Carpet cleaning

Make sure they are listed in the Google search results. Make sure they are listed in Angie's list, Yelp, and homeadvisor.

Make sure they are listed in the online Yellow pages (there are 11 different ones, if I remember correctly)

Do not buy featured listings from these directories.

A few videos about the service, posted on Youtube will show up in a Google search.

Really, that's what I'd do.

Nobody goes to Facebook to find carpet cleaners. They go on Google.

If they need work they can reach out to apartment communities. They will get quite a bit of work but can't charge as much as one off jobs. Show up and do the job on time and on task and you can get a lot of work quickly while building up your residential business.

Tell them to go and immerse themselves in the truckmountforums.com website. There's a marketing forum there. That site has it all.

Facebook ads, postcards and local newspapers are but vehicles that take your marketing message to their audience. So the best question to ask about Facebook ads, postcards and local newspapers is, "is this where I'll reach a good number of my target demographic?" If not, then find where they can be reached.

What you say through Facebook ads, postcards and local newspapers is what gets the recipient to contact you. So compelling copy and offer with a sense of urgency is more importantly what you need to focus on.

Typically flyers with an irresistible offer can jumpstart customers visits. Alternatively target locally with facebook ads. A targeted advertising would be with Facebook ads displayed to local people (by city) and at the same time using Facebook retargeting ads as a reminder of the offer with an extra discount. (I have no experience in the specific market).

I specialise in this area - Google My Business is your best bet to get started for free leads.

Rose, I don't know which part of the country your friend is,
but I hope there are nasty dust mites residing in carpets there.

Why?

No matter how your friend spins it,
the homeowner will box him/her in the carpet cleaning box.

Even if you paid the highest priced direct response copywriter,
used Joe Polish's ad templates, the consumer is still boxing the carpet cleaner in the carpet cleaning label.

I got hired to fix a carpet cleaners ad which was a Joe Polish ad.

What I did was put him in another category in the consumer's mind.

It was a new category.

It was one he would be number 1 when consumers think of this service category.

Unless you are number 1, 2 or 3 in the buyer's mind,
you are destined to be living off the scraps the top 3 leaves you.

It's because our brains don't have the capacity to store and recall
more than 3 things in a world of an overload of ad messages we are all exposed to.

We now have less attention than a goldfish!

So back to the carpet cleaner.

I only talked about dust mites.

Removal of carpet dust mites was the new category he would own.

Same equipment.

New news.

Best,
Ewen

Hi there,

Hard market actually. I'd really define your terms to be exact within a certain geo-location for adwords. Then try Facebook with an incentive offer plus opt-in. Retargeting is a must, and also a worthy call to action - as you don't really have your carpets cleaned that frequently.

A clear website with reviews included and lots of pics will help alongside GMB too.

Hi Rose,

Great thread!

You can do a roaring trade in carpet cleaning. I run other offline businesses myself but I know a chap in the cleaning trade. Some excellent advice already. I'll try not to rehash and, instead, throw out some additional ideas.

Your first instinct is to spend money. Don't. There's no need. You need listings in the places already mentioned and those will send a trickle. The real money is going to come from 4 places:

1. Google.
2. Facebook Groups.
3. B-2-B.
4. Referrals.

They need a website, a YouTube channel, and a Facebook page. If they're really keen, then they can also create and grow a Facebook Buy & Sell group, where they pin and promote their own carpet cleaning service.

You won't earn a bean right away by trying to rank the website in Google. Not unless they know what they're doing; and I'm guessing they don't. It simply exists to help convert leads from external traffic sources and, in time, you have the opportunity to rank your pages in Google.

Households and (especially) B-2-B will give the website a cursory glance prior to making any buying decisions. It needs to be well designed, fast, and feature all the usual, including testimonials. If you can convince them to include video presentations on the website? Better.

Setup, flesh out, grow the Facebook page. Quickest and cheapest way for them (in this case) is to invite their friends and have their friends invite their friends. Have them ring close friends and tell them what to do. This is going to flood that page with a lot of local followers.

Avoid the usual type of offline page. Give this one some character. Give locals a reason to like it other than getting spammed by carpet cleaning. Infuse it with some local colour. Focus on videos; second to that animated gifs and images.

What they're doing from the get-go is growing testimonials. You want to flood that page with positive reviews and grow the page big. The latter will get you more attention in FB search; the former will help yield conversions.

Now it's time to pee off other carpet cleaners - those with paid listings and websites that are 20 years old. The fastest way to pee 'em off? Rank YouTube videos for each relevant keyword. Local videos are (usually) exceptionally easy to rank. In my own experience, it's the best way I've found to make hotels very upset with you. (Well, aside from not flushing the loo.)

Trouble is, you need to get them off your video and towards a conversion. You use the video to do most of the selling. Then you send them to your FB page to seal the deal. The temptation is to direct them to your website. It won't convert as well. Your locals are going to want to see updated action on your FB page and recent testimonials and general chit-chat. That'll work better to get the sale than a silent website page.

Groups. FB groups are now half the size of CL. They're approaching half a billion monthly users. You have three options here. You can post your services (the ideal is to share from your page). You can setup a referral scheme to encourage locals to send business in return for some form of reward (monetary is easiest). You can grow a local buy and sell group. These are dead easy to grow, they get fed with content, people help grow them for you (without encouragement), and you can promote your own offline business more heavily and prominently than on non-owned FB groups.

