ForumsAdvertising, Sales and Marketing

The old one liners don't work like they use too...
Being someone who has been in the b2b business all my life , let me first state while direct marketing has been the way I have done business for years, people are more put off by it then ever before.

What most small business owners fail to realize is that google has taken over, and thats because the consumer has moved away from yellow page and print media as well as TV advertising which general speaking is out side of most business models reach in the first place.

What I have found the facts to be is 85% of the public does internet searches for the products and service they need first before looking else where, this inlies the problem for most businesses today , even long standing business are failing, mainly because they one don't understand how it works, two don't know who to trust in helping them .

Quite frankly consumers today don't want to be found, they want to find you and if you can not be found in a search of which 90% of web searchers use google first , than new customers can not find you !

Check out this site for more help...
http://www.avtglobal.com

I have been in marketing for about 2 years now and we have experimented with everything from mailers, to the web, to print advertising.

Anything online definitely is the most cost effective with the highest return rate. Have you tried starting small (posting to Craigslist, Google PPC locally, adding your business to Google's local director (which is free), etc.) Mailers can get expensive to create, print, stamp. Just a thought!

Hi Luckiest,

Thank you for your response. I don't have alot of start up money right now, so I'm kind of on a budget. I won't be able to hire anyone for marketing, at least for now. I was thinking about offering 10% off the current cleaning companies rate & free estimates. With the economy, businesses are looking to cut corners. And, with my quality of work, they will cut the cost, but not the service! I like the idea of town sponsorship! I will definately look into that, and other things like that. Think outside the box-I will remember that!:) Thank you!!:D

I also own a cleaning company. We have been running for about six months and we also offer exterior services (such as pressure washing) in addition to routine interior cleaning. I have not found much return on postcards or any mailers for that matter. I don't know who does the cleaning for your company but we use legal workers that speak english clearly. We found that a lot of commercial clients were frustrated with their current provided simply because they could not communicate with the workers. So when they had complaints they were not being heard and they did not want to call in small complaints, thus they were getting increasingly more angry. Once we came in we eliminated this frustration.

I agree that the internet is your best resource, craigslist will provide you a handful of residential clients. If you are pursuing commercial (like we did) I recomend contacting apartment complexes because they have frequent turn over and need one time clean outs 2-3 times per month. I would also get in touch with your local chamber of commerce, you can meet lots of other business owners there that may need your services. Lastly I suggest you start introducing yourself to local property manager groups. Mailers may be the only way to get something in their hands right away but we found a personal visit never hurts, the worst response we get is that they have had the same cleaners for 10 years and are fully satisfied. No one gets mad and if they let us talk with them we keep it brief. Good luck to you!

Miss Mayes,

You are right about online advertising. I was going to post on craigslist, but after seeing 5+ different cleaning companies posting on there per day, I decided not to. Some of which, offer their services for just about anything! I may just decide to post on there and just see if anything happens. I will definately look into your other suggestions and I appreciate your help!!! Thanks so much-Jess

For a one bedroom apartment we charge anywhere from $80-$150 depending on the square footage and the "class" of the establishment. Higher end companies are prepared to pay you for every little thing, smaller (50 or less units) only want the place clean enough to pass new tenant inspections. We also have a sub-contractors license which allows us to present services to our clients that we may not do directly. For instance we do not perform deep carpet cleaning so we give that work to a different company. Our client can still cut on check and get all the services at once. I look forward to communicating with you some more later.