7 Sales Ideas To Market Your Pest Control Business This Off Season
As winter continues, many people assume that pests aren't a problem during the cold months. This can lead to a dip in business for pest control companies across the country.
You already know that in all seasons, pest control is key, and understanding how to drive pest control leads even in the slower months is how you'll get ahead. But don't worry—we've got tips from the experts on how to enhance your pest control marketing efforts this off season.
If you are wondering how best to generate leads for your pest control business this season, try these tips from other business owners who have thrived through seasonal slowdowns. Choosing to use all of these ideas or just a few is a surefire way to drive pest control leads directly to you even in the coldest winter months. Let's get started!
#1 - Win Back Past Customers With Special Offers
Our number one method for generating more sales in the slow season involves sending hand-addressed letters to our past customers, giving them a friendly and informative update on things to look out for during the fall and winter months in regard to their home maintenance needs.
In the pest control industry, we remind folks that while they are holed up indoors, rats and mice may be taking up residence in their attic, crawl space, basement, and garage. These rodents seek warmer and dryer conditions in the winter.
Furthermore, pests around the yard continue to burrow and eat plants all winter long, and we encourage customers to keep an eye on their yard even in inclement weather.
Additionally, we offer wintertime specials like free attic inspections for rats and 50% off the first month of annual pest control. What's most important is getting the customers to remember that they have to keep up their home maintenance year-round and not let the distraction of the winter chill interrupt their pest control program.
Zachary Smith, President of Smith’s Pest Management
#2 - Make Your Business Easy to Find
One very critical thing that home service business owners often neglect when it comes to their sales tactics is to take advantage of local listings online. Homeowners usually search for HVAC service providers through online search, and Google recommends on top of the results page those who are nearest to their locations.
Don't forget to set up local listings. Google Business Profiles are key, so refer to them when looking for best practices. There are a variety of guidelines to follow to represent your business properly, including:
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- Represent your business accurately online, just like in the real-world through signage, stationery, and other branding.
- Make sure your name, address, phone number, and service area are accurate and precise.
- Choose the fewest number of categories it takes to describe your overall core business.
Skyler Reeves, President and CEO of Ardent Growth
#3 - Stay Connected
As the founder of my cleaning services company, I can say that seasonal upticks and downturns have always been around. Preparing before the slowdown helps find new streams of revenue when the phone stops typically ringing. To sell services during the seasonal slowdown:
- Reach out to muted customers. During your slow season review customer profiles and put together a list of people who mentioned additional projects they were considering tackling in the future.
- Enhance your social media strategy. Posting enhancing social media content during your slow season gives you time to practice and refine it before things get super busy again.
Jacob Martinez, Founder of SwiftClean
#4 - Partner With Other Service Providers
As a real estate agent who works with home service business owners, the best sales tip during a seasonal slowdown is to partner with other service providers who can recommend you to their clients.
In my practice, I trust a group of service contractors to work with on different projects. When I talk about them to my clients, I put in a good word so they know that I can vouch for their expertise and professionalism.
Matt Rostosky, Owner of Cashofferky.com
#5 - Offer Specials To Boost Sales
The seasonal slowdown is a great time to offer gift cards and promotions for customers.
The holiday season is typically slow for many home service businesses. However, we have had a lot of luck selling gift cards for house cleaning and offering promotions like 20% off carpet cleaning from December to February.
Roman Peysakhovich, CEO of OneDesk
#6 - Try Adding a Seasonal Service
A good way to sell services during seasonal dips is to frame and package your services as a seasonally specific service. For example, pest control services may offer a "winter inspection" even though it's the same as typical preventive maintenance.
Another option is to offer new services that are specific to the season. We offer Christmas tree pickup. Even though we typically clean out yards and pick up yard debris, we specifically provide tree pick-up as if it were a different service.
Seasons change how people search for services in specific industries. It's important to know what services are similar to yours that people are searching for and offer a service specific to that search, even if it's pretty much the same thing that you already do.
Paul Cornell, Owner of Action Junk Removal Seattle
#7 - Get in The Holiday Spirit
I think you need to use the seasonal slowdown to focus more on giving the feelings people want during the season. Instead of offering a discount on an item, offer the ability to provide part of their purchase to charity and give up the discount instead.
Most people will want to help others during this time, so this is a great way for customers to do that, and you still get your services sold at the same time.
Lucas Robinson, CMO of Crediful
Author's Note: This blog was originally published in November 2020 and has been updated to reflect current trends and data.
