Market positioning using non-price point advertising?

[hogjowl]

I have been exploring the possibility of ramping up my marketing of late. I will need to, unless junior is willing to live in poverty for the rest of his life. From what I can figure, I will have to improve my web-site (which is really bad). Of course, I really don't expect to receive a significant improvement in call in's just by improving my web-site. The one I have gives out the information people need. However, I am sure there are a few of those ladies who would be more inclined to call me if my website was prettier. So, that will be a step for me to take. My page placement is already right on target.

Facebook advertising is giving mixed results, from the things I am reading, but I read a really good post on the porty board from a guy who gives easy to follow advice on how to set up FB advertising and what to avoid, so I plan on following his advice on that and seeing for myself if FB is worth the trouble.

I am already set up with ... what's that thing Mikey's likes on the west coast? ... I can't remember, but anyway I am set up with it. It's not big at all around here in pigsville yet.

Angies List is not an option for me. In my mind, it is growing more and more discount based and before long it will only attract yellow page customers ... price shoppers who are not loyal.

Every door direct mail with the post office is something I will start doing soon. While I don't expect it to bring much in the way of direct response calls for me, because I don't plan to offer prices on the ads, I feel that over time, if I just keep it up, I will see my market share begin to improve. The question is, how long will that take?

Have any of you ever heard of anyone actually building an advertising program that was able to generate a good direct response without offering price point or discount specials?

 

[Desk Jockey]

No I don't think you can do that and it be effective. What you can do is offer secondary services (Rug cleaning, Upholstery Cleaning, Tile Cleaning, specialty spot removal, carpet repair) at a discount rotating it throughout the year.

I agree spend the money on the website but not as much for looks as optimized for Google, Yahoo/Bing. Yes setup a facebook page too, but don't expect too much from it. Its a loooog term thing, keep it current, add good photo's with the things you see and do throughout your week. Keep changing it and making comments, you'll find your clients will enter act with you. You're making friends and building, maintaining relationships.

Throughout the next year start gathering clients emails so you can do email blasts for your seasonal marketing, it will save you over "snail mail" costs.

Being you're an owner operator I'd start carrying a tablet or laptop with you and when you complete a job and the client is pleased with you I'd explain to them how valuable reviews are to the success to your business and off them a discount on their next cleaning. Log on to google places and let them add their review right there. If they don't have time send them a certificate after they post it.

Consider cable TV, it doesn't have to be actual commercial but scrolling ads across the bottom can work in smaller communities. Radio also can be effective over time and help establish your brand. Speaking of brand what did you ever do with your logo?

Consider adding low moisture systems to compliment your offering, then market commercial work harder. Look at production times, $'s per hour not Sq/ft to establish your rate. The Cimex, OP Machine, the Zipper, Interlinks Drag Wand, Rotary Powerheads all will help you knock out larger sq/ft with less fatigue and allow you to be more competitive with your pricing while maintaining your margin.

Do something......do anything......just quit your bitchin!

 

[hogjowl]

If I log into google from my iPad, and have my customer give me a review, won't it look to Google like I gave the review to myself?

I CAN do price point advertising and be profitable, now that I am running a two man crew. I never entertained it before because I was by myself, and just could not get my minimum hourly rate I wanted at the $99 dollar price point that is so popular around here. I can regularly get $150 an hour offering competitive room prices for my area, so I am not totally opposed to offering price point "specials". I just hate to start down that road and become like the rest of you people.

 

[Royal Man]

If I log into google from my iPad, and have my customer give me a review, won't it look to Google like I gave the review to myself?

I CAN do price point advertising and be profitable, now that I am running a two man crew. I never entertained it before because I was by myself, and just could not get my minimum hourly rate I wanted at the $99 dollar price point that is so popular around here. I can regularly get $150 an hour offering competitive room prices for my area, so I am not totally opposed to offering price point "specials". I just hate to start down that road and become like the rest of you people.

Have the client sign in with THEIR Google+ ID and password and I think you will be Ok. I have seen some note pads/books where you can' t leave a review on them. Just like google does with phones.google favors laptops for reviews.

 

[Desk Jockey]

It would if logged in under yourself. Hopefully they have an account, if not they will need to make one. A pain and time eater but still of real value to you. If you don't want to discount your cleaning (which I'd rotate services discounted) you'll still need to have something to get them off the fence and calling you. What about trade with a resturarant or other business you clean regularly. Clean for trade in gift certificates and then use those certificates to go fishing with. ????

 

[hogjowl]

I have a dentist I trade with. My tooth doesn't require that much attention, so I guess I could use that credit for root canal certificates to hand out to my customers.

 

[jcooper]

Marty,
I'd not spend a lot of time on most of the things you listed. Imo, EVERYTHING as far as the web goes is your google local listing, people are doing their shopping right on the listing page. Most don't even go to our site.

