Laundry Owners Can Accurately Track Their ROI by Focusing on Brand Awareness, Customer Acquisition and Customer Retention
Flush.
Have you ever felt this happening to your marketing dollars? Where did they go?
Many laundry owners are curious about investing more into digital marketing because the demand for it is growing. Yet, some operators struggle with measuring the return on – and effectiveness of – their efforts.
According to Internet Live Stats, in 2014 the United States reported 279,834,232 internet users among a population of 322,583,006. That’s 87 percent! Now, let’s talk about how you can create a measurable marketing plan that reaches users searching for businesses like yours.
First, think about this: if you purchase new machines because you want to lower your utility costs, how would you determine whether your new machines are indeed more efficient? You might turn to your utility bills, right? Or, if you invest in a card system to speed up transactions, comparing current turns-per-day versus previous ones may provide a key performance indicator. The point is, to measure return on investment, or ROI, for anything, you first need to know your desired outcome.
Before proposing a plan, I ask laundry owners questions that focus on three specific areas: (1) brand awareness, (2) customer acquisition and (3) customer retention. By concentrating on this trio of factors, laundry owners can see and understand their goals more clearly. I hear owners say things such as, “I would like to be found online in the communities we serve,” “I want to increase our wash-dry-fold business,” and “I need to engage more with my existing customers.”
Understanding how these three marketing elements contribute to your business will help you determine whether or not you’re planning correctly to get a return on investment for your desired goals.
Brand Awareness: Letting people know that your brand exists. A website is a definite must. In addition, being visible in places like Yelp, Google, Yahoo, Bing and other online destinations could be part of your brand awareness strategy. Your laundry business should invest in search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Measuring your impressions online or your keyword performance is an effective way to determine if your investment is paying off. This is especially important for owners of unattended stores.
Customer Acquisition: Getting people in the door or getting your phone to ring. When someone finds you online and clicks on your listing, your objective should be to convert that person into a lead, and then into a customer. Too many businesses that desire more customers focus only on developing informational websites – and that’s a waste.
If customer acquisition is your goal, you need to optimize for conversion. Start embedding call-to-action buttons (such as “Download a Coupon!” ) throughout your website and develop landing pages with lead-generating forms. What’s more, it would be wise to invest in paid advertisements and social media to drive traffic to your pages. Through this strategy, you can measure your investment based on the number of leads you generate and convert to customers.
Customer Retention: Keeping your existing contacts engaged with your brand. This is often referred to as “the nurturing component,” where you continue to share your brand with customers. Post and share content regularly online through blogging or social media. You also can periodically touch base with your contacts via email – offering special promotions, news and other interesting topics that may spark engagement. The number of people who view, engage with or click on your content should constitute an accurate performance indicator.
In essence, there are two factors that account for positive ROI:
- Bringing more customers to the store.
- Getting people to see and engage with your brand, and collecting data to help you continue marketing (and selling) to them.
To reach your performance and ROI goals, focus on marketing that can be measured. The reason businesses prefer digital marketing to more traditional practices is because of digital marketing’s reach and ability to track progress. Use that to your advantage.
