John Braun

The Ad Hitman at Hitman Advertising.

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.

40-to-1 Return on Cleaning Advertising

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GoogleAdwordsGraphicThe graphic here to the right is how it works in a nutshell.

This is one way to do it that we’ve found to work well:

  • Your campaign should be related to a city or area of town.
  • Your ad group should be related to a specific service in that town.
  • Your ad should mention the geographical area and the service.
  • Your website should lead to a page about the service and geographical area.

Now about your keywords:

The keywords should be specific. Sure, it’s still okay to just use Carpet Cleaning as a keyword. But you’ll pay more money for shorter keyword phrases, especially popular phrases like carpet cleaning.

So instead, go after keywords like Best Carpet Cleaning in Atlanta GA (If you serviced Atlanta). Or, go after other specific cleaning services that you do and leave Carpet Cleaning out.

For example, if you do pet stain removal, go after Pet Stain Removal Atlanta.

If you do rug cleaning, here’s a specific list of 30 GREAT keywords we’ve tested and proven.

“area rug cleaning”
“rug cleaning”
“area rug cleaning YOURCITY”
“rug cleaning YOURCITY”
“area rugs cleaned”
“area rugs clean”
“rug cleaning service”
“professional rug cleaning”
“professional area rug cleaning”
“wool rug cleaning”
“wool rug cleaners”
“oriental rug cleaning”
“cotton rug cleaning”
“silk rug cleaning”
“persian rug cleaning”
“sisal rug cleaning”
“rug cleaners”
“rug cleaners YOURCITY”
“area rug cleaners”
“area rug cleaners YOURCITY”
“wool rug cleaners”
“rug odor removal”
“urine removal rug”
“rug dry cleaning”
“oriental rug cleaners”
“persian rug cleaners”
“cotton rug cleaning”
“silk rug cleaning”
“rug hand washing”
“rug washing”
“area rug washing”

***20-to-1 return on investment explained***

Some of the campaigns we’ve done have gotten over a 20-to-1 investment…Some as great as a 40-to-1 return.  But your results will differ.  Some companies that don’t do Adwords right, get little return.

That’s $4,000 for $100 spent on advertising! Now granted, that doesn’t happen on every campaign. But when it does happen, it’s great.

ONE MORE HINT: Notice the parenthesis around the keywords? When you do this, you’ll get a more refined prospect who is only looking for that keyword phrase.

Get MORE training on how to use Google Adwords in my Ad Coaching Club Here (Get in the Google Adwords Course FREE)

Or sign up for only the Google Adwords Course by Clicking Here.

Watch this video to see NEW changes to Adwords:

New Changes to Google Adwords Cleaners Should Know

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Details on the Ad Coaching Club Here (Get in the Google Adwords Course FREE)

It’s the #1 way to get in front of people who are actively looking for a cleaning company.

It’s quick. It’s fairly easy to set up.

But for some cleaners, their cost per click has sky rocketed.

For other cleaners, their cost per click has decreased and they are enjoying as much as a 25-to-1 RETURN ON INVESTMENT.

That’s $2,500 for every $50 spent.

That only happens for cleaners who are doing it right.

See this video I just shot above.

P.S. If your ad is in harmony, you could be getting a great return using Adwords.

Some cleaners are spending $5 per day and doing really well.

How to Build an Unstoppable Cleaning Business

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For info on the Ad Coaching Club, Click Here (Lots of BONUSES ending soon).

What can you add in your marketing to make your cleaning business unstoppable?

Let’s see what the largest corporations do to build their empire. And then, I’ll show you how this works for a cleaning advertising campaign.

See the video above.

This is kind of stuff that most small cleaning businesses think they can’t do, so they don’t even try. But making a few simple changes to your marketing can make a huge difference.

P.S. If you’ve been struggling to make your marketing work for you or you want to make your company brand stronger, you need to see this.

Interview with a Cleaner Who Tripled His Business

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Listen to the interview below:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Click Here to Download the MP3 Audio and Listen Later (Right Click and Save)

I interviewed Dan Traub of Four Seasons Rug Cleaning Studio.  To contact Dan about his rug program, search “California Business Coaching” on Facebook” or call 805-340-1891

Dan Traub of Ventura Rug Cleaning Studio
Dan Traub of Ventura Rug Cleaning Studio

Wish you could hear exactly how other cleaners grow their business?

That’s what this interview is all about.

I did an interview the other day with a cleaner who took his business from doing mediocre, barely struggling to get by…to a profitable, successful operation.

We talked about:

* Setting your goals

* Marketing to NEW clients

* Getting your clients to call back and refer you

* Answering the phone and selling prospects

* How adding rug cleaning services has helped growth

It’s all in this audio interview.

You can download here or listen online:

P.S.  I always learn best by hearing from others who’ve done what I want to do.  If you want to double or triple your business, this is the kind of stuff that helps.