Whether you’re a new pest control company or you’ve been around for decades, marketing can often feel like the never-ending list of tasks you don’t want—know how—to do.
In a recent webinar, we shared the following tips to help you stop wasting time with complicated marketing tactics that just won’t pay off. To watch the full webinar, click here.
Where to Focus Your Marketing Efforts
There are three main areas you will want to focus on when it comes to your marketing efforts: reputation, customer experience, and expertise.
→Reputation:
In terms of reputation, the driving force used to be word of mouth. In the digital age, it’s all about reviews. Think of them as the modern-day word of mouth.
→Customer experience:
Your goal with customer experience is to separate one-time customers and lifetime customers. If you have poor customer service, you will only have the former, but a good customer experience gives you lifetime customers. The good news is that customers like local businesses. In fact, 7 out of 10 customers surveyed visit local businesses at least once a week and would rate them at least 4 out of 5 stars.
→ Expertise:
Finally, marketing your expertise will mean publishing relevant information on your website or blog. You want to regularly appear in information about pest control and become a trusted authority.
How to Drive More Traffic
To drive more traffic, take the time to think about your customer journey. This includes taking the time to get clear on who your ideal customer is. Start at a large scale— are they commercial or residential clients? This depends on the focus of your pest control business.
Then, think about other features of your customers. Consider their income, age, educational level, and more. Also, consider their attitudes toward pest control. For example, depending on where you are, you may want to emphasize that your pest control methods are safe for the environment, whereas this doesn’t matter as much in other areas.
You also want to think about customer pain points and their preferred channels. Then, consider your message and branding, including a brand purpose. Your purpose should involve what you do and the value you give your customers.
Which Local Marketing Strategies Work for Pest Control Companies
So, what local marketing strategies work well for pest control companies? Let’s get into the specifics.
Google Business Profile
Going back to your customer journey, you will notice that most customers start with a Google search. In fact, Google has 98% of the market. Even if they hear about your company somewhere else, they’ll Google you to learn more before reaching out.
If you don’t already have a Google Business Profile, it’s time to create one. If you do have one, make sure it’s optimized. That includes your contact information, your address, and your work hours. If you don’t have an address, you can opt for a support or service area instead. Add photos to your listing. Businesses with images in their Google listing get 35% more clicks through to their website.
There is also an option to “click to text.” Be sure to turn this on, and people will be able to text you directly from Google.
Reviews to Boost Your Business
Once your Google Business Profile is set up, it’s time to focus on improving your reviews. This is important—88% of consumers consider reviews before visiting a local business. Of the various review websites, Google is the most important. Not only does it have a large portion of the market share, but reviews boost your rankings and the likelihood of customers choosing your business.
According to our research, customers usually won’t engage with a business with a rating below 3.3 stars. And 52% won’t consider doing business with a company that has fewer than four stars—so make that your goal. A good way to see what your goal should be is to search “pest control near me” or something similar. Look at the ratings of your competitors and try to beat them.
→How to Get Reviews
So reviews are important, but how do you actually get them? The simple answer is to ask. Most of your clients will be willing to write a review, especially if you make it easy for them. Given the number of clients your pest control company likely serves every day, you should have a steady stream of reviews.
Texting is a powerful tool when it comes to requesting reviews. Yes, you can ask via other methods, but texts have a 98% open rate and increase the chances of customers leaving a review. You can also add QR codes to your invoices or to physical signs your company has to make it easy to leave a review.
Improving Your Website
Yet another crucial part of your marketing plan is your website. Think of your website as your digital storefront. One crucial feature of your website is a live chat. 41% of desktop visitors and 50% of mobile visitors expect this option; your customers want to engage with you this way. And adding webchat is a win-win scenario because you are three times as likely to convert a customer via webchat than via a phone call.
You want to give your web visitors the best experience possible, and a crucial element of a good experience is contactability. Podium’s Webchat takes ease of contact to the next level by moving conversations from websites to mobile phones for conversations that last long after the visitor has left your site.
But Webchat isn’t the only way people will want to contact you, so make sure to also list your phone number and offer a contact form.
When you are ready to really take your website to the next level, consider adding social proof and educational content. You can offer a blog, videos, or eBooks about home maintenance, pest control, and other relevant topics. For social proof, add reviews, testimonials, and case studies.
Payment Methods
Don’t forget to include convenient payment methods on your website. Accepting payment on your website gives clients more ways to pay, maximizing the chances that they will pay you on time. This gives an alternative to paying at the time of service.
You can take this to the next level with the option of text-to-pay. You can automate that process with Podium by importing a file with the relevant information, including names, numbers, and balances.
Get Started With Podium
Podium helps pest control companies with multiple parts of their digital marketing strategies. We help you gather more reviews, which helps improve your website traffic. Then, our Webchat feature makes it easy to interact with and convert those website visitors. Then, those clients pay with ease via texting to pay and leave reviews. Then, the cycle repeats. There are even plenty of templates in Podium that make it easy to ask for reviews or payment.
Still struggling to come up with a marketing plan? Check out our guide, Digital Marketing for Beginners.
