How to Build Your Laundry’s Brand Through Social Media Marketing
[This is the first of a two-part feature on how laundromat owners can use social media to market their businesses and build their brands.]
Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay.
Research shows that online platforms have cemented themselves in the lives of consumers by providing a way for them to discover new brands and engage with companies that share their values and that can help them meet their needs.
It’s no secret – we’re all glued to social media these days. Need proof?
- As of January 2022, there were 3.96 billion total social media users across all platforms.
- The amount of time adults use social media is now 95 minutes per day – higher than ever.
- Consumers are six times more likely to make a purchase from a product page that includes images from social media.
- One in three adults regularly consume news from Facebook.
- Forty-four percent of users shop for products on Instagram weekly.
- Thirty-nine percent of Gen Z consumers say their purchasing decisions are influenced directly by what they see on TikTok.
- Facebook Messenger is on track to reach 3 billion users by the end of 2022.
- Instagram dominates social streaming services in terms of engagement, with an engagement rate of 81 percent.
- Sixty-two percent of TikTok users indicate that platform-specific branded content is the best way to connect with customers.
All of that points to an incredible opportunity for laundromat owners to leverage social platforms to:
- Build brand awareness.
- Develop customer relationships.
- And even make sales directly within social platforms.
“The average laundry owner should spend about one hour on social media daily,” suggested Dennis Diaz, founder and lead marketing guide for Spynr, a digital marketing agency focused on the laundry industry. “This includes time spent creating and scheduling posts, interacting with customers and followers, and monitoring analytics. While this may seem like a lot of time, it is important to remember that social media is a powerful marketing tool that can help you reach new customers, build loyalty among existing customers, and increase your bottom line!”
Be an Innovator
Tereza Toledo has been called “The Pinterest Queen.” As a marketing strategist, she heads up Tereza Toledo Social and loves helping businesses gain visibility and brand recognition, while looking for ways to increase their revenue through avant-garde Pinterest and social media strategies.
Toledo and her husband, Omar Mattar, also own four laundromats in the Tampa Bay area. Starting in 2017, she created Instagram accounts, Facebook pages and Google My Business pages for all of their stores – as well as joining local Facebook groups.
By creating and pushing content to their social platforms at a relatively high volume, she succeeded not only in building their laundry business’ presence and visibility, but also in nurturing customer relationships and discovering opportunities to take part in community projects.
“People want to see real content,” explained Toledo, who recommended that laundromat operators devote approximately five hours per week to creating and posting content, as well as responding to inquiries and reviews. “They don’t want curated images, stock videos or sales-y content. For best results, you must step away from the ‘canned’ content and innovate. Photos and videos taken at each laundry location always perform best. Short-form video is here to stay. Creating content that provides value offers better results than basic promotional content. In other words, share tips on washing, showcase your facilities, and put a face in front of your business.”
Toledo added that most images and videos can be repurposed to the various platforms, which makes content creation easier.
“For us, Facebook has worked best when posting content directly to local groups, not just to the business page,” she explained. Meanwhile, Instagram has been more hit-and-miss. However, all platforms require engaging images and captions.”
The multi-store operator shared some personal best practices for incorporating social media into a laundromat’s marketing plan:
- Start out by creating a proper profile on all the platforms you choose to use.
- Plan to create images and videos weekly.
- You don’t need professional equipment. A cell phone camera and your own creativity is the perfect way to start.
- Search what your competitors are doing.
- Look for accounts that are already thriving, and use their content as inspiration.
- TikTok is a great place to find ideas. Personally, we haven’t used TikTok for our laundromats, but it’s most definitely one of the places to be.
“Aside from reaching new customers through social media, we’ve also had photoshoot opportunities inside our laundromats and have participated in different local, non-profit events that resulted in increased revenue on specific days and great media exposure,” Toledo noted. “The key is to realize you need more than an account and a few posts. You will need more than that for success.”
[In Part 2, we will discuss creating an online community and using social media to promote a full-service laundry business.]
