Marketing is an essential aspect of any business, and it’s something that we put a lot of time and effort into here at MaidThis.
As we navigate the current market trends, we’ve come across a big issue that’s happening right now: Google Local Service Ads (LSAs) are becoming more and more expensive.
Although LSAs have been the way way to find leads in recent years, the costs have gone up astronomically and the quality of the leads has been significantly lower.
We don’t know why, and honestly, it could be because of a variety of reasons. What we do know is that what was once a $25 lead for us in Los Angeles is now closer to $50 per lead. And, to give you some rough numbers, we used to close 50%, and now we’re closing closer to 30-40%, mainly due to the quality of the leads.
I wanted to explore some other marketing tactics that range from paid to free to semi-free so that you don’t have to be solely dependent on LSA.
Paid
You have to pay to be featured as an LSA and Google Ads is the next best thing. Conceptually the way to think about it is that the most eyeballs are on Google.
With Ads you pay per click instead of pay per call like LSA. That said you really need to get the funnel right because it can get very expensive very quickly. If someone clicks your ad and gets redirected to your website and your site isn’t good, no one is going to book. You ideally want to push potential customers to a landing page where you ask for their information so that you can contact them.
The best way to set up Ads is to consult with an expert to help you get it set up. You could also simply start with a low budget and try to do it yourself.
The more specific that you get with these types of ads, the better. For example, I would never use “house cleaning Los Angeles” because it is way too broad. I’d be keener to use keywords like “Airbnb cleaning” or “move-in/move-out cleaning” because it allows us to target a smaller segment of people and not compete against the big guys.
Thumbtack is another good option — it’s the only quoting service that’s working for our franchisees right now.
Free
Let’s move on to free tactics that you can use all the time. Just be prepared to put in more work than the paid options — typically if it’s non-paid then it’s going to require more of your sweat equity or time.
I constantly advise my franchisees to use these tactics as they can create a flywheel effect to land leads.
The first one I talk about quite a lot: online communities. Facebook groups, Nextdoor groups…both are fantastic places to start listing your services as much as you’re allowed to.
One of the great things about community marketing is that you can get super niche. We belong to a lot of Airbnb groups because that’s our area of expertise. We post promotional content, but we also share free resources like a downloadable cleaning checklist to show that we care about these communities.
Over time, people will start referencing you and you’ll begin getting free leads.
Another thing that I’ve talked about is what I like to call apartment infiltration. This of course depends on what city you’re in, but if you can find large apartment buildings with managers try your best to get on their vendor lists.
If you can build a relationship with the manager, all you need are a few apartment buildings to make a nice chunk of change.
Semi-Free
These tactics cost a bit of money, but maybe not as much as Google AdWords or Thumbtack.
The neighborhood blitz is another tactic that I’ve mentioned quite a few times here on the blog and on my podcast. It’s all about hyper-targeting a neighborhood that you want to work in with postcards, door hangers, and yard signs. The goal is to make yourself visible in that specific neighborhood.
You can use the United States Postal Service’s EDDM postcard delivery service to drop off the postcards for you, but I do recommend pairing this with door hangers and yard signs.
Consider targeting people who recently moved into new homes. This can be especially beneficial for those of you with home service businesses like mine.
I recently joined a few entrepreneur networking groups — and while they aren’t free, all you need to do is pay for the membership. Attend as many meetings and events as you can and market yourself through word-of-mouth. It’s a great way to garner leads and I personally have had a lot of success with them.
There are lots of other tactics that you can try, and I really encourage you to focus on grassroots communities that are on and offline. They can provide some easy wins and cheap leads…something I think all of you want!
This article was written by Neel from MaidThis Franchise, a remote-local franchise opportunity for people looking to escape the rate race and reach financial freedom. Learn more here.
