Marketing and Growing Your Laundry Business’ Pickup-and-Delivery Service
Three years ago, Peter Lowin was considering building a third laundromat in southern California.
However, primarily due to the cost, he decided against opening that third store – instead opting to establish LaundryaGoGo, a laundry pickup-and-delivery service to complement his two existing laundries, which serve the Pasadena/Burbank market.
“Today, our pickup-and-delivery revenue is the equivalent to what we projected a third laundry would have provided us,” Lowin said. “And I think the demand for PUD is here to stay.
“At some point, when things started to open back up and people began returning to their usual routines post-COVID, we anticipated a flattening or decline in demand, but that hasn’t happened. People are looking for more time-saving convenience in many areas of their lives.”
Matthew Simmons of Curbside Laundries correctly points out that, just a few decades ago, everyone mowed their own lawns.
“Now, people outsource that task,” he said. “Laundry is on its way to being outsourced on a very large scale. There’s more business out there than any one laundromat can do, and the market keeps growing.”
Much like Lowin, California operator Daniel Sofranko is also experiencing that type of growth first-hand in his market.
“The future upside is seemingly limitless right now,” said Sofranko, who owns Perfect Wash-Express Laundry Center in Huntington Beach, Calif. “In most markets, I don’t think other operators should necessarily be considered competitors or obstacles; rather, the largest obstacle most operators face is the ‘not-yet-informed’ customer.”
Best Practices for Promoting PUD
First and foremost, laundromat owners need to determine if there’s a market for laundry pickup-and-delivery services in their areas.
“If this type of service is brand new to an area, a focus on awareness campaigns is crucial to let people know that laundry pickup and delivery is available to them,” explained Curbside Laundries’ Aaron Simmons. “If the market is already established, focus on reaching people who are already looking for this service through Google AdWords and a strong online presence.”
Digital marketing is one of the most effective, efficient methods of marketing laundry pickup-and-delivery services and educating those uninformed potential customers, according to John MacKrell, CEO and founder of pickup-and-delivery service HappyNest.
“Within the DM world, organic search and paid advertising are both effective,” he explained. “Paid advertising like Google AdWords, Facebook and Instagram are all very effective, if managed correctly and optimized appropriately.”
Unfortunately, merely creating a monthly budget and setting up an ad or two won’t work and could end up being very expensive, MacKrell warned.
“Organic search rankings improve when new and original content is added to your pickup-and-delivery website,” he pointed out. “Creating links to other relevant sites is also helpful to drive organic results and improve your website domain authority.
“In addition to digital marketing, branding is important within your local markets. We have been successful using traditional marketing tools such as radio spots, billboards and transit ads within some of our select markets. In markets where we have multiple operators, radio and transit ads have worked well.”
MacKrell also is a fan of remarketing campaigns.
“If a potential customer is already in your funnel, but didn’t complete the sign-up process, we have email campaigns and other tools to help them get to the finish line,” he said. “Also, we actively market to customers who have decreased their usage on the platform – after all, having existing customers increase their usage is just as important as obtaining new customers.”
Also, the importance of incentivizing PUD customers cannot be overstated, according to Ricard Pryce, business development executive for CleanCloud.
“People are always seeking bargains and money-saving deals to feel like they are receiving a great value,” Pryce said. “Whether it’s waiving your delivery fee for orders over a certain amount, offering credits for each order or providing referral codes, attaching these incentives to your marketing campaigns will make customers feel as though there is more value associated with your promotions. Incentives are everything.”
For Sofranko, a great, functional and easy-to-use website is the foundation upon which all of the other marketing magic and business growth truly rests.
“All of your marketing will funnel potential customers to your website or your store’s phone,” he explained. “So, you have to give them something great. To get them there, try anything – social media posts; Google AdWords; SEO; links to content such as YouTube videos, how-to articles, humor, community causes and involvement, and so on. Just get into the mix, and make sure customers can find you. Lastly, simply running a great business that your customers and neighbors admire and respect will lead to positive word-of-mouth promotion.”
It all starts with a professional-looking website that is SEO-optimized, Lowin agreed.
“Building a strong, organic internet presence is key,” he said. “We started with a paid, online marketing service that helped us improve our organic internet presence and helped manage our Google AdWords campaign.
“Second, having good, consistent and friendly sales and customer service is important. The best way to grow this business is to acquire regular customers – and keep them. This will be your base as you grow. The higher your retention rate, the faster you will grow.”
Lowin also suggested incentivizing employees to solicit online reviews of your PUD service.
“Data suggest two to three uses before customers start to organically use a new service on their own,” noted Eli Aizenstat, director of marketing for Cents. “There are various ways to get them over that hill, and it usually starts with offering promotions. If a service is remotely interesting to a customer, offering it for free will almost always ensure they at least try it out.