Are you mailing to previous clients? If not I'd do that before eddm(even though it seems super cool). I also need to start doing this.

Paid ads/listings on yahoo/bing are worthless, been doing it for a year. Stick with the free listings. It gets about 5% the action google does.

what's that thing Mikey's likes on the west coast? ... I can't remember, but anyway I am set up with it. It's not big at all around here in pigsville yet.

I used to agree w/you on "Mikey's" yelp not being used much in my/your area. However, I have to say Yelp has really started taking off around here. The people that use it are very loyal and do their research. Get some reviews and before/after photos on there and good to go!

Have any of you ever heard of anyone actually building an advertising program that was able to generate a good direct response without offering price point or discount specials?

Don't know I'd call christmas cards a program, but every year we have done it it's worked very well. No special or sale, just a card.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Or trade for "tooth" cleaning....on second thought you're in ALAbama right. Maybe a restaurant certificate?

Maybe you should just trade for dental work for yourowndamnself?

 

[Shane Deubell]

For non-coop direct mail i didnt find using pricing specials that effective anyway. A free room of another service or free chair cleaning worked much better.

 

[hogjowl]

Cooper:

I am currently using ServiceMonster to mail reminder cards to all of my customers.

While I agree with most of you (I try not to agree with Taco, ever) about direct mail not being effective without a price or discount on it, I sometimes think we get ourselves confused with direct response vs brand awareness. I believe I can build brand awareness, over time, without putting price on my advertisements.

But, I may be Vawter's age before it starts taking effect.

 

[Mikey P]

Just about all good and long lasting trends and fads start here in California..
Get your Yelp a counts in gear now cause its coming...

We get between 40 to 60 jobs a month from it.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Dude only we should do that. We can't be there when people have a fire or water loss, you should be making offers that create a call to action. You'll get better response and better value from your promotions. The only draw back for you is you'll have less to complain about.

 

[Royal Man]

You could work on your webpage.( It's pretty lackluster). A few thing you can do is to tell your story with pictures. Have a USP (What makes you different from the rest) Add more testimonials and place a couple on page one. Simply changing your "Contact us" to FREE quote" can bring more jobs. If you look at the big players. You can see that they don't just have a price point ad. They combine a price point with a USP. ( Magic Bubbles, No residue etc..) You can learn from that. It's not just price.

 

[Royal Man]

If I log into google from my iPad, and have my customer give me a review, won't it look to Google like I gave the review to myself?

I CAN do price point advertising and be profitable, now that I am running a two man crew. I never entertained it before because I was by myself, and just could not get my minimum hourly rate I wanted at the $99 dollar price point that is so popular around here. I can regularly get $150 an hour offering competitive room prices for my area, so I am not totally opposed to offering price point "specials". I just hate to start down that road and become like the rest of you people.

Moble device ipads, phones etc won' let you leave google reviews without down loading aps , changing browsers etc. .. too much work for client to ever do.try it for your self. It's a serious bug.

 

[smastio]

Marty - Your question is a good one. It prompted me to do some number crunching of my first FittleBug client. Over the last two years from 10/30/11 - 10/31/13 he booked 642 online bookings with this FittleBug application; but I was interested in how many were normal pricing and how many were discounted. 130 of them (about 20%) were discounted at 10% off through an on going Yelp promotion. When they find him in Yelp it says to type "goyelp" in the promo box for 10 % off. The other 512 were at normal cost. I believe that the results could be a testament to a form of marketing "real-time booking" that offers substantial exposure without having to discount much is any. Giving people what they want, when they want it, how they want it appears to be so value added that they will pay list cost for the services. Not a Sales job - just answering a question with statistical analyses. I have had an "Independent study on the home page of my web site for a long that suggested the following:

"Beagle Says - Perhaps the best indicator of receptivity to appointment scheduling is the high percentage of people (over 80%) who would be willing to set up a profile or account with a service provider to make subsequent appointment scheduling easier. Finally, the perception that scheduled services are more valuable, which surfaced in the survey data, may give businesses the support they need to raise prices over time – or, equally important, hold the line on prices during a downturn. Small price differences would be an important part of any ROI calculation that could make an appointments system even more valuable." Here's the full study...

I guess that their study and my clients results suggest there is value in this type of offering. I welcome comment...

 

[Russ T.]

You can set up "templates" in Service Monster so put a link in there that will be part of the invoice you email to the client. Make the link go to wherever you think is best (Google Locals, Yelp, Facebook, etc) for them to leave you a review. Please be aware that customers would like their entire carpet as clean as possible (not just borders) so get yourself a Rotary Extractor and get ready for some of the best reviews you ever received ;-). You're welcome.


The Clean Machine

 

[Shane Deubell]

I wouldnt spend too much money on a new website marty, couple hundred bucks at most. In a town of 35k only so many people are going to look online.

You definitely can hire someone to create ads that get people to call without pricing, Who? I have no idea start googling copywriters, copywriters for small business, etc until you see a style you like.

