Gaining new customers for your pest control business may not be particularly easy to accomplish, considering most people usually stick with the same pest control service they’ve used for years. However, the same can be said for other essential services and these have started to market themselves effectively. So, there’s no reason your pest control business should be left behind. One of the best ways in which you can promote your business in today’s day and age is to rely on Digital Marketing.
Digital marketing
That being said, businesses such as pest control can continue to rely on traditional, offline marketing methods and find that they can benefit from them. Either way, what matters most is the content you’ll be featuring in these ads (or, as you’ll see later, the lack thereof). Both the written and visual content of your pest control ads matter if you want to capture the attention of potential customers and convert clicks to sales. But the question is: what kind of content should your ads feature?
Most of us have grown up with flyers and pamphlets for pest control services slid under our doors, especially around the monsoons when the pests come out (or should we say in?). These printed ads generally featured nothing more than a catchphrase and some basic details of the services offered alongside the prices they were offered for. This was the written content of the ads and as for the visual content, this usually entailed a few pictures of common household pests – just to put the point across.
However, as time has gone by, the pictures featured in pest control ads have grown increasingly graphic and consequentially, disturbing. When it comes to pest control for farms, gardens, and other outdoor spaces, pest control ads generally contain pictures of a variety of pests attacking plants and crops. While these images are graphic, one could argue that they effectively emphasize how much of a nuisance pests can be in terms of affecting agricultural produce.
On the other hand, pest control services for homes and offices often feature images of pests such as cockroaches, ants, etc. that are known to plague such places. However, lately, you’ll likely have come across several indoor pest control ads online that feature elaborate images of pest attacks. These images depict a large number of pests infesting different corners of a house and are often considered unsavory by many.
For instance, picture this: you come home from work one fine evening and you’re too tired to cook. So you decide to go grab a bite outside and step out of your house. Only to find a flyer for a pest control service with large, graphic images of a bug infestation in a kitchen, or worse, a picture of someone’s arm with a bug bite on it – and suddenly you’re not hungry anymore. It’s easy to see why most people find graphic images of pest attacks disturbing.
More often than not having a pest infestation is indicative of an unhygienic environment and pests are seen as undesirable. Therefore, there’s no real reason why anyone would want to see ads for pest control services featuring elaborate details of pest attacks – both written and graphic. After all, who’s unfamiliar with the implications of a pest infestation? On the other hand, you could argue that more people respond to visual ads that feature images than those with plain, written content, especially with the introduction and popularity of Display Ads.
A large image of a pest or pest attack may help you capture a viewer’s attention right away. In other words, you won’t need to come up with especially creative written content to let them know you’re a pest control service, your point has been made. The key here is to decide on what level of graphic you can risk your images to be without it being off-putting for viewers. There are many ways to do this, the easiest of which may be looking at pictures of pest attacks online and analyzing your reactions to them, or the reaction of a sample of your employees.
Another way to determine whether a picture is too graphic is to view ads for popular pest control companies online to get an idea of how graphic their content is. Since these ads are featured by a successful business, chances are that they’ve found the right balance of graphic and subtle to advertise their services effectively. While you’re at it, take a look at the wording of the content as well.
You could paint an elaborate picture of a pest attack using only words if you choose to go with a less graphic image and vice versa. Whichever method you choose, ensure that your content puts your point across without jarring your audience. Remember: people need pest control services whether you advertise for them or not so the idea here is to make them aware of your business, not of pest attacks.
Lastly, when it comes to featuring Display Ads online, beware that Google is now quick to flag anything too graphic for viewers. This means that you could spend a good amount of time, effort, and money on making ads for your business that get taken down because you weren’t careful enough to abide by Google’s policies which is why we say it’s always better to put in the research before you create an ad that you believe could be too graphic.
If you’re confused about the level of graphics that users respond to the most, consider using A/B testing with two similar ads, one featuring a more graphic image of pest attacks than the other. When the results come in, you’ll know how to invest your time and effort better to create the right kind of ads for your pest control business.
