CHICAGO — When dry cleaners are looking to publicize their offerings to current and potential customers, there are a lot of choices available today. Some are expensive, and some can be done on a low-cost basis or even for free. Having a plan, however, is essential to making the most out of their efforts.
During their webinar, “Nine Steps to Marketing on a Shoestring Budget,” hosted by SCORE (the Service Corps of Retired Executives), Brian Moran and Jocelyn Ring offered ways open to owners and operators that cost little, if anything. Moran is the founder of Brian Moran & Associates and Small Business Edge, and Ring is a brand strategist and leadership coach. Also, together, they founded and host the “Bricks or Sticks” business podcast.
In Part 1 of this series, we looked at some of the foundational thinking and questions dry cleaners need to ask themselves before spending their resources on marketing efforts. In Part 2, we started our dive into the first steps of creating a low — or no — budget marketing plan. Today, we’ll finish up by looking into the remaining shoestring budget steps to marketing.
4. Maintain an Online Presence
Being able to be found online is one thing, Ring says. Owners must cultivate what potential clients find online about their company.
“When people are looking for something or they get a referral, the first thing they are going to do is go to the search engine of their choice and look it up,” she says. “It’s critical to have some kind of presence when your business name is typed in that shows up in those search results. Hopefully, it’s in the top on that first page of results. Websites are going to show up there, as well as social media and any press coverage you’ve received. Those will all be in the mix.”
5. Take Advantage of Local Search Directories
“If your business is targeting local communities, make sure you’re getting listed in the local search directories,” Moran says. “This is essential. Google your own business and you should you’re your Google Business Profile. You need to own that if you haven’t taken ownership of it already. Make sure all the information is correct. This is where your Google reviews will go, and hopefully they’re all five stars.”
Google is usually thought of as the default local directory, but Bing, Yelp and the former Yellow Pages (YP.com), along with others, should be kept in mind, Moran says. “You want to be in these local search directories. At the very local level, this is where people are able to find you.”
A service Moran has used and recommends is Yext.
“They take the legwork out of local search directories and make it very simple,” he says. “You fill out your information once — your name, address, phone number, email, hours of operations and what your business does — and you can sign up for different tiers that they have. Yext sends your information to up to 200 different publishers of local search directories, depending on the tier you choose. The beauty of it is that you can update it once and it updates every site that you’ve purchased through Yext. You can also offer deals on the profile, where you can talk about a special this week or this month. That’s ROTI versus ROI.”
6. Building a Social Media Profile
“Social media has become almost as powerful as the search engines,” Ring says. “I believe that a site like YouTube is a more powerful search engine than even Google itself. No matter how you feel about them, social platforms can be incredibly powerful to help build up your online presence and communicate your marketing message.”
Since there are so many platforms available, Ring advises owners not to get overwhelmed.
“Primarily focus on platforms that are popular with your target market,” she says. “For example, I would never put my business on Snapchat. My nieces and nephews love using Snapchat, but my people are on LinkedIn, so I’m going to focus on LinkedIn. Ask your clients if they are hanging out online, and if so, where are they hanging out? What are they looking for on each of those platforms?”
Ring says that owners want to be mindful about the channel they are using — its purpose and who’s on that platform.
“Too many people get overwhelmed and spread themselves too thin,” she says, “to the point where they are not posting consistently on those platforms, and it starts to look like a ghost town. The impression that gives? ‘Is this person even still in business?’”
Posting regularly is vital to maintaining an active social media plan. “It’s easy these days to be consistent because there are free tools where you can schedule a lot of your content,” Ring says. “If you’re feeling inspired and you have a marketing day where you have two hours blocked out to really create some content, you can use tools like Buffer, Later or Hootsuite. Some of them have paid options, but they usually have a free option. These have fewer capabilities, but can get you started with learning how to post consistently.”
It’s not enough to just post specials or generic advertisements on social media, Ring believes.
“Marketing, at the heart of it, is all about relationships,” she says. “So, when you’re on these platforms, engage with people. Add value. Repost somebody’s content. Share a helpful tip. Be somebody who supports other people in business. It’s the Rule of Reciprocity. The more that you put out, the more that will come back.”
Ring warns that, when it comes to gauging your social media reach, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees.
