Bud Brewer's Seven Simple Steps to Marketing Residential Services

Brewer, who’s been with Massey for 19 of the company’s 20 years, said the best marketing PCOs can do is providing quality customer service.

“It starts with how you look at marketing,” Brewer said. “Some people view this as an expense. That sets a certain tone in an organization. (Massey COO) Tony Massey used to say I was the L in his P&L. There are a lot of people running businesses who view this as an expense."

Brewer encouraged attendees to view marketing as an investment to growing their business. These seven steps have worked well for Brewer and Massey Services.

Step 1: Set a realistic budget. Try your best to establish your budget. Brewer says there are two approaches for coming up with a marketing budget. You can set aside money at the beginning of the year or you can commit a percentage of your gross revenues to marketing, Brewer said. Massey Services commits 4 to 5 percent to marketing, depending on the segment.

Steps 2 and 3 : Know your customer/identify your market. Determine how the pest control ‘landscape’ has changed. The residential customer is a lot different from the commercial customer. Commercial is a very price-driven segment. Brewer says Massey Services commissions researchers to uncover demographic information to get a clearer picture of the residential segment

For example, Brewer says Massey targeted a marketing campaign after research revealed that in areas it services, women were making more of the buying decisions related to the home.

“We have an expression that the woman is the CEO of the home," Brewer said. "The husband likes to think he has a lot of input, and he may at a particular point in the process start to get involved, but overwhelmingly it’s the woman who calls to express the need and even more the woman is making the deal.”

Step 4: Establish timing and time references. Choose your marketing approach. Brewer said there are two schools of thought about frequency. Concentrating your marketing efforts at a certain segment or spreading your marketing message to as many people as possible. Reach is the number of people who see or read your message and frequency is how often they reach, see or read your message. Marketing with a lot of frequency is called an awareness strategy while marketing for a lot of reach is called a strategic approach. Brewer says both approaches can be successful.

Step 5: Determine your message. The artistic side of marketing. Brewer refers to this step as a PCOs unique selling proposition (USP) and he encourage PCOs to make this message singular in nature. It can be a general message or it can be a specific message. For example, a PCOs general message may be brand reinforcement.

Step 6: Select your media (delivery system). If message is the artisict side of marketing then media is the scientific side of marketing. Brewer reviewed many of the marketing resources available to PCOs and noted that everything works and it is the PCOs’ job to figure out what is right for their situation. For example, “Don’t spend your money on radio or television if you’re not able to service an entire marketing area,” Brewer says “It’s an awful lot of waste.”

Brewer added that he believes one of the most efficient forms of marketing is an aggressive referral program. “Every time your service techs go out they should be handing out material to people around your existing customers. Write notes that say 'I know you’re not my customer, but ask your neighbor about us.'”

Step 7: Measure your results. You can’t manage what you don’t know. Brewer encouraged attendees to do some follow-up research to determine which of their marketing strategies were most effective. He said it is important to re-evaluate and fine-tune your marketing efforts and to make sure your marketing efforts are ongoing.