10 Carpet Cleaning Marketing Tips
April 27, 2021
There are more marketing channels and strategies available for carpet cleaners to generate leads than ever before. Here are 10 of the most effective tips, ideas and strategies for carpet cleaning businesses.
#1. Sweep your competition with a superior carpet cleaning website
The backbone of digital marketing is your carpet cleaning website. It should have a modern, user-friendly design that will make the right first impression on prospective customers.
Here is an example carpet cleaning website design:
You might think this type of design is expensive, but today’s mobile responsive templates are not, nor do they take very long to develop. With Marketing 360®’s website builder, it’s easy to build a modern, professional website for your carpet cleanig business.
In most cases, your website is going to be the first impression leads get of your business. Make sure it’s a good one.
Pro tip: Use infographics
Today’s online consumers connect with visual content. Use infographics on your site and social media to get ideas across quickly:
#2. Develop a unique value proposition
Imagine a lead searching for a carpet cleaning service in their area. They find several online, including yours.
Why should they choose you instead of your competition? What motivation do you give for them to act now instead of wait? Are you clear about how you solve their problem?
An important step in your carpet cleaning marketing strategy is to develop a clear value proposition.
It’s easy to assume that someone looking up carpet cleaners just knows what they want. But usually, they don’t — at least not exactly. It’s your job to help them make a decision.
Likewise, it’s your job to give them a clear reason to choose you instead of your competition. What’s unique about your offer? How do you save people money and time? Why is your carpet cleaning service superior?
You might have a specialty, such as oriental rug cleaning. You can also use a special offer to distinguish yourself from the competition,
Clearly state this information. It should stand out on your homepage.
Without a value proposition, you’ll get a lot of tire kickers to your site who’ll make no decision — meaning, they don’t convert into a lead.
Pro tip: Test your UVP
The best value propositions are not merely created. They are developed over time, using data to modify word choice, imagery and types of offer.
Test variations of your UVP by running split test ad campaigns. When you nail down elements that convert better, use them more.
#3. Master search marketing
There are two ways people find carpet cleaners.
The first is to ask around for recommendations. People ask friends directly, and also turn to their social media networks to get recommendations. Word of mouth remains powerful, necessary marketing.
Second, people go online and search. Instead of asking a person, they ask Google Home. “Okay Google, who are some affordable carpet cleaners near me?”
Start by doing some keyword research to discover the keyword phrases you want to target around carpet cleaning searches.
You need your carpet cleaning service to show up at the top of the results. There are three areas to look at.
The first is pay per click advertising (PPC). This is how you get to the top spots on search, using the auction systems on Google and Bing. PPC ads give you the most control over ranking and content delivery, but you have to pay to gain top spots.
Second, set up and optimize your Google My Business page. This is a free listing that connects to Google Maps. It’s the primary way that Google knows where your service area is so you come up for local searches. Optimize your descriptions with keywords and try to get customer reviews to increase your ranking.
Third, do search engine optimization (SEO) work on your website. This also gives you free ranking/clicks and is a good way to expand the keywords you rank for so you can get traffic from people doing informational searches. Optimize your main pages for your main target keywords, and then use your blog to expand on various carpet and home care topics.
If you do this right, you can find your business ranking in three places on page one.
#4. Remarketing
Online consumers today rarely make snap decisions. There’s just too much information to consider online, too many options.
Someone will check out your website, tell themselves they’ll think about it and drift off to their Facebook News Feed.
At this point, you need to keep your branding, offer and incentives in front of this lead. You need to remind them that those carpets still need to be cleaned.
This is where remarketing comes in. Remarketing (or retargeting) is an automated type of PPC advertising that serves up ads to people who’ve previously interacted with your content.
The main way to create remarketing audiences is to get people to your website. After they visit, a piece of code attaches to their browser, causing your ads to show up as they surf elsewhere online, including social media platforms, like Facebook.
In fact, Facebook offers a whole second tier of retargeting ads for people who’ve engaged with your Facebook content.
You’ve got to get in those touches to close deals. Remarketing lets you scale this so you can keep up with everyone who visits your website or Facebook page.
#5. Email marketing
Email marketing is a tried and true way to both nurture leads and retain existing clients. With automated email marketing software, you can create campaigns that are inexpensive and practically run themselves.
Create a strategy for capturing lead’s emails, then segment campaigns for people in different stages of the buying cycle. Like remarketing, this is a touchpoint that keeps you top of mind. You can also test different deals to see what gets people to take action.
