All posts in “marketing”

Advertising, what works?

I think that advertising and marketing are the biggest questions racking the brains of small businesses everyday. Marketing is that action of promoting your products or services. You as a business person decide on your product or service and ultimately people then decide to buy. Marketing is used to create the customer, to keep the customer & to satisfy the customer. With your customer as the focus of its activities, it can be concluded that marketing is one of the premier components of business management theories and the other being innovation. Phone books are a thing of the past except if you are marketing to seniors or areas where seniors are living, they may not use smart phones yet. They may still use phone books, the growing trend for younger people is mobile or internet ads. They also rely on word of mouth to decide on what they may purchase. So today you have to be on top of all these marketing skills to promote your companies. Most of our work comes from referrals and the word of mouth of previous customers. People have used ProBest for over 35+ years and we still have a few termite warranties in place from the early 1980’s.

So what type of ads work, that continues to be the $64,000 question? Do you have any opinions, what works for you and your company, share your ideas please?

 

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOm7yIhVjI[/embedyt]

 

advertising

advertising

National Pest Conference – Phoenix, AZ. A home sealgers view.

 

They are taking down the booths and all the exhibits and they are shipping them back to corporate headquarters and the folks are heading home, so was it any fun?

I always have fun when I’m at a bug conference, I enjoy meeting or seeing people I haven’t seen in awhile. I love attending the classes on leadership, marketing and of course new bug stuff. But again I love seeing my ole friends and share the tales of the bug issues we faced since last year. This year my task was to meet up with the people that either read my home seal or share FaceBook  stuff or maybe people that ask questions.

FaceBook has opened the world or maybe a better explantion is that it has made the world smaller. I get asked questions about how we do business in the U.S. and get asked questions about the different types of bugs etc.

Maybe we can all learn something here about the pest industry and world issues. maybe we can all get along and quit complaining about things. Anyway to all my friends that I got to see this last week and the others who couldn’t make it to Phoenix for “PestWorld 2013” thanks for the fun and maybe next year we will see you in Orlando, FL. Here are a few pictures I took of all the fun.

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QualityPro Booth

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QualityPro Booth with Fred Willey (Invader Pest Management) and Caleb Tannenbaum (Marketing For The Future)

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NPMA Board Session

NPMA Board Session

Yes I voted...

Yes I voted…

 

Effective Leadership – What Scouting Taught Me!

  Effective Leadership – What Scouting Taught Me!

I think leadership is something you are born with and is also something that you can cultivate and make better. As an Eagle Scout, former Woodbadge Scouter’s Key trained 15 year Scoutmaster I spent many a day planning, organizing and setting into motion events and training programs. Each and every day at ProBest Pest Management those same thoughts help me to plan and organize my day, month and year. I carry everyday my “Marketing and Planning book” because as the saying goes “He who fails to plan, plans to fail“. So what is my plan:

  1. I have a 1 year plan and 5 year plan!
  2. Marketing, advertising and planning are a day to day process.
  3. Try something and if it works continue, if it doesn’t try something else. With that being said you must track the marketing.
  4. To succeed everyone must understand the plan and be on-board to make it happen.
  5. Training is essential, there are 2 things that I never care about; #1 taking my employees to events with other pest industry technicians – some leaders worry that their technicians will be stolen by other companies. If they leave they weren’t that loyal to you anyway. weren’t that loyal to you anyway. #2 I require certain amounts of continuing education and encourage my employees to learn and yes even to the point of getting them certified as Qualifying Operators which means that they could leave and start their own business. Anything is a risk but if you treat your employees well, hopefully that will come back around (Karma).
  6. I encourage my employees to speak their minds but ultimately it still is my ship to steer.
  7. No one is perfect and the way you learn is by making mistakes.

Scouting builds character!

Marketing ideas, advertising and directories! Pt 5 Pest Control Ideas

Marketing ideas, advertising and directories! Pt 5 Pest Control Ideas

Advertising Wrap-up

My opinions on advertising and what worked for ProBest!

  1. Anything that brings customers to your door is a Win, Win – period.
  2. If you track it, weed it out or continue to use the technique.
  3. Be consistent!
  4. Think outside that box – I hate this expression but I guess it is what it is.
  5. If it works for you forget what others may say.
  6. It’s all about keeping customers and gaining new ones to grow. Think like a customer!

If you need some help, I don’t profess to know it all but maybe we can come up with some new ideas together! Send an email to [email protected]

             

Marketing ideas, advertising and directories! Pt 3 Pest Control Ideas…

Marketing ideas, advertising and directories! Pt 3 Pest Control Ideas…

Way back in January 2008 we were notified by the Gilbert Post Office that they were looking for businesses that would like to put a Post Office in their business location. We had to have approximately 150 square feet of space and we would have to supply the postage upfront. On average we would have 2 maybe 3 people a year come to our office to pay their pest bill. I would say now we are having 100 to 150 per day coming to the office. We greet them by saying Hi when they walk in the door and we do everything in our power to be as friendly as possible – if they have  a great experience they will continue to buy from us.

We also have upgraded our presence on the web, Bryan updated our webpage (great job) and we upgraded our exposure with www.kudzu.com this site allows anyone to do a review of our service or you can get there from our site at www.callprobest.com/kudzu  People trust and feel better knowing that other customers like our service. We also have a presence on http://merchantcircle.com

I home seal everyday www.callprobest.com/home seal and I try to pass along relative information from Bed Bugs to the Zoo in Jacksonville, Fl. A BIG THANK YOU goes out to our customers who continue to use our Pest Services, thank you for your support.

 

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Marketing ideas, advertising and directories! Pt 1 Pest Control Ideas…

Marketing ideas, advertising and directories! Pt 1 Pest Control Ideas…What exactly is advertising?

  1. Public promotion of something: the public promotion of something such as a product, service, business, or event in order to attract or increase interest in it
  2. Industry that creates advertisements: the business of producing advertisement.
  3. Advertisements: advertisements considered collectively – according to BING

and

Advertising is a form of communication used to encourage or persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to continue or take some new action. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common. The purpose of advertising may also be to reassure employees or shareholders that a company is viable or successful. Advertising messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various traditional media; including mass media such as newspaper, magazines, television commercial, radio advertisement, outdoor advertising or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages.

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through “Branding,” which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate certain qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Non-commercial advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement (PSA). according to Wikipedia

1000th Post – ProBest Pest Management

1000th Post

Today marks the exciting 1000th post – Congratulations to ProBest Pest Management, Stinger and Dr. Bug!!!

What shall we discuss? There are a host of things we haven’t talked about yet, do you have any bug stories to share. Has anything ever happened to you concerning bugs etc? How about that movie Arachnophobia or Big Azz Spiders?  Posting or blogging has and continues to be a fun way to pass along information to our customers and friends. We try to provide local and international ideas and postings of various pest related items. Some of  those stories scare me to death, like using 30 bug bombs and blowing their house or business up. 

1000th

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