Joe Polish & Lisa Wagner’s Rich Cleaner Blog ::

We have a Members Community website, www.PiranhaCentral.com, where all of our business building and marketing strategies, trainings and templates are organized, archived and searchable.  More importantly Piranha Central is “action central” for Piranha Members across the globe.  Through the site’s ELFLibrary (the Easy, Lucrative & Fun swipe file share module) and the sites’s ELFMail (the Easy, Lucrative & Fun email system), bright and positive Cleaning Industry Marketers from all kinds of markets support each other, answer questions and share the templates and strategies that are working for them, right now.

Here’s a thread that we’ve gotten permission to share with you. These are a few ELFMail posts from yesterday and today about what’s working for marketing carpet cleaning and restoration services right now:

From: Joe Vizi
Date: 4/6/2010
Subject: ELFMail – What’s Working

Hopefully y'all have been busy as heck, like me! We had a almost a 700%
increase over last March! 

Plumber JV, Realtor Open Houses, and Repeat Clients From Newsletters are the
top three strategies.  

Also, a huge job from Yellow Pages in which I used Don & Jane Jones' ad copy.

-Joe Vizi
President & CEO
Eco-Scrub Carpet & Floor Care

From: Tim Mickelson

Date: 4/6/2010

Subject: ELFMail – What’s Working

For us January was a very slow month. February we were up over 26% over last February. March was fantastic; we had our best month ever in over 33 years.What has worked for us?

Facebook marketing to Realtors – making connections and giving them Gift Certificates for a Free Room of cleaning to give to buyers and sellers and their mailing list 3 Step Letters to high end homes.

Joining a dynamic BNI – visit several and join the best group in your area.

Water Damage Restoration ad in the Yellow Pages – the first two jobs were more than double the cost for the entire year and brought in thousands.

Sending out reminder cards thru Send Out Cards – we send out a reminder card every 6 months automatically that keeps repeat clients coming back.

Selling cleaning packages – we offer, buy two cleanings and get the 3rd for FREE. They pay for the two cleanings upfront and the cleanings are every 6 months. On the repeat cleanings we do not move any furniture.

We have had snow and rain. That is normal for the northeast.  Melting snow and lots of rain can lead to wet basements and water damage restoration. We took two water jobs from the guys with the green trucks.

You have to be consistent in your marketing and control expenses when things are slow. NEVER stop marketing, NEVER quit. Always be positive and always be hopeful.

If someone put a gun to your head and said you HAD to make $1,000.00 today or else…. What would you do to make it happen?

-Tim Mickelsen
Clean Your Carpets Inc.

From: Bill Pope
Date: 4/6/2010
Subject: ELFMail – What’s Working

Hello Piranha Family, 

It has been very slow in the Hudson Valley area of New York also. Just wanted to let
others know what we are doing to try and create business:

1) joined local chamber of commerce
2) sending out pink flyers to doctors, lawyers accountants and other professionals
from local telephone book
3) going out on foot and introducing myself to local businesses with info and an
offer about our company
4) sending special offers to those that have not used us in awhile via snail mail

These things have produced some work.  They are also very inexpensive to implement.

-Bill Pope
Stay Positive Stay Focused
Spotless Cleaning Systems

From: Andrew David

Date: 4/6/2010

Subject: ELFMail – What’s Working

Stay focused everyone.  By small and simple things are great things brought to pass.  Don’t forget to push hard with JV’s.  They have kept us active and we are about to leverage them for more with advice from other Piranha Members.  Don’t give up if things are slow.  Market harder!!!  Find things to get E.L.F., but don’t give up.

-Andrew David
One Stop Cleaning & Restoration

From: Beth Lack
Date: 4/6/2010
Subject: ELFMail – What’s Working

I guess that's one of the benefits of living in Phoenix... we've been extremely
busy. February & March were our best months ever in the 7 years that we've been
in business here.  We did the We Miss You 3 step letters starting in January &
we always try & send out at least 1000 pink flyers each month.  Of course, we
also haven't had the rain & flooding that most of the country has had. 

