Joe Burnich

Your carpets take a lot of abuse and, even if you can’t see it, dirt and grime settle deep into the fibers. This can reduce the life of your carpets and cause unpleasant smells. By the time your carpets actually look dirty they may be close to needing replacing. A favorable option to replacing them is steam cleaning services to improve the overall appearance of the room, prolong the life of your carpets, and keep them smelling fresh and clean.

Video courtesy of Mark Kennedy. Copyright 2012 – Not reusable.

The main benefit of regular steam carpet cleaning service in Denver, CO is that it protects your investment by keeping it free from ground in dirt. Especially when it’s snowing, you are tracking in moisture which breeds mold. By removing spores and irritants that become airborne when you vacuum, with steam cleaning you are safeguarding your family’s health by improving your indoor air quality.

“I’m thinking of trying some advertising in some of the neighborhood newspapers for our more affluent neighborhoods here my city.

Can you give me your thoughts on this? Do you have any idea of how well this might or might not work? Have you ever done something like this or heard of anyone’s experiences on Neighborhood Newspapers?” – Doug H. Carpet Cleaning Omaha

Print advertising can be very tricky especially when it comes to magazine/newsletter type publications. I have had luck with Valpak in the past, but it was hit or miss and of course you have to include coupons and essentially drop your prices to make the phone ring.

But my experience with a local woman’s magazine, that is highly read by the Stay-At-Home mom demographic, was a flop. My wife and I (with the help of Mark Kennedy’s sales copy) spent a week crafting, what we thought, was the perfect half-page ad. We even matched the font of the magazine to give the appearance of an article (see below). The editor loved it and hired us as soon as I submitted the final copy, but our overall response was dismal, maybe four or five calls came out of it and the cost was $800+. I asked the opinions of my wife’s friends who love the magazine and they said that it didn’t have a deal or any reason to call, so my conclusion is that most people have been trained to look for the coupon or special (similar to ordering a pizza) when it comes to print.

So on the rare occasion that I send out postcards, I always include some kind of deal. Ex: 1 Free chair or a discount for cleaning 5 rooms or more. My $99 Value Menu seemed to work well at times (see below). I don’t use it anymore because I raised my minimum to $129/$149 depending on the season. The video on my website still seems to be my star marketing tool. I had a compliment on it just yesterday. I believe it’s that personal connection that is just hard to get with print that makes all the difference.

So my conclusion is that no matter how good the sales copy, you must have some kind of incentive, even if it’s $25 Off or 1 Free Room. It can be different from the competition, but people are expecting something tangible, not just useful information. Hope this helps.

I would love to get feedback on what works (or doesn’t work) for your company. Please leave questions and comments below.

Thanks,

Joe Burnich

Most of us carpet cleaners operate out of our homes and don’t have a separate business address. Just recently Google has announced that they no longer will allow residential addresses to be displayed on business listing. This doesn’t really make sense because a huge percentage of businesses in this country are home based. It doesn’t necessarily mean that rankings will be effected. We will have to let the dust settle and see how everything shakes out.

PLEASE NOTE, this only applies if you are using a home address (residential address, not an office) as your listed address in Google places/+:

Maybe you have already seen this email:

Dear Google Places user,

We’d like to tell you about a recent update to our quality guidelines. This new addition, which affects service area businesses based at a residential location, states:

If you don’t conduct face-to-face business at your location, you must select the “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing” option within your dashboard. If you don’t hide your address, your listing may be removed from Google Maps.

Why the addition? We want to ensure that Google users do not attempt to visit your business at the location listed publicly on Maps — it’s a bad experience for you, it’s a bad experience for them.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin strictly enforcing this guideline, more so than we have been since the policy change. This means that if you don’t have a storefront, and you haven’t hidden your address, your listing is not in compliance with our updated quality guidelines and subject to takedown. We wanted to give you a heads up both to give you enough time to be in compliance and to ensure your listing remains live on Google Maps going forward.

Please update your Google Places listing to ensure it remains active on Google.

