1. Understand your market. Take a close look at the competitors in your area that are offering rodent services. Become familiar with your competitors' service offerings and develop your own value proposition. Clearly explain why your service is more valuable to your customers.
2. Advertise. What media does your target audience consume? In other words, which websites do they visit or which magazines do they read for information? Where do they go to search for service providers? These are the places you will want to place advertisements for your services. Start out small and test different ads to see what resonates, and adapt over time.
3. Add value. Look for ways to offer value to your target audience. Consider emailing them a rodent management eBook or a sample of private-label glue boards branded with your logo. Include tips for placement to protect their homes or businesses from rodents. Consider offering a free inspection service and follow-up with a rodent management plan to attack their problem.
4. Focus on the customer experience. Train your employees to go above and beyond with an account. Take time to talk with customers about ways they can reduce rodent activity on their property. Follow up to ensure your service tactics are working. Finally, ask for a testimonial that you can use online and in your marketing pieces to help new customers feel confident in your services.
5. Own the referral. Once you have a happy customer, don't be afraid to ask for their referral, and train your employees to do the same. Offer the customer something of value, like a free treatment or percentage off their next service in exchange for their referral. Remember, if you don't ask, the answer is always no!

1. Residential, single-family homes. Single-family homes with children or pets are an ideal target for rodent control services. Although rodents infest homes in cities and suburbs alike, homes near wooded areas are particularly vulnerable to infestations.
2. Management. Housing managers of apartment complexes, condo associations and homeowner associations are responsible for ensuring a pest-free environment for their tenants. Rodent management is ideal to ensure the safety of children and pets who may inhabit some units.
3. Facilities. Facilities such as child-care centers, elementary and secondary schools, and colleges and universities are required to follow integrated pest management (IPM) guidelines and use IPM rodent management techniques.
4. Restaurants, foodservice & food-processing plants. Rodent control is critical to restaurant operations. The food industry has very strict guidelines and no tolerance for rodents in establishments. A rodent sighting in a restaurant can be extremely damaging to its reputation. Beyond that, rodents are dangerous pests known to carry food-borne pathogens and disease. Rodent management is critical to any restaurant or food establishment.
5. Warehouses. Rodents can be very difficult to control in large environments such as warehouses. However, doing so is critically important to maintain a safe work environment for employees, and ensure that products stored within the warehouses do not become contaminated from rodents and other pests.

Bobby Kossowicz is a content creator for the Catchmaster brand. She is a marketing professional in the specialty chemicals industry and owner of Environmental Marketing Solutions (EMS), a niche marketing agency servicing specialty product manufacturers, distributors, and pest management and service companies.

PMP's Direct To You provides pest management professionals with educational refreshers on timely and critical topics essential to operational success. Look for the content-rich PMP Direct To You archives at mypmp.net/direct-to-you-archive.

This newsletter was produced by North Coast Media's content marketing staff in collaboration with Catchmaster.