Five Tips To Grow Your Business

Tip 1. Be clear on who your customers are – they’re local.

Don’t waste time and money on marketing to those that aren’t local or relatively nearby. Marketing is about identifying and understanding your customers and giving them what they want. It’s not just about advertising and promoting your business.

So who are your customers?

What about local home-owners and business owners in specific suburbs close to where you operate from? You understand their local needs, the local pests they deal with and the local issues and concerns they have. Why this definition?

• Google serves local customers searching for a ‘pest problem’ and their ‘suburb’ or region. If you’re truly local in terms of address and content on your website then you’ll rank highest in their search.
• A local customer costs less to service. Why drive past thousands of potential customers to service a customer an hour away?
• Less time driving means more time to grow your business. Less time behind the wheel means more time to invest in promoting yourself locally. More time to do the work that will create profits and allow you to add the next technicians and expand your business.
• More time to build your web presence with local content that locals will recognise through social media like Twitter and Facebook. Use local case studies, local images and local information to optimise your website to make it easier for people to find your website.

Tip 2. Don’t get distracted. Be a disciplined marketer.

Flying solo means you need to be organised. The reason you’re in pest control is because that is your core skill. Just as you need to be disciplined in the way you treat homes and businesses for cockroaches, rodents, ants and spiders, you also need to be disciplined in how you market your business.

Tip 3. Take another look at your vehicle signage.

Check each day. Does it look professional? Is it clean? Do you allow five minutes each morning to run the hose and a cloth over it? How effective is the message? Along with your branding does it give a reason to call you rather than your competitor?

Tip 4. How professional are your customer leave–behinds?

These are your sales brochures and fridge magnets you leave with customers at the end of the job. Are you proud of them? Do they carry your branding and back–up service details? Do they differentiate you from competitors? This is a keen source of referrals.

Tip 5. Target the neighbours.

The easiest promotion you can do is to the homes and properties to the left, right and opposite the customer you are servicing. “My company is treating a neighbour’s home in your street or suburb. Can we be of service to you? We’re local and we’re effective.” A small flier with this message inserted in 10 of the neighbours’ letterboxes as you pack up your vehicle after a job is proven to get more cost-effective results than any other marketing activity you can do. Of course, there is more you can do to market your business for growth but for busy soloists you can’t go past the basics, which are targeting locally, being disciplined in your marketing, keeping your vehicle looking smart, having a professional leave-behind and dropping off a flier to target your current customer’s neighbours.

To find out more information, reach out to our team.