The thought of getting pest control done usually elicits a groan from most people. After all, it’s not a very pleasant job – both for the pest control technician and a homeowner. Add this to the fact that pest control is seasonal and you have enough cause for complaint.
While avoiding pest control appointments, people often ignore the seasonality aspect of it all. In other words, very few people appreciate the importance of scheduling pest control jobs during certain seasons.
However, with the increase in awareness among people regarding hygiene and health (no thanks to a global pandemic), such aspects of pest control are gaining popularity. In other words, now more than ever, people are well aware of the seasonal nature of certain pest infestations.
However, unfortunately, many pest control companies aren’t on the same page. What we mean by this is that the pest control marketing strategies employed by such companies often misses the mark. In other words, companies don’t focus their marketing efforts on highlighting the seasonality in pest control.
Contrary to popular belief, pest control doesn’t enjoy demand only during spring and summer months. People often assume that warm or hot weather brings pest infestations. Sure, many pests (like houseflies) favour summer months, this isn’t true for all pests.
Some pests, like bugs, prefer to make an appearance (and how!) during the cooler months of the year. The relatively milder weather in autumn and later coaxes them out of their homes into those of unprepared home owners.
In such a scenario, if your company uses the same pest control marketing strategy and tactics that it did throughout the year, you could be in trouble. After all, you could well be barking up the wrong tree if your pamphlets and online display ads feature pictures of winter pests in summer months and vice versa.
So how do you get around this? The first thing to focus on here is education. If you don’t understand the seasonality of pest infestations, then you can’t expect to successfully run a marketing campaign for the same. After all, the basis for your promotional strategies should be catering to your customers’ needs.
Therefore, you should learn as much as you can about which pests favour what season before you start recycling your promotional material every season. Some pests aren’t particularly choosy about weather and seasons, they show up any time of year.
For instance, ants, cockroaches and those nasty bedbugs are ever-present in many people’s homes. So, if your posters, pamphlets, and digital ads feature these pests, then you won’t go wrong per se. However, you wouldn’t necessarily go right either. And what do we mean by this?
It’s simple; think of this in terms of other industries that have season demands like the fashion industry. Say you run a company selling apparel and are planning your promotional campaign for winter. Now, you could feature ads for blue jeans since these are usable all year round.
However, from a marketing standpoint, it makes sense to feature ads of typical winter clothing like overcoats instead. Why? Because doing so will send the message that you’re willing to stay on trend and can meet customers’ demands.
In a similar way, tailoring your promotional material to fit into seasonal pest control woes will help bolster your sales. It’ll allow users to discover your ability to meet the challenges of the impact seasonal changes have on pest infestations.
However, such promotional material is essentially meaningless if you don’t back it up with adequate training for your staff. You should ideally provide your staff with the right equipment, pesticides, and insecticides they require to meet seasonal pest infestations head-on.
Also, if you have an in-house marketing department, you should consider briefing them on the changes in promotional strategies. Keeping them abreast of changing demands will allow them to capitalise on trends and design effective marketing campaigns. This briefing would be especially useful for social media marketing.
Nevermind Google, many people now rely on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to find the products and services they’re looking for. If your marketing team can base your ads on what’s trending on social media and incorporate seasonal pests into the mix, you’ve hit the jackpot.
Sure, your marketing materials can incorporate year-long pests, but these pests should take a back seat when serious infestations take centre stage. For instance, in many states across the country, lady bug infestations are common in winter months.
During such months, it makes little sense for pest control companies to distribute flyers with cockroaches and flies painted on them. But, even if you feature the right seasonal pests in your ads, remember that your written content matters too.
If you don’t have an in-house marketing department, you could always seek out a PPC expert or marketing agency to design your ads. Bear in mind that your written content should underline your ability to deal with infestations. In other words, don’t just highlight the problem, advertise the solution.
At the end of the day, it’s not all that difficult to let seasonality factor into your pest control marketing strategy. Running a successful ad campaign isn’t easy at the best of times, but seasonal infestations are often the best of times. So, it makes sense for pest control companies to capitalise on the same with intriguing ad campaigns.
If you’re one such company, remember to put in adequate research regarding the seasonality of infestations and take it from there.
