If you aren’t marketing your laundry business, you’re missing out! Whether you are looking for more in-store customers, pickup and delivery orders or you want to focus on building your brand and generating more awareness around your services, then a smart marketing strategy is essential. This is why we sat down with Charles Measley, owner of Fluff and Fold Laundry in New Jersey. Not only is he running a successful laundry business with CleanCloud, but he also has a wealth of knowledge and experience when it comes to marketing. In this blog, we’ll look back at some of the main marketing strategies discussed during our webinar session with Charles including insights on how to attract and retain customers via social media and automated emails. Our conversation began with how Charles started in the laundry industry over 10 years ago.
Charles Measley’s Laundromat Journey
Charles’s first step into the industry was in 2012, where he bought a small business with a passion to launch his first laundry service. Unfortunately after a year in, his store was hit by a hurricane, essentially wiping out his location reminding him of one important lesson: expect the unexpected. Rather than stepping away, Charles went on to buy a new laundromat in New Jersey which over the next several years, quickly grew into a successful pickup and delivery business. What started as a small store evolved into two modern and digitised facilities based in Ocean Township and Neptune City.
Achieving Business Success with Social Media Marketing
Like many new businesses, Charles quickly discovered that in order to grow his customer base, he needed an effective marketing strategy that worked. He first started by mailing out physical postcards which had originally been used by the previous owner. However, after a short while he knew that doing this alone wouldn’t make much of an impact for his business. He then made the decision to turn to social media, marketing his services through Facebook and Instagram. Charles’s organic reach was strong and he quickly realised how social media was a great way to build trust and awareness around his brand as well as a promotion tool.
During our session, Charles mentioned how “marketing is storytelling, and social media gives you that space to tell your story to new customers, returning ones and just general people who want to know that you are a real business.” When people research services, they’ll check your socials as well as your website to learn more about the brand and who’s behind it. This is why Charles now posts videos of himself either promoting his services or showing behind the scenes of the business. Customer interest has grown over time, with Fluff and Fold Laundry’s Instagram now reaching over 2.3k followers.
The Power of Email Marketing with CleanCloud
Attracting a new customer to your business is one half of the marketing task, keeping them coming back is the next. Charles highlighted this clearly: If you are spending money and taking the time to gain customers, it’s important that you also have a plan to retain them. This is where Charles benefited the most from CleanCloud’s built-in marketing tools. With the release of our new automated flows tool, Charles created a range of different campaigns designed to engage with customers from the moment they signed up. For example, if someone had just placed their first order, the event would be triggered and an automated personalised message would be sent out as a follow up.
And this is an example of a base campaign, Charles took automation further and created different segments based on the services that his customers used such as laundry, dry cleaning or bedding. This meant he could send more targeted messages that his customers could relate to. Charles saw a huge impact. “More of the people who signed up since activating our automated emails went on to place orders with our business, in fact, our utilization rate climbed from around 40% to over 50%.” Having CleanCloud’s automated email system in place not only saved him time, but it also encouraged stronger relationships, turning one-time signups into returning customers.
Growing an Audience with Paid Ads: Meta vs Google
Paid advertising can seem a bit confusing when you first start out, but Charles broke it down simply: Google will help you get high-intent customers, while Meta (Facebook and Instagram) will help you build awareness around your brand. Google helps you reach high-intent audiences as this is the platform where people are actively searching for laundry or dry cleaning services, which means your leads tend to be of higher quality and most likely to convert. The main downside is that running ads on Google can be expensive, especially if you are targeting a competitive area where clicks can get costly.
On the other hand, using Meta and their platforms Facebook and Instagram is a much more budget friendly option. You can get your brand in front of potential customers earlier in their laundry searching process. During our webinar discussion, Charles shared a great top tip: Keep your online Facebook ads local. It can be a waste of money if you are advertising outside of your service area. It’s wise to keep a tight mile radius and only run online ads in the areas which you can service.
Final Thoughts
If you’re running your own business in the laundry industry, it’s clear that marketing is key–not only to attract new customers but to retain the ones you already have. Charles reminded us that it’s important to focus on the methods that work, stay consistent and make sure that you look at your business as if you are the customer yourself–what would keep you coming back? From starting out with physical postcards to delivering targeted, automated emails, Charles created a marketing strategy that works for both his customers and the business. He also highlighted how growth isn’t just about spending lots of money on different platforms. By investing in an all-in-one POS like CleanCloud, Charles can manage the day-to-day of his laundromat, send targeted emails, and run promo codes all from one system.
To hear our conversation with Charles Measley in full, you can watch the webinar on demand here. Interested in CleanCloud? Head to our website, and sign up for a free trial today.