Untangling the Web

Pause one moment from selling, scheduling and servicing. Take a quick break and open your Internet browser. Now, Google yourself. (No one is watching.) Search your company name. Type in the words "pest," "bug," "termite" and see what results you find.

The businesses that cropped up before and after yours on that search list are competing for your customers.

Busy professionals who need pest control services surf the ‘net, not the Yellow Pages. The next generation of customers — the ones who text message rather than make phone calls —probably don’t even have phone books at home. But they do have computers, Internet access and a couple of minutes to browse online for solutions to their problems. When they land on your home page, they get a first impression and make a snap decision whether or not to do business with you. An effective Web site can give Web-savvy prospective customers just the answers they are seeking.

"The Internet is a 24/7 doormat to your business: It’s always open, it’s always there," says Greg Rice, marketing director, Hulett Environmental Services, West Palm Beach, Fla. Rice tells how Hulett Environmental’s site, www.bugs.com, has evolved from a static front page to a dynamic marketing tool complete with a video that shows visitors how to use the site. Rather than waiting for a television station to air one of Hulett’s famous commercials, potential customers can learn about Hulett on their terms, without waiting.

"We live in an instant society," Rice says simply. "We want it now. We don’t want to spend too much time looking for information; we want it to be readily available."

Back to that Google self-search. If customers want to see your site now, what are you showing them? Gone are the days of merely slapping up a site. Today, a company’s Internet home is a tool for educating, selling, checking quality (surveys), reaching out to the community and much more.

As a result, pest control companies small and large are catching on to the Web more than a place to post a phone number. "A Web site opens your business up to the world," says Lynne Frederick, vice president of marketing, Massey Services, based in Orlando, Fla. She notes a "huge revolution" in pest control company Web sites across the board. "And the reality is, [a site] doesn’t have to be complex," she adds. "It has to be what you want it to be."

Whether you’re refreshing an existing site, planning a complete re-launch or starting from scratch, the job requires setting clear goals and focusing on usability, searchability and interactivity.

THE BASICS AND BEYOND. Truly Nolen’s Web site is 500 pages deep, but so organized that visitors can effortlessly click and find information. The site is a device for generating leads, showcasing the brand, educating customers — it’s a living, changing entity. But the real value for Truly Nolen is tools that visitors can’t even see. Barry Murray, director of marketing for the Tucson, Ariz.-based company with 69 branch offices, can log on to an internal site and monitor phone activity, even listen to administrative personnel taking customer calls. He can track insect swarming activity by call volume, too. Also, branch offices can access employee manuals and business forms.

"The site has developed into a platform that is absolutely necessary for us to do business," Murray says.

It didn’t start that way. "Our Web involvement began many years ago with a couple of pages, neat bugs to look at and a paragraph of information," Murray says. That was back in 1995. Since then, site re-launches have focused on customer interactivity and education. Now visitors can buy pest control online or read Murray’s weekly blog, The Insect Inquirer. The site has a click-to-call feature, a customer survey button, and games and "experiments" for children. The famous Truly Nolen mouse car even has its own page on the social networking site, Facebook.

"The possibilities are endless," Murray says, noting the challenge of staying on the cutting edge of technology.

But not all companies are equipped with the time, money and personnel to execute a Web site that functions as a virtual business. Murray says some Web presence is better than none. The caveat: "You need to invest enough to compete with folks like us who have really sophisticated sites," Murray says.

Sophistication requires planning. First, decide how you want customers to use the site. Will you educate? Interact? How deep will you go, and what are your in-house capabilities for managing the site and responding to customers who find you online?

"If you say, ‘We do free inspections for pests,’ you better be able to respond quickly, and if you can’t, you will do more harm than good," Frederick says. Though there’s nothing wrong with a basic "contact us" page if a company is not prepared to invest in the back-end tools to support online scheduling, she adds.

Before writing a to-do list for the Web developer, do some soul searching and set realistic goals for your site.

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Site Specs

A basic but robust site should:

Explain services and what customers can expect from a technician visit

Answer frequently asked questions

Provide contact information

Run quickly and smoothly, avoiding complex design that’s difficult to load (not every customer has high-speed Internet)

Reflect your brand and differentiate your company from competitors

Ask for the sale, tell customers how to take action

Be easy to update

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What is the mission of your site? Rob Crigler, director of interactive marketing at Orkin, Atlanta, Ga., says their site reflects the company’s core values. "What is reflected on your site about your brand?" he asks. "Does your site have the ability to quickly and accurately answer customers’ questions?" (See "Site Specs," above.)

When starting a site from scratch, the very first step is to secure a domain name. Save creativity for site content and focus on choosing a Web address that people can find without Google’s help. Why not www.yourcompanyname.com? In Rice’s case, the nontraditional spelling of Hulett — most people want to spell it like Hewlett Packard — and a hyphen in the former domain name (hulet-se.com) confused customers. Rice eventually acquired the domain bugs.com. "That was a big coup for us," he says. "It’s short, easy to remember, and if people see it on our vehicles they’re likely to remember it."

Domains must be "hosted" by a provider, and you’ll pay annually (usually about $20) to maintain your domain name. From there, a company must decide what basics, and extras, to include on the site. Rice advises against designing a site with too many colors. "Have a good, professional-looking design," he says. Choose quality photos.

Be different. "We moved away from the shock-them-with-scary-bugs angle because people who look on your site are already scared of bugs," says Nicole Kirwan Keefe, marketing and advertising manager, Clark Pest Control, Lodi, Calif. Instead, the company’s updated site will reflect a customer service angle — "come to us and we’ll care for you," she says.

"You have to get that initial emotional response from people," Keefe adds. "We want to convey that they can trust us with their family, home and valuables."

