For the sacrifice of all…I’m testing out Groupon this weekend.

I’ve tested pretty much every other ad medium available for the good of my clients, so may as well try out Groupon, right?

Go to Groupon Carpet Cleaning

Our phone has been ringing off the hook today with questions about Groupon and our company.  So if nothing else, we’ve got some extra local attention.

As of right now, 10 people have bought our $100 Groupon for $50.  Six people have booked appointments already.

Everyone that has booked an appointment, booked OVER the amount of the Groupon.  This is good.

We decided to run the Groupon for carpet, tile, rug, and upholstery cleaning.  But we do have exclusions for adding extra charges for people outside of our main city.  We do service those other areas often, but for the Groupon we are either charging a small travel fee or requiring a little higher minimum of cleaning.

The results are NOT all in yet.  But as of right now, I’m impressed with what’s it’s doing.

I’ll keep you guys posted.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Advertising | See 1 Comment »

One of my clients emailed and asked this question:

Would like to know difference of coaching & what I am getting now. Tried others & it wasn’t worth it.

Good question.  The question to you is, what do you need help with?

Basically, the entire day is devoted to you.  So it will get anything you want to know or anything you want help with from me for an entire 8 hours.  If you want to sit down and design a postcard specific to your business, we’ll do it.

If you want me to show you how to set up emails in constant contact, fine.

If you want help with SEO, Google Adwords, Facebook, Newsletters, Newspapers Ads, Neighborhood Mailing, Flyer Design, Writing Copy For Your Website, Writing a Radio Commercial, Writing a Television Commercial, Groupon Offer, Valpak Ad, or Understanding How to Get Any Website Ranking Better, I can show you.  You’ll have my full attention for a full 8 hour day.

So basically if you could use some personal help with anything advertising related, this opportunity would be great for you.  Plus, it would be a great chance to get your advertising plan fully worked out and planned on paper.  I’ll sit down and plan it with you.

You’ll get put you in for full permanent access to the email package, postcards, and take the top 10.

You also won’t be charged for the ad club for 12 months as you’ll get the next twelve months included in the full day coaching package.  Honestly, this alone would cost you $1,404 over the next year.

See Private Advertising Coaching to get one-on-one coaching now.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Advertising | Add Your Comment »

Just you and I.  No one else.  No waiting in line to ask your question.

I finally decided to test out offering a full day of coaching.  And with it, some incredible bonuses that make the full day of coaching basically FREE.

You can ask me any question you want.  We can even sit down and work directly on your advertising, your website, or anything marketing related.

You’ll be able to either come out to my office in Pensacola, Florida or we can do the private coaching via telephone or webinar.  It’s your choice.

In my own business life, I’ve found private coaching to be the fastest and clearest way for me to get oriented and make money.  I firmly believe it will help you more than most anything else you’ve done.

But this is a LIMITED TIME offer.  No joke.  I only have 10 places available as I can only spend a limited amount of days doing all day coaching.

For all the details go to http://www.hitmanadvertising.com/coaching/privatecoach.html

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Advertising | Add Your Comment »

I spilled the beans on the ICS Magazine board that have indeed signed up to “test” a Groupon for my own local cleaning company.

But as some have stated, I have yet to have Groupon give me a date to win mine will run.  I REALLY want to do this to show you guys the results.

As I’ve said many times over, my only objective with any of this is to find the most profitable advertising for cleaning companies.  Groupon is one of the only media I have not tested.

So like everything else, I will test it and get back to you on the results if and when Groupon finally runs my campaign.

The most interesting thing to me is that NO ONE who has used Groupon has anything negative to say about their experience.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the mean time, you already know SEO and good Internet Marketing is one of the highest returns you can get to advertise your cleaning business.  So have at it.  Check out some of the online training resources in my online store or Click Here for full service SEO done for you.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Advertising | Add Your Comment »

Quick update.

Two cleaning company owners have called me after seeing my post from January 21, 2011.

Both have told me they were likely to try Groupon again and that they had a mostly positive experience.

One cleaner was kind enough to give me details, but I’ll keep his company name and city anonymous.

So here’s what he said.

He sold 160 Groupons for 3 rooms of carpet cleaning sold for $55.  110 of the Groupons were used.

Slightly less than half of the Groupons that were used upgraded to have more services performed at the time of cleaning.  The total sales were a little over $10,000.  This made the job average about $91.

The company advertising the Groupon normally charges per room prices that are among the highest prices in the city.

