Carpet Cleaning Marketing and SEO Services

Carpet Cleaning Marketing SEO

Where do you want your business to be in six months or one year? Are you a small carpet cleaning company looking to grow or a medium-sized restoration services company wanting to dominate your market?

To significantly grow your business online, you need to have top search engine rankings. 90% of users click listings on the first page of results. If you reach those top spots, and have compelling copy within your website, you will receive significant traffic and gain new customers.

Good search engine marketing will drive buying-focused consumers and businesses to your website and convert more of those visitors into loyal customers. As consumers ditch phone books in favor of internet searches, it is imperative that business owners have an optimized web presence or get left behind. Over the last three years Yellow Page advertising has seen ad revenues drop by more than 50% as people rely on the internet for telephone numbers, business reviews and website content.

Businesses that do not appear on the first page of a search result stand little chance of being discovered as consumers lend more creditability to top ranked websites.

Why does SEO deliver the best bang for your buck?

When it comes to marketing savvy website owners know that it takes more to reach top page ranking than “just a pretty website.” We’ve seen hundreds of flashy websites where the owner has paid thousands in development costs that fail to rank on page one. We’ve also seen and developed websites for $750.00 that either rank on the top page of Google, Bing and Yahoo or they rank Number 1 in their market.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization is defined as the use of various techniques to improve a web site's ranking in the search engines and thus attract more visitors. If a website owner does not stay on top of their website and make certain that it stays “optimized” they will lose traffic. A properly optimized website targets customers at the exact moment they’re ready to buy.

How Long Does it Take to Rank?

There are no guarantees when it comes to rankings. I’m sure you’ve read e-mails that promise “top listings” in a matter of days. The truth is, Google, Yahoo and Bing clearly state on their website that no company in the world can guaranteed inclusion on their websites let alone placement. Each search engine has its own set of logarithms when determining page rank and no one – for any amount of money - can tell the search engines where to place your website. Depending on the competitive nature of the keyword(s) you’re using, it can take 3-9 months to reach page one in the search engines.

For example: There are 20 carpet cleaning companies in a particular city and each wants to appear on page one of Google for the search term “carpet cleaning Dallas Tx.” Google only allows 10 “organic” listings per page therefore all 20 carpet cleaners can not show up on page one. Realizing that there are only 10 available spots, our job for a potential client who is not ranking in the top ten is to knock someone off of the front page and replace that position with our client. We accomplish this task in a variety of ways and one of the techniques at our disposal is to analyze our client’s competition, expose their online weaknesses and then fully optimize our client’s website to out produce their competitor.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing agency exclusively representing carpet cleaning and restoration service companies in Search Engine Optimization, Business Consulting and Website Development.

For more information on our company and for a FREE website review, visit us online at www.SovranCommunications.com and click on the free website evaluation tool.

Carpet Cleaning Marketing - Overcoming Price Objections

Carpet Cleaning Marketing

How many times have you heard a prospect utter those dreaded words “Can you give me a better deal? The other quote I had was cheaper”. Or how about the “What’s your lowest price?” line, that always puts a smile on my face! Or not!

Don't be the low price guy!

In the last few years I guarantee you’ve heard it more times than you care to count or remember. Am I right? Now a day’s everyone is trying to save a buck and cut corners, understandably so, but this can’t be good for everyone’s business.

So, if you’re like most of our clients don’t discount on your pricing. It’s important you show value to the potential customer so they can easily understand that just by hiring you they are getting a much better “deal” rather than a “cheaper price”. If you’re licensed, insured and have the track record that proves you can do the job right the first time around then let them know it and don’t be afraid to show off your credentials or examples of your work on your website. We all know the “cheaper” quote is more likely to cost twice as much in the end because we all get what we pay for.

Here are a few small business tips you may want to have handy for this situation; a value comparison chart – with the documents to back it up, listing some of the following facts.

How long you have been in business – Longevity Matters

The high limits of insurance you have to protect them

If you are open on weekends and after hours for their convenience

Years of combined service and certifications of the employees who will be performing the work

Testimonials work! Your website should outline several testimonials of satisfied customers and if you convenience the person who’s giving the testimonial to also allow you to include their picture, this adds additional creditability

Have a website that “tells a story” instead of screaming – “we’re the best in the world.” Consumers are used to everyone saying their company is the best there ever was.

If you offer “green” cleaning services tout the benefits on your website and to the consumer calling to ask for a quote.

If you give away free bottles of spotter, tell the customer this as you have them on the phone for a quote. We have carpet cleaners that close the deal simply because they are giving away something FREE

If you’ve only been in business a couple of years instead of touting longevity focus on your industry certifications, cleaning systems, technologies and guarantees.

Value will close more customers than price. Most carpet cleaners fail to close consumers who are looking for the best price simply because they don’t know how to close the deal over the telephone.

