Now that spring has sprung.....

Are you guys pushing your marketing this year yet?

Are your marketing plans different this year from last year?

Mine begins after memorial day. That's when the lakers get here and the "season" officially begins for me. No new plans for me other than building YouTube videos/advertising. I have some footage now done on the action camera, that I'll piece into videos later.

I've not seen anything "new" as far as market avenues, that I want to explore. I did hear that Yelp is kinda taking it in the shorts though. Heard there was a exodus of advertisers and a significant drop in the stock prices. Wonder how that will pan out?

If you guys have a website, I have apps on my phone for Google analytics and business. It's pretty handy to have your views/clicks/all your pertinent info on those apps. Sure makes keeping an eye on things nice and easy. Much better than when I first had my website. I had to log into my control panel to see the stats.

My post cards are ready. I'm itching to get them dropped.

I kicked mine out the first day of this month, I'd have to say things are picking up, but not as well as I expect, considering we were really slow in the winter. Overall it's pretty good ROI.

Picking way up; but not the usual customers. Some of the "its been awhile.
Yesterday, had a call from a lady my wife worked with. She is 90 min away. Had a 6 RM, 3 RM, and a living room for me. 3 separate jobs. They live along the Columbia river in a semi retirement place. All cash, 2.5 hrs of work and not dirty. Sign me up for that 4x a day!
Got a church next week and another imneed to call and schedule.

Volume isn't up but Ive had some good tickets. Most all repeats and referrals. The only new customer was through AL. Really has me scratching my head. Thinking about post cards to generate new customers and mayve some 5 arounds when I clean

Speaking of postcards? How much would you pay someone to prepare and mail  for you??
You tell them what neighborhood, they find the addresses and hand address them, hand them off to you for Q/C.
Card .. .08\ea
Postage.. .34 or .46(depending on size)
Pay per piece...? .25? .50?
That would put it about .85-1.10 ea.
Find some retire person or responsible college student....
Tell them you want 50-75-100 per week....

I would upload my design at vista print com. I can get them at .02 cents a piece right now. That's 20.00 per 1000. Just sign up and you start getting coupon codes for deals

www.vistaprint.com

I would mail them to select neighborhoods using every door direct mail at the post office, You can mail those postcards for about 160.00.JUst drop them off the will mail them for you.

https://eddm.usps.com/eddm/customer/routeSearch.action

That would be a total of .18 cents per piece. If I did the math correctly

Matt; My carpet cleaner wrote:Speaking of postcards? How much would you pay someone to prepare and mail  for you??
You tell them what neighborhood, they find the addresses and hand address them, hand them off to you for Q/C.
Card .. .08\ea
Postage.. .34 or .46(depending on size)
Pay per piece...? .25? .50?
That would put it about .85-1.10 ea.
Find some retire person or responsible college student....
Tell them you want 50-75-100 per week....

I don't think you are going to get many takers at maybe 50 bucks a week, honestly.

Why not just pick your routes and do EDDM? Packing them off in 100 pieces a stack isn't hard or very time consuming. I've looked up the process, and it's pretty easy.

Myself I just prefer more specific targeting. That's why I deliver them myself.

My marketing plan is non-existent really and for a reason.

I cleaned for the owner of a oil distribution company today. He found me on that local neighborhood site and liked what was being said about me. We talked business for about an hour and he asked me if I got a lot of business off my website? I replied that I really don't to which he replied that it was a good thing....people are moving away from franchises and seeking small contractors that their neighbors recommend (his words, not mine).

He posted to the local site while I was there and had me 3 more jobs for next week in the same neighborhood. Actually, within a 4 block area.

I want to be busier right now, but I happen to believe that customer is right as well. The traditional ad campaigns might be detrimental to us these days as it lumps us all together without anybody really standing out. The strength of reputation and word of mouth is my path for now.

There is no one area in the world that has the same marketing strategy, every area is different, that's why I'm skeptical on those marketing conference, motivational speakers, etc.
The key in the best marketing is YOU, which those franchises don't have, I still have some customers that want me personally to clean their carpets, I go to their home, I don't do the wanding but my present is appreciated, besides most don't even realize I didn't do the cleaning, lol, until 2 weeks ago, I had a touch up work and when I got there, as Danny went downstairs, customer asked me, "so you don't do the cleaning anymore ?" I told her, not really, she said "I think your cleaning is better and more through", I just smiled, it's a small minimum charge job and the access is a little bit of a pita, I just didn't feel the need to respond, I know she will keep using us because she had tried other cleaners and kept going back to us.
In my area, eddm would cost me way too much money and little result, I can't believe how much junk mails I receive every other day, I don't even go through them anymore, when I was in central California, those were gold.

I agree, every location is different.  I would be dead in your market and franchises struggle badly around here as people like seeing the same person each time.

The really odd thing about my area is the village that I live in defies all marketing reason.  We only have 1,100 people (just a sleep town 7 miles from the city) but it holds mostly upper-middle class housing as most work in the medical field, yet nobody ever hires a cleaner for carpets.

Seriously, I have been here for 10 years and the other cleaner for almost 20 yet neither of us has cleaned more than maybe half-a-dozen in that time.  They do hire a lot of maid service cleanings and I have received those calls a lot for 2x week maid services, but never textile or floor cleanings.  Makes me want to start a maid service.

I have tried a lot of things to change that as there is some real good potential within just a 4 mile radius of my house, but so far no dice. What makes it so difficult is that there is no house postal delivery and the village has "no solicitation" ordinances. I have plastered the place in magnetic business cards and even sponsored a little league team a few years ago, yet nothing.

I will keep trying...

No arguments here that marketing is different everywhere. I've said it for some time.

It's funny you say that about your town not having carpet cleaners taking care of carpets. Same here, larger town. I'd be willing to bet, not even 10% of the "average Joe" type, have their carpets cleaned. The only way they do, is if they are afraid of loosing the deposit.

Now if their home is facing the water, that's different.

A maid service is in BIG demand here. Especially seasonally. One could make some good money here, with 5-10 people. However, all that it entails to get the business started, and all the headaches that would go with it, no thanks. That's why no one else is doing it either. I've told my wife I would help her start her own business, and fund the start up, if she wanted to do it. She turned it down and works with me.

Of the few that I have talked to that do maid service, they are one man bands or only have one person working with them. They are very picky who they work for. And they have no desire to grow a company because of the headaches.

That is the same situation here with the maid services. I know of 2 in the area and they stopped taking on new clients years ago.

It isn't for me.

We are heavily focused on organic google marketing these days.

A good portion of my business comes from Google too, but you should never put your eggs all in one basket.