How Polite Pest Turned Social Media Followers to New Customers

Editors note: Click here to watch the full Zoom interview with PCT's Digital Editor Amanda Donchatz and Polite Pest co-owner Travis Bottoms for more in-depth coverage on influencer marketing.

MESA, Ariz. — When Travis Bottoms, co-owner of Polite Pest, started his own pest control business in the beginning of 2020, he already knew of one way to attract a new customer base: social media influencer marketing.

Before Bottoms started Polite Pest with Erick Estrada, he worked for a large door-to-door pest control company, trying to find new marketing avenues. With some brainstorming and teamwork, Bottoms and that company's owner had an idea.

“[We] realized that our wives and [women] on Instagram [normally] buy everything that people post about, so we were thinking [influencer marketing] was a natural step,” Bottoms said. “For them it was small, but I saw the bigger picture on it. I knew the snowball effect it would have and especially [with] a brand that is pushed to a certain demographic, we would have success.”

When Bottoms and Estrada started business together, they knew hyperlocal influencer marketing would be the first step in their marketing efforts before investing in paid social media and online advertising.

© Polite Pest

The company currently partners with 107 social media influencers who live predominantly in the Mesa, Ariz., area who promote Polite Pest when a technician arrives at a residential service through posting on their feed, Instagram stories and partnering with the company on video reels.

At first, Bottoms does not expect any new customer from an influencer for the first three services, which averages to the first four months of working together. 

Then, Bottoms requires at least one new customer to come from each service to deem the relationship successful, averaging one to four new customers for each post.

FINDING YOUR SERVICE AREA MARKET AND DEMOGRAPHIC

The key to successful influencer marketing is defining your business demographic, and specific service areas to know which social media influencers will likely have the most followers in your market, Bottoms said.

“For [our company], we use moms that are hyperlocal,” Bottoms said. “Most of my influencers have between 10,000 to 50,000 followers. It doesn’t matter if they have 50,000 followers, that doesn’t mean they are real followers. We’ve worked with those types of influencers, and you look at the statistics on the back end, and their true reach is like 2,000 followers.”

The company’s “niche” influencers are usually stay-at-home moms who have an Instagram and Facebook following of 10,000 to 50,000 followers, Bottoms said, adding the company’s top producing influencer last year brought in 86 new clients.

“We know about 80% of our [company] following on Instagram is women because that is who we market to,” he said. “With that influence, our following follows that same [person] with 80% women [who are] 25 to 45 years old and 20% who are male.”

Bottoms said not all influencers produce successful followers and customer retention results, which he learned early on.

“There are 30 influencers that we used and have not had great results with by looking at the data on the backend and come to find out that they’re not good [for our demographic],” he said. “[An influencer] moved here from Kansas City six months prior, she had like 50,000 or 60,000 followers but most were from that city. She was posting [our services] for six months, and we didn’t get any traction whatsoever.”

BUILDING INFLUENCER RELATIONSHIPS

The relationship between Bottoms and the influencers is mutually rewarded, as most influencers receive discounted services, and some are paid $50 to $100 per post that converts into a new customer.

In 2022, the company gained 1,400 new customers, and 800 of them came from influencer marketing, Bottoms said. Instagram is the company’s No. 1 platform for customer leads, and Facebook following suit.

Now, the company is well over 2,500 customers with a goal of reaching an additional 2,500 new customers this year.

© Polite Pest

Bottoms said there are never “clear-cut directives each influencer needs to hit.” If the influencers experience with the company is true, it will come through on the screen.

“It’s when people show their face, the technician and the work being provided," Bottoms said. "Our goal is to build the relationship first.”

Although not all influencer marketing relationships work out for the company, Bottoms said he is a “three strikes and you’re out” type of person.

“The people we have separated from, we have done it in a way where we knew it was coming and felt it the last couple months,” Bottoms said, adding it’s all about transparency and they will never end the relationship without effort. 

Bottoms’ advice to PCOs trying influencer marketing: never expect something the first time.

“No one’s going to automatically jump on board the first time. The following also knows they are influencers, so the followers want to know that they are using those services religiously,” he said. “I don’t consider a success until after the third service, which is four months, they just have to bring me one customer for each third service.”

Posting does not normally translate to same-day results.

“It’s all about relationship building without it being transactional. … The audience can tell how [influencers] feel about the company,” Bottoms said.

MAINTAINING A COMPANY SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT

One main question Bottoms is asked regularly, “Where do you begin when first trying influencer marketing?”

His response: Be active and engaged on your company’s social media first.

The company pushes its service technicians in the field to do fun and interactive videos with customers or ask customers to post about upcoming service sales.

“If we weren’t on social media ourselves, it would not work,” Bottoms said. “I have influencers now reach out to use [us] because of our activity. We had a ton of influencers in the beginning that didn’t trust us because our Instagram and everything wasn’t up to [par].”

Bottoms said the company has seen more customer leads by asking regular customers to post on their social media accounts and tag the company page.

“Let’s say an account has 460 followers on [their] social media, they found us from an influencer that has 50,000 followers,” he said. “Those [customers] with a smaller following trust what they have to say because their followers are all family and friends.”