Pests are getting peskier! There are more than 120 million occupied housing units in the United States. In a 2019 survey, 14 million residents in those units said that they spotted at least one pest in their homes during the previous year.
You can help these residents and grow your business through an effective digital marketing strategy. However, you can’t just set up a website and expect great business success. You need to engage in a few steps to make your marketing meaningful.
How can you figure out who to market to? How should you improve your online presence? What strategies can you use to court new and old customers?
Answer these questions and you can grow your pest control business like never before. Here is your comprehensive guide.
Find Your Target Customer
Roughly 46% of Google searches are local. A user may type in “pest control near me” or “pest control in Holmdel.” Your pest control marketing should target customers in your geographic area who can make effective use of your services.
However, you need to be more specific than people who live close to you. Picking a demographic can help you develop marketing ideas that appeal to the values and life experiences of certain customers.
Take a look at your pre-existing customer base. Break your base down into demographic categories and focus your marketing efforts on one or two of them.
If you don’t have a clear base, examine your previous marketing efforts. You can target the people you tried to appeal to, or you can pivot and focus on a new group.
If you’re confused about who you should market to, conduct market research. Test your services out in small groups and see who likes and dislikes your offerings. Keep working with test groups as you develop your first pieces of marketing content so you can see if they are working.
Define a Clear Goal
Once you’ve selected your target audience, you need to figure out a goal. You may want to convert more sales, develop your presence online, or promote brand awareness.
To make developing your digital marketing plan easier, you should write a specific and measurable goal. If you want to make more sales, pick a number of sales you want to make and give yourself a deadline. You may want to increase your sales by 15% over the next year.
Make sure you have a way to track your progress. Many websites and social media platforms have analytics pages where you can see how many followers or comments you have. You may need to talk to your accounting and sales divisions to track your sales.
Once you’ve picked your goal, start thinking of ways you can achieve it. For making more sales, you need to showcase your pest control services and explain why they are better than your competitors’ services.
Examine Your Competitors
Before you start running your plan, you should take a look at your competitors. Examine the pest control companies in your general area.
Then think about who your main competitors are. Compare your services and brand with the services and brands of your competitors. Some companies may help different customers than you, so you do not have to worry about them.
Take a look at their digital marketing efforts and take notes on how you can distinguish yourself from them. If they use social media heavily, your marketing plan can focus on a blog or videos.
You should also take notes on what they have done right. Invoke what they are doing well in your efforts without regurgitating what they did. If catchy slogans are producing good results for them, you should write slogans of your own.
Make sure your visual materials are distinct from theirs. Use a different color scheme, font, and photographs so people do not mistake your advertisements for theirs.
You can look at case studies throughout the pest control industry. However, you should keep in mind that a nationwide company has different goals and resources than a small company. Try to look at examples of companies with similar structures to yours.
Improve Your Website
Digital marketing requires a great website. Slow load speeds can cause people to click away and result in low rankings on search results pages. Remove features on your website that slow the speed down, including large images and GIFs.
Include a navigation bar across the top of the screen that makes important pages easy to access. Each button should have text that explains what page the user is going to. The buttons should be big and spaced apart from each other so a user does not accidentally click on something.
Your landing page is the first page users see when they click on your website. It may be your home page, contact page, or list of services.
Landing page design is extremely important, as you want to leave a good first impression on the user. You need to write a specific headline on your page so the user knows what to expect. You should also include an image that illustrates what your company is about, like an employee cleaning a rug.
If you have many pages on your website, you should include a search function so your user can access everything. You can also create templates that group pages together for easy access.
15% of Americans own a smartphone but do not have broadband internet access. To appeal to these users, you need to optimize your website for mobile use.
Mobile screens are smaller than laptop screens, so make the text on your website smaller. Cut down on your paragraphs so they are easy to skim and click on.
Produce Informative Content
People may have several intentions when they go online. They may be looking to buy a product or hire a pest control service immediately.
They may also want to learn more about pest control or get information on a few companies so they can compare offerings and make a purchase. The best way to court people regardless of their intention is to produce helpful and detailed content.
Producing only promotional content that shows off your products can make you seem desperate and turn off people looking for solutions. Explaining how the user can solve problems and kill pests in their home makes you seem like an expert and encourages them to reach out to you.
If you haven’t started a blog on your website, you can start one. If you prefer to use social media, you can write short posts or make infographics.
Offer information that helps your prospective customers spot pests in their homes and control infestations. At the end of your content, you can ask them to reach out to you for more information. You can also link to your products, services, or other posts in the body of your content.
Feel free to write guides about your community, employees, and industry. These guides can help users get to know you and attach a positive image to your company.
Leverage Social Media
Start company pages on Facebook and Twitter as soon as possible. If you are looking to hire new employees or market to professionals, you should join LinkedIn as well. You can also join TikTok if you’re courting young people.
You should post on your social media pages at least once a day. However, you should not share low-quality or irrelevant content. At the start of each week, you should make a plan for what you will share so you are not rushing to put out content.
Write your own posts, share images, and share links to articles about the pest control industry. You can also create guest posts, inviting others to share content through your accounts. This is a good way to foster business connections and show your ties to your community.
Leave comments on other people’s posts so their users visit your pages. But do not spam someone else’s posts or leave comments promoting your business. Comment in response to what they are saying.
Many people use social media to make complaints or ask questions about a company. Someone in your company should monitor your social media pages every day. They should answer questions in the comment sections and respond to direct messages as soon as possible.
Grow Your Digital Marketing Strategy
A good digital marketing strategy will have a few steps in it. You need to pick a target audience and brainstorm a goal that attaches your company to that audience. It should distinguish you from your competitors and grow your brand.
You must build a good website before your strategy begins in earnest. You also need to use social media in some way. Try to prioritize sharing informative content that educates your audience and establishes you as a thought leader.
If these concepts are difficult, call a few professionals. MarketingPests helps pest control companies throughout America. Contact us today.