Dishonest carpet cleaners involved in “too good to be true” pricing and “bait & switch” tactics play a large part in devaluing honest and fair pricing by legitimate carpet cleaners. Consumers are used to seeing carpet cleaning coupons advertising an entire home cleaned for $79 or $8.95 per room pricing. When they call a legitimate cleaner and hear an honest price they first thing they want to say is “so and so” will do it for $79. Explain your differences – offer value - and if they want you to match the bogus price, let them go. They’ll learn.

Be ready for price objections, it’s normal. Don’t take it personal because many consumers don’t know what legitimate carpet cleaning should cost, be patient, stay positive and remain calm. Trust in your service and understand that money may be tight and some people just like to catch a “deal”. Use these tips outlined in this blog and you’ll get results!

Believe in your services and practice with someone concerning how you handle yourself on the phone when dealing with price shoppers and you’ll start to close more deals. Most consumers are impressed when they contact a “professional company” and quickly realize that you are the better deal and not just the better price.

One last tip – if you feel you may still not be able to close based on the information you have given, try to add on a service, this is a great way to add value without confronting that nasty price objection. An inexpensive giveaway would be to offer a free easy chair cleaning when you clean 4 or more rooms of carpet. You land the job – the customer receives a free cleaning and who knows, when you show them how clean you can make their upholstery, you just may land more work too.

I hope this was helpful, and as always let me know how it works when you try it.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing and web development company exclusively representing the carpet cleaning and restoration service industries. For a free website evaluation, please visit us online at http://www.sovrancommunications.com/ and click on the form located on our home page.

Carpet Cleaning Mareting - Don't Make This Mistake.

Social networks can be great marketing tools­­--but make a misstep and you could end up doing your company more harm than good. Perhaps the biggest mistake businesspeople make is posting on a company blog or Social Media site personal views on politics or religion. If you want to voice your opinion about a particular political party, brag about getting a DUI over the weekend or share your religious views, do it somewhere else – unless you don’t care about losing customers.

Recently Sovran Communications Group was retained by a company that is well established in the field. This company has been in business for more than 10 years, they consistently “enjoyed” increased year after year sales and are known for quality and service. Beginning in 2008 this company’s revenue dropped 19% from the previous year. In 2009 their revenues dropped another 8% and they were forced to lay off two technicians. In 2010 revenue remains flat even though they increased their advertising budget by 20% over the previous 12 months.

As part of our reputation review process we analyzed this client’s reputation via the internet, public records and through print media and professional contacts. Within hours we identified the problem and flew out to meet them at their home office.

Approximately two years ago (2008) our client, the owner of the company, decided he was going to loudly involve himself AND his company in politics. He’d made a decision that he didn’t like who was running for President of the United States and he was going to do everything possible to make sure his candidate won. In his enthusiasm, he placed bumper stickers on all company vehicles “name calling” his political parties opponent. He also decided to start blogging in his company’s name about his “disgust” concerning this candidate. And just to make certain everyone in his market area knew his opposition to the candidate; he decided to send letters to the editor of his local newspapers which were promptly published.

This owner – he sure impressed the members of his political party – at his own peril. As he was walking around town with his chest stuck out he was alienating 50% of his potential customers. The “potential customers” who didn’t agree with his political views simply called on his competitor. On top of this, a percentage of his previous customers who were now made aware of his political views and didn’t appreciate his “over-the-top” grandstanding simply stopped inviting his company back into their home and called on somebody else.

To make a long story short, this client lost over $450K in two years and to top things off, his candidate lost the election handedly. He’s lost a percentage of his previous clients forever and he’s tarnished his company image for years to come.

Lesson learned – don’t allow your personal political or religious leanings to affect the growth of your company. Keep the political bumper stickers off your vans, don’t post on Facebook, blogs, etc. your distaste of one’s political leanings, and certainly don’t tout religious values in any company communications.

Currently we are working with this client and in time we should be able to reverse the damage he’s caused his company.

Never forget - your political leanings or religious views aren’t shared by everyone. And just as you have the right to make them “loud and clear” your market has a right to reject them and shop someplace else.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing and business consulting firm to the carpet cleaning and restoration services industry. For more information on our company and the services we offer, please visit us online at www.sovrancommunications.com

Advertising on Facebook? Women are Your Market.

Still Think Social Media Is A "Fad"?

Young women are becoming more and more dependent on social media and checking on their social networks, according to a new study released earlier today by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research. In fact, as many as one-third of women aged 18-34 check Facebook when they first wake up, even before they get to the bathroom.

The study sampled the habits of 1,605 adults using social media between May and June of this year in an attempt to break down their social media habits. While some of the results are in line with previous studies we’ve read, others simply shocked us (e.g. 42% of young women think posting photos of themselves “visibly intoxicated” is okay).

Here’s a short rundown of how young women are utilizing Facebook and social media in general:

While the study covers all of social media, it’s clear that women in the 18-34 range are focused on their Facebook accounts. More than half of young women (57%) say they talk to people online more than face-to-face. A full 39% of them proclaim themselves Facebook addicts, while 34% of young women make Facebook the first thing they do when they wake up, even before brushing their teeth or going to the bathroom.

