It\u2019s been said that, to be truly noticed, you have to go where everyone else isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
I once met the governor of New Jersey and got her autograph at a campaign stop at a local supermarket. Her bus pulled up outside the store, where there was a throng of people waiting for her. She went into the store and went down one of the aisles. I went down the very next aisle \u2013 and, when she turned the corner, it was just her, a state trooper, and me. I literally had her undivided attention for that moment and was able to coax an autograph.<\/p>\n
And isn\u2019t that what we all want to do with our prospective customers? Don\u2019t we want to cut out of the noise and distractions so that they see only us?<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s technological world, most people think in digital \u2013 and there\u2019s definitely a place for that. Of course, the best website in the world will never be seen without strong SEO.<\/p>\n
However, if everyone is going left, I want to go right \u2013 where I might be the only one. I\u2019m talking about utilizing the boring, old strategies that never stopped working, yet have been largely forgotten because they don\u2019t necessarily involve an iPhone or a computer.<\/p>\n
With everyone emailing and texting, people receive very few letters these days. I have three adult children, and I\u2019m not sure they know how to address an envelope.<\/p>\n
With that said, I recently sent a very basic letter to a golf course, touting our laundry services. The course manager called me back, and after a five-minute conversation, we will be handling all of their laundry next season.<\/p>\n
Letters cost a stamp and an envelope. And the best thing is that you don\u2019t need to send out thousands of them. I simply look for businesses that might have laundry needs and that are within a few miles of my store.<\/p>\n
And, you don\u2019t need to be a wordsmith. I write in big letters, \u201cGot Laundry?\u201d Then, I list bullet points as to why they should hire us to do it for them.<\/p>\n
Joining your local Chamber of Commerce is a lot like joining a gym. If you don\u2019t go and participate, it\u2019s a waste of your money.<\/p>\n
During my first year as a member of our Chamber, we had a ribbon-cutting ceremony as new business owners, and we hosted a \u201cNetworking After Hours\u201d event.<\/p>\n
Although you might not have a ribbon cutting at your store, you certainly can celebrate an anniversary, a milestone, a clothing drive, and so on. For the networking event, the Chamber promoted my laundromat, another member donated food for the evening, and it got a number of other Chamber members to visit my laundromat.<\/p>\n
Clearly, I don\u2019t expect everyone who belongs for my Chamber of Commerce to bring me their laundry; however, none of my competitors are members, so I will be top of mind if someone\u2019s washer breaks or they can\u2019t quite fit that king comforter into their home machine.<\/p>\n
When people say they don\u2019t have time to get involved with their local Chambers, I always ask them if they have time for more business.<\/p>\n
I was talking to the director of our local library \u2013 who happens to be a member of the Chamber of Commerce \u2013 and I told her how my kids loved going the library when they were growing up. And she asked if I would be interested in installing a \u201cmini-library\u201d in our laundromat. Of course, I jumped at the opportunity.<\/p>\n
The Chamber purchased a bookcase, and the library provides all of our books, which are overflow titles that the library can\u2019t use. Additionally, our policy is that customers can take books home with them. There\u2019s no need to return any books.<\/p>\n
It costs me no time or money, and only about three square feet of floor space. The customers love it because we\u2019re working with the community, and the library let\u2019s their patrons know that they also can visit my laundromat for free books. It\u2019s a \u201cwin-win\u201d for everyone.<\/p>\n
[Editor\u2019s Note: Those interested in this community- and business-building idea also can contact the LaundryCares Foundation for more information about that organization\u2019s Family Read, Play & Learn Centers, which are ideal for all types and sizes of laundromats. Visit www.laundrycares.org.]<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to delete an email or brush off a cold call. But it\u2019s a little harder to shake someone who\u2019s at their business, standing right in front of them.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve stopped by nearly every business within my store\u2019s marketplace, just to say, \u201cHi.\u201d I introduce myself as the owner of a laundromat, and I ask if they have any laundry needs. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don\u2019t \u2013 and very often they don\u2019t even know that pickup-and-delivery laundry services even exist. We assume that everyone knows about commercial PUD, but many potential clients have no idea.<\/p>\n
