What Can Pest Control Companies Do During Slow Seasons?

By Chris Keenan on January 26, 2017

The cold winter months can be hard for home businesses such as pest control companies. This downtime can mean less income than the busy season due to a lack of pests, but the downtime also means being proactive in making this year even better than the last.

Here are some ways to utilize the slow season to your advantage:

Look over analytics and revamp

Maybe you haven’t had time to see what ads work or what keywords generate the most conversions. This information is invaluable and can ensure that you are getting the most bang for your buck by allocating the proper amount of funding for each component of your pest control marketing plan.

To do so, use programs such as Google Ads Keyword Planner to see what individuals are searching for in pest control within your service area. You can utilize these keywords for both paid ads as well as website copy.

Come up with new marketing campaigns

Beyond just looking at your analytics, you can now see what has worked for your companies marketing plan and what did not. It is best to leave what is working alone, but it may be beneficial to look at what isn’t working, scrap or revamp the ads, keywords, websites and marketing campaigns that aren’t working and come up with a new idea.

Marketing campaigns do have a shelf life, so coming up with a new angle may be a way to revive an already existing pest control campaign or completely re-doing it could benefit you as well.

Change up your current offers

Competition is always looking at you and what you are offering your clients. If you had a $40 off coupon last year, then you might want to see how much more competitive you could be in the upcoming pest season. A competitor is probably already formulating a way to outbid you on last years offer, so it’s best to stay on top of what you can offer clients and continuously find ways to offer more to keep your clients interested (while still making a profit).

Outreach to existing clients

Hopefully, you have a CRM system or ways of creating a mailing list of all your existing clients past and present. This is a good time to remind them that you are ready and willing to help them out with your pest control services come the busy season. This may also be a time to roll out any offers for existing clients such as referral programs which could net not only your existing client again but potential new clients as well.

Send out surveys

Along with reaching out to customers reminding them that you are ready to help their pest control problems, you also should also be open to their opinions as well. A quick survey asking them about their experience this past season could offer information and insight on how you could better yourself as a company. Your clients are what make your company function so truly taking their experiences into account could drastically improve your company year to year.

Organize your company

This may sound more clerical than anything, but it can benefit how the company runs in the current year. Maybe you want to organize your company calendar more, clean up the office space, organize your client list or just make sure everything is in its proper place. What better time to do this than during the slow season. Not only will the company benefit, but so will the employees and the customers as well when you have a track of every aspect of your company in a neat and organized fashion.