Quick Test: See if your Clients Forget You

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Here’s one great way to do client retention marketing:

Get client marketing done for you RIGHT HERE.

I’ve been busy getting my book published.   That’s why you haven’t heard from me in a while.

Now it’s proofed and ready to be released Tuesday, AUGUST 16th.

The title is “Killer Advertising for Cleaning Businesses- The Hitman’s Guide.” It’s an easy read with picture examples.

Watch your email and Facebook because I’ll be giving some killer bonuses to the first 100 people who buy it on Amazon.

*** Here’s the TEST to see if your cleaning clients remember you? ***

I had lunch the other day with Wayne Rainbolt, one of my Ad Club members. We started talking about how to get MORE referrals and keep MORE of our clients.

Wayne said, “My clients forget my company name right away. I know this because they ask who to make the check out to at the end of nearly every job.”

I said, “That’s the test. If your client asks what your company name is while you’re still in their house…there’s NO WAY they’ll remember you without marketing back to them.”

It’s the cold, hard truth with every cleaning company. You spend BIG $$$ marketing to them. You hand them a business card, bottle of spot remover, and brochure. It’s written on your shirt for crying out loud…

…and they STILL CAN’T REMEMBER YOUR COMPANY NAME.

Do you think they’ll remember you a week later when their neighbor asks who they hired to get their carpet and floors so clean? NOPE.

Is there much hope they’ll remember you six months or one year later when they need their carpet cleaned again? NO WAY!

You need client retention systems in place.

This is the MOST valuable marketing you can do in your cleaning biz.

See this video that shows you one of the great client retention systems we use.

 

Watch for the book company out this Monday, August 15th. It’s got some great examples that me and other cleaners have used to grow their business.

Back to School Postcards for Cleaners

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Click Here for Details on the Ad Club

Just real quick…

I’m heading out on vacation to the North Carolina mountain. Summer is a bit much in Florida with all the heat and humidity. If you’ve ever been to Florida in summer, you know what I mean.

Since summer is ending…school is coming.

Here are some postcard ideas to back to school.

* Client mailers.

* And EDDM mailers to NEW prospects.

Neighborhood Marketing on Steroids

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Click Here for details on the Ad Club

During a summer lull, this is the perfect advertising to test.

After decades of testing different neighborhood marketing offers and designs, we’ve found some concepts that work better than others.

This neighborhood marketing concept:

* Catches your prospect’s attention

* Makes your offer more believable with social proof

* The reader wants to read your mailer

* Targets the neighbors of your IDEAL clients

See this marketing concept that catches the attention of neighbors.

P.S. If you need ideas on targeting high-end clients, you need to see this video. It’s done with a little twiest and takes EDDM to the next level.

Cleaning Success Interview With Jeremy and Stefanie Overturf

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Listen as I interview Jeremy and Stefanie Overturf of Overturf’s Floor and Fabric Care. Click play to listen now or click “Download” to listen later.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

*To download directly from iTunes, Click Here.

I interviewed a couple who owns a cleaning business in Florida.

They started their business from scratch and built it up to be one of the biggest and most respected cleaning firms in their area.

I totally love some of the marketing they do on Facebook. When it comes to marketing to Realtors, Flooring Stores, and their current clients, they do it right.

So I had to interview them.

You’ve got to hear what these guys did to build a successful cleaning business.

How do you grow? Find out what other successful people are doing and then do what they did! It’s that easy.

 

Do You Guarantee Your Cleaning Services?

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I almost left the guarantees out!blue-guarantee

I was finishing up writing my book on advertising for cleaning companies.

…It’s coming out soon. I’ll keep you posted.

During my final review, I realized I left out a very important component…Guarantees.

I don’t mean a vague “Satisfaction Guarantee.” I mean a compelling, meaningful, spelled out guarantee.

5 types of guarantees for cleaners:

  1. 100% No Questions Asked Guarantee. This one says that if you’re not happy for any reason, just call us back. We’ll come back out to re-clean the areas you’re not happy with. If you’re still not happy, you’ll get a full refund.

  2. Spot removal guarantee. This is mostly for carpet, tile, and rug cleaning. I use this one a lot when doing media like newspaper or direct mail. It simply says, “If any spots return after cleaning, we’ll come back in XX days at no charge.”

  3. No Mold or Mildew Guarantee.  This guarantee promises your carpet will dry quickly.  If it takes longer than 24 hours for your carpet to dry, we’ll return at no charge to re-clean your areas.

  4. The stains come out or we pay a competitor. Here we say that we’re the best in the area. If we can’t get a stain out of your carpet, we’ll pay a competitor to remove the stain. Of course, we limit the amount we’ll pay to the total dollar amount the client paid us for cleaning.

  5. Double your money back guarantee or 200% Guarantee. This one is pretty bold, but it says if you’re not happy, I’ll refund your money plus pay a competitor to re-clean those areas, up to the amount you paid. In this case, the client gets free cleaning and they get paid for the cleaning. Do this only for ultra high-end clients and referral sources.

I have several clients in my cleaning company that have told me they use us strictly because of our guarantees. They won’t use anyone else. They’ve tried other companies that did a bad job, had spots return, and the company wouldn’t come back for a follow up service. Because of our strong guarantees, they’ll keep using us and pay a higher price.

I’m not saying you have to do all these guarantees. But the stronger your guarantee, the more you can charge. You want them to feel like they can’t lose if they hire you.

If you make these guarantees, very few people will ever take you up on the money back guarantees. But someone will take advantage eventually. Be prepared for that. However, making such a strong guarantee will attract many more people to your business who are willing to pay your price. It’s worth it.

Summer is the Best Time for Realtor Marketing

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It’s Summer.

