how do u guys get residential with out the internet?

Whats exactly working for you?
For every $100 spent how many calls?
Lay it out please!

Also when doing adwords and ranking in the top three how many calls a day do u get?
Are there ever days u get No calls or clicks?
For every $100 spent how many calls?

Thanks dudes!

Without the internet? Just being seen in the neighborhood....a lot!

I used to plaster my cards on gas pumps and post offices. I would park my van in the front row at the movie theaters. Hell, I even drove the van in a small town parade once to get my name out there while throwing candy wrapped in a services flyer.

My point is that to do it without the internet, you have to be creative and with the least amount of cost. Maybe offer a charity drive where you will clean throw rugs for free in an open parking lot just to get attention. Everything is fair game.

Then again, maybe that is why I am doing 80% commercial these days.  

Thanks.. I guess I am more curious on what advertising is working well and exacts.

Heck, I don't even have a website yet, working on that now.   

Any internet jobs a get come from Yelp, which is unpaid advertizing.   

So almost all my jobs come the same way they always have, repeat customers and referrals mostly.

Whatever you do (direct mail, adwords, door hangers, etc) just make sure you have an appealing ad, a good offer, and do it consistently so that you build name recognition. If your service is good you should start noticing bigger returns every month as your name recognition and word of mouth grow. Also, make sure you ask every customer to tell a friend or two about you.

I do websites on the side...dirt cheap...cancelled my ph book ad 6 years ago.  I'm at (309) 21-CLEAN if you're interested.

-Mike Norris
On the Spot Carpet Cleaning

PS: A good website will give a great boost to your business, but referrals should always be your main source of new clients.

Welcome to the forum Mike

What is your unique selling point? What makes you different from any other CC? It has to be different and appealing to the customer! And looking like 'Fabio" won't do it.
now take that USP and screen it out , any way you can.
-do a drawing of 1 free room at some of the up-scale salons. You want to see the word spread like wild fire?!
-support/sponsor local H.S. basket ball with half time contest. Get one of the clubs to run it-sell $1 a ticket. Person drawn shoots a free throw then a 3 pointer and WIN dinner for 2 @ ...?
-be part of a food drive and make sure local media get a press release about how you are doing your part to help the community.
-have some days that you offer veterans specials!
-offer an on time arrival guarantee.
Go to the library and get some books about small business guerilla marketing. Tons on info.

I know you didn't want to discuss the internet but I'm killing it with Angies. Get the ball rolling with that and it will pay huge dividends and they're not price sensitive.

I got off the ground by sending post cards to high income high value neighborhoods and did pretty well with that. The repeat customers I got from that has paid for the mailers multiple times over

I couch and sponsor in the YMCA youth basketball league. The green uniforms have my company name and they also have a sponsor appreciation day.

Thanks to those who gave exact examples of what they have done in the past.

I have done a couple of charity things and they have done well.

I do ask everysingle customer for reviews etc and because I am such a new business it is a very tough thing to get to work as most places deny/delete reviews because the person just signed up and dont see them as actual people and are flaged as faked. ex. Google and Yelp
Facebook has the best retention so far for ease of use and reviews actually showing up mainly because most people have facebooks already.
To bad google doesn't keep the game fair and delete all reviews that are older than a couple years
ex. my competitors has tons of fake reviews.

Weird thing is last year I actually got about 30% better return on my paper ads I was doing vs this year. The economy here is still tanking hard. I do my part and support local places as much as I can ( which also gets me business ) but places are just closing up shop almost daily. Within 2 miles of my place I can easly list of 20-30 business that have closed. Many that have been around for decades. My CPA ( largest CPA in my city ) lets me know I am not alone in my findings of my area.

I know I sound like a negative Nancy but numbers and examples dont lie.

I thank God I have been able to squeeze out all that I have thus far in my journey. I just happen to know the meaning of insanity and keep my head in charge instead of my heart.

I am still busier than at least 70% of the local cleaners in my area and am thankfull that I have been able to get to where I am at, especially with starting with a couple hundred dollars in my hand last year.

I am still going to keep pushing and and have a couple more marketing ideas I am going to try.

Adwords being one of them ... I just started my first campain a couple weeks ago and had it on for 6 days (while ranking in the top 3 and yes I had a unique ad and an offer in the ad ) with out 1 click.

0rez came here at the exact right time and just took over like I have never seen. Absolutely amazing what they have accomplished here. As I am slowly whittling away their customers I can't help but look up to the dude. Lucky for me soon after I launched he starting doing less advertising and took down all 10+ billboards. As they even took 4 trucks down to TriCities to take over that area. I wonder if someday soon they will have to do something drastic because I know they could be that case where they blew up to quick and over broadened their self's.

I really wanted to hear your guys actual response/cost/retention rate on specific ads. I know how to localize myself and market on the street and need no help with that. There is just so much one guy can do to where. You need to start advertising to get jobs. And I understand repeat business, and the rest of marketing/business basics. Maybe some more advanced specific things.. like, most commercial places I do I offer them an "incentive" to let me put my sticker ( vinyl with company name website logo etc ) right next to the front door on the window so everytime someone walks in they see it.
Or
I rank in the 1st position on adwords with blank ad, and get 20 calls a week with 50 clicks and I live in a town of blank population and sometimes dont get calls for 3 or 4 days then all of a sudden I get 20 calls in one day..

Charlie,

Didn't you just relocate to that area? What's it been two years? Sounds like you're doing fine keep  your head up, be patient and keep plugin away. My first year here I had to stock shelves at night to get through the winter you'll be fine man.

ditch your business cards and just use magnets, actually we buy the magnet backings business card size....

we gave out 500 magnets this year, if its a rental or unoccupied just stick it on the fridge

youll be surprised how long it will stay there and be seen everyday