Personally do not like any of the "industry" copywriters, they all have the same style and go negative. Other styles exist, its a big world out there.

Why not just take 1000 households and send letters/flyers to and then 1000 households with postcards and do it 3-4x and watch the results.

 

[Desk Jockey]

35K? Hell move!!!!!!

 

[Able 1]

Not sure what is wrong with price point advertizing, as long as you are the only one to pick from(no valpac).. Do people really know what it will cost? If you find a way to advertize that you are the only one to pick from advertizing price is no big deal. I advertize price and made $390 in 1.5 hours this morning with one truck on the job(I could have done it in under 1 hour with both trucks).

 

[kingjoelking]

If I log into google from my iPad, and have my customer give me a review, won't it look to Google like I gave the review to myself?

Why not just email them a direct link to your Google and Yelp page for reviews.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Marty I am willing to bet that when you shop, you look for deals.. be it at the grocery store or the latest industry gadget. I do and I think we all do, so why not have something like that for your customers? I think its all about making it easier for customers to use you.. Your message should be short and to the point because you don't have long to catch their attention with the clutter of other marketing out there we/they get bombarded with. But always keep in mind with who your target market is.. any SFS graduate was taught about customer goggles. I like to think of it as anticipating their needs.. knowing what they want before they do.

 

[Russ T.]

Why not just email them a direct link to your Google and Yelp page for reviews.

Really easy Marty. That's what I meant by creating a "template" in Service Monster to be included with the emailed receipt. Just add the link(s) in there with your "signature" at the bottom so you don't have to type all that info at every job. The people at SM can help you do it if you can't figure it out. It will only take @ 5 minutes. You should have a little extra time, being that it's your habit to speed through your jobs without a power head, paying careful attention to only corners and edges ....now I'm just cracking myself up!


The Clean Machine

 

[steve_64]

the current guy working for me has been using facebook to get us work. he just posts vids and talks about it and lets "his" people know what hes doing. its been working well.
i run a weekly ad thats just my business card which is my logo. its on my magnets and my van. it didnt take long for me to become recognizable from the pack.

be consistant in your messaging and prices.

ive been thinking about yelp too. im also in a very small market until i cross the state line. my entire county which i live at the bottom of is less than the average medium city in population i think.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/26021.html

but i dont have to wok much to afford a comfortable living.

my market is still in decline also. an older factory just announced they will be hiring 40 people possibly in the near future and thats big news here.
and yes richard, im thinking of moving. are you hiring?

i havent tried direct mail yet but may start next year if i get a plan together. i doubt id put price points in it since ive only done that with larger newspaper ads which work very well for me.

stats for the city i live in
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/26/2657760.html
pretty dismal.

 

[Desk Jockey]

and yes richard, im thinking of moving. are you hiring?

As long as you're will to work for less than you're worth, I'm always hiring!

We only have 22K more in our county. We have offer more services in order to survive, no one service can support us. While there's fewer competitors than the big city, there's also a smaller population to service.....competition between us becomes more fierce.

 

[steve_64]

We only have 22K more in our county. We have offer more services in order to survive, no one service can support us. While there's fewer competitors than the big city, there's also a smaller population to service.....competition between us becomes more fierce.

i was just talking to my new guy about that. he knows a cabinet guy that cleans carpet around here. ughhh i hate learn another trade.
i may take on a full time job yet if things dont turn around for me soon. the economy is still dying as is the population around here.

i need to add tile and wood and start advertising more just to start. getting my motivation back again finally.funny how someone can have so much effect on us. and she has a cleaning business, but is also working fulltime.

did you see the median income or the poverty rate?

 

[Desk Jockey]

LOL Women can motivate you to do more that you want to on your own.

 

[Shane Deubell]

Marty, here is a website i found and am going to try myself for a couple of marketing pieces. https://www.constant-content.com/
It is filled with thousands of copywriters and basically we put our projects out to bid with instructions on who we are looking for and writers bid on it.

You can also research writers and contact them privately, i didnt find anything on carpet cleaning but many i liked on home decor, remodeling type. Not a bad idea to find somebody outside of the industry with some original ideas.

Before hiring a copywriter first create basic fact sheet so they have an idea of what you are trying to accomplish:
Here is a sample of one i had, add anything you think is important.

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[Shane Deubell]

Sorry it came out all messed up .

Here are some questions to ask before hiring a copywriter

1. One of the services or features i sell is?
A quick way to describe it?

2. When customers purchase {service} a technical, personal improvement that it provides?

3. when customers are interested in buying this service performed they are usually having a challenge of?

4. What questions would you ask a homeowner to determine if they need your service?

5. General demographic info

6. Testimonial from a customer of a specific problem you solved

7. One way we differ from competition is?

8. One thing i may share with a customer about my business to make a good impression

9. Something you are proud of?

10.What are some standard objections that we run into?