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hello everyone, im wondering what type of advertising every one did when you first started out. ive been hitting and will continue to hit the commercial accts to drum up buis. ive got 20,000 franchise express flyers coming but the local paper wants almost $900.00 to insert. i myself have never purchased a service from a flyer in the paper im thinking it will be money wasted. radio and tv ads are insane on prices. i understand i will have to advertise im just wondering how i can get the most bang for my ad dollars. any advice will be appreciated thanx!!!!!
Scott, I tried the franchise express flyers one time and it flopped, badly, not saying you will have the same results. Go to the business editor in the herald whig and see if you can’t get a write up for being a new business. Also, have you joined the chamber of Commerce? that might get you some free newspaper time also. Make sure in whatever you do that it looks professional.
When I started out I pounded FX and it worked very well for us. Even if you aren’t landing a ton of jobs right now people will hang onto the flyers and call you months down the road. I’ve had people call me 2 years later off a flyer.
I would suggest that you get heavily involved in your community if you aren’t already. Chamber is good. Write-up in the paper is good. Is there a local website that everyone frequents? Advertise there. You may consider doing a Google Adwords campaign to get internet leads. Go to functions in your town and be in your HB van and uniform. You may need to give an insane discount at first just to build your client base so you’ll have repeats calling in 6-12 months.
Wherever you go, park your van where the most people will see it. If you go to church then park it near the front door of the building. Same thing with department stores or the post office. I go out of my way going home or wherever just to get van exposure.
If you’re well funded get involved with BNI or other networking groups. Call up and meet with local realtors. Get to know them. They will send you mass amounts of business.
THANK YOU!!! RON,RICH I’ve had a very slow week, Just got back from my one and only job this week. I got a little spooked. All your input is great and appreciated. I plan to join the chamber, The realtors are hard people to catch up with but I will, Even if I have to put my house on the market 😈
I have found that the owners, managers & employees of carpet stores are my most valuable referral source. If you become their friend, which you can easily do by doing some free cleaning, they will go out of their way to get you customers. (make darn sure you do a perfect job!) I get referrals from carpet stores I have never entered. The word will get around. I found it to be more comfortable to start in the small town stores and then, with more experience and confidence, move into the larger ones. The cheapest form of advertising is yourself. It sounds like you have some spare time so I suggest stopping in at every carpet store, dentist office, church, library, funeral home, etc. Good luck and welcome aboard!!
Work on people and centers of influence. That is people and businesses that have credibility and influence others. Realtors as mentioned. But also look for the “High End” housekeepers. The ones that are looking after the mid to higher end homes (not too high end). Also window washers, yard maintenance people, gardeners. Spend your money recruiting and rewarding these people not just advertising blindly.
Caution on the discounts, once you’ve done a job at a price the expectation will be set for next time. If you are discounting try to do it on up sales or add on sales. So charge full price for the cleaning but maybe throw in deodorize/disinfectant. Or even better give a discount of upholstery cleaning when done together. Make your job ticket go up not down. Make sure you note and point out to the customer any “specials” on the bill as grand opening discount or something like that.
Early on the people that are using you are because the most likely know you. You have to ask them to spread the good word. Make sure you have flyers/gift certificates/cards/letters/fridge magnets available for them to pass out for you. Ask them to do it. 3, 5 10 people, neighbors, friends co workers. Ask them to do it as a favor and how much you appreciate it. They will do it.
Don’t be low keyed, don’t be undercover, don’t be afraid.
Agree with all these points. Dirtbag makes a good point I always stress. If you’re giving a discount, always note it on the ticket so they don’t expect the same price next time. Also, don’t discount your base cleaning if possible, discount the add ons.
I have done a lot of business with realtors and highly recommend getting in with them. We give the realtors a big discount if we clean for them personally, and give any of their clients a 10% discount. Find out if their office has a vendor fair and if so, get in it somehow. One thing with hitting realtors as opposed to businesses is that the realtor usually is not paying so price isn’t as big an issue, but needs the house as clean as possible to get the house to sell, so they will recommend the person that can accomplish this best no matter what the price. We’ve had numerous realtor referrals where the customer has their own carpet cleaner already, but the realtor told them they had to use us and get it done right. Also, go to some of the higher end neighborhoods and look for the realtor signs and try and get in with the ones that have many signs in those neighborhoods. We have one realtor that “owns” a higher end neighborhood in town (all houses $750K-$2 million+). We do all her cleaning and the tickets average between $500-$750 each, and they’re usually vacant and pretty clean! We have 4 jobs for her alone this month. Just like any group though, some realtors are idiots and not very good at their jobs, or only do it part time, so aim for the money makers. You’ll know when you find them.
I’ve been at this since October of 2008… not quite a year yet. I’ve found that advertising a price special in the newspaper has worked well for me. I advertise 3 rooms for $99. I limit a room size to 250 square feet, and charge extra for pet urine, red dye removal, etc. Different things work in different areas… this has worked well in mine.
Welcome… and good luck!
When we started we used Service magic just to get some work and money coming in. Be careful though. They can be tricky to work with. We had an up and down relationship with them. Go to as many realtor offices you can, ask for the broker/owner and ask to do a 1 room demo for them. When they see your work they will always refer you. Do ALOT of foot work. Walk till your shoes fall off. Hit up apartment complexes and hotels. They will provide residual work. Also restraunts.
The key with restraunts however alot of people don’t do them because of the grease. I used to be the same way. However there is a nice little market if you can get the system to work. The key is using a degreaser in before our products and they must be cleaned every month or pay a higher price.
Get some cheap but nice looking door knockers made up and canvas neighborhoods. When you do a job put some flyers on at least 8 of the closest neighbors. Also have a referral program in place. We give our customers 3 plastic referral gift cards and ask them to put their name on the back. The person they refer receives $25.00 off there cleaning and for each person that hands the in the the original customer gets $25.00 of for anything in the future. If we get all 3 they get $75 off. If they refer more and enough they may get their job done free. That is the only thing that overrides our minimum charge.
Sorry for the long post. Hope this gives you some ideas. Also for commercial accounts we use a commercial sales packet that should be on the advertising site. Called Mike Nowlin sales packet. Just edit it to what you need. And Follow up, follow up, follow up. You may keep getting no’s but persistance is key. I just pick up a few apartments this week that I was damn sure would say no and finally my 100th time got my demo and 99% sure will be using us. Again I still have to follow up 1 last time to seal the deal.
Again sorry.
You all are great! Thank you! Thank you!! Thank you!!!
there was alot of comments about realitors, but not much about those that do property managment. we do huge amounts of business from property managers. most of the better ones have 60 plus houses that come vacant every 6 months to 2 years. we give them and their clients the same rate as a commercial account, and they love how fast were in and out and ready for their next client/renter. sometimes its hard to get in with them but as stated before, persistance is key. alot of times all you can do is be their back up guy for awhile till they see you are reliable and next thing you know your getting all of their work.
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