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Boost Your SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) involves improving a Web site so it will rank high in search engines and help potential customers or clients find your company online. SEO is, literally, raising awareness of your site by boosting it to the top of search engine results.

Here are a few simple ways to crank up your site’s SEO:

Select 50 or 100 key words that are most relevant to your products, services and target audience. Use those words liberally (but not profusely) in your Web content. Keep in mind SEO does not pick up content treated as a graphic element.

Say your name. Sprinkle your company name throughout the text and use it on various layers of your Web site (ie. home page, service page, contact us, etc.)

Target your customer base by including your address, city, state and zip code. This will help local users, who narrow their search to regional businesses, find you.

Advertise your site on search engines such as Google AdWords. Or, logon to Google AdWords and use the free "get keyword ideas" tool to boost your site’s SEO. — Kristen Hampshire

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SEARCH AND CONNECT. You can blow the budget and dedicate a year of time to roll out or re-launch an impressive Web site. But how valuable is the site if people search online and cannot find it? In the Web-world, earning top placement in search results is called search engine optimization (SEO). It’s an art, science and full-time job for Web-geeks who focus on imbedding key words ("termite") and common search phrases into a Web site’s content.

Think about it. If you search for pest control and 197 results appear, you’ll call the first five, if that many. "It’s not enough to create a beautifully designed Web site," says Keith Corino, marketing manager at Massey Services. "The most important thing is how customers find the site and use it."

Searchability and usability address people’s greatest pain: lack of time. Companies with accessible, easy-to-navigate sites win customers with no time to spend making a dozen calls from the phone book, and no time to wade through complex Web portals.

Customers want relevant information now.

Massey Services recognized that managing site content on a daily basis would deliver fresh information to potential consumers. Addressing pest pressures and swarming trends through a weekly blog keeps the site current.

"We wanted a situation where we could encourage new and repeat visitors," Corino says, noting that Web tracking shows an increase in visitors who are staying on the site longer and exploring it more thoroughly. This measurement is called "click-through rate" for how many pages visitors access beyond the home page.

Programs like Web Trax will count visitors, and customized programs built into a Web site will identify how many users buy services online and what topics interest them.

"The Web is more productive than some direct mail campaigns where you spend money on 50,000 pieces and get 100 responses," Murray says. He notices more competition for Web leads through search engine pay-per-click programs — essentially, search engine advertising — because the cost has increased per click. (Every click is a potential customer.)

More clicks drive SEO and higher search engine positioning is won by interacting and connecting with visitors — hitting them with your company name as many times in as many places online as possible. The tools available to liven up a company’s static site include video, blogging with "RSS" feeds that alert subscribers when news is posted, the ability to ask questions via a Web site, and to schedule services or pay a bill. Sites that work like an online display ad tend not to make the first screen of search results.

But paying for online "clicks" isn’t the only way to build up Web traffic. Bugs.com is advertised on Hulett Environmental Services’ television commercials and pasted on the sides of its services trucks, Rice says.

Drawing attention to the company Web site and utilizing it as a communication tool can change a business. When Orkin launched its Insect Safari in 2000, concurrent with the company’s 100th anniversary, the first interactive children’s games were introduced to the Orkin site. Now, visitors can "Ask the Orkin Man" and contact customer service via the site.

"Interactivity is one facet of your overall marketing mix," Crigler says, noting that companies of different sizes allocate Web, direct marketing and T.V./broadcast efforts differently. "All of these tools work together," he adds.

In effect, Orkin and other big industry players have evolved their business practices because of Web interactivity. Tasks as simple as dispatching a press release are easier with a Web site tool, points out Martha Craft, assistant vice president of public relations and corporate communications for Orkin. "If there is information about a particular pest — like when bed bugs had a resurgence — we were able to provide a lot of online information about bed bugs quickly," Craft says. When people searched online for bed bugs, Orkin’s site was a top match.

Interactive media connects companies to customers and prospects, but equally important are its benefits to internal operations. For instance, Orkin’s interactive satellite television communications network, "Orkin TV," links thousands of employees to real-time training sessions.

The Web has changed Clark Pest Control’s sales approach. A site redesign will result in an online home that functions as a true selling tool, Keefe says. "More people are comfortable purchasing services over the Internet and they want to go online, request someone to come to their house, set the time and be done with it," she says.

INVEST AND TEST. So what’s the price tag on a tricked-out Web site with all the tech tools? How much for the interactivity, the top search engine positioning, the pay-bill-signup-for-service functions? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to the cost question. Business owners can purchase DIY software and post a site within a week, or they can go a step higher and hire a Web developer to design a solid, smart-looking and effective site. The difference in price is dramatic, like asking someone, "How much do groceries cost." It depends. Online visibility can cost no more than a Yellow Pages display ad. For about $2,500, a company can introduce a respectable site with basic features such as service offerings, contact information, even a blog, Murray says. (On the other hand, a company can spend the sticker price of a luxury service truck — or more.)

However, count on Web development as an ongoing investment in your business. It’s not a one-time fee. "Once you put up a site you have to maintain it and update it as often as you think you should according to your marketing plan," Craft says.

As for the time involved, multiply your estimate by three, Crigler adds. "You should always strive to have a professional look, feel and presentation."

That said, take time to set goals prior to developing a Web site and don’t forget to test the site before rolling it out to the public. This is called beta testing, and it involves working out bugs, broken links and other usability and programming issues prior to an official launch.

Clark Pest Control hired a focus group to evaluate their existing site prior to its current redesign, which is still in progress. "Once the site is up, you want it to be the right product," Keefe says. "It’s better to invest the time even if the process drags out longer than planned. It’s important to nail it right the first time you launch the site."

The author is a freelance writer and frequent PCT contributor based in Bay Village, Ohio. She can be reached at khampshire@giemedia.com.