10 Proven Marketing Ideas For Your Pest Control Business

10 Proven Marketing Ideas For Your Pest Control Business

by Duane Baumgartner

I’ve been marketing pest control companies for over twenty years, and in that time, we here at City Ranked have come up with some tactics that have been repeatedly proven to produce qualified leads in volume for pest control businesses. 

10 Pest Control Marketing Tips Guaranteed to Bring You More Customers:

1. Offers, Coupons, & Specials – This seems like an obvious addition to any pest control marketing plan, but you’d be surprised how many pest control businesses don’t have specials, coupons, or offers on their website or added to their digital marketing mix.
   1. Benefits of having an Offer, Coupon, or Special
      1. Increase conversion rates from people who may not be ready to buy today. It’s happened to all of us. You were on a website not particularly motivated to buy, but an offer pops up that’s irresistible, so you made the purchase. Pest control services are no different.
      2. Give something, get something. Having a gated special that requires the end user to enter their name, phone, email, and any other pertinent information gives you an opportunity to engage with those prospects, even if they decide not to call at that point. Marketing automation with well-built-out automations and workflows can reengage these prospects, helping you turn them into your customers.
2. Turn One-Time Services into Recurring Services – Most pest control companies offer some sort of guarantee on services. Many pest control companies will offer 60-day (yours may differ) guarantees on one-time services. Turn some of these into recurring customers by simply contacting them toward the end of the guarantee period to let them know their guarantee is expiring and ask them if they would be interested in a recurring plan that’s guaranteed all year long. Not all will convert, but some will. Add an additional incentive to make the offer too good to pass up, such as no setup fees or something similar.
   1. Pro-Tip – Marketing automation can automate this process without requiring human intervention. This means no more lost opportunities.
3. Speaking of Guarantees – I’m always shocked when I visit a pest control company’s website, and nowhere can you find the guarantee and what it entails. Prospects visiting your website want to know they are choosing the right company, and guarantees bring peace of mind knowing the provided services will be administered correctly.
4. Social Proof, Yes Reviews Matter – The absolute most successful pest control companies I’ve ever worked with have a rock-solid process to produce a lot of reviews on auto-pilot. Reviews get clicked on in search results, with a reported 97% of consumers checking reviews before engaging with a company. Ongoing review generation should be a priority for every pest control business.
5. Speed to Lead, Yes You Need to Respond Quickly – How fast does your customer service team get back to form leads? The most successful pest control companies get back to their form leads in 5 minutes or less. The faster you respond, the more people you will get on the phone, and it keeps the lead from engaging with the next pest control company on Google’s search results.
   1. Pro-Tip – Don’t settle for just leaving a voicemail. Didn’t get that prospect on the phone when you called back? Don’t just leave a voicemail and abandon the lead, instead, institute a policy that every form lead is called a minimum of 6 times to try and get that person on the phone. Double-Pro Tip – Marketing automation can take care of this, all on auto-pilot when connected to your pest control CRM.
6. Pest Control Confidence Factors – Is your pest control company certified? QualityPro? GreenPro? Are you a member of the NPMA? These should be advertised on your site and explained to consumers how it benefits them and why it’s important. Perhaps your company employs IPM methods? Using words like Environmentally Responsible Pest Control Services can attract prospects looking for safer, eco-friendly alternatives.
7. Offer Multiple Ways For Prospects To Engage – Still forcing your prospects to call you or fill out a form on your website? That’s so 2010’s of you! Today, people online engage with businesses via phone, web forms, text, web chat, social platforms, and more. If you’re not offering multiple ways for consumers to engage with your brand, you are most certainly missing out on new sales.
   1. Pro-Tip – Marketing automation can engage with prospects 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. No more missed opportunities after hours or weekends, and no more expensive after-hours call services. Marketing automation will engage with these prospects, ensuring they understand their inquiry is important to your business and that someone will contact them as soon as you open, and can even remind them that you’ll be calling once you open so they are reminded and ready to accept your call.
8. Offer a Referral Plan to Your Existing Customers – Your current customers should be your biggest fans, right? Why not offer them a discount on one of their quarterly services if they refer friends, family, and neighbors to your business? This is a super simple and effective way to add additional easy sales.
   1. Pro-Tip – Create a separate page on your website with a dedicated form for the referral information, then promote this link on your invoices, email signatures, email marketing, service reminders, social media, and anywhere else your customers engage with you. Double-Pro Tip – Marketing automation can automate this entire process, freeing up your CSR team to deal only with qualified leads.
9. Offer Additional Services – As a pest control business owner, you’ve invested a lot of money to outfit your vehicles with the best equipment. Can your business offer services such as invasive plant control, crawl space encapsulation, WDO inspections, or pre-sale termite inspections? These are great ways to generate additional revenue for each vehicle in your fleet. Studies also show that pest control customers with 2 or more of your services are far less likely to cancel when compared to customers with only 1 service.
   1. Pro-Tip – Additional services such as crawl space encapsulations, attic and crawl space exclusion, WDO Inspections, vapor barrier replacement, and rodent services are great ways to bridge the gap in the slower winter months.
10. Leverage AI in Your Marketing Efforts – Everyone has heard the new buzzword, Artificial intelligence (AI), but are you leveraging it in your marketing? Many business owners shy away from AI due to not understanding it, but make no mistake, AI is here to stay, and businesses that leverage it early will reap the rewards far into the future. Implementing AI is about teaching a computer model about your business, what is important to your business, how your business differs from your competitors, and what your business considers to be a good lead. One example of leveraging AI for your pest control business is below:
    1. Pro-Tip – Does your pest control company use an IVR-enabled phone system? You can train Google’s AI when it comes to what should be considered as a “conversion or event” when it comes to phone calls. Training Google’s AI, especially when it comes to optimizing your Google Ads budget to CPA (Cost Per Acquisition), can yield big returns on your investment into Google’s platform. Inserting conversion scripts once someone has indicated that they are a new customer looking for a quote helps Google’s AI understand what you consider to be a good pest control lead.

Choosing an Experienced Marketing Agency for Your Pest Control Business

When it comes to pest control marketing and advertising, there are many choices out there. Choosing a digital marketing agency that thoroughly understands the challenges of running a growing pest control company, the types of services you offer, the frequency of your services, and helping your business process new leads quickly, all while serving your current customer base is imperative to getting a successful digital marketing campaign up and running quickly. We here at City Ranked have helped hundreds of pest control companies scale their operations, with many growing to the point of acquisition. If you’re looking for a digital marketing partner who understands your business and helps your revenue grow, schedule a consultation with us to learn more about our services.

Read our Pest Control Marketing Case Study Here.