Sincerely,

The Google Team

If you manage your own Google Places listing, and your address is a residential home, please follow the following instructions:

To hide your address:
• Go to your Google Places dashboard
• Click “Edit” on the listing to view its details
• Select “Yes, this business serves customers at their locations”
• Select “Do not show my business address on my Maps listing”
• Hit Submit

At Big West Marketing I handle all the Social Media sites. Joe doesn’t care to be that involved in Facebook and frankly he doesn’t even have the time if he wanted to. There has been lots of talk about how to use it and what works and it’s extremely hard if you’re a carpet cleaner. I’m going to go over some things that’s worked for me and some things I notice that you guys can do if you have time.

Groups:

Engaging in groups is a “yes” as a business owner you should always network with other people because the more contacts you create the more likely you’ll be recommended and talked about. Referrals are always an excellent source of getting a job. We do recommend that everyone spend at least 15 minutes out of his or her day and network on Facebook. Don’t spend hours upon hours though because there are better things you can do to spend your time on like going to a park during an event and handing out coupons to random people for an example. If you don’t like Facebook ask your spouse or receptionist to do it.

A lot of people maybe attempting to get jobs from Facebook Groups because maybe they put “ISO A Great Carpet Cleaner” and here’s your chance! Here is the problem with that…

The problem with group pages:

1) Hundreds are posted throughout the day (And that’s just in a small area like ours in Missoula MT) so it would take a lot of time to search through all the posts that day trying to find someone that might have posted “ISO A Great Carpet Cleaner”. Maybe you just spent an hour looking through all the Group Posts and NO ONE posted anything about Carpet Cleaning, which is most likely what will happen.

2) The majority of Groups really frown upon advertising and I believe that a more effective way to interact in Group Pages On Facebook is networking with other people in your same industry. I will have an example of this shortly.

3) Let’s say someone in a Group Page posted “ISO A Great Carpet Cleaner”…you think “Here’s My Chance!” You write, “I’m a Great Carpet Cleaner! 555-5555 Call Me!” Let that sit for a bit. Then ask yourself this, “Does a referral work best coming from the business (“I’m a great carpet cleaner!”) or does a referral work better if it comes from an unknown whom says, “I used Magic Carpet Cleaning and I had a stain that I thought would never come out but some how they did it! Super nice guys too!” Which referral is more effective?

Using Group Pages To Your Advantage:

I am a wedding photographer on the side and I market my business a lot on Facebook and Pinterest this is something that works well for photographers because it’s visual. I am a part of a group called “Montana Photographers Rock” in this group photographs will ask questions like “What’s the best way to sharpen an image in Photoshop?” We respond to each other and then sometimes people post “I am booked July 4th is any available to do a wedding that day?” And boom I send my info and website and she’s talked with me a few times on the Group Page and now she calls the bride and recommends me.

Think of this in Carpet Cleaning Terms. Say you’re just starting out and you join a group for Carpet Cleaners. You guys are posting in there the best methods to get out certain spots and lets say you’re active and do it. You post pictures of a stain before and after and then explain how you did that. So, now you are becoming established to others, as “this guy seems to know what he is doing”. So, lets say someone calls and needs their carpets cleaned that day and he is already booked. Well, maybe he remembers you from the Group Page you guys are a part of and he says well call “Magic Carpet Cleaning” they’re pretty good. Now you have a referral and if you do a good job you may have a client for life.

Here’s some example of how I try to get conversations started and how I try to establish myself as “I know what I’m doing” in the photography world.

Using Your Facebook Business Page To Get More Likes & More People To See You without having to Pay:

So, I have been a photographer for 10 years and I have never received one bad review. So, I received my first one and no matter what industry you’re in it hurts! So, I decided to not get mad and to turn around and give something away. This was the post I posted below:

So, in this competition that I ran for over a week several people e-mailed/messaged me a photograph of their dog. I’d post them on my Business Page then they’d share it on their page and then others liked it and shared it. I received 20 new likes on my page and if you look at the “Reach Statistics” over 1,000 people saw my post and my company’s name. Why this is more effective than running an ad? I’ll tell you because people see that it’s coming from their friend and their friend might get a chance to win something so of course they’re going to help out their friend by “Liking it” and then the person is thinking “well, I have a cute dog” then they enter and it’s like a

Pandora’s box of goodness.