Also, don’t forget to use email for client retention. A quarterly newsletter with some tips on carpet care (from your blog) is enough to keep people in the loop so they think of you next time they need their carpet cleaned.
Periodic emails remind clients that you care and want to keep their business.
#6. Social media marketing
Today it’s impossible to ignore social media. Web-users today spend the majority of their time on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Facebook, in particular, offers an impressive array of advertising tactics. They have an enormous amount of data on users so you can actually target people who are most likely to hire a carpet cleaner.
For example, you can target people based on a life event such as a recent move. Or, you can target based on interests, such as interior design. As mentioned, you can also retarget people who previously engaged in any way with your Facebook content.
You can also run ads that generate the lead right on Facebook itself. This is perfect for capturing emails or getting people to request a quote.
Likewise, maintain an active presence on social media. Offer tips on selecting carpets, carpet care products and home design trends. This isn’t direct response advertising, but it is content that spreads and gets your brand in front of more people.
Social media marketing can get time-consuming and complex to understand. If you’re struggling, hire a social media management service to help you out.
#7. Manage your online reputation
Today, there is content that — arguably -—has more influence than your website value proposition or online ads.
It’s what your existing customers say about you in online reviews.
For services, like carpet cleaning, expect people to check your online reviews, and be aware of how influential they are.
The bottom line today is that you have to manage your review profiles to make them both authentic and positive. You must monitor the places people leave reviews, including Google My Business, Yelp, HomeAdvisor, Angie’s List, Top Rated Local and even Facebook.
Just a look at Google business listings shows how dominant review content is:
One of the most important steps you can take is to encourage happy clients, still enjoying their clean carpets, to leave you a review. One problem with online reviews is complainers tend to be more motivated to write them, so you need to make an effort to get the happy middle represented.
Also, look at negative reviews as feedback you can use to improve your services. One of the benefits of online reviews is that they force businesses to up their game. Ultimately the best thing you can do to improve your review profile is to delight your customers.
Go the extra mile to really satisfy people, then ask them for feedback. The rest will take care of itself.
#8. Create a video commercial
Many smaller contractors and service businesses, like carpet cleaners, overlook the power of video. In fact, video is one of the best investments you can make in your marketing.
Video gets your value proposition communicated fast with visual cues. Fast and visual are two things that work well with online audiences. You can embed your video on your homepage, optimize it for search on YouTube and share it on social media.
You can also run it in ads, as well as create shorter bumper video ads to go along with your full commercial.
Here is a good example from a flooring contractor:
Video also works well for mobile search, saving people from having to read and scroll on their phones.
One video can go a long way to helping your online lead generation.
#9. Use marketing software
By now, your head may be feeling like it’s ready to explode with information overload. Indeed, there is a lot involved with marketing today. Even a small local carpet cleaner is engaged in multichannel marketing that requires a clear strategy and consistent execution.
One thing that will help you manage all of this is a single software platform that brings the data from all your channels into one, easy-to-view interface. This is the design principle behind Marketing 360.
With our software, you can track all your paid ads, organic traffic and social media in one place. You control budgets and can evaluate ROI.
Marketing software is what makes digital marketing manageable. Without it, you’ll spend as much time trying to figure out what’s happening as you will executing actual tactics.
Pro tip: Use a CRM
Another advantage to Marketing 360 is that it includes customer relationship management (CRM) software.
A CRM helps you track all your leads and existing clients while tying them into your advertising campaigns, marketing channels and email. It’s a necessary tool for organizing client info that you can access on a PC or phone.
There is nothing more frustrating than getting a new carpet cleaning lead, only to lose the business because you dropped the ball on your side. A CRM will help you keep your communication straight so you’re always reaching out to clients with relevant, timely, persuasive content.
#10. Hire some marketing help
There is something you need to admit to yourself. You’re never going to be able to keep up with all the marketing trends, tactics and strategies and actually run your carpet cleaning business. It’s just not possible.
Even with software, there is a lot to manage and stay on top of. Today, you can hire a marketing service like Marketing 360 and easily have it pay for itself in time saved and revenue generated.
At Marketing 360, we have teams that specialize in the various channels and tactics discussed here. You have one main marketing success manager, but they’re backed up by people who know paid ads, design, video, social media, copywriting and more.
That’s how we stay on top of this daunting process, and how we make it work for you.
Marketing 360® has all of the tools you need to manage your carpet cleaning business, as well as the experienced marketing team to help you maximize your success. See our plans and pricing.
Originally published 11/9/18
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