How To Fix A Misaligned Pest Control Marketing Plan

Marketing plans and a company are part of a business symbiotic relationship. Both need to mutually work together to create a better outcome for the pest control business. The business needs to work in alignment with the marketing plan and the marketing plan needs to be in alignment with the pest control business, the customers, and with a certain goal in mind. Perhaps, your pest control operations wants to hit a certain amounts of leads per quarter or you want to ramp up your revenue or you simply just want to get yourself in front of more customers in your local service area. Whatever the marketing plan goals, they need to work together with the business regarding all aspects from current revenue, business needs, and the availability to put focus on a marketing plan in the first place. Needless to say, there are many working parts to a marketing plan. But, what if you had a marketing plan that did not work out? How can you fix it so it is more in alignment with your pest control operations? Here are some suggestions on how to re-vamp the plan instead of scrapping it:

Re-evaluate the plan in unison with the business

Marketing plans need to be created with data in mind. If you had a goal to create a new marketing strategy but the budget was beyond what you had available, you may not be able to fully get the plan off the ground. You may also have had plans to create a very involved marketing plan during your busiest part of the pest season and not being able to give it the focus it needed may have made the marketing plan fall flat just based on timing. You need to know your company, your revenue, budget, and times in which you can give a marketing plan the time and effort needed to reach it’s full potential.

Know your target audience and demographic

Knowing your target audience may help you re-vamp a marketing plan that may have fallen flat during round one. If you have a younger demographic of first-time homeowners in your area, but you decided that old-school mail-outs were best, maybe that may not have resonated as well with the tech-knowledge of the younger generation. On the same note, you may have an older demographic that may not be technologically-savvy and you put a lot of money into an online ad campaign that did not get much traction. While there is no need to scrap the plan, you may want to see the analytics and see what worked and what did not when putting your local pest business in front of your target demographic.

Ask your customers for feedback

You may have a full marketing plan created, but without knowing what your pest control customers are looking at and where they are gathering data about your business, you may not reach them. Luckily, you have your current customers available to give you this information, so make sure to utilize their habits to re-do your marketing plan. Sending out a survey or questionnaire either digitally or in the mail (based on demographics and available information) can get a better idea of how to place your ads and marketing in front of your customers. If many say they saw your ad online, then putting more money into online marketing may be a good idea. Whereas, if your customers have seen you mostly in ads around town or billboards, then placing more ads in that capacity may be best. You want to make sure your marketing budget is being put to its best use to get the best outcomes.

Work with a marketing or lead generation team

If all else fails and you need a little help, it may be best to find a pest marketing firm to work with. This will leave more time for yourself as a pest control business owner and your team to focus on the inner-workings of the business and leave the market research and marketing itself to professionals who can get your ads in front of the right audience and A/B test in a thoughtful manner based on analytics. Needless to say, marketing for pest control is definitely about trial and error. But, error does not mean your hard work needs to be scrapped, it just needs to be re-purposed. A misaligned marketing plan does not mean failure, it just means getting the marketing plan and business operations in unison with each other.