Pest control as a business has been around for as long as there have been pests and people who don’t want them in their homes. The pests that plague people and the methods of controlling them may not have changed much over the years. But times certainly have changed, and consequently pest control companies, like most businesses, have to adapt their methods of marketing. The old school approaches, like word-of-mouth, yellow pages listings, and ads in the local newspaper are losing their relevance, and new approaches are needed. Here are some ideas of ways you can market your pest control business, which should help you distinguish yourself from your competitors.
- Develop an online marketing strategy.
It may not be the way you got things off the ground. Perhaps the business was established long ago and used other methods of getting business. But to have a competitive edge in the digital era, you’ll need to have an online presence.
- Define your target audience.
If simply hanging out a shingle with the name of your pest control business and logo on it isn’t attracting the volume of business you’d like to be seeing, you’ll need to go after your prospective clients. And, to do so effectively, it’s essential to have an idea of who those clients are. In inbound marketing, this is called a “buyer persona”, a representation of your ideal customer. The more detail you can develop in the profile of this imaginary typical buyer, the better you’ll be able to focus your marketing efforts towards that type of individual.
- Create some meaningful content.
An essential element in this type of marketing campaign is the offer of valuable content to attract prospective clientele. Your content should be useful and informative enough that it will entice people to click through to your content offer. It should also be engaging so that visitors to your site will stay there long enough to read it, and keep coming back for more. Ideally, larger content offers like eBooks or whitepapers can be offered for free download, in exchange for the visitor providing you with their contact information.
- Create a blog.
A free eBook is a great first step to driving traffic to your website, but not everyone is ready to sign a contract on their first visit. It may take a while to get them to that stage of the “buyer's journey”, and you’ll want to stay connected with them and nurture the relationship through that process. A great way to accomplish this is to keep your website up to date with fresh blog content on the subject of pests and pest control, posted at regular intervals.
- Don’t be afraid to give out DIY information.
What? Teach people to do on their own what they could be hiring me to do? At first glance, it doesn’t make sense. However, if someone has a pest problem that’s minor enough that they’ll try to take care of it on their own, they’re probably not going to call you for that job. But, by earning their trust by giving them useful information and resources, they’ll be more likely to reach out to hire you when there’s a major pest control issue, which of course are the bigger and more valuable jobs for you.
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