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

Today’s post is a friendly heads-up for Piranha Members and other Cleaners and Restorers using Social Media to grow their Cleaning and Restoration business.

Most Piranha Members are ethically and effectively monetizing their internet presence by dominating local search engine results pages (for free) as well as monetizing social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.). In fact, Piranha Coaching Members have had advanced, but easy “how to” step-by-step coaching on this stuff.

Today however we wanted to share this some insights with every RichCleanerBlog Reader, Cleaner and Restorer.

Recently a software program launched charging from $23 per month up to $100 per month that is said to automatically find and connect potential Cleaning Clients on Twitter and then automatically solicit your Cleaning services to those prospects. However, automated software like this could actually get your Twitter account terminated… BUT, there are ways to generate and convert leads from Twitter that are FREE and won’t get your account terminated. That’s what this post is all about.

The following comes from one of Piranha’s “Expert Coaches” – Dan Hollings, Internet Strategies for “The Secret” hit movie and Twitter (www.TwitterTwenius.com). For several years, Dan has taught Piranha Members how to dominate local search engine results pages and monetize social media at our live events, in several of our Coaching Membership Calls and even on this blog…

Here’s the insider’s scoop from Dan Holling’s on How To Create a FREE Twitter Machine to Find and Connect With Potential Carpet Cleaning & Restoration Clients:

It’s easy to be lured into automated systems that promise to do all the work while you sit back and just cash big checks. Lately, there have been a string of robotic systems related to Social Media and Twitter, some of which claim to not only find and close customers for you… but from their sales page, you’d think they’d actually do the job and make coffee too.

BEWARE!

Read the Official Twitter RULES first:
www.budurl.com/therules

Note a few Twitter rules such as:

- If you send large numbers of unsolicited @replies in an attempt to spam a service or link
- If you send large numbers of duplicate @replies
- If you post duplicate content over multiple accounts or multiple duplicate updates on one account

If you violate even ONE of these rules, even ONE time. You might as well call it quits for Twitter, because your account may be terminated or delisted from search. Worse yet, you’ll get no customers and you’ll lose money.

Remember these 2 core LAWS of Social Media:
Success = Human Interaction
Failure = Robotic Nonsense

So, with that out of the way, let’s look at ONE way to potentially find prospects and customers on Twitter based on keyword searches. This strategy accomplishes what other systems charge hundreds of dollars for, without risking your account and for little, if any money.

STEP ONE

• Go to TweetBeep
  http://tweetbeep.com
• Open a free account.
• Read the HELP area
  http://tweetbeep.com/support.html

STEP TWO

• Set-up KEYWORD ALERTS
• Target these to your local region (if appropriate)
• AND… to keywords that might lead you to customers talking about the services you provide.
• NOTE: You can add up to 10 keywords for free (that should be plenty)

STEP THREE

• These ALERTS will be emailed to you (as tweets are found)
• OR… you may view the results (as found) within the TweetBeep admin
• Read the Tweets the system finds.

STEP FOUR

• If a tweet is found by TweetBeep and seems potentially related to your services, you can tweet them a short PERSONAL (not automated) message. Do not use the same reply message for every response.
• You should also FOLLOW this person on Twitter.
• The more HUMAN your message reads, the better. Don’t pitch, hype or try to sell directly… instead be friendly, personal and helpful. If you like, add your Free Recorded Message, but only if it seems appropriate.

THAT’S IT

You have created a Twitter Machine (ie: strategy) that automates the “locating” of potential customers, yet does not insult these potential customers with an obvious automated message. Plus, you are not violating any of Twitters rules… and DRUM ROLL PLEASE…

It’s F R E E !!

BONUS TIP: Offering a free Consumer Awareness Guide might be a good idea. But only if a customer and interaction seem appropriate. However, do NOT offer it to every Twitter user you interact with.

You can follow Dan on Twitter at: Twitter.com/DHollings
You can follow Joe on Twitter at: Twitter.com/JPolish
You can follow Lisa on Twitter at: Twitter.com/LisaTheRugChick
Connect with Piranha Marketing on Facebook at: Piranha Marketing on Facebook

Are you ready for this…

This is post 2 in the “How To Be #1 on Google” series.

This post will cover strategies #3, #4, and #5.

We hope you’ve taken ACTION on strategies #1 and #2 in part one of this series.

If you did you should already be seeing RESULTS…

Those RESULTS mean MORE JOBS, and BETTER JOBS … just like these guys:

“We have been using Dan Hollings’ strategies to keep our business listing on page 1 and so far are the only website aside from pay-per-click sites to do so. Last month, this strategy generated over a 42:1 return when we booked over $500 in new business on an $11 investment.”
- Emilio Martinez, FiberCare, El Paso, TX

“On Google we come up number 2, 3, 5, and number 7 and a couple more on the second page. We received 2 calls this week and one call last week. We booked all 3… On Tile and Grout we come up 1, 2, 3 and 5. We also come up 1 and 2 on the hardwood floor refinishing. I think I am in Love with internet marketing! We completely dominate every aspect of our business on the web. I don’t mean we come up #1 in the search engines. We come up the first page and a half. Carpet, Tile, Furniture, Hardwood. 6 in Duct Cleaning. I have learned a ton from these strategies… If somebody searches for their company they automatically land on one of my pages. That’s awesome. Who needs competitors anyway. We now average $920 a week of the internet.”
- Jeremy Shambaugh Carpet Service, Mansfield, Ohio

“The internet is helping big time. I’m averaging 10 to 15 new clients a month over the last 3 or 4 months from the web and they’re mostly high dollar clients.”
- Matt Craine, Professor Pyle’s Five Step, Rancho Cordova, CA

As YOU stay plugged in to this Rich Cleaner Blog we’ll continue to give you free marketing wisdom that will help you “Eat Your Competition Alive!” online and offline.

Also, we want to thank those of you who posted a comment on part one of this series… you’ve all been entered into our drawing to win the killer 3 hour audio recording of Joe, Dan and some of Piranha’s most successful cleaning and restoration marketing students discussing these insider online marketing secrets. Keep those comments and questions coming.

Okay… so last post we left off with Strategy Three about keywords… that’s where we’ll pick up today:

#3 The ‘KEYS’ To Your Local Success

Read the rest of this entry »