Back in March 2025, PWIPM and TPCA hosted the webinar Marketing 101, Best Practices for Small Business Owners. It was presented by Jackie Lott, Marketing Manager of Bug Busters. Across the next several issues of this TPCA newsletter, Jackie's marketing wisdom will be featured. 

Google Business Profile

The first marketing tip can be implemented immediately, and at NO cost! It is essential to setup a Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business).

Jackie emphasizes that: The storefront for your pest control business is on Google. When people search locally for a business using search terms like 'pest control service near me' or 'pest control company' or just 'pest control near me', various things like that often takes them to a Google Maps search result. And if you don't have a Google My Business page or it's not properly optimized, people are not going to find your business.

If you have already completed this first step, don't get too comfortable just yet. Things to consider:

• Did you complete your profile setup fully?
• Do you maintain/update your business profile?

Jackie advises the following: When you're optimizing your Google My Business page, you want to make sure that you fill it out fully; adding things in like the hours you do business, descriptions of your services.

You also want to include real photos in this part of your marketing as well. Again when people get to your Google My Business page, they don't want to see a bunch of stock photos. This can throw red flags for potential customers and Google doesn't like that either. So use real photos of your technicians in action, and take them horizontally (landscape).  You can easily use smartphones, which is a great way to do it; and often it will even add a location to where the photo is taken to help you show up locally when you post those photos in your service area. And just make sure these photos are taken with good lighting.

SEO optimization is the buzz word that still continues to buzz. According to Jackie: When they use this type of search, local SEO is extremely important and something you want to focus on.

The next step is to continuously maintain and update your profile and virtually interact with customers and potential customers. This can easily be done by adding Google Business to your social media marketing list. You can utilize the same post from your Instagram, Facebook and X on Google Business. Each post type can provide your audience with specific details about your business (e.g. adjusted business hours or new services offered) and allows you to add a call to action button. 

Learn more about setting up and maintaining your Google Business Profile.