About HTP Termite & Pest Control:

Based in West Tennessee, HTP Termite & Pest Control has been a leading provider of residential and commercial pest control services for more than 65 years. They pride themselves on personalized, professional service and experienced team members with an average of 10 years in the industry. Current owner Todd Simpson bought HTP in 2006, and they became a Coalmarch customer in 2020.

The Challenge:

Simpson purchased HTP Termite & Pest Control in 2006, intending to “make it shine and sell it.” But once he started learning the business, he discovered a passion. “I say this to anybody I hire. You either love this business, or you hate it. There is no middle ground.” As it turns out, Simpson is one of those people who loves the business. “After about a year, I started selling off everything else I had. And I stayed with HTP; this is where I’ve been ever since. So I’ll be here forever, I guess.”

The company was growing – but slowly. “I wasn’t really happy with our marketing,” Simpson explains. “I tried everything. I tried different teams, different companies. I never felt like I was getting what I paid for – I just could not get comfortable with anything I was doing.” Having been unimpressed with marketing firms based in California and New York, Simpson even tried bringing his marketing team in-house, hiring a full-time employee to handle lead generation. “The guy was good. And he got us to a certain point. But we live in a small, rural West Tennessee town, so the pool for him was very limited. He even admitted that he took us as far as he could go – but he wasn’t able to expand further or push us forward.”

The Solution:

After speaking with a fellow pest control company owner about their positive experience working with Coalmarch, Simpson decided to give the digital marketing company a call. He says he noticed positive changes immediately. “It’s the personal contact that we get. I know we’re not the only customer they have, but they make us feel that way. And that really means a lot.”

Simpson values the relationships he and his team have forged with the Coalmarch team, and he says that the level of service they have received from every person they’ve interacted with has been unmatched. “It’s 100% true that we have seen an increase in both number and quality of leads,” he says, “but the thing that really makes Coalmarch different from what I experienced before is how they explain what’s going to happen.” Simpson appreciates that there are no surprises – good or bad. “When it’s something that they can’t control and they’re going to work around it and get it fixed, I know about it before it happens. And when something good is happening, or they think they can get to a certain point with something, they’re not scared to push me a little bit. I’m never surprised,” he adds, noting that because of Coalmarch’s proven, data-driven methods, “they already know what they are doing to do, and I know what they are going to do.”

Simpson notes that while the company is based in rural West Tennessee, they are actively trying to expand into other parts of the state, something that Coalmarch is helping them achieve by more effectively targeting certain markets. “As we are trying to push out into the bigger areas between Memphis and Nashville, there are really good spots for us to fit in outside and around those communities. We can see where we are ranking in certain keywords and things so that we know, and it always correlates with the leads we get from those areas. We’re getting searched more, and we’re getting more leads.”

“I might be the one writing the checks, but they’re the ones spending it,” he adds, saying that with Coalmarch, “it just feels like somebody I know is talking to me instead of somebody on the other side of the country who’s just trying to get my dollar and trying to explain why something isn’t working, or why I’m not getting the leads, or why we’re not seeing the growth. Coalmarch is not just throwing that away. They’re really trying to account for every penny. I’m happy. I love a lot of what’s going on. I don’t hate marketing like I used to, because I feel like I’m working with someone who’s working with me. And we’re getting great results, so I know where they’re coming from.”

The Value:

Asked which service he appreciates the most from Coalmarch, Simpson simply says, “All of it.” It’s easy to see why he’s so enthusiastic: In just two short years of working with Coalmarch, HTP has seen remarkable success, with numbers rising across the board and a more than 500% increase in their overall growth rate.

In 2020, HTP received 436 leads from their website. In 2021, that number went up to 600. At the end of August 2022, they had received nearly 1,000 leads from the website alone. That’s a nearly 130% increase in just two years.

From 2006 to 2020, “We averaged about 6% growth. We had a couple of years that were over 10%, but for the most part, we were hovering around 6% during that period.” That all changed in 2020 after starting work with Coalmarch. “Our total growth, commercial and residential combined, is at 32.8% to date. That’s over the last two years, combined, and we’ve averaged that per month.”

It's been a wild ride, but one Simpson emphatically recommends to other pest control business owners. What can they expect when signing on with Coalmarch? “I would say buckle up because you’re fixing to grow,” he says. “If you don’t want to do that, then you just don’t need to hire them. If you’re wanting to grow, and you’re wanting to increase your customer base, and you want to expand what you’re doing? They’re the right one.”

The digital marketing experts at Coalmarch can do for your company what they’re doing for HTP. Get started today and buckle up – we’re ready to help you take off!