Using google organic and facebook, now trying BNI

I have tried everything, yellow was ok, newspaper not, adwords - hard to say, various online directories na (but free listings to improve online presence for google ranking important), post cards ok, maybe others.

They say it is all in the delivery which I do understand but for us getting and staying at #1 for organic search and facebook seem to be what works (for us)

We do lack on the commercial side however so I am starting a BNI group. I am also tempted to start a dedicated sales position to work that angle. Any suggestions? Whats your best ROI avenues?

Pete, every area is different, there's not one answer to marketing, when we live in central california, we joined BNI and the result is very poor, biggest waste of time and $$, in that market direct mail generate a pretty good result, so is yellow pages ( at that time which is around 2006 - 2007 ), now I'm in southern california and down here, yelp and google are good companies to advertise with, google is more expensive than yelp, I kept hearing good things about angie's list as well.
The way I see it is if it doesn't cost an arm and a leg and it doesn't have a contract longer than 3 months, I'm willing to give it a shot if I need more business.
Yellow pages is completely left alone by people, almost no return what so ever now, I discontinued all my yellow pages ads last year.

Hey dp1, what I found interesting as one of our competitors went from a half page yellow to a full page yellow this year. Bad decision there for sure!

In my market a full page yp cost around $ 1000 / month, I sure hope he is not going to go out of business :-)

I think its closer to $2K here  

I think the yellow pages are about totally dead, and I expect soon it will no longer be delivered to doorsteps, once it's not a money maker for the phone companies...and the way it's so much smaller now than it once was, I think the end is near. lol

I have very limited online advo experience, but for what little I do, it does seem the most effective to me now.

Like DP, Yelp is where it's at for me, but is Yelp even in NZ??

I was in a BNI type group for about 2 years, and I think overall the jobs I got from it just covered my monthly dues, or at the best some months a small ROI.....which doesn't include time spent going to the weekly meetings. For whatever reason, almost all the jobs I got from it were small, cheap type customers, and that's just not MY thing!!   

dp1 wrote:In my market a full page yp cost around $ 1000 / month, I sure hope he is not going to go out of business :-)

When I first started in 2007 yellow pages wanted $1200 a month for a 1/2 page ad.      

Well australian / new zealand $$ is cheaper than us $$, isn't it ? That explained the $ 2000 / mo fees.
Tim, 2007 was the peak year for yp, at that time certain books with larger distribution was around $ 1500 / mo in northern california, a couple years ago price dropped substantially cause businesses realize they're not worth nearly the listed price anymore.
Dave, I believe yelp has expanded globally, however it depends on the market, if his area cleaners don't have much reviews, might be worth it to build the reviews and see the progress, but I wouldn't pay for an ad in that situation, I would try google adwords first and see how that works out, it's pricey but google always works in my opinion.

Yellow pages is dead. Cut my ads right back.
Have found if you have good reviews on google it works quite well but only your suburb the business is registered in.

We have other online directories including yellow and yelp. However they do not come up with our major keyword searches on google. I cant believe people go to these sites to search. Id say 99% of people google search first and then only consult these directories if they show up. What do you guys think?

In my area Yelp is huge, I've helped a couple local cleaners utilizing Yelp to their bread and butter.
I can't say the same regarding online yellow page directories, they only help with your seo or google local listing, the more online directories listing you have the more points you have and the higher your ranking is.
Even google adwords cost depends on the consistency of the searched keywords and keywords in your website listed within the ad itself, more consistency means lower price per click, less consistency means price per click is higher, unless you live in an area where the demands for cleaners far more than the companies advertising in there, in LA competition is steep, current price per click is about $ 7 - $ 8, you can save $ 1 - $ 2 if your website is built with advertisements keywords in mind and they're repeated a few times within the sub-titles.
I believe they offer phone support now for the US, not sure about your area though.

My 2 cents on BNI... its for Realtors. They get one referral it's worth $6000. We get lucky to get one worth $300. Doesn't hurt to show your face for the first free meeting tho. When they ask why u didn't join tell them ur too busy to make it on a regular basis. They might send you some work anyway.

We joined BNI and it has paid out well.  Every market is different and it does take time to build trust and relationships.  The best part of BNI for me is that it has pushed my father out of the cleaning side of the business and forced him to focus on marketing and new flooring sales.  That being said, I tried my first FB offer and boosted a post this weekend.  This morning a local refrigeration company called to set us up as a vendor, 3 people claimed the FB offer, the page had almost 6k impressions, gained 4 likes and who knows what else.  If nothing else I believe it will build brand recognition when they see our trucks on the road and logos on their fb advertisements.  Eh, even if it turns out to be rubbish I only gambled $40 for all of that

^^^Is PCS a Franchise Co.??^^^

Try Craigslist, too. I get some jobs from CL. Regarding BNI, it works if group is big enough, like 40 members and more

CL if you want cheap falk customers right?.............have you ever got a good job from CL, say $3-500+?

No. But I have filled a schedule with CL. All ya really want is the lead. Once you got them on the phone all ya have to do is close the deal. Most of the CL work in my area are move out. So not much extra their to sell, the average cost is around $200-$250

Regarding craigslist heck if it doesn't cost me anything I'll be happy with $ 150 jobs, do 6 of them a day and pocketed $ 900, the problem is in LA, craigslister tend to live in downtown areas where when cargo vans pass by, some people of certain races are acting like they're preparing for a bunch of cops jumping out of my van busting their @$$, kinda freaking me out a bit to see their hands inside their shirts, I think paying Yelp $ 1000 / month for the sake of my life would be preferable, lol.

^^ We'll Bust a cap in Yo ass punk!!   

Seems around here with so much competition CL is just another avenue for the cheap price shoppers to troll.

I'm not lacking in sales ability, but most of those looking for a cheap ccleaner can find it EZ enuf and by just giving them my min job charge I get a very common "click" on the phone.lol.........if I'm busy, that's really the point, if not I'll play the game and it's more times than not a waste of time.....I find out pretty quick who is and isn't my target type of customer.

Yes we are a PCS franchise

Yellow Pages are giving away larger ads to the ones buying in....Whoever had a full page is probably only paying for a half....they are dying out in my opinion....they do the...HEY! you want a quarter page?...well I'll tell ya what! I'll give you a half page because your such a good advertiser....and at one time that worked well to create competition. Now they drop like flies and honestly I dont know how they are still holding on.....I think they keep it as a tool for the online advertising saying they will give you a free ad in YP in your area! Crap! sorry YP you ripped me for too long as it is.


A guy called me the other day from YP superpages and said "we are the internet" I hung up!