“Employing the concept of ‘social proof’ also is effective – let your new customers know how much your other customers love the PUD service and how often they use it. Lastly, be persistent. It can take up to seven ‘touches’ of advertising or promotion to get a customer to try something new… so stick with it.”
Florida multi-store owner Stacey Runfola shared her list of some of the most effective marketing methods she’s implemented for gaining new residential PUD customers:
- Attractively wrapping and branding her delivery vehicles.
- Creating an eye-catching, laundry-related T-shirt and wearing it all over town. “It has become a great conversation starter, and I can then follow up those conversations by handing out business cards and promo codes, when appropriate.”
- Joining local Facebook and Nextdoor groups, and conducting periodic searches for important keywords. “I often find people who have broken washers or dryers, and I can suggest our PUD service, while they wait for their replacement machines or repairs. This works great, because I’m reaching local neighbors – and those posts typically receive several views.”
- Partnering with other local businesses to share business cards at their locations.
- Donating gift cards to charitable auctions.
When marketing your PUD service to residential clients, one of the best practices is simply being responsive to all customer service calls and inquiries, according to John Baiada, who owns Tornado Laundromat in Amarillo, Texas.
“The easiest thing you can do is to have someone readily available to answer calls and assist new customers,” he stated. “Until you get established, you really have no idea how many customers never follow through with a laundry service because they’re stuck with no answers to their questions or they’re overwhelmed with the process of actually getting a pickup scheduled. Not everyone is tech-savvy and not everyone is comfortable with the idea of someone coming to their homes and being responsible for their belongings.”
At Tornado Laundromat, all PUD scheduling is online. “This has really helped us convert more customers who may have visited our website but never completed the process to actually schedule a service,” Baiada said.
“My number-one piece of advice for those looking to move their marketing to more advanced levels is to automate their customer relationship management technology,” explained Mark Vlaskamp of The Folde, serving the Houston and Austin, Texas, markets. “Your laundry delivery software likely has a CRM; however, most of the time it just sits there until you click on it to view reports. Instead, try automating your CRM to check in with customers automatically.
“For example, after a first order, follow up with an automatic notification if that customer hasn’t ordered from you again in four weeks or so. These automations are more affordable and reliable than counting on an employee to handle them. When things get out of rhythm – which they will – you won’t need to worry about following up with customers, because it’s all automated.”
Vlaskamp also suggested investing in professional photos for your website.
“A web developer can help with copywriting, but he or she can’t help much with photos,” he said. “Put down your iPhone, and hire a professional photographer with professional equipment. The difference between the photos a pro can take compared to online stock photos is tremendous. All laundromats seem to use the same stock photos. Having images with your brand, your laundry bags, your vans and your employee uniforms make a big difference.”
Taking this a step further, Baiada said owners should consider producing some type of video to advertise their services.
“Again, not everyone is comfortable with the laundry delivery idea,” he noted. “A video will enable you to show your process and the people behind it, as well as highlighting your facility and its cleanliness. It also gives you a chance to offer some quick tips for scheduling a pickup and delivery.”
For Vlaskamp, it’s critical to remain focused when marketing your PUD service.
“Dive deep into one channel and invest in it with your time and money,” he suggested. “Don’t flip-flop. See it through for more than six months. If your laundry delivery software enables you to track conversions – not just clicks – you will know the exact ROI on your ad spend. Keep going. Don’t take your eye off the ball. It’s easy to get distracted – and it’s even easier to blame the marketing platform. Before switching, take a hard look at what you’re doing before blaming the top of the funnel.”
In the beginning, laundry owners should implement a mix of Google AdWords and Yelp campaigns, according to Lowin. “As your business grows, you can adjust,” he explained. “Try other online promotion, such as Facebook and Nextdoor.”
“We’ve found that Google Ads perform the best of all the digital marketing options,” noted Nick Chapleau, CEO of Starchup, Inc. “This is because they’re targeted at those searching for a particular service when they need it – prime prospects for wash-dry-fold pickup and delivery. Laundry pickup and delivery is a service that people only want when they need it.”
Beyond that, Chapleau is a strong proponent of word-of-mouth advertising.
“Especially early on, creating word-of-mouth means focusing on a high-quality service so that your customers have a great experience, and ensuring that you establish processes so that this experience scales along with your business. Happy customers will refer their friends, especially if your technology makes it easy for them to do so – and they’ll provide online reviews that will further bolster your reputation.”
Bruce Walker, who owns Wash It Kwik in Denton, Texas, explained that promoting a residential pickup-and-delivery business requires three main elements: a digital marketing plan, strong SEO and a responsive email program.
“Quality operators must have a plan to tackle these three aspects,” he said. “Along with that, I believe a good team is the secret sauce. Finding and retaining the right people, training them to be professionals, and loving them well is the number-one thing we do.”
[In Part Two, we will discuss overcoming common challenges and avoiding costly mistakes with regard to your pickup-and-delivery service.]
