Why email marketing?
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing channels available. And in a recent study conducted by Thrive Analytics, 68% of homeowners are open to receiving email marketing communications from home service providers at least quarterly, and a third of homeowners are open to direct mail (32%).
$44 Revenue for every $1 spent — a 4,400% potential ROI | 68% of homeowners open to quarterly email from home service providers | 32% of homeowners open to receiving direct mail |
Field service businesses can generate additional revenue with frequent campaigns focused on unsold estimates, upsell and cross-sell opportunities. If just one customer purchases through your campaign, you would add hundreds of dollars to your bottom line.
Developing an email marketing strategy
01 | Segment your audienceIf you're sending one message to your entire customer database, then you're not sending the right message to the right audience at the right time. Take a look at your customer list and see how you can segment and target them with relevant messaging that resonates with their needs. Some ways you may want to segment your audience include:
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02 | Go beyond the generic newsletterSending different types of emails to your customers is an easy way to keep your campaigns fresh. Try seasonal campaigns, special promotions, and informational emails. Send thank you emails after a service has been completed and "we miss you" emails to inactive former customers. The point is not always to drive sales with every email but to maintain awareness of your brand. That way, when the bugs start crawling, your business is the first one a homeowner thinks of to call. |
03 | Add value to every message you sendAs a pest control operator, nobody knows the ins and outs of the industry like you do. Educate homeowners on the basics by creating content for your blog or YouTube channel and then linking to the content in your emails. The more value they receive from you, the more likely they are to use your business instead of your competitors. |
04 | Craft catchy subject linesYour subject line and to some extent your preview headers ("preheaders") will determine whether customers open your email or not. You want to capture their attention and get them curious enough to open your email and find out more. Create subject lines that drive higher open rates with these tips:
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05 | Build trust with sharp-looking designAre your emails and postcards professional looking, easy to read, and actionable? When your customers open your emails, do they think your company is experienced, reputable, and customer service-oriented? Take the time now to build trust with your customers so it's not just about price later on. Always put your best foot forward by using the included pre-built templates that you can easily customize for your business. Your emails should look similar with your logo and brand colors consistently represented. If homeowners know what to expect from you, the less likely they will be to skim past your emails when they hit the inbox. |
06 | Automate your email & direct mail campaignsIt's important to never miss an opportunity to make a sale or engage with your customers. You should already be following up on all your open estimates, sending thank you emails after a service is complete, and sending emails to your customers whose subscriptions are about to expire reminding them to renew. If this is a manual process for you, create automated campaigns based on triggers. This will ensure that nothing falls through the cracks and frees you up to focus on more strategic areas of your business. ServiceTitan Marketing Pro allows you to automate these types of messages easily based on data already collected in FieldRoutes. |
07 | Determine the best moment to send emailsThe best days and times to send emails really depend on your audience. It's important to test and see when open, click-through, and conversion rates are highest for your Email Campaigns. Tuesdays are often mentioned as the best days and 6 am as the best time for email opens. Some recommend targeting right after lunch for people who work or even Saturdays for the best conversion rates. Use your judgment, see what your competitors are doing, and test for optimal times. |
08 | Review your results and optimizeOpen rates and click-through rates help gauge whether your email campaign was successful in getting customers to take action — but the key question you should be asking is: Did this email campaign generate revenue? Marketing Pro can deliver true ROI metrics with revenue attribution that makes campaign analysis much easier and will ultimately drive more revenue for your business. |
Campaign ideas for your industry
Need some marketing campaign ideas to help you get started? Let's take a look at specific pest and lawn care campaigns you can include in your marketing plans.