This is the busiest time for buying and selling houses. It’s warm outside and parents can move their children to a new school.

If there’s ever a season to get referrals from Realtors, it’s NOW.

See my action plan to get referrals from Realtors:

Three things to concentrate on:

1. Know what to say when you met a Realtor. Have a quick 60-second pitch memorized. Tell them how you’ll help them sell homes fast with your guaranteed odor removal and stain removal systems. Tell them about your guarantee. Tell them about your referral program that gives them an incentive to refer you. In the referral program, maybe give them a 10% reward of what their client spends on cleaning, give them $20 in cash, or whatever you choose. The main point is to tell them they will get thanked in the form of a gift when they refer you. Keep your pitch to 60 seconds!

Watch this video I did right after a Realtor luncheon.

2.  Leave behind literature and cards. You can tell them about your service, but if you don’t leave behind something for them to give to their clients, you’ll lose. Have professionally printed, educational brochures and cards to leave them.

See examples of gift cards…Click Here.

See examples of cleaning brochures Right Here.

3.  Go with treats. Never stop by empty handed. Stop in with a gift bag filled with brochures, gift cards, pens, and pre-packaged cookies. Put in a couple of pre-packaged cookies like Famous Amos, Oreos, or Chips Ahoy. Maybe include a few individually wrapped chocolates too. The gift bag lowers their resistance to your sales call. Everyone loves cookies and candy.

Watch this video from last week on what to include in the gift bag.

If you’re going to get referrals from Realtors, right NOW is the best time.  Go out and do it!

Carpet Stores, Realtors, and Other Businesses Refer You

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Click Here to Get Details on the Ad Club.

You’ll be set if you can get referrals from a company who does business with your ideal target clients.

Who are some of these companies that can refer you:

* Carpet and Flooring Retailers

* Realtors

* Interior Designers

* Plumbers

* Vet Offices

I’ve gotten $1k+ jobs and lifelong clients from each of these companies.

Find out the EXACT process I used in the video above.

P.S. Concentrating on getting these businesses to refer you is one of the best ways to make your cleaning company UNSTOPPABLE.

Promo Card to Get Referrals for Cleaning

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Click to see larger.
Click to see larger.

You can use gift cards to target the EXACT clients you want.  Use this to get more referrals, commercial work, and clients in high-end neighborhoods.

We LOVE getting referrals.  So we do everything possible to get more.  The best thing about a referral is the prospect is already sold on using you before they call.  Most of the time there is no in-home estimate or price haggling required.  Just set the appointment and make money.

These gift promo cards are viewed to be MUCH more valuable than a coupon or even a FREE room of cleaning offer.  They look like a real gift card and, for all practical purpose, we treat them like a real gift card.  The only difference is we give some special exclusions on the back of the card to keep the offer from getting abused.

3 Ways to Use These Cards:

1.  Pass them out to businesses who can refer you to their clients.  We pass them out to flooring retailers, realtors, interior designers, plumbers, maid services, builders, property managers, and other places that can hand you NICE jobs.  We pass them out at their office or we’ll send a few to them in the mail along with a letter that gives benefits of how we can help them.

2.  Hand them out at networking events.  Why give out plain old business cards when you can give out gift cards?  Go to networking groups as the bearer of gifts!

3.  Distribute them to high-end neighborhoods.  We send these out in a letter that gives compelling benefits of our service. We also use these in doorknob hanger packets.

Back side. Click to see larger.
Back side. Click to see larger.

It’s one of the CHEAPEST tools to promote referrals and set yourself apart from the competition.  I’m all about setting my company apart from my competitors.

We use them in different dollar amounts…$25, $50 and $100.  The potential job that can be referred depends on the amount.  For example, realtors normally get $50 or $100 gift cards.  A property manager who rents small homes may get a $25 gift card.

These cards are printed up to look like actual gift cards.  But they’re really a thick, glossy, larger business card.  Upon looking at the card, they look like a gift card.  But when you hold it in your hand it doesn’t feel quite like a thick, plastic card.  It does the job at an economical price so we can afford to pass out thousands of them all over the city.

2 Ways to Get these Gift Cards:

1. You get the template for this gift card and BIG discounts on printing in my Ad Club.  Get details by CLICKING HERE.  Get 1000 of these glossy, thick gift cards printed for just $32 + shipping.

2.  Or, for a limited time, get this template custom graphic designed with your company info for $99. Then get 1000 of these glossy, thick gift cards printed for just $32 + shipping.  Order Info Click Here.

See this video on how I used these cards at a Realtor luncheon.

Follow Your Website Visitors with Google Remarketing

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Get in the Google Adwords Training Course FREE when you sign up for my Ad Club.  See details here.

Ever wish there was a way to market back to your website visitors AFTER they visit your site?

You can do this even if they don’t sign up for your email newsletter.

And it happens on AUTOPILOT to almost every visitor who comes to your site.

It’s called Google Remarketing.

You can set it up in Google Adwords for usually less than $1 per click.

I shot this video that walks you through the set up step-by-step.

P.S. I’ve heard of some web developers charging $500 or more just to set this up. But I’ll show you how you can do it yourself FREE.

Worst Cleaning Website Ever

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Most cleaning websites suck!

Why? Because they don’t turn traffic into buyers.

IMPORTANT: There’s a HUGE difference between a pretty website and a website that converts lurkers into cleaning clients.

I’ve seen pretty websites that don’t get calls and I’ve seen ugly websites that do get calls.

Your prospects are looking for TWO important things when they land on your site.

Find out how you can use these two important sales triggers on your cleaning website to get more sales.

See this video I just shot now.

P.S. The main hurdle you need to jump over is differentiating yourself from your competition.

If you want to charge MORE than 5 rooms for $99, you have to do some of these things.