Here are some other interesting stats regarding young women and Facebook:

21% of women age 18-34 check Facebook in the middle of the night
63% use Facebook as a networking tool
42% think it’s okay to post photos of themselves intoxicated
79% are fine with kissing in photos
58% use Facebook to keep tabs on “frenemies”
50% are fine with being Facebook friends with complete strangers


Carpet Cleaners currently using Facebook as a Social Media tool should take notice. Overwhelmingly women are the decision makers when it comes to having their carpets, tile and upholstery cleaned and carpet cleaners should be targeting this demographic.

With the holidays fast approaching carpet cleaners with Facebook accounts should start posting more frequently and offer discounts to entice women to book their holiday cleaning early for a discount.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing agency exclusively representing carpet cleaners and water restoration service companies.

For more information on our services please visit us online at www.SovranCommunications.com

Carpet Cleaners - Marketing New Customers

Keeping promises, being on time and exceeding expectations will create repeat business and powerful word-of-mouth marketing – and that you can take to the bank!

Want to turn customers into evangelists of sorts? Provide an amazing customer experience.

As a service provider, your company’s goal should be to provide a service that consistently reflects a higher level than what is offered by your competitors. You need to build customer confidence, which gets you initial business and repeat sales.

Here are the 6 essentials:

Do what you say you’ll do

Show up on time

Create realistic expectations before you begin the cleaning or extraction process (this is where a walk through is vital)

Offer a solid guarantee on your services (If spots return – so will we! Etc.)

Teach your staff to always be polite and respectful and NEVER forget to say “thank you”

Always initiate a follow-up phone call (not a post card) to make sure the customer is happy with your service. If they’re not do whatever it takes within reason to make them happy.

What kind of things can damage a customer relationship? A bad experience or broken promise quickly eliminates confidence in your company. If your technicians don’t show up on time (if you can’t be on time give your customer as much advance notice as possible – they understand things do happen) or if they rush the job and don’t provide the quality cleaning promised – you’ve just lost a repeat customer and their potential referrals. Do what you say you’re going to do!

Want more customers? Let them know they can expect a great experience from your company!

Gaining more customers is all about marketing. When seeking to expand your current client base take a multifaceted approach – have a great website with quality SEO and customer testimonials; leverage your exposure on Facebook, blog regularly, get involved in the community (see our previous posting for suggestions) and of course, deliver exemplary customer service on each and every cleaning and restoration project.

It’s also worth noting that in many cases, the first contact a potential customer has with your company is through the telephone. Make sure the person who answers your phone is pleasant, cheerful and knowledgeable. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve called carpet cleaners and restoration service companies to audit their phone skills and the person that answered their phone either sounded like they just woke up, they were typing while talking, they didn’t have a clue as to the steps of the cleaning process, or worse yet, the call went to a voice mail.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing agency exclusively representing carpet cleaning and restoration service companies. When retained by a client our only goal is to make their company STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD. We analyze their competitors and current marketing strategies and then develop affordable solutions designed to help them increase market share

For more information on Sovran Communications Group and what we can do for your company please visit us online at www.SovranCommunications.com

"Paid-For" Internet Advertising - Is It Worth It?

FACT: Thirty-three percent of Internet users perceive a company on the first page of internet ranking to be a major brand and a trusted source.

I’ll start this posting off by saying that we’re not against “paid-for” listings, not at all. A good AdWords campaign can and will bring profit to a web site that exploits that offering well. But before we advise clients to go down the route of paid-for placement, we let them know that they must do everything they can to ensure their web site is search-engine-friendly and ranking well.

Some companies are steered to invest in paid-for advertising by “SEO experts” (we see this all the time in the carpet cleaning and restoration service industry) who purport that by investing in a particular search engine’s “paid-for advertising” there web site will miraculously start getting new leads and business. This simply isn’t true. A poorly designed website, especially in the carpet cleaning and restoration services arena, rarely benefits from paid-for advertising. The key to success as it relates to web site ranking and exposure is to have an optimized site that’s search engine friendly and informative to your visitors.

The average internet user is getting clever. These users are becoming wise to the fact that the search results at the very top of the page (before the organic listings) and on the right-hand side are there only because someone is paying for this privilege. Therefore many people will actively not click through them, preferring to explore the natural search results – the sites that are there because of their SEO and content merits, not their marketing spend. You must ensure that you are ranking on page one to gain the most exposure and site visits.

AdWords and other paid-for advertising have its place and we’ll talk about that in another posting.

Before investing in any online advertising campaign make sure your web site is well written. Your keywords must be properly applied and optimized and your SEO campaign needs to include the elements necessary to catapult your site to page one of search engine listings.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing and SEO services company exclusively representing the carpet cleaning and restoration services arena. For more information on our company or for a FREE no obligation SEO review of your website please visit us online at www.SovranCommunications.com

Carpet Cleaning Marketing - Facts You Can Use.

Based on a recent survey of 1000 households, respondents were asked if they had their carpets cleaned within the last 12 months. Here are the results of this survey:

· 18.6% had their carpets professionally cleaned
· 31.6% rented a portable carpet and cleaned their own carpets