Advertising and Marketing

[leofry@1966]

ok first things first.. I am hard headed.


ok i do not advertise at all I mean i don't do radio, news paper, or TV or direct mailing.

I do some what i call marketing, I belong to the chamber and to meetings every month
I face book like crazy with photos and post almost daily.
I have IMO a very good looking web site
I send everyone a thank you card and a yearly reminder card.

but I am getting a little burnt out being on the truck and its not because i am working 50 hours a week if i had 50 of work i would try to have a very good employee that could help me and also give me a day off

I have not really bought in to the advertising ... seems like when i did it i would spend $500 make $400 and lose the $100...

of course everyone has different thoughts on where to put you advertising $$$$

even thought i say i don;t believe in it maybe i am wrong.. so i wonder if i started a advertising program.. Say a budget of mmm $1500 a month could that get me $2500 extra a month that would pay for the advertising and pay for the employee or am i going to lose again

[joey895]

ok first things first.. I am hard headed.


ok i do not advertise at all I mean i don't do radio, news paper, or TV or direct mailing.

I do some what i call marketing, I belong to the chamber and to meetings every month
I face book like crazy with photos and post almost daily.
I have IMO a very good looking web site
I send everyone a thank you card and a yearly reminder card.

but I am getting a little burnt out being on the truck and its not because i am working 50 hours a week if i had 50 of work i would try to have a very good employee that could help me and also give me a day off

I have not really bought in to the advertising ... seems like when i did it i would spend $500 make $400 and lose the $100...

of course everyone has different thoughts on where to put you advertising $$$$

even thought i say i don;t believe in it maybe i am wrong.. so i wonder if i started a advertising program.. Say a budget of mmm $1500 a month could that get me $2500 extra a month that would pay for the advertising and pay for the employee or am i going to lose again

You just described my business and thoughts pretty much to the letter.

Off to work now but I'll add more later.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[JuddBowers]

IMO, a lot of marketing depends on the size of your company. Stanley, for example, plasters their name EVERYWHERE! Its effective, because its the first thing people think of. They spend all of their dollars on that one aspect, name recognition.

Small guys can do that with a smart referral system. Talk to your customers, become their friend. Talk about them the entire time you're with them. Complement them on everything, the furniture, decorations, etc. The boost in self-esteem is worth more to them than clean carpet. If you do it right, they'll refer you to everyone. Keep a record book, put their name, kid's names, dog's names, as many specific details as you can so when you do talk to them again you mention specifics and they love you for it.

On commercial accounts, you just gotta be professional. I take a similar approach as above with the decision maker at a commercial account. Send them a thank you card a week later with a $25 gift card for a nearby lunch spot. Send them another $25 gift card when they refer you. Office managers talk. When they need a service, they don't go to the YP first, they call another office manager. I've learned that from years of janitorial.

I've learned contentment is key. Contentment is not getting what you want, its wanting what you've got. (Cliche)

Sometimes we can focus on all the jobs that we don't have, and not truly service the ones that we do have. Make the most of what you have. If your goal going to a new job is to make sure that they refer you to at least one job, your business will grow just fine.

Sorry for the "cool story bro" post.

[leofry@1966]

good points Judd

[lee@deepclean.us.com]

The only success I have had is with a local BNI group. I would say all my other attempts at advertising have been a failure. The secret to success is getting a warm referral!

[encapman]

For residential I think Judd nailed it.

P.S. I agree that most advertising doesn't pay off.

[MikeB]

The little bit of advertising that I have done has basically broke even. If I really tracked it all to the penny, probably a loss. Some is essential to get the word out though and at least get the ball rolling. From there it's like Judd says above, you have to work for it on every job and every day. Plant the seeds.

[ebarnett]

I spend all of my advertising dollars on the net. Some goes to superpages.com, some goes to YP.com, some goes to bing, some goes to google (google provides the least value). I also pay Yext for their directory listing services. I often get priority placement with them. All in all I keep my online budget to about $350 a month - all online. This has netted me at least 1 or 2 large jobs per month ($3000 or better) and another 3or 4 smaller accounts. So for me spending the money has been worth it. However my wife does sales calls by visiting local businesses. She has gotten me a bunch of work - and she is free!

[TheCleaningDude]

Have a website built (preferably Word Press). Get ranked organically on Google. Yelp and Angie's List are also biggies, but Google first and foremost.

Door knocking for commercial is solid as well, but Google is paramount, imo.

I've been very lucky to have met up with a guy that is affordable and easy to deal with.

[prodrying]

Some good points above. Here is what we do. We do a lot of what I call personal marketing. Networking groups, Chambers of Commerce, etc. Then we do some cold calling for accounts that I would like to have. This is how we built our business and we still do it today. The only thing different is that now most of our new business comes from the internet. However, I don't spend money on the internet except for a couple of things. Angie's list is about all we spend money on online.

What I have done is go down to the University of Houston Small Business Development Center twice a month. They have free search engine optimization classes and this has helped my website rank really well and I get 5 or 6 new customers a week from this on average.

I would suggest learning how to make your website rank well and using that to help your marketing.

[MikeB]

The nice thing about being in a small rural market is web advertising is easier. I pay a total of 45 per month for Dex web placement and the rest is organic. Not as much competition for web presence in the rural areas and most of my jobs are coming from the web in the past year. Print ads in yp, and other print ads are what I was refering to in my last post as being break even deals. Next year I plan to hire out the web design and seo unless I can master wordpress and do it my self.
Godaddy and a cheap template site is cheezy but works ok for now. Too many irons in the fire right now.
I also plan on joining chamber and doing more face to face for commercial.
Sent from my Kindle Fire using Tapatalk 2

[leofry@1966]

http://esteamclean.com/

don;t pick it apart...lol i like it...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/ESTEAM-CL...6551489880

please like my page and i will do the same for you guys... more likes makes it look better

[encapman]

Your website looks terrific. Clean, simple, professional. And when I search Google for "carpet cleaning bardstown" you're at the top of the page. Perfect! Hats off to you and your your web designer.

[David-Hebert]

In most cases when people say Marketing or Advertising does not work in what ever form the TOP Reasons the marketing does not work are

lousy message (No call to action)

inconsistent in marketing ( no plan not delivering your message and a specified time table )

Marketing to people who are not your client base\

It is far better to market your self to those who can send you multiple clients over and over again then to a single source.

Simple little tactic we use, You do a commercial account lets say they have 25 employees, you get permission to put a post card or what ever special offer you want on each persons desk, 10% goes to the business favorite charity or say to there holiday part fund. Just as we have done create some killer content and put the offer on each persons desk.
You now have just reached out to 25 more suspects with very little effort.
I would also put in the content some where please feel free to pass this on to family and friends.

How about this get on the companies intranet with a special offer each month!!! Do this with ever company you deal with and watch things grow.
Over the years it has become obvious that commercial will breed residential jobs much quicker then the opposite

happy hunting

[MikeB]

Looks great Leo! Very professional.