Marketing Ideas on a Budget
HINT: Create an emotional response or connection with your product! Tailor the message for a specific demographic that you want to attract. Understand that coin laundry customers have different reasons for shopping at your store. Don’t sell all of the benefits to everyone all of the time. Response-Based Marketing: (Works for both attended and unattended stores. However, you need to be attended on the day of the event.) Charity Partnership Select a day that you give all of the profits – or even all the proceeds – for the day to a charity. The key to this is to pick the right charity. There are two things to consider for it to be successful. The first is that the charity should attract a group that you want in your laundry. For example, local school sports team because you want the families to use your laundry in the future. Let the school to do all the advertising for the event and you pay just the proceeds you agreed on. (This is a great way to target a very specific group and keep it manageable.) Partners for this type of event also include: local churches, scout troops and school bands. Big Bang This grand opening event also works as a once-a-year “boom event.” Work with a radio satiation that has an interest in a local charity and host a “Laundry Day” whereby all proceeds for the day go to that charity. The radio station will sponsor the event and probably promote it for free. The charity will also do a lot of the promotion for you. Misc. If you have an attended laundry, you can offer a promotion that extends over longer periods of time. For example, a charity or group can circulate coupons that you provide via newsletter, flyer or email. The idea is that each “coupon” donates a set amount toward the charity when redeemed. Think about giving $1 for each washer used in your store to the group. Your staff collects the coupon and marks the number of washers used. No discount is given to the customer. If you offer drop-off service, you can make the same kind of offer for comforters or wash-dry-fold. When the redemption period is over, you tally the coupons and make the donation. A side note: If you are attended, or have the ability to give the customer that responds to any of these promotions a coupon or token (some reason to return again within one month), you will be much more likely to keep the new visitor as a customer.
Newsletters: (Works for both attended and unattended stores.) Find a local newsletter or small newspaper. They are always looking for good content. All you need to do is send them a monthly article, which the CLA has already written for you. (They are in the members-only area of the site.) Sometimes the publication will ask you to place a small ad, but it is worth it! Make sure that most readers are in you market area if you are going to pay for an ad. Depending on the circulation, don’t pay more that a few hundred dollars a year. Most of the readers may have their own washer and dryer, so they may only increase your large item traffic. However, all you need is one family to come in weekly to pay for this kind of advertising. Some Examples: neighborhood newsletters, church bulletins, small newspapers. Become a part of your local community. It works. Internet: The Internet is quickly becoming the tool that everyone uses to find new service providers. Your laundry needs to be represented. Many of the consumer-based search tools offer business owners the ability to edit the content about them. This is because search engines want the information they provide to have value to end users. They do limit the information you can provide. However, they also generally allow for people to comment on your business. This is where you can be creative and encourage customers to share their thoughts relating to your business. The best thing about having a customer that loves your business write a review is that what they say will be more relevant to potential customers that anything you could write. The trick is not to have a lot of customers write a review at the same time. It looks like you are trying to cheat the system. Some of these search tools will drop you if it appears that is what you are doing. Many of these search engines look at each other and, if they see the same person commenting on your business on other sites, they will block you. So ask one customer a month and be specific as to the site that you’d like them to use. It’s nice to offer something in return for the comment, such as a few free washes. Co-op Advertising: One of the best ways to save money and get your message to the public is to share the cost of delivery; however you need the right partner. The business needs to have the same customers as and a similar geographic service area.
I’d love to have a grocery store place my ad on every container of laundry detergent they sell. If the grocery caters to the same demographic and wants to place a message in my laundry, they are an ideal co-op marketing partner. The best partners make the buy suggestion to a customer when they are most receptive to the message. For example, a laundry’s time-savings features would work on pizza boxes used for home deliveries. Tweak your message for each partner. If you are looking to join forces with a low-price shop, your message might be save money and time. Time-savings is still important, but money may be tighter. By addressing the financial aspect, you are giving this demographic another reason to try your services. Sell to the emotion.