I’ve been running my own show for a while now, but have been doing most of my work as a sub under a friend who pays me well, so I do my own work 1-3 days out of the week for my regulars. My friend is slowing down at the moment and is strictly relying on return and referral customers. He doesn’t have a website, google listing, etc… I asked him how he got all of his residential and he replied that he got them via his storefronts.
I remember Chris L. talking about window cleaners sucking at business, and he’s right. I have a website, google listing, and FB page, but only get about 1-5 new calls from those a month. I’m realizing I need to save more money coming into winter this year with a lot of my restaurants being reticent to put me on at the same intervals.
What should I do to gain traction and acquire new clientele (residential) in the near future? Is online presence and SEO the main thing or is flyer EDDM more important? I read through the blueprint, but there are so many options, I’m not sure where to start. I look around at all these other service companies and wonder how they’re getting customers… I’m reading other posts related to this, but wondering if anything is different in these odd times.
Go put out a few thousand flyers. On the days you have no work that’s when you have all the time to get more work.
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You mention a google listing, do you pay for Adwords service?
Also, yes your friend is right-- you would be amazed at how many customers you can get while doing storefronts. Hundreds…over time! Hell, one of my best friends of 30 years has about 800 bi-monthly residential accounts with ZERO advertising…all word of mouth. He followed what one of our old bosses did with the “every 2 months” cleaning and built up that, then added pressure washing, roof cleaning, paver sealing, etc— you can get work two ways…pay out the ads, or have some customers with some “power” and “say” (HOA board members, etc, etc)…I love to start out “Do you have any friends that are just like you?”-- they blush after the compliment and then start giving you numbers and addresses…next thing you know you have 8 homes on 1 street.
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@walkthruglass My name is Jill, and I work the print department on windowcleaner.com.
EDDM is one of the biggest things we do for window cleaners and pressure washers, and that is 100% the truth.
It is a great way to get your name out there, especially for areas that do not allow door to door solicitation. There is always a coupon or special of some sorts on the card, which keeps your card saved on the fridge instead of going in the garbage. Everyone loves coupons.
Given the world we live in, hands “off” marketing is becoming even more popular. People are less willing to hang door hangers or hand out postcards, and understandably so.
EDDM has the cheapest possible postage for marketing allowed by the USPS, at 19.1 cents per card. Right now, the USPS are running a sale until the end of September. 10% off postage, bringing it down to 17.2 cents per card. It makes a difference in the end, especially for large batches being mailed out at once.
Windowcleaner.com/printing offers templates that can be customized, printing in various sizes, and even a full service EDDM where we do the mailing for you. Please let me know if any of this interests you and I can give you more information.
I know it can be a LOT of information and potentially overwhelming, so if you would like know more please give me a call or shoot me an email. We can go over everything step by step, in detail, and I will teach you the ins and outs of EDDM. My email is [email protected] and my number is 862-213-2010 ext 504.
Same goes for anyone else out there with questions, I am here to help!! =) Enjoy the rest of your week!
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[quote=“What should I do to gain traction and acquire new clientele (residential) in the near future? Is online presence and SEO the main thing or is flyer EDDM more important?”]
A combination of both is good.
Experiment and see what works