New Customer WelcomeCraft an email campaign sent to a new customer soon after creation in FieldRoutes thanking them for choosing your company, giving them pertinent information, and reiterating your company's contact information. | Request ReferralsSend a campaign to satisfied customers thanking them for their business and encouraging them to refer friends and family — with a compelling incentive to do so. | Win Back Canceled/FrozenCreate a campaign targeting customers who have canceled or are frozen in your FieldRoutes database in the last 6–12 months. Consider a special or discount to encourage purchase. Be sure to add a clear and prominent call-to-action (CTA). |
Anniversary CampaignsWhen you are approaching your company's anniversary, schedule an email letting customers know how excited and honored you are to serve them and the community. Offer a special "thank you" by offering a percentage off additional services. | Nurture/Retain Existing CustomersA monthly email newsletter highlighting seasonal news, sharing tips & tricks, and promotions. To add a little fun to your marketing campaign, you should also consider holiday emails. | Renewal ReminderDeploy an email campaign before the contract is set to expire (i.e. three months prior) reminding customers to renew their subscription. Highlight exclusive discounts, priority scheduling, or any other benefits that make your customers feel special and valued. |
Unsold Estimates CampaignSet automated email or Direct Mail Campaigns to follow up on all your open estimates, open quotes, and/or abandoned leads. Trigger an automated sequence that reminds them of the importance of keeping their home pest free, then follow up with a discount to help close the sale. | Upsell/Cross-Sell PromotionsUtilize the customer's current service type(s) or condition code(s) to cross-sell additional services. A great example is to target customers with general pest control service type who don't have mosquito control with a promotion to add mosquito control to their program. |
Email domain reputation best practices
Email domain reputation is critical for your email marketing success. So, it's important to start with smaller, targeted segment lists and increase the volume over time. Your email marketing is graded by Internet Service Providers (ISPs), who look for suspicious activities such as spikes in send volume. If your email reputation is poor, then your emails may filter to junk or spam.
To maintain a good sender reputation:
Utilize hyper-targeted segments to send relevant emails to smaller audiences.
Utilize email marketing automation campaigns to engage with customers at the right time.
Start with segments of 500 contacts or smaller and do 2–3 email sends, then double the contacts and send 2–3 more email sends before doubling again.
Segment filter definitions
In Marketing Pro, segments are created using filters to hyper-target the list of customers who receive your marketing campaigns. Segments can be created based on attributes of your customer's account, properties, estimates, and/or services.
Attributes about someone
Lets you add filters related to the customer's account, such as Account Status or Account Tags. The default primary filter under Attributes About Someone is Account:
Account Value | Description |
|---|---|
Prospect | The customer card is either active or frozen, and there are no active subscriptions or services performed yet. |
Lead | The customer card is either active or frozen, and there is an open lead attached to the customer card under the Leads section. |
Opportunity | This field does not correspond with any customer stage under FieldRoutes — you can safely disregard this. |
Customer | The customer card is active, and has an active subscription under Subscriptions, or has had some services performed. |
Once this primary filter is determined, you can narrow down the scope of this segment by adding secondary filters:
Secondary Filter | Description |
|---|---|
Details | This field does not apply to FieldRoutes. |
Type | Filters segment to only include Residential or Commercial customers. |
Created Date | Filters contacts who have specific Generic Flags on their customer card. |
Modified Date | Filters contacts based on the date the customer card was last modified. |
Name | Filters contacts based on their First and Last name. |
Cancel Date | Filters contacts based on when the customer card was frozen. |
Status of Account | Filters contacts based on whether their customer card is active or frozen. |
Last Completed Service Date | Filters contacts who had services performed on a specific date/timeframe. |
Next Service Date | Filters contacts who have a service scheduled on a specific date/timeframe. |
Recent Re-Service Date | Filters segment based on customers who had a re-service completed on a specific time/timeframe. |
Balance | Filters contacts based on the balance remaining on their customer cards. |
Next Service | Filters customers based on the next service that will be performed on their property. |
Value | Filters segment based on the combined value of all subscriptions on their customer card. |
Recent Re-Service | Filters customers based on the most recent re-service type that was performed on their property. |
Source | Filters contacts based on the Source field of the customer card. |
Auto-pay | Filters contacts based on whether AutoPay was enabled on their customer card. |
Office | Filters contacts based on which office they belong to. This is only relevant when used in a Corporate HQ environment. |
Last Completed Service | Filters customers based on the most recent service type that was performed on their property. |
Conditions | Filters based on unresolved conditions tied to a customer card. |
Estimate
This primary filter lets you filter contacts based on their Lead Stages in FieldRoutes. The different status options will vary based on the individual Lead Stages you have set up from within your FieldRoutes software.
