Pest control marketing tips to reach more customers
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Key takeaways
- Having a well-made website can help potential customers find you more easily online
- Social media is an online form of word-of-mouth marketing that provides valuable customer insights into your small business
- Infographics are visually attractive when placed on your website and social media, and they can serve as a form of lead generation
Got bugs? Well, many people do, which is why the pest control industry is booming. In 2019, the U.S. market size was at $19.73 billion, and it’s expected to grow to nearly $32 billion by 2027.
Whether you’re just getting started with your pest control marketing strategy or looking to improve it to secure more leads, this article can help you attract more potential customers.
To help your pest control business thrive, you need a strong online presence that ensures your brand is discoverable and supported with a positive online reputation. By capturing word-of-mouth referrals and enhancing your website, you can achieve both of these goals.
Your pest control marketing strategy doesn’t require a big-budget marketing campaign—just a bit of online marketing know-how. To help with that, here’s a list of practical internet marketing ideas to help your small business grow.
5 pest control marketing ideas to implement online
As a business owner, you want your small business to stand out from the numerous business listings already online. Your success will mostly depend on the following digital marketing activities.
1. Capitalize on word-of-mouth marketing
Your pest control marketing strategy isn’t complete without including a powerful way to secure referrals. Nielsen reports that almost 70% of customers trust the opinions of other customers, making a word-of-mouth referral among the most powerful links to a thriving small business.
Referrals will come naturally with a job well done and excellent customer service. You can also ask homeowners if they’d like to refer you to friends and family who could use your services too. Lastly, consider providing your employees with a personal referral code they can share with friends and family for a small discount on your pest control services.
You might be surprised to learn that word-of-mouth marketing includes online reviews. Make sure to stay on top of your online reviews and engage with your customers by responding promptly. Doing so highlights your professionalism and customer service while also showing customers that you appreciate and care about their feedback. Monitoring and responding to reviews on platforms like Yelp can also help inform your future business decisions and marketing strategy.
2. Keep the conversation going on social media
When used properly, social media can boost your pest control marketing efforts. It gives customers an easy way to ask questions and even share their testimonials. It also allows you to engage with your customers directly, showcasing your customer service.
Social media can help you manage your online reputation as well, which is critical for your business. Here are a few tips to keep your brand on track with social media marketing:
- Share articles that demonstrate your pest control business as an industry expert
- Respond to all social media inquiries within 24 hours—any longer and that potential customer may go elsewhere for pest control services
- Highlight other non-compete businesses in your service area to build good rapport within the community
- Look at your metrics on social media to learn more about your target audience and what their needs are
3. Get customer insights with pay-per-click (PPC) online advertising
Online advertising can help you reach more relevant customers and enhance your SEO efforts. If you do a quick online search for “pest control company,” you’ll notice the first results at the top are labeled as “sponsored” or “ad.” This is a clear indicator that these companies have invested in paid advertising.
Worldlead reports that with PPC advertising, leads convert to sales 50% more effectively compared to when customers just happen to come across your website. It’s a hugely effective method when you know who you’re trying to reach because you can target specific pest control clients by area and pest control service type.
As the name suggests, you only pay per click. If no one clicks on your ad, you won’t pay anything.
Questions to ask yourself when creating your pest control advertising campaign:
- What does success look like? How many leads or sales am I striving to generate?
- Which keywords should I use to attract a specific audience?
- What is my daily ad budget?
- Is my website’s landing page optimized for both desktop and mobile?
- What do my competitor’s ads look like?
4. Optimize your webpages with SEO
SEO (search engine optimization) is the practice of keeping specific customer searches in mind when creating web content. This helps search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Google find your web pages faster and serve you up to those customers.
When potential clients are looking for pest control services, they might type things like “exterminator” or “bed bugs infestation” into a search engine to find a local business that can solve these problems. If you have an SEO-optimized website, it will make it easier for people to find you over your competitors.
Here are some practical tips that can boost your SEO ranking:
- Research common keywords and include them in the content on your landing page (the main page of your website) and other web pages. Some keyword examples might be “termites” or “pest control.”
- Perform keyword research to determine search terms that aren’t too competitively—i.e., they aren’t too popular or overused by other websites. That way, your web pages will have a good shot at being found before your competitors’ web pages.
- An easy way to boost your website SEO is to link to other relevant web pages on your website where it makes sense. You can use third-party apps like Hotjar to see how much time potential customers are spending on specific web pages, which can help you see if your content is engaging readers.
- Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that potential customers can find it right away based on their location. It’s every small business‘s dream because SEO is tailored, targeted, and largely effective. One easy way to boost local SEO is to include the name of your city as much as possible within your web content. Claim your business on Yelp to improve your local SEO ranking so that potential customers know how to get in touch for pest control services.
5. Complement content with infographics
Your website articles—usually in the form of a blog—provide potential customers with relevant information, which helps to show you’re an industry expert. It’s also a useful way to boost SEO.
Infographics are a great way to dress up your content. These images use illustrations to convey concepts and statistics in an easy-to-read manner that’s visually appealing. Infographics are a powerful tool to reach customers who are short on time.
If you portray useful information with easy-to-digest visuals, there’s a good chance your infographic will be shared with other potential customers or on social media sites like Pinterest or Facebook.
Infographics are simple to make yourself with user-friendly design apps like Venngage or Canva. There are hundreds of templates that allow you to drop in customized content, like “signs you have bed bugs” or “different types of termites.”
Lead generation starts with a strong online presence
Getting more leads for your pest control business is easy when you have the right tools. An SEO-optimized website coupled with affordable advertising and smart content is a strong start.
You also want to stay active on social media and build your online reputation by staying active on platforms like Yelp, which can boost word-of-mouth referrals. Understand your audience better by checking the metrics and paying attention to customer feedback on your business listing. The insights found there can help you better understand what you’re doing well and what improvements might make for a better customer experience.
When you implement these suggestions, you’ll increase your brand awareness online and have a much better chance of gaining new customers offline.
The information above is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice and may not be suitable for your circumstances. Unless stated otherwise, references to third-party links, services, or products do not constitute endorsement by Yelp.