Why wouldn’t this work for Carpet Cleaners? Let’s say you run a $5 ad on Facebook for a month that’s $150. You’re happy that you received 10 Likes, but “Man, I don’t think I got one job out of it…” Have you said this before??? So, everyone says I want my customers to get engaged in my Facebook Page…

The Truth!

I’m writing this from me personally…I hope you do not get offended.

I don’t care about Carpet Cleaning when I log into my Facebook Account. I like pictures of cute dogs, I like funny pictures with a saying like “Beer, It makes things not suck!” Heck I share that stuff because it makes me giggle. You post a picture of a dirty carpet and then a clean carpet I think, “who cares stupid ads” and move on to the funny picture that my friend shared (he always shares good stuff) and it’s a group of people having fun and it’s captioned “It’s no coincidence that beer rhymes with cheer.” I giggle and share that with my friends. That’s how much thought I have when I log into my personal Facebook page.

When would I actually get involved in a carpet cleaning page?
“Send Us a pic of your cute dog and whomever gets the most LIKES wins and gets a free carpet cleaning!”

Now you have my attention! I have the cutest dog ever! And he pees on my carpets dang it!” I’m sending you a pic and I’m sharing that with everyone! Boom! You just made the “Facebook User” Advertise your business without them even knowing it.

“Send us a pic of your carpet and let us know why you need it cleaned and whomever gets the most Likes wins a free carpet cleaning!”

The possibilities are endless with this. The whole point is you got a job. Even if it’s Free if you do a good job that person is going to say good things about you and will call you the next time they need a cleaning. The possibilities are endless and this is so much better than putting an Ad on the side bar in my opinion because when a Friend sees it and Shares it you are more likely to take notice.  If you look at the Likes, Shares and People I reach for FREE I think you will see why this was more effective than doing an Ad.

Welp, that’s my take on Facebook!

The Free Photo Shoot I did was an Engagement Shoot so I also booked the wedding! 

It was worth doing it!

Have a Good Day & Good Luck!

www.marianemaynardphotography.com

Many times carpet cleaners are confused as to why competitors are out ranking them on Google. You may be thinking that your competition has some secret SEO guru working for them, but SEO is actually easier than most people think. Assuming that your website has all the right keywords in all the right places (my clients don’t need to worry about this) it’s time to start building Backlinks and Citations.

A Backlink (aka link) is simply a link from one website back to your website. This one of the most important ways you can get your website to rank organically. There are many ways to get backlinks to your site. One of the best places to start is to check out your competition’s Backlinks, copy them and then do more. There several sites out there that will give you reports, but the best one I have found is http://www.opensiteexplorer.org. You can enter your site and up to four competitors to get link statistics. You can also get reports on exactly where they are getting links from. This information is gold. Find out where the high ranking sites are getting links and try to get as many links from the same sources.

Now let’s talk about Citations. A Citation is defined as your Business Name, Addresss and Phone Number listed on a website. Google uses Citations to rank your Google Places listing. The best Citations come from Directories or local news/info sites. (Check out my list of Top 10 Directories for more info). So, how do we find out where our competitors are getting citations? Just do a Google search for their phone number. This will list all of the places that their business is listed on the Internet. Once again, your job is to copy their work and then do more.

For more information on getting Backlinks, check out these videos:

VIDEO: Backlinks From Blogs

VIDEO: Backlinks From Forums

Please feel free to leave comments or questions below. Thanks,

Joe Burnich

As most of you know, I’m really exited about the feedback I’m getting on the ACE Reminder System. Over the weekend I got a couple of emails I wanted to share:

“Hi Joe, just thought I would pass along another way I am using the ACE system.  I created a template that I labeled “Thankyou” that we are sending our customers a day or two after their job was completed.  It basically thanks them for their business and directs them to call us if they have questions or concerns.  Then I add, “for helpful cleaning tips, please visit www.vibrasteam.com”.  Cleaver isn’t it.  I am always proud when I come up with a good idea. System is working great.” Thanks again, Tracy

“Ill have over 70 people in the ACE system by the end of the weekend..Ill have over a 100 end of the week..I should keep adding around 25 a week for a month..Should be around 250 end of June” – Ken, Iowa

A Q&A About Discount SEO

Cleaners are always asking me where to go for good SEO services. Well, the truth is “Good SEO” is very hard to find. Most companies over promise, don’t give you a good Return On Investment or they turn out to be scams.

