Why don’t we see more dry cleaning advertisements? Today, it seems like people trust the dry cleaner closest to them regardless of the results. There’s an untapped market of unhappy customers that want to switch to another dry cleaner but don’t know how to find one.
Searching online can feel like a hassle when suddenly every option is laid out in front of them and quickly becomes overwhelming. Instead, it’s best to meet your customers where they are.
Advertise locally, and hone in on your image within your community. If you can, build a brand that highlights your quality, easy access, and happy customers. Then, you’ll become a natural choice in your community. All it takes is a little research into the best ways to advertise your business, and that’s where we come in.
Great Pricing and Promotions
It seems obvious, but of course, customers are going to be drawn to wherever they think they’re finding the best deal. The trick is to offer an enticing but profitable coupon or promotion that drives the customer to action. Once they see the quality of your work, they’ll be hooked, and your name will become the first one they think of.
Work with your team to develop the right special for your business and figure out how to get the word out there. Online advertising can be an easy way if you’ve already developed a successful social media platform, but be wary if you’re starting from scratch. Even the most tried & true outlets like Instagram will promise you thousands of impressions, but there’s no way to tell where those impressions are coming from.
The majority of the time, your ad will be marketed to a big city like LA or NYC. Then, even if that’s where you’re located, there’s no way of telling where in the city the ad is running. Instead, it’s probably best to look into print or unconventional print advertising to distribute your great coupon.
Print Advertising
For many, print advertising is what we think of first when we imagine an advertising campaign. Fliers and direct mail coupons have been distributed in this format for decades. To really guarantee results, you’ll need to select a specific zip code, secure the addresses within it, and mail out coupons at least twice.
The biggest obstacle will be printing costs and diligence, but it’s a great way to ensure hyper-local targeting.
Cross-Promotion
If you’ve printed your fliers or coupons but are not sure if you want to mail them out, you can always look into cross-promotion. This is where you partner with another local business and ask if you can distribute your materials in their shop. This could mean leaving your fliers at the cashier stand in a cafe or on the coffee table of a local salon. This is a super-easy way to reach the customers who already shop locally in your community, and you’ll just have to follow up to make sure they’re getting handed out.
For years, people have also turned to grocery store advertising to promote their business. On average, 20,000 people visit their local grocery store every week. Of those, some are visiting up to three times a week, and the right supermarket advertisement is sure to gain their attention quickly.
Grocery stores also often pull the majority of their customers from a three-mile radius of the store, so if you advertise in one near your business, you’re guaranteed to reach your community. This is why grocery store advertising is a natural choice for small businesses and an easy decision even during a pandemic.
In the holiday season, supermarket advertisements are an easy way to make sure your business doesn’t get lost in the mix and remains on people’s minds. Especially with all the holiday parties coming up, it can be a great idea to use grocery store advertising to highlight a great deal you’re running. People are going to want to look their best no matter where they’re celebrating.
Unconventional Print Advertising
As mentioned earlier, one of the downsides to print advertising is the high printing costs. Let’s say there are 1,000 houses in your chosen zip code. You’ll need to print at least double that in fliers, pay for postage, and weather-proof paper just to make sure your ad makes it to your prospects safely.
Unconventional print advertising can use the coupon or ad format you’ve already designed and print it on an unexpected surface. For example, if you’re still thinking about grocery store advertising, you can print your supermarket advertisement on the back of customers’ receipts. That way, every single person who buys something at that store is guaranteed to walk out with your coupon. The printing costs are locked into place based on the number of impressions, and you don’t have to distribute the ad manually. Instead, you can sit back and watch new customers roll in.
If you find enough success with your supermarket advertisement, you might consider printing coupons on the back of your own register tape. It’s paper and ink you’re already paying for, so why not use it to run your own ad? Best of all, it means you can offer a special to the customers that are already in your store. Use this medium to run an offer for returning customers to make sure you get them back in the door.
Cartvertising
While most of our dry-cleaning clients choose to go with receipt coupons, you can always look into Cartvertising if you’re looking to really build your brand. If you have multiple stores and want to unify your image under one large campaign, Cartvertising may be a great option.
This is simply another means of grocery store advertising and allows you to distribute a printed ad through shopping carts. That way, every time a customer reaches for their cart or pushes by another shopper’s, they’ll see your ad. Getting that many impressions on one print ad is relatively unheard of, yet shopping cart advertising rates remain affordable.
All in all, no matter what medium you choose to go with, know that your business deserves to expand, and if you’re not advertising, someone else is.
By Talitha Turkin