Last - business to business. That's where you'll find the real money. Trouble is, every other carpet cleaner has knocked their physical and virtual doors. This is why you need to grow a strong local presence on FB and YT before even bothering to approach them.

No idea about your local margins, but your step after that - staff.

Cheers,

Tom

Hi Rose,

Contact carpet repair, remnant sellers, carpet sellers and others in the trade.

Offer them a bird dog fee for every job that they get paid on.

These people are always looking for more income for doing nothing other than recommending you.

You can have them give a brochure with their code on it that they ask for when the person calls in.

You have to pay for marketing no matter what, why not ONLY pay when you get a guaranteed sale.

Then, send the people who birdogged it the money really fast. They see results and will push you even more because they got paid for their efforts.

Patrick

Hi,

Just thought of this after I posted above, oops.

You could do the same with vacume cleaner sales people who do in home demos.

Have them leave a brochure with a code on it with everyone who doesn't buy.

They now get a bird dog fee for people who would have made them nothing.

Patrick

We own a commercial cleaning business in Canberra AU, it's been a successful business for 28 years and still going strong.

We also do carpet cleaning.

99% of our work comes via recommendation, as you expect being in business fo this long.

However, with what we're recently learning through my ventures into creating online businesses, I'm working a smallish plan to increase our Brand awareness.

We already have a Brand, and it's known locally, however our intent is to broaden that in these ways.

*Improve local SEO on existing website.
*Setup Google My Business (GMB) (currently waiting for Validation)
*Setup Free Website within GMB
*We have a Facebook Page (but do not do paid advertising) we instead just post up tips and photo's of work well done.
*We create small posters promoting our business and services, the kind we can put on notice boards near shopping centres or local communities. We always refer people within those posters to our website. And, they have those tear off tabs with our contact details. People grab them and we get calls.
*Collect email addresses to letting agents and Real Estate Agencies, work up an email campaign and start promoting...sooner or later, often sooner, the work will start to be offered or enquiries made. Getting a foot in the door allows for an opportunity to do great work, do it and always get some sort of validation from the client. Use that to get more work.
*Get your friends to start a blog with the purpose of helping people who have questions about carpet care.
*Follow groups on FB and elsewhere; mums groups,dads groups, kids & family groups. These sort of groups discuss things like cleaning around the home, carpet cleaning, "who can recommend" type of discussion. And so on.

These are just a few things we've done, do and will continue to do. There's much more...but you get the idea. I hope this helps.

Perhaps I should write a book!

Cheers James

Apart from all the great advice you've already received you might like to add this to your friend's longer term strategy.

All around where I live there are many retail properties.

Most of these are managed by real estate agents.

Every tenant has to pay a bond and every tenant has to have the property professionally cleaned prior to vacating their rental.

There are many companies that target this type of bond recovery cleaning. If the tenant doesn't clean the premises and usually show receipts to the managing agent they lose in some cases all of their bond or a portion of it.

This is how I would use that lever to generate sales in the long term.

Every realestate agent has a rental list.

You regularly visit the agents and pick up their list as if you were a prospective tenant.

Enter the property addresses into a spreadsheet with a date they are vacant.

Most property rentals where I am are based on 6 month leases.

All you do is direct mail small batches to the properties that are 5 to 5 and an half months after they are on the property rental list and then again in 3 and 6 months after those times.

You will probably land the mail at the time the tenant is considering vacating and having to consider the cleaning.

You would then need to make sure you make a great offer and followup.

Over time you would end up with a large database of rental properties in the area and the approximate timing of their renewal windows.

It can then become easy to send a welcome letter also to the new tenants when they move in letting them know you cleaned the carpet for the previous tenant helping them recover their bond.

It also gives you an ideal opportunity to build a relationship.

Offer an emergency spot cleaning service to help minimise stains. Send then a fridge magnet with the spot cleaning deal and tell them you are there to help them throughout their rental period.

It might be a bit long term but I'd add it to the mix to get an edge on the many competitors.

Best regards,

Ozi

Here's a twist on getting lists of rentals...

Look through the RE listings in your service area and concentrate on the FSBO (For Sale By Owner) listings. Offer carpet cleaning as part of the staging process.

My wife and I tend to watch a lot of 'House Hunters' type shows. Time and again, a stained carpet will reverse an otherwise positive image. The seekers replace the image of themselves living in the house with images of what the stains are and how they got there, and worries about what other problems they might be missing.

I know that when we sold our last house, having the carpets professionally cleaned made them look almost new and saved us thousands in either new carpets or buyer allowances.

Carpet cleaning can be a fairly easy business to start, since you can do it on your own and out of your home. Start small, then adjust as your business grows.

Franchise or solo?
Write a simple business plan.
Pick a place.
Get the business basics.
Consult the pros.
Equip yourself.
Bring in customers.

To bad you did not read the Orignial Poster's post because you missed the whole question.

I do Google Map Listings for Clients in that niche... We do Service areas they service to.

Rose, I have a great idea for you...

To piggyback on the dust mite angle, your friends could offer each homeowner a free bag of dust mite flour (I hear it makes great bread). Tell them the mites were harvested from the last carpet they cleaned.

Alex

Facebook ads, Google adwords, SEO are the best.