I can tell you that Owen York, president of Stellar eMarketing and his team are NOT one of those companies.  Owen and I agree on a lot of things, most importantly giving personal attention to each client without the BS. I recently invited Owen to write a post for this blog. In this article, Owen will discuss the reasons why your current SEO is not working.

Enter Owen York:

Q: Why didn’t my SEO provider get me a result? I.e., calls and business? So, why doesn’t your SEO work? What is the secret get-rich-quick-secret? What piece of info about SEO will put you on Page One overnight?

A: 2 reasons: They don’t know how to do it; or they did not do the work. Sad truth. Just like in any other business, the fly-by-night companies die, and only the real service providers survive.

Q: So, you’re saying that only good, honest, hard work gets a result? Even on the internet?
A: Yep.

Q: What is the big, super-secret way for me to instantly dominate the internet overnight, like the savvy salesmen tell me calls I get 10 times a day?
A: I hate to burst your bubble, but there is no get rich quick scheme in internet marketing. As above, it takes real, honest work, and well-thought and executed strategy. The marketing laws of 20 years ago, apply today. The internet did not change the rules. Plus, anyone who thinks they are going to “outsmart” Google is fooling themselves (unless you can afford the 150k per year hotshot). Be careful who you hire and watch out for being sold a “bill-of-goods.” You don’t want your site blacklisted. You’ve gotta be smart, ethical, and play the game. “Quickies” and shortcuts do not work…and beware the salesmen of those.

Q: Why should I pay the hundreds or thousands that other internet marketing companies are charging, when discount firms or phonebook say the can do it for $50-100 per month?
A: It’s just like anything else- You get what you pay for. How much time and work do you think you are going to get from someone charging $50 a month? (How much carpet cleaning would you do for $50)

I got a call once about a company who had a “3 Million Dollar SEO SOFTWARE TO END ALL SEO SOFTWARE!”

I actually got that call and I don’t buy it for a second. It’s Magic Snake Oil. And even if it did work, it would be outdated in weeks or months…it is still not a thinking human being with a good marketing strategy.

You aren’t going to get actual humans to do your work for cut rates. You’re going to get crappy software, overseas shortcuts, laziness and no results. I know it because I have heard hundreds of horror stories. You don’t even have to believe me- go ahead and try it and find out for yourself (maybe you already have). But hopefully you’ll give me some credence and let me save you some time and money. Again, if you want real expertise, real work, and real results- meaning phone calls, sales, and customers- then you are probably going to have to pay for it.

Q: Will it be worth it?
A: If you find the right company- yes. There are a lot of very good companies out there who care for their customers, are very smart and deliver a great service. And yes, some charge hundreds and thousands for their service. But, just like hiring an A-List lawyer when your butt is on the line, it’s probably worth the money.

If you are serious about your business and would like to contact Owen call him at (615) 834-7261 or go to www.stellar-emarketing.com

About a year ago I switched to a new auto mechanic named Chris. The guy I was using before was very nice and seemed to know his stuff and his prices were great, but it seemed he was always redoing things or keeping it for a day or two longer.

At one point, I had a transmission leak that he worked on four different times and it was in the shop two days each time. He only charged me a couple hundred dollars, but I missed eight days of carpet cleaning, which set me back $1700 for the month. Worse, the transmission was still was leaking. Finally I decided to take it to a new mechanic named Chris who fixed it the same day, but charged me $800.

In the end, my cheap mechanic actually cost me twice as much, not including the stress and embarrassment of calling clients to cancel and reschedule.

I told my new mechanic the story and from him I learned a valuable lesson, “Joe, you need to understand something: Cheap Ain’t Good, And Good Ain’t Cheap!”

I’m sure you can relate. This slogan can be applied to many business practices, in the cleaning business and the web design industry. After speaking with a couple hundred or so carpet cleaners, I have heard similar stories when it comes to web designers and hosting companies. I’ve heard stories where the web designer took several months to complete tasks, or just put up a header and said, “Okay, you do the rest”. Other cleaners have used a cheap do-it-yourself program that ended up looking unprofessional.

