Why Marketing A Laundromat Makes A Difference
Why Marketing A Laundromat Makes A Difference
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When you hear the word “marketing”, a lot of thoughts probably race through your head.
I get it.
“Marketing” is just a ploy for some, and “marketers” are just the people trying to remove your hard-earned money from your pocket and put it in theirs.
But marketing isn’t so Wall Street these days. It’s a lot less wild-westy than you may imagine, and in fact it can be downright boring.
It’s also essential. No, I’m not just saying that.
In this post, I want to talk about why marketing is essential for one particular industry: laundry!
And to kick things off, we’re going to talk a bit about what marketing is.
What Is Marketing?
Marketing is a wide term — but it’s most often used as an umbrella for anything that tries to get people to buy your product or service. Everything from the sign out front to the t-shirts your employees wear falls under marketing (not to mention social media and your digital presence!).
Marketing for most laundry businesses takes a bit of a unique flavor though. Your business is often described as “recession proof” — a necessity, and something that almost can’t fail.
If only that were true.
More than ever, businesses and brands are marketing themselves in your neighborhood — which is why learning how to market yourself is vital.
Yet more foundational is the question of why you need to market yourself. If you know that, then you’ll never doubt your decision to invest in a better marketing scheme.
So for the rest of this post, we’ll look at four unique benefits for marketing in the laundry industry, and I hope you find a ton of benefit.
Let’s dive in:
Benefit #1: Marketing Informs Potential Customers About You
First and foremost, marketing your laundry business lets you get the word out about who you are, what you do, and why you’re a good option. It is, in essence, a lead-in to a potential sale.
This point hopefully makes itself — without that lead-in to your sales process, how else are you going to find new customers and grow your business?
But let’s take it a step further, thanks in part to a recent study by SmartInsights.
They wanted to know what kinds of strategies fueled growth for B2B (businesses to business) and B2C (business to consumer) businesses.
The overwhelming strategy for the B2C side (which is the majority of the laundry industry) was a focus on market penetration. In other words — finding and winning new customers.
So if you’re not marketing your business and trying to find new faces, then you’re already behind the competition. Even if you have a better service and a bullet proof business plan, you don’t have enough without marketing.
Benefit #2: Marketing Is Food For Your Business
Remember how you had to eat your vegetables as a kid?
Sigh… I do.
Your parents knew why you needed to eat them. How else would you get the nutrition you needed to survive? Even though you didn’t like the taste, you learned a lesson about how vital good foods are for you (hopefully, jury’s still out for me).
The point here carries the idea from my first benefit and solidifies it a bit more for you: If you want growth, you need to invest in the practices that are good for your business.
But marketing isn’t just creating — it’s active promotion. You can’t just put up a sign and a website and call it marketing.
You have to pursue and persuade to get paid.
And nothing illustrates this better than this recent study. They found that companies who took a shortcut around marketing (in essence buying leads) had significantly lower levels of engagement from their sales efforts than companies who actively marketed themselves and built leads up over time:
The long and short of it is that marketing over time is the best way to find and engage new customers — even for laundry businesses.
Benefit #3: Good Marketing Levels The Playing Field
How do you plan to keep up with your competition in the coming decade?
If you haven’t asked that question, you need to.
We’ve already seen (in benefit #1) that having a plan to penetrate your market is necessary in order to keep up. But if you want things to level out — or even turn in your favor, you need to think about more than simply blasting yourself out there.
In other words, you need to think about the mechanics behind your strategy and blast targeted messages. This will bring you the best band for your buck, and help you truly get a leg up on the competition.
And the best way to be targeted is to invest in the tool necessary to personalize your engagement efforts: A CRM (Customer Relationship Manager).
Finding the right CRM will help you set up a strategic marketing funnel that helps potential customers flow through your marketing efforts, sort of like this:
By getting to know your customers at a deeper level, you’ll find that your business will see more retention, better word-of-mouth referral rates, and of course, growth. Even in competitive markets, these tools can help you stand apart from the crowd.
Benefit #4: Your Marketing Sells More Than A Service
It sells you!
At the end of the day, loyalty is more than an exchange of goods. It’s a relationship between you and your customer that’s built on trust.
How do you build that trust?
Partly due to your marketing — but also partly on the side of your service. You have to make a promise that’s enticing, then follow through on that promise.
But from there, you also need to make a connection. There are plenty of places to get your laundry done, so how can you make your option special?
It’s a process. You start by identifying what your customers look for (in order to stay loyal), then work on applying that differentiator. Through repeated customer interaction, you’ll be well on your way to a more personalized experience.
And the effort is worth it. A recent study shared a host of benefits for brands that take the time to personalize:
It may feel odd to sell yourself, but it’s ultimately what your customers want. Give community, not just a product or service!
Don’t Waste Any More Time
If these benefits sound good to you, then you need to start marketing your laundry business. There’s no other way to grow your business, find new customers, and establish yourself for the long-term otherwise.
Marketing takes time, effort, and investment — but it’s well worth it in the long term.
But you don’t have to go it alone, either. The team at Spynr has been working with and for the laundry industry for a long time. We know marketing, and we know laundry — which makes us the perfect match for a business like yours.
We’d love to chat. Click below to get started!