Lead Stages can be found under your FieldRoutes admin settings under:
Admin > Preferences > Customer Preferences > Lead Stages
Leads affect how revenue is attributed to your email marketing campaigns sent from Marketing Pro.
Attributes about something
This segment lets you add filters related to your customer's estimates, services, or properties. Under Attributes About Something, there are a couple of options for the main filter:
Primary Filter | Description |
|---|---|
Estimate | Filters contacts based on Service Type Leads. |
Membership | Filters contacts based on Service Plan Subscriptions. |
Property | Filters contacts based on property/location details under their customer cards. |
Service | Filters contacts based on Service Type Subscriptions. |
Property
This filter lets you segment contacts based on property details under their customer cards. When selected, you will automatically be prompted to select a secondary filter:
Secondary Filter | Description |
|---|---|
Created Date | This field does not apply to FieldRoutes. |
Name | Filters contacts based on full address of the property. |
Tags | This field does not apply to FieldRoutes. |
Street Address | Filters contacts based on the street address of their property. |
City | Filters contacts based on the city of their property. |
Country | Filters contacts based on the country where their property is located. |
State | Filters contacts based on the State where their property is located. |
ZipCode | Filters contacts based on the zipcode where their property is located. |
Service Types | This field does not apply to FieldRoutes. |
Modified Date | This field does not apply to FieldRoutes. |
Status | This field does not apply to FieldRoutes. |
Division | This field does not apply to FieldRoutes. |
Service
The service filter segments contacts based on the service types of subscriptions attached to their customer cards. The drop-down also displays a limited amount of service types you have in your FieldRoutes system.
To find the service you want to target, simply start typing the service keyword and it should populate.
Please note, service types will only show up on the drop-down menu if there is at least one contact with the service type attached.
Secondary Filter | Description |
|---|---|
Start Date | Filters contacts based on the date their service subscription started. |
End Date | Filters contacts based on the date their service subscription ended. |
Tags | Filters contacts based on the Subscription Flags field in the subscription, tied to the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
Modified Date | Filters contacts based on the date their service subscription was modified. |
Created Date | Filters contacts based on the date their service subscription was created. |
Subscription Active | Filters contacts based on whether their service subscription is active or inactive, tied to the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
Source | Filters contacts based on the Source field in the subscription, tied to the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
Value | Filters contacts based on the contract value of their subscription, based on the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
Completed Initial | Filters contacts based on whether the service listed under the Initial Service field in the subscription is completed. |
Contract Length | Filters contacts based on the contract length of their subscription, tied to the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
Subscription Frequency | Filters contacts based on the Frequency field in the subscription, tied to the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
Contract Remaining | Filters contacts based on the remaining contract length of their subscription, tied to the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
Seasonal | Filters contacts based on the Seasonal field in the subscription, tied to the service type chosen as the primary filter. |
In Summary
Segmenting your audience, creating professionally designed emails that are automated, and reviewing the ROI for your campaigns doesn't mean you have to be a digital marketer. With ServiceTitan Marketing Pro, you can hyper-target your audience and automate campaigns based on the goldmine of data already in FieldRoutes. Many of the campaigns mentioned above can be created in just a few clicks, saving you time and driving more revenue from your existing customer base. By consistently reminding your customers how important you are to the health of their homes and businesses, you can book and close more jobs.