Many carpet cleaners go years with an ugly website that does not bring in calls. In fact, they may be losing calls and losing money just because they decided to go the cheap route.

By now it is common knowledge that the Internet is the #1 BEST WAY to get new clients for your carpet cleaning business. Like anything else that is worth doing, you might as well spend the money and do it right the first time.

I still use Chris the mechanic every now and then and when I start to stress out over the bill, I remember how much money I lost with my cheap mechanic. And, I remember those words I learned from Chris that I hold as the honest truth: “Cheap Ain’t Good, And Good Ain’t Cheap!”

Call Joe at 406-493-1881! I offer a free consultation and sample website so you see what you’re getting before you purchase.

Before we get started I want to share a recent email I got from one of my clients:

“BTW…. I did what you said and found all the directories I could with the wrong info and BAM!!!.. Back to first position and the phone is blowing off the hook…. Lookin at adding a second van….Thanks again for all your help and if you ever need anything, just say the word!!” ~Tony from Carpet Cleaning Bend Oregon.

1. The most important part of ranking a Google Places page is LOCATION. You must have a physical location in the city your are trying to rank in and the closer you are the to the center of the city the better. No PO Boxes, UPS Boxes work right now, but may not in the future because they are being abused and Google doesn’t like that.

2. Having consistent business name, address and phone number listings across the Internet is also VERY VERY important for your Google Places ranking. Many times you do everything right and you still can’t seem to rank above weaker competition. Why is this? There can be several reasons why, but most likely your business has inconsistent information and Google is confused and a result you don’t rank as high as you deserve.

3. Do a free checkup on http://yext.com. Just use the free service as a checkup tool. This will give you a quick and easy snapshot of your business across 10 major online directories and may reveal incorrect business info that needs to be updated. It is not necessary to sign up for the paid service.

4. Separately Google your business name, address and phone number and make notes on any inconsistencies. This should be an organized list that shows any incorrect information. It’s also a good chance for you to see your current Citations and possibly improve company descriptions and profile data.

5. Register your information with the following info websites. Why do this? Much of the online information about your business is automatically scraped together by different sources on the Internet. These three websites store data that many websites and directories use to compile information on your business. Sometimes you will find information on your business that is incorrect and there is seemingly no way to change it. It’s most likely that the data is automatically being pulled from one of these three sites.

http://localeze.com/ (free)
http://www.expressupdateusa.com (free)
https://www.ubl.org (paid)

Wait 90 days, then manually correct ANY and ALL inconsistencies that you possibly can.

Sounds easy right? Well just like most things worth doing, this is hard work. If you hire it out you better make sure they do it right the first time. Sloppy work will result in wasted money and wasted time.

Want to rank high on the search engines? This is a MUST! If you have a local business website you need to be listed in the online directories. Cleaners lose business everyday by not being registered with the following list of free local directories. It not only increases your presence on the Internet, but also creates valuable links to your website (SEO) and builds credibility with Google by associating your business info. This is tedious work, but it will pay off. Set aside a couple of hours and do this, IT WORKS!

Tips When Registering:

1. Use the exact same Business Name, Address and Phone Number on all listings that you use for Google Places (copy and paste)

2. Enter all possible information including: categories, services, associations, hours of operation etc.

3. Upload pictures and video if possible. (If you don’t have a video, find a generic one on Youtube.com)

4. IMPORTANT – Make sure to confirm all registrations by phone, email or mail (depending on the directory)

5. Be aware that some of the directories will try to up-sell you on “premium” options. This is not necessary, just go with the free listing.

In Order Of Importance:

1. Google Maps

2. Yahoo! Local

3. Bing/Microsoft Live

4. AOL Local Search

5. Merchant Circle

6. MapQuest

7. Yelp

8. Hot Frog

9. Kudzu

10. Local.com

The above list was compiled by using a formula based on the popularity of the Local Search Engine/Directory, its recent increase or decrease of popularity, the significance of the sites it “feeds” and where it get “fed” its information from.