“You can analyze performance to see which posts are working which posts are not,” she says. “The caveat with this is, don’t get too addicted to measuring how things are performing. The algorithms are always changing, and likes, follows and reposts do not pay the bills. Have that out there as something that you can work on and build, but don’t get too focused on the performance of your social media.”
7. Share Your Expertise
Professionals such as dry cleaners shouldn’t be shy about educating people through their media and marketing plan, Moran says, because those skills might be what potential customers are looking for.
“Social media is a great platform to share your expertise,” he says. “Whether you’re a plumber, a lawyer, nurse practitioner, a consultant or whatever it is that you do, you probably do it better than 99% of the people in the world. And some of you have been doing it for decades. You’re building up this bank of knowledge that you want to share with the world to help them do it better, or to help them understand it better.”
There are many avenues available to the modern cleaner to share this knowledge.
“You can do it on your website,” Moran says. “You can do it on social media. There are also things like podcasts, webcasts, webinars and more which really grew during the pandemic as a vehicle and a distribution outlet to share your expertise and to engage with your ecosystem. They are great ways to establish yourself as a thought leader. You can also host or participate in events to build your credibility and your reputation, and eventually generate new business opportunities.”
Email lists are also excellent for maintaining communication with clients.
“I don’t like the word ‘newsletter,’” Ring says, “but a way for you to have people to opt in and hear from you is by sharing stories about your company, customer success stories and updates about your business.”
These lists are also valuable because you own them, rather than a social media site.
“Some of the other things we’ve talked about are platforms that other companies own,” Ring says. “If you’ve built your entire network on Facebook, and one day Facebook ceases to exist or completely changes its policies. You don’t have those contacts anymore. Creating your own email list and keeping in touch with customers is a great way to continue to share your expertise.”
8. Public Relations in the Digital Age
Public relations was a field closed to most small- to mid-sized companies just a few years ago, Ring says. No longer.
“When I started in branding, an arm of rolling out a brand would mean hiring a PR firm for a $10,000-a-month retainer, and hope that we crafted an angle that they could pitch to one of the outlets in their network to get some coverage,” she says. “It is not like that anymore. The Internet has leveled the playing field.”
Ring advises owners to think locally.
“Many small towns and cities will have a local newspaper that is always looking for interesting stories,” she says. “It’s easy to build relationships with people in your town. Keep in touch with them and give them something interesting so that, one day, when there is a current event or an angle that makes sense for your business, or they need an expert quote, you can get some coverage.”
This type of publicity carries more weight with potential customers than simple advertising, Ring believes.
“Earned media on local TV, websites or in print is more powerful than a placement you have paid for,” she says. “Create a list of journalists and keep in touch with them. Provide them something of value to an article they’re writing or give them kudos on a piece that you read that was well researched. Local journalists do a fantastic job at journalism.”
9. AI and Marketing Automation Tools
Moran and Ring close out the nine steps with the newest player in the game — artificial intelligence.
“If you just started a business, or you’ve been in business for a few years, chances are you’ve likely encountered marketing automation tools that will allow you to do things faster and more efficiently,” Moran says. “There are social media scheduling and customer service chat bots. There’s marketing automation that will allow you to manage your email campaigns, track interactions and even analyze data with AI. It can actually make and insert the recommended changes to your marketing campaigns.”
While these are powerful tools, Moran warns, they are not a replacement for a hands-on approach to communicating with customers.
“All AI is doing, in my opinion, is saving you time,” he says. “But, if you don’t take the critical next step and interject your voice into what is going out, you are vanilla in the ice cream store of business. You could be rocky road. You could be peaches and cream, marshmallow, cotton candy… you could be all those things. Don’t allow artificial intelligence to write everything for you. Let it write the first draft, the first round. But you really have to give it your voice of who you are.”
Moran closes with advice about AI, but advice that applies to every marketing effort a business can take.
“Be authentic in your marketing,” he says. “Be genuine. Be sincere. Be human. In this world of AI versus HI — human intelligence — use the artificial intelligence as Stage One, but don’t forget to add your own voice to it. That’s going to be the difference maker for you.”
For Part 1 of this series, click HERE. For Part 2, click HERE.
Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Dave Davis at [email protected].
