Word of mouth is one of the best marketing methods for pest control businesses. It’s especially true for smaller, local businesses. Bigger companies can just throw money at advertisements to drown out the competition. 

If you don’t have the budget to go toe-to-toe with them, relying on paid ads could burn your marketing budget without getting any meaningful ROI. The good news is that more cost-effective ways of getting leads through the door exist. 

7 Best Strategies for Pest Control Marketing

Getting a sustainable flow of appointments for smaller operations comes down to being seen. Here are seven actionable strategies that can help your pest control business get in front of the people who need your services most: 

Build and Optimize Your Website

Your website is the central hub for your marketing efforts. The moment leads land on your website; they should get all the information they need about your pest control services. Let’s look at an example from PCI Pest Control. 

You immediately see what pest control they specialize in. They also upsell their service in the form of a coupon. “Save $50 when you sign up for recurring pest control.” They’re not losing money on a service but getting loyal customers. But what if you don’t have a website? 

Optimize Your Google Business Profile Manager

If you don’t have a website just yet, a Google Business Profile will be your key to local visibility online (but having a website will significantly help your GBP visibility). When people search for keywords like “pest control {{area}}", Google will give them a list of businesses near them. 

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If you don’t have a GB, here’s a quick guide to claiming one:

• Go to business.google.com/add or use Google Maps
• Enter your business's name and address
• Select your business from the search results
• Click Request Access
• If prompted, request ownership from the current profile owner
• Fill out the form and click Submit
• Verify ownership of your business

To increase your ranking for local searches, you must optimize your GBP by completing your profile, adding high-quality photos of your services and team, completing your NAP (name, address, and phone number), and adding all the relevant categories related to your business. 

If you already have a website, one technique you can do is to match your GBP categories to the services you have. Then, create a landing page for each of your services. 

Monitor Your Local Search Presence

Tools like Local Dominator can help you see your pest control business’s rank relative to the competitors in your area. This lets you check the progress of your local SEO efforts and track the keywords you’re ranking for.  

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Aside from keyword rankings, you also need to monitor your Google reviews. Although reviews aren’t an explicit ranking factor, customers still look at reviews first before deciding on booking an appointment. More importantly, they’ll examine how you handle or respond to bad reviews. 

Manage Your Online Reputation

Word-of-mouth also works online on a much larger scale. When customers find you for the first time through organic searches or when they look up your business name, you must be presentable, have proof of consistent quality work, and be an authoritative figure in your locale. 

Try joining local groups on Facebook. But don’t go there to sell services. Instead, answer questions related to pest control, give tips, and be generally helpful. So, when they do need your services, you’ll be top-of-mind. 

Another way to manage your online reputation is to engage with reviews. However, tracking each customer and following up for a review can be a pain. With customer experience tools like Chekkit, you can automate review invite follow-ups and have AI help craft the perfect response.

Get Your Business Listed in Local Directories

Although it’s not a direct ranking factor, listing your business in local directories is a great way to improve visibility and brand awareness. The best part is that you can get listed in multiple local directories simultaneously. 

Directories like Bing and CitySearch let you manually add your business to their list for free. But if you want to automate the process at scale, you can use tools like BrightLocal, which has a la carte services that let you choose directories. 

Run Referral and Loyalty Awards

Relying on new customers isn't sustainable. You want to nurture existing customers and turn them into loyal patrons. One of the best ways to do this is by incentivizing referrals and loyal customers. 

Offer discounts, coupons, or free services to people who recommend your business or repeat customers. Discounting $20 on a service in exchange for a repeat customer that you can continue to serve for months or even years is a small price for long-term revenue.

Create an SMS Marketing Campaign

SMS marketing has a 98% open rate, making it the best medium for customer engagement. You can run automated promotions, nurturing, and re-engagement campaigns to help keep your business top-of-mind. 

For example, if you’re in Florida, you could give your customers a heads-up about the termite season from late spring to summer. Weather also affects when termites swarm, so activities like rain storms could also be something you can tell your customers to look out for. 

You could run a seasonal campaign with the text: “🚨 Termite season is here! Protect your home before they invade. Schedule your inspection today: {{booking link}}.” Automating your text schedules can help you stay ahead of seasonal campaigns. 

If a customer inquires but doesn’t book an inspection, an SMS reminder can nudge them to do so. Try using something simple and personalized like: “Hey, {{first name}}, still worried about {{pest}}? Our team can drop by your home this week.”

Key Takeaways

Pest control is a business that can get you appointments all year round. But to make that happen, you must put your business in front of the right people, nurture your customers, and find ways to stay top-of-mind while providing value. 

SMS marketing gets you all three. Chekkit can automate promotional texts, set auto-replies, and schedule messages to ensure leads book with you, not the competition. Book a demo today!

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