Managing your pest control business is hard enough on its own, but finding new customers makes it even tougher. Thankfully, you can put together your own marketing strategy to pick up the slack for you. Here are five marketing tips you can start using today to help grow your pest control business almost instantly.

1. Send out mail

Local businesses have a great advantage in their hometowns. You can easily send out promotions in the mail to residents in your service area. Be sure to use your real business address on every letter, and avoid sending out postcard promotions through bulk rate mail. You want to send your promotion in a plain old envelope with a stamp on the front. If it looks anything at all like junk mail, then it’s most likely going to get tossed in the trash. Send out a few thousand every month as your budget allows, and you’ll eventually reach the entire area.

2. Make calls

Get a company sales representative on the phone with every apartment complex manager within 50 miles of your business. Multi-family properties are one of the most consistent sources of income that a pest control company can have. You’ll need to have a solid sales presentation ready, and you’ll need to have a few dedicated sales professionals on your team. Branch out to commercial properties when you run out of apartments to contact. Circumstances are always changing, and you should get back in touch with old contacts every few months after they reject your initial offer.

3. Create a website and Google My Business account

A lot of your new clients will find you through a simple online search, and you need to take advantage of that. A website doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars to set up, and almost anyone can do it through WordPress, Squarespace or Google. You can have a simple one-page website built overnight, and you can start your Google My Business account the next day. That will allow you to add a link to your website on your local search listing. It will let you control the information listed on Google for your business, too. You can even manage your online reviews, and you can respond to them publicly.

4. Advertise in local media

It’s common sense to have at least a small advertisement in your local media. Be sure to contact your area’s phone book provider, and be on the lookout for small newsletters with cost-effective advertising plans. If there are any local television shows in your state, then that’s a great place to start. Make sure that your target market enjoys the media that you advertise in. There’s not much point in promoting your pest control services in the wrong place at the wrong time. For example, it might be a bad idea to run ads during music blocks on radio stations because listeners aren’t paying attention when the ad plays. It could be better to advertise on a morning radio show where people are actively listening.

5. Follow up with every client

The best person you can market your services to is someone who has already purchased your services in the past. You already have all of their contact information, and you know for a fact that they can pay you. It’s so much cheaper to reach out to existing clients every month than to go hunting for new ones. Take care of your customer, and they will take care of you. Send them a thank you card and give them a call every once in a while to check up on their situation. You might consider creating a referral program with customer rewards, too.

So, what’s the trick to growing your pest control business?

It starts with knowing your customers, and no one knows your customers better than you. Use a mailing list to bring in new clients, and constantly make calls to bigger players on the front end. Handle your online reviews through Google, and make sure your business listing is up to date. Local media can be a goldmine for your business, so be sure to take advantage of any good advertising deals you can find. Lastly, connect with your existing customers consistently, and give them an incentive to send referrals your way.

Read more: How to generate leads for your pest control company

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ST. CLAIR is a public relations specialist for Crawlspace Depot. She loves to write informative articles and share her knowledge with the readers.