get less than optimal results.
When you follow this 14 step pest control marketing plan your company can be a huge success! If you’d like to learn more about how we can help you set up this pest control business marketing plan, click here and fill out a quick survey on your pest control business so we can know where to start!
