MasBro - Profile

Oh, and I just thought of another one. I'm usually not a big fan of direct mail, but what will definitely get your mail piece looked at is a cartoon. Everyone likes reading a cartoon. Just make it short (1-3 panels max) and it doesn't even have to be funny. In fact, funny can be dangerous because it's difficult to be funny without offending someone.

The only one I know of who was successful at cartoon humor without being offensive to anyone was Gary L****n with the Far Side cartoons. He was hilarious and didn't offend anyone, unless you are a cow.

You've said you tried leaflet drops. I'll probably get some jabs for this, but other than online marketing, door hangers (as well call them in the States) have often given my local business clients the biggest bang for their buck.

Maybe try a variation of what you were using. I like Local trader's suggestion. If it has substance to it, people will not automatically throw it away because regardless of what it is (as long as it's not just paper), it will have perceived value. You can put anything in it; a pen, refrigerator magnet, envelope opener, a beer bottle opener, etc.

Make sure you put it where you know the consumer will see it. That's why we call them door hangers, although today, a lot of people don't use the front door. They come home and drive right into the garage since it opens and closes automatically.

I would re-consider this strategy. Just make sure the kids you hire to send out the door hangers don't just throw them all in the dumpster somewhere.

...And by the way, I use both Adwords and Facebook ads for myself and for clients. We have quite a bit of success with both. Facebook certainly gets the bigger bank for the buck because the ads are so much cheaper, but I love the flexibility of Adwords. Most businesses do not do well with it because they don't know how to use it. Indeed,

I do not recommend Adwords to anyone who either hasn't been trained or doesn't have the experience. Even average Adwords marketers will struggle. you've got to know the interface, landing pages, calls-to-action, testing and analytics. Not being good at any one of those can cause your campaigns to be a big waste of money.

I have never been successful with LinkedIn or Twitter Ads. My ongoing frustration with Linked In is a post, or perhaps a book, all on it's own. In a nutshell--a business platform that continues to squander a great market niche by not truly understanding how business works; but, I digress.

If you're on a budget, I say go with Facebook ads. If you want a profitable campaign for long-term profits, go with Adwords.

Get plenty of reviews in Yelp, especially for a cleaning service. Monitor them and engage consumers when they write comments about your service. And most importantly, promote your wonderful Yelp profile in search results so it shows right on the first page along side your website. Consumers will love it. In fact, Search Engine Land reported that 79% of consumers use online review sites to make a purchasing decision - and that's up from 72% just the year before! You've got to have a strategy to use reviews to engage consumers and drive business.

Of course I am happy to selflessly promote my Yelp product in my signature, but in all seriousness, you can really use Yelp to drive a lot of business. My clients all do very well with it. It's their primary source of business. Good luck.

For local businesses, hands down, it has been effective optimization of customer review sites, namely Yelp. I promote my clients' Yelp profiles more than their websites. They "clean up" with Yelp. Think about it. If you're a customer and see two businesses in your search results, one is a website and the other has five gold stars next to it, which one are you going to choose? Works like a charm.

I put together a strategy on how local businesses can achieve this. Hopefully you'll see it in my signature when I get past 10 posts.

Regards,
Dino

In the US, cold calls from business to customer is dead with the implementation of the DO Not Call laws, yet it still amazes me that some companies do it. I don't have a home phone, but my parent still do and most calls are telemarketers (or legal authorities from when I lived there years ago ).

Years ago, we used to get 3-4% conversion ratio from telemarketing. It was a great way to hunker down and make some quick sales if I needed the money. It must be down to .001% conversion ratio now, if that.

On the other hand, B2B can still be profitable if you have the temperment for it and can wiggle your way past the gate keepers.

I don't bother with it.

I've never paid to be in a directory. There are plenty of free ones out there. Try industry specific directories first, also directories that are specific to your community.

You can engage in a link building strategy, but most of your links should be from relevant platforms and embedded within relevant content. It's OK if they are not all relevant, but most of them should be. Forums like this are fine. A profile link from a dog grooming community to an internet marketing blog is not.

Yeah, Avinash is the man. To him, there isn't anything more important than understanding your data and using it to improve your performance.

No. Don't wait. The sooner your business is listed the quicker you're going to be visible. It helps if your site has some authority, but don't wait for it if your site is new.