In today’s lesson, I want to talk about advertising and how you can use it to grow your business for as little as $10 a day.
Let me explain…
When many people think of advertising, they imagine commercials on TV, glossy layouts with fancy logos in print publications, or getting people to ‘like’ their page on Facebook or Instagram.
However, while all of these types of ‘brand’ advertisements have their place, I don’t recommend them for carpet cleaners.
Why?
- First, they are expensive and it’s difficult to measure their effectiveness. It’s almost impossible to track how much money each ‘like’ earns for your business.
- Second, it makes no sense for a local business to pay for ads that may be shown across the state. If you live in Wollongong and you see an ad on TV for a carpet cleaner in Hornsby, you are not going to call him no matter how good a deal he offers.
- Third, the only people who care about your ‘brand’ are people who are already fans. New leads will rarely ‘like’ you on Facebook. Think about it… when is the last time you ‘liked’ a business you didn’t use.
What should you do instead?
As a carpet cleaner, the most effective type of advertising is called direct response advertising.
Direct response is a type of advertising that makes an offer and asks people to take an action to accept that offer. It is results-oriented.
It promises your prospects something they want. It tells them exactly what to do to get it. It gives them compelling reasons to use you and it asks for action.
It also allows you to reach a very specific audience who are more likely to want your services.
Here are some examples…
- A flyer in your local suburb that offers 20% off your services until the end of the month if they call now.
- A Google Adwords or Facebook ad aimed at homeowners in your area that says ‘Carpet Cleaning Sydney – 3 Rooms $120, 5 Rooms $150 Call Now For A Free Quote’.
- A direct mail letter sent locally that tells people about your business and offers ‘2 rooms for the price of 1’ for the next 5 callers.
Direct response advertising is very cost effective.
As a small business, you probably do not have a huge marketing budget to play with.
This is another benefit of direct response advertising. It is cheap to get started.
- You can advertise on Facebook or Google AdWords for as little as $10 a day
and attract dozens of new clients. - You can print flyers and get local school kids to post them in letter boxes for a
few hundred dollars. - Or, if you want to use the direct mail, your biggest costs are stamps,
envelopes and paper.
As you can see, direct response advertising is great for carpet cleaners. By now, you are probably wondering how to use it….
Don’t worry! Throughout this program, we will look at different ways to use direct response advertising to grow your business.
But for today, I want you to start your direct response journey by completing a very simple, but important task…
TODAY’S TASK: Direct Response Advertising
- Grab a pen and paper. Write down the following rules and stick them above your computer so that you cannot forget them.
- Never do anything that you can’t track the results of (i.e. Forget Facebook ‘likes’ for now).
- Never run an ad a second time that didn’t work the first time.
- Never fall in love with your ad. If it stops working, bin it. Continue to test and measure, improve with each print run, and seek feedback from friends and family who fit your target client profile.