-Beth Lack
Lack's Cleaning Service

From: Jonathan Mickelson
Date: 4/6/2010
Subject: ELFMail – What’s Working

Well ELFland we just finished our day securing a 10k water damage job which is the 4th water damage job from our new yellow page ad that came out four weeks ago!  Our hard work, tenacity, patience, and persistence is paying off.

-Jonathan Mickelsen
Clean Your Carpets Inc.

From: Steve and Carol Busboom
Date: 4/7/2010

We’re pounding the pavement with a positive, upbeat presentation and a fun
little gift as a introduction or way of thanks to our clients and others
we meet… Gives them a reason to smile or laugh.   

They remember we brought some fun into their lives. It’s been a long, cold
winter here in Nebraska.  But our business has almost DOUBLED from last year,
there are Clients out there that want service work done, and they have money,
you just have to find them.

-Steve and Carol Busboom
All Care, Inc.

So there you have it!  A peek at E.L.F. – Easy, Lucrative & Fun Marketing Strategies working right now and a behind-the-scenes look at the power and genuine caring and sharing among Piranha Marketing Members on Piranha Central.

Here are the 8 E.L.F. Marketing Strategies working right now for Piranha Members:

1 – Joint Ventures
2 – Newsletters
3 – Direct Response Yellow Page Ads (with Free Recorded Consumer Awareness Messages – www.TeleCenterSignUp.com/RichCleaner)
4 – Online Social Marketing (Facebook & Twitter)
5 – Piranha’s “Classic Pink Flyer”
6 – Joe Polish’s 3 Step “You’ve Won” Letters
7 – BNI, Networking & Expert Positioning Strategies (with GIFTS! – www.JoePolish.com/LittleSomething)
8 – Direct Response Reminder or “We Miss You” Postcards & Letters (www.CarpetCleanersToolBox.com)

If you’d like to find out more about the templates and strategies mentioned… check out our Rich Cleaner Marketing Kit, our monthly Healthy Home Newsletter, and our Memberships.

Here are a couple of recent YouTube videos from Piranha Members:

Don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-800-275-2643 with your questions (and mention this blog post for a free gift!)

Enjoy your business more & make more money! Keep it E.L.F. – Easy Lucrative & Fun!

FOLLOW JOE

FOLLOW LISA

Only two answers to that question…

… no and hell no.

I am continually dumbfounded by the ideas coming out of Washington to try to create jobs and stimulate the economy.

The business acumen of most of the politicians’ brains in Washington could pretty much fill a thimble.

Maybe that’s too harsh… let’s say a coffee mug.

What’s this have to do with marketing? Actually, a lot.

You see, the way D.C. tries to create economic growth is not unlike many with careers in the image advertising space. They have a canny combination of being Dumb and Complicated at the same time.

They present unproven, unsupported, and untrackable recommendations – and present it in such a long complicated, long-winded way, that you simply give up and say “well, they must know what they are doing.”

Here’s a hint for you… if someone cannot quickly explain key metrics that will show if a plan (or ad) IS working, or is not, then they don’t really have a smart plan for you.

The blind leading the blind…

I had an owner of a restoration company tell me that he has been paying TEN thousand a month in 4-color full-page ads with two local directories.

I asked him how many jobs he’s gotten from the ads – and he said none. In THREE years, none.

You do the math.

“But I need to be in the yellow pages… and the rep insists that when the flood happens they will choose my 2 page spread over the others.”

For that kind of money, the YP rep should be going through neighborhoods busting pipes for the guy.

And that rep will continue to insist that he needs to be in those books to give impressions to the marketplace so they will recognize him as a reliable brand.

Pure horse doo-doo.

And I can’t get mad at the YP rep. He doesn’t know any better. “Success” to him is landing another big ad – not that his clients’ ads actually work at bringing in money.

The business owner though… I can get mad at him. That is a lot of money to be blindly paying with NO accountability, NO tracking, and NO results.

I don’t care how crazy-busy his business and life are… it’s his responsibility as a business owner to run his business, and manage his money, responsibly. If he can’t do that, then he needs to close his doors and go work for someone else man (or woman) enough to run a business right.

Waiting for some of that STIMULUS money?

Yeah, me neither.

I am one of those crazy entrepreneurs who prefers to work in the real world, and take actions to create real money.

Handouts are for sissies.

So – how to create your own stimulus? That’s easy – you need to employ a direct response marketing mindset throughout your entire company.

