Outbound advertising is a traditional marketing approach that pushes messages out to potential customers—often referred to as “interruptive” marketing—because you are disrupting consumers’ daily activities with your message. Traditional forms of outbound advertising include television ads, radio ads, print ads and more, and while these are still common, there are more options now than ever. In this day and age, outbound advertising can take the form of social media ads, in-app ads, streaming ads, podcast ads and more. In today’s blog, we’ll be diving deeper into one particular outbound strategy: Nextdoor advertising.

What Are the Benefits of Outbound Advertising in Your Overall Strategy?

Before we dive into Nextdoor, let’s talk more about outbound as a whole. From our experience working with the home service industry for over a decade, the importance of an outbound advertising strategy is often understated. This is likely because many outbound tactics require a larger initial investment and may take a while to see ROI, making companies hesitant to start investing when they need immediate sales and leads. But make no mistake: outbound marketing needs to be part of a holistic marketing strategy, especially in oversaturated industries like pest control and lawn care.

A hybrid approach — where you strategically leverage both inbound and outbound tactics — can be utilized to create a more holistic marketing strategy that results in:

• Maximized reach: Outbound quickly reaches a broad audience, while inbound attracts those already interested, maximizing your overall reach
• Enhanced engagement: Inbound builds long-term relationships; outbound prompts immediate awareness and action
• Diverse touchpoints: Ensures potential customers encounter your brand across multiple channels, increasing conversion chances
• Balanced costs: Inbound provides cost-effective, quick wins; outbound adds long-term value, balancing expenses

What Goals Can Outbound Marketing Serve in Your Business?

Outbound advertising can achieve several strategic goals beyond just brand awareness. Success hinges on clear objectives, targeted execution and integration with other strategies. Having a clear outbound marketing strategy can help serve the following goals:

• Brand awareness: Increasing visibility and recognition
• Lead generation: Attracting potential customers
• Direct sales: Driving immediate purchases
• Customer engagement: Enhancing relationships with existing customers
• Market penetration: Entering new markets or increasing market share

How to Determine Which Channels to Leverage

Effective outbound strategies are going to vary from industry to industry, and even company to company. They may include a mix of social media advertising (Meta, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, TikTok), offline advertising (cable ads, radio ads, direct mail) or various forms of video (streaming, YouTube, display video).

To determine what channels make the most sense to leverage, you have to consider your company’s goals, budget, current brand awareness, target customers and more. When you work with Coalmarch by WorkWave, we will help you determine what channels make the most sense for your business. We’ll explore answers to the following questions with you:

1. What are your immediate goals? Are you looking for immediate leads/sales vs. long-term brand awareness, or a balance of both?
2. What kind of budget do you have to work with? Small budgets may want to focus more on maximizing impressions, while larger budgets may want to focus more on meaningful interactions or diversifying channels.
3. Where have you made investments in the past? You may want to explore new avenues, like social media or video, versus ones you have already tried, like more traditional avenues.
4. Who is your target audience? We’ll want to identify current customers’ demographics (age, gender, location) and determine the best way to reach them based on this. 
5. What are your top competitors doing? We’ll want to examine competitors' channels and engagement to identify opportunities or oversaturated platforms.

Nextdoor Ads: What Are They and What Are the Benefits?

Nextdoor is a social networking service specifically designed for neighborhoods. While it launched all the way back in 2011, it gained a lot of popularity in 2020 during the pandemic. As people sought ways to connect with their local communities during lockdowns and social distancing measures, Nextdoor became a valuable resource for sharing information, offering help and organizing community support efforts.

Nextdoor allows users to connect with their local community, fostering communication and collaboration among neighbors. The platform is accessible via a website and a mobile app, providing a space where members can share information, ask for recommendations, organize events and discuss local issues. From a business perspective, Nextdoor offers a variety of ad formats to help you reach a hyper-qualified audience of homeowners in local neighborhoods. Benefits of Nextdoor ads include:

• Local targeting: Target specific neighborhoods for relevance and engagement
• Audience segmentation: Segment by demographics such as age, interests and household composition
• Community context: Ads appear in a community-centric environment, fostering trust and engagement
• Performance analytics: Access metrics and insights into ad performance

Nextdoor Usage & Demographics Data

Nextdoor's usage and demographic data highlights its value as a platform for the home service industry by offering a highly qualified audience. With 41.8 million active users per week as of February 2024, and two-thirds of users engaging with the app at least once a week, the platform ensures consistent visibility for service providers. The demographics are particularly compelling: 

• 77% of users are homeowners
• 90% of users are household purchase decision-makers
• The median household income is $90k, indicating strong purchasing power
• Additionally, 94% of users value product and service recommendations from their neighbors, and 76% have been influenced by such recommendations

This high level of trust and influence within the community makes Nextdoor an ideal platform for businesses in the home service industry to reach a receptive and engaged audience. The balanced user base, consisting of Millennials, Gen Z adults, Gen X and Baby Boomers, further ensures that businesses can target a wide range of potential customers.

Does Nextdoor Make Sense for My Business?

We believe running Nextdoor ads should be considered for pest control and lawn care businesses, given the platform's inherently qualified audience of homeowners and its balanced user base. This is especially true for companies targeting an older demographic, as Nextdoor boasts a significant number of users aged 44 to 77. This age group often values local recommendations and community-focused services, making them more likely to engage with relevant ads. 

Regardless of the exact demographics of your target customer, we believe most lawn and pest companies can probably benefit from incorporating Nextdoor ads into their overall strategy. The intrinsically qualified audience makes it yet another viable place for pest control and lawn care companies to get in front of potential customers.

Keep in mind that how much you should leverage them will depend on your overall budget, and you want to be strategic about what services you promote on Nextdoor and how you position them if you are looking for immediate leads and action. If you are a current customer of Coalmach, we can help develop a Nextdoor ad strategy that supports your goals. We will set KPIs and regularly assess performance to ensure this channel makes the most sense as part of your advertising portfolio — and adjust as needed.

Interested in learning more about how Coalmarch can help you create a more holistic marketing strategy that leverages outbound marketing? Contact us today to speak with one of our digital marketing consultants.