If we can\u2019t do business at the moment, I leave my card and ask the business owner if he or she knows anyone who wears clothes and, if so, to please pass along my information. That typically gets a laugh, and at least they will remember me.<\/p>\n
I know, I know\u2026 door hangers so 1990s. But, if you open your door, I know that you at least saw the information about my laundromat.<\/p>\n
Whenever we land a new pickup-and-delivery customer, we\u2019ll place door hangers on all of the nearby houses or apartments in that neighborhood. After all, I assume that if one house on the street can afford it, there\u2019s a good chance their neighbors can, too.<\/p>\n
However, you don\u2019t need to offer pickup and delivery to take advantage of door hangers. Simple pick out a nearby neighborhood or apartment complex and start hanging.<\/p>\n
I recently had some new door hangers printed for about 12 cents each. That\u2019s right \u2013 you can hit 100 apartment units for just 12 bucks and get in all of your steps for the day at the same time!<\/p>\n
Many towns have a special day during the year where they celebrate with food, music, games, kids\u2019 rides, and a gathering of local vendors.<\/p>\n
The town I live in has one of these annual, family-friendly celebrations, and the town where I grew up has a Labor Day parade, which serves as its big yearly event.<\/p>\n
Our laundromat happens to straddle two towns, so we attend both of their special days as vendors, and hand out coupons. I\u2019m happy to speak to anyone about our business, but I specifically looked for families with kids \u2013 and, if they have a stroller, that\u2019s a bonus. Kids and babies mean a lot of laundry \u2013 and parents who make for good wash-dry-fold prospects.<\/p>\n
The total cost for vendor booths as both of the towns\u2019 events was $200.<\/p>\n
When my kids were young, we would get flyers from the PTA about going to a local restaurant on a certain night, and 10 percent of the proceeds would go to the school.<\/p>\n
So, I decided to contact our local school\u2019s PTA with a similar offer. If anyone used our wash-dry-fold or pickup-and-delivery services \u2013 and used the school\u2019s predetermined code \u2013 the school would receive 10 percent back.<\/p>\n
This wasn\u2019t a one-night fundraiser. We kept it going for the entire school year. Each time the code was used, the school would get money \u2013 so it was in the school\u2019s best interest to promote it.<\/p>\n
From the laundromat owner\u2019s perspective, you can\u2019t lose. If no one uses the code, it costs nothing. We spent a little time working with the PTA president and came up with a flyer. If it works, the PTA is doing the heavy lifting of driving customers to the laundromat. As the owner, you give back 10 percent, which goes to the local kids, and you\u2019re helping out the community.<\/p>\n
As a small-business operator, I always preach that we have to \u201cget out of our box.\u201d In our case, it\u2019s the four walls of our laundromats. We need to be aggressive and go out and \u201cget\u201d customers. Too many small-business owners \u2013 in all industries \u2013 wait for customers to find them. Even in the digital world, we\u2019re waiting for people to search for \u201claundromat\u201d or \u201cwash and fold,\u201d and then hoping we did enough to climb to the top of the search list.<\/p>\n
Everything I\u2019ve mentioned above takes no business skill and very little money. What it does take is a commitment to go out into your community and educate people as to why they should do business with you.<\/p>\n
How many people do you meet who don\u2019t have a clue that wash-dry-fold is even an option? I\u2019ll admit that, until I started looking into the laundromat industry, I had no idea that some stores provided full-service offerings \u2013 despite the fact that we had three kids and plenty of constant dirty laundry.<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s business world, entrepreneurs need to utilize a combination of both the old and the new. The key is to get in front of potential customers, and it doesn\u2019t really matter how you do it.<\/p>\n
Personally, I prefer to use the entrance that\u2019s less crowded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don\u2019t Overlook Some of the Tried-and-True Methods for Promoting Your Laundry Services It\u2019s been said that, to be truly noticed, you have to go where everyone else isn\u2019t. I once met the governor of New Jersey and got her autograph at a campaign stop at a local supermarket. Her bus pulled up outside the store, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1282,"featured_media":13299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[243,244,245,98,9351],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature-1","category-feature-2","category-feature-3","category-featured-articles","category-highlights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1282"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13301,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13298\/revisions\/13301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetlaundry.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}