What does this mean? It means every action, every expense, needs to be taken to create a specific and immediate result.

You need to be MILITANT about every dollar you put into your marketing, and know exactly what return on investment you generate from every one.

If you have no idea where to start, here are a few suggestions for you:

1) Go to download “Seven Steps To A Successful Ad” – and use this FREE article to evaluate EVERY ad and marketing piece coming from your company. Marketing done correctly is an investment, not an expense. Properly executed, it will generate a constant growing cash flow for you.

2) If you are not using our Healthy Home Client Newsletter – then it’s time to take action on getting this started. This is Piranha’s #1 repeat and referral business generator for our members. You are LOSING thousands of dollars in jobs every month you put off getting this done.

3) If you want an education on direct response marketing and the importance of being a metrics junkie then you are going to love Joe Polish’s Genius Network interview with Marketing Powerhouse MaryEllen Tribby.

4) Finally, if you are looking for turn-key templates, campaigns, and ready-to-roll strategies to grow your cleaning or restoration company – take that wasted money you are putting into the yellow pages and put it into something that is guaranteed to generate jobs. Piranha has a complete Marketing Kit for Cleaners to remove all of the guesswork out of what to use, and all of it field-tested for cash creation performance.

5) Just do SOMETHING. Sitting around thinking about what to do gives an illusion that something is being done, when nothing is getting done. That’s a DC move – hold a bunch of press conferences to talk about how hard everyone is working. That is fake work. You want to see REAL work – then go follow a Piranha Member out making money by taking action.

If you want to talk to one of our business growth consultants, the Piranha Team is always happy to help entrepreneurs who want to work to grow their companies. Give us a call at 800-275-2643.

In fact, if you call our office for more information and mention this DC BLOG, they will give you a special (and free) business growth gift.

When they identify your biggest business need right now, we will make the gift specific to that area so it’s not some random, no thought item (that would be soooo D.C. to give you something you can’t even use…).

Look, I know I got political here. If you think my view of D.C. is not on target, let me know in a comment below. And if the stimulus has actually helped YOU – I want to know that also. It’s almost like a sighting of Big Foot… I just don’t believe it until I see it.

And I would NEVER let D.C. run my business. Unless I wanted it run into the ground.

- Lisa

Over the holidays, for our Members, Clients and subscribers, we’ve published 4 amazing preview videos from our 2009 Rich Cleaner Boot Camp.

These presentations are only going to be online for another day or so… and we thought we’d go ahead and give everyone a chance to check them out, so we’re now posting this on the Rich Cleaner Blog.

Preview video #1 Includes:
- How To Create & Maintain A Marketing Mindset For Maximum Success
- Making Anything Possible With NO LIMITS Thinking
- The Habits of Highly Effective, Highly Ethical, and Highly Successful Sales Persons

Preview Video #2 Includes:
- Joe Polish Reveals YOUR “Million Dollar Marketing Secret Weapons Manual”
- The Most Comprehensive Book of Winning Marketing Pieces Piranha Has EVER Put Together
- 3 Inches Thick, Containing Nearly 300 Pages of Pure Marketing Dynamite
- 100% PROVEN Yellow Pages Ads, Reference Tools, Special Reports, Marketing Checklists, Headlines, Sales-Letters, Postcards, Flyers, Free Recorded Message Scripts, Powerful Van Designs… and MORE!

Preview Video #3 Includes:
- Tony & Mary Millers – “Married With Business”
- The Way To Make Your FAMILY Business Work
- Plus… Finding & Keep Great Employees Who Live Your Business As Much As You Do

Preview Video #4 Includes:
- Sean Stephenson – “Stand Up & Get Off Your BUT”
- How To Rip the Victim Out Of Yourself and Live At Cause Instead of Effect
- The Most Powerful Question You Can Ask Yourself When You’re Facing Any Challenge
- Exactly How To Be Totally Self-Fulfilled & How To Successfully Master Your FEARS

Watch all these videos tonight… it’s worth it!

There’s no better holiday gift we could have given our friends in the Cleaning & Restoration Industries.

Start here ==> www.RichCleaner.com/4Videos

Enjoy! (& do it now before these are pulled down…)