From what the cleaning company owner stated, most of the homes he went in were higher end homes.  He stated, “These were the type of homes we normally target with our high end cleaning company.”

And so, all in all, he said he was satisfied with the experience and he will be mailing followup postcards to all the Groupon buyers in the early Spring.

Click the comments links below to tell what you think.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Advertising | See 11 Comments »

Here’s the deal about Groupons from what I have learned so far.

Now granted, I’ll admit I have NOT “tested” the Groupon yet.  But this is info from a detailed email conversation I’ve had with a Groupon representative.

You have to give up 50% of whatever you sell. And even worse, you’re having to give a great offer for the Groupon to begin with.

Ahhhh….so you’re basically giving a 75% discount to your services.

For example, you have a Groupon that costs the client $50 to get a $100 cleaning certificate. Then Groupon gets $25 and you get $25.

So, for $25, you do $100 of cleaning.

That sounds really bad at first glance.

Can we afford to give a 75% discount?  Groupon claims that you’ll make it up in repeat clients.  Which for the cleaning business this can be true.  That’s really the only way we make much profit.  We depend on repeat clients and referrals.  But the big question is whether or not Groupon buyers will become repeat clients.

The interesting thing is the demographics of Groupon. Women who are educated and have money are their primary clients.

See their demographics at Groupon Demographics

So maybe, just maybe it’s worth a shot.  Good thing is it doesn’t cost anything up front for advertising.  Bad thing is the 75% discount for the first $100.

My wife buys these things. She tells me many of the items are higher end products and services offered at a discount.  But the question remains, will the Groupon buyer become a repeat client?  And will they buy additional cleaning on the first go-around?

I’m still on the fence to be honest. But this does have potential.

It’s like a FREE room of cleaning

It’s similar to giving away a FREE room of cleaning or a $75 gift certificate.  The difference is when you offer a FREE room of cleaning or a FREE $75 gift certificate, you still have to pay for the ad or the letter to be sent, which gets VERY costly.  In the case of Groupon, they pay the money to get the word out for you.

You’ll make it up in the long run if and only if you follow up for repeats and referrals.

What I’d think is if you are a cleaning service with average to lower prices, Groupon could be good.  Or, consider only offering area rug cleaning if you have a rug cleaning shop where the clients can drop off their rugs so you avoid the HUGE cost of travel.  And who knows, it may even work well for a high end cleaning company since the demographics are in the upper income.

And the potential for social marketing buzz is huge…that’s what interests me most.

I haven’t quite concluded the value of Groupon.

A couple cleaners have contacted me with their details about Groupons.

See what one cleaner said in this blog post by Clicking Here

Let me know what you think about Groupon by clicking on the comment link below.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Advertising | See 34 Comments »

I’m interviewing Howard Partridge this Wednesday on goals.

You’re invited and it’s FREE.

If you don’t know Howard, he operates one of the most successful
cleaning companies around.

And I’ll be grilling him on what it takes for YOU to bring your
company the most success in 2011.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/515002235

It’s this Wednesday night…

5pm pacific | 7pm central | 8pm eastern.

I think this will help you achieve more in 2011.

The fact is you have as much time as Bill Gates, Donald Trump,
Howard Partridge, and ANY ONE else in the world to make 2011 your
most successful year.

This FREE webinar will help get you in the right mind set.

Until later,

John Braun

P.S.  You won’t want to miss this…

Howard is holding a special event in Dallas at the end of January.

Click Here for Details

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Marketing | See 2 Comments »

This is an article I wrote for ICS Magazine a couple months ago.

Two years ago I wrote an ICS Web Exclusive feature titled “Your Web Site Needs to Sell Your Business: Here’s How.” Since the web is ever changing, we’re always learning new sales triggers to get homeowners to pick up the phone or e-mail for cleaning.

Many cleaners are confused as to why they aren’t booking jobs from their website. I sometimes speak with cleaners who already have the top rankings in Google or who are spending a fortune on pay-per-click, but are getting no calls.

They’ve got the traffic. But the traffic isn’t translating into sales. It’s a matter of the sales strategy on their website that needs help.

Three factors determine whether or not you will get sales from your site.

2. Website Sales Strategy

Once you get traffic, does the site peak their interest enough for lurkers to call or e-mail? This is where the sales strategy of your site comes in play.

“I’m Local!”

The first question on their mind is, “Are you local?” The web is a big place; you need to give your prospect instant confirmation they’ve found the right website. Some great triggers to show you are local:

• Scream out your city and/or county name at the top of your site in large text
• Include a picture of a well-known area landmark in your header
• Your city name in your title tag
• Your city name in the text of your site
• Pictures of you or your vans at well-known areas of your city
• Place logos of local media you’ve been seen on with the words “As seen on…”
• Simple videos of you or your techs in front of city landmarks
• Stories about how your company helps local charities
• Post a locator map of the areas you service

After they know they’ve found the right page, they start to wonder if you’re the company they can trust to do their cleaning. This is where the selling really starts.

“You Can Trust Me!”

This is the part where you show them you are a trustworthy company. If you can’t answer the question “Can I trust you?” with an emphatic “Yes!” you will lose. This is partially about putting details of your company on your site, but it’s also about showing what other people say about your company. Some great triggers to show you can be trusted:

• Videos of before and after cleaning (even simple Flip Cam videos will do)
• Video testimonials from happy clients
• Handwritten testimonials scanned and placed on your site
• Testimonials with the client name and area of town the client lives
• Welcome message from the owner in video or in text
• Pictures of the owner, techs, and your office
• List of well-known companies or clients you’ve cleaned (get their permission)
• Your strong, well-defined, written guarantee…with no weasel clause!
• List the steps of your cleaning processes
• Link your site to your Google Places page with client reviews
• Link your site to your Angie’s list or other sites with client reviews
• Put a “Join us on Facebook” graphic on your page linking to Facebook
• Use certification and association logos. Explain what it means to your client
• Contact us page with your phone number and physical address
• Include a free report about something your company does remarkably well

Now you’ve got them really interested. But don’t stop there! Don’t let the lurker wander off. Tell them what to click. Tell them where to call and what to ask for when they do.

Call to Action!

Most cleaning websites have no call to action whatsoever. Adding any type of call to action is better than none, but a strong one can easily triple the sales of your site. Some ideas for calling your prospective web visitor to action:

• Have a strong offer and call to action only for web prospect
• Promote your offer with banners, graphics, and text
• Put your call to action on every page of your site
• Provide an email opt-in for your special offer, free report, and more info
• Include an estimate inquiry form for those searching after hours
• Use an exit pop-up to capture their email address or give an offer
• Write lists of reasons why you’re different from your competition
• Phone number large and at the top of each page (this is often forgotten)

Just by adding a few of the above sales triggers, some cleaners have doubled and even tripled the amount of calls they’ve gotten from their site. In fact, on my site, simply adding videos doubled the amount of calls I received. Remember, your website is an advertisement. And just like every ad you run, you have to use some salesmanship to make it sell.

The great thing about your own website is you don’t have a limit to the amount of space you can use. Color is free. There are no contracts to keep you confined. And you can change everything on your site within a few days. So get creative. In fact, put up a couple of websites and test out what sells best. This is some of the cheapest advertising you can do that gets results.

Yes, it will take time to get these things set up on your site. But once you include some of these sales triggers, your website will convert more lurkers into actual paying clients.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Websites | See 1 Comment »

Happy New Year to you and yours.

This is the last and final call.

Click below to get your Postcard report now.

(Report is now only available in the Postcards and More package below)

The other day Lee Pemberton (well known cleaning indsutry leader) called me  to say how impressed he was with the report above.  In fact, he felt the information was so valuable, he wants to give it to his clients.

Get postcard templates for the entire year!

Jump on this now and get a bonus package (if they are still available)

Click Here to Get the Postcards and More Package

P.S. It’s gone after New Year.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Postcards | See 3 Comments »

Hope you had a wonderful holiday.

***Only available a few more days***

Did you get your special cleaning postcard report? Also, join in on the brainstorming session and get a chance at winning.

Click below to get it now…Hurry!

(Report is now only available in the Postcards and More package below)

You can win a FREE marketing package by participating in a brainstorm session on Postcard Marketing.

Click Here to join in the brainstorm

Here’s something that’s happened to a lot cleaners…
They create their own postcards, but don’t get a good response.

And when they do mail, they miss several simple tricks that could get them a MUCH better response.

In other words, their knowledge has serious HOLES stopping them from making money.

1. You need a postcard that sells (a lot of them don’t)

2. You need to know how to execute a profitable mailing

3. You need a killer sales letter getting people excited about your cleaning service.

THIS exact training gives you over 30 mail pieces and the training you need:

Click Here to Get the Postcards and Training

P.S. It’s now available! You can get in on the intro special offer only until the end of this week.

Topics: Carpet Cleaning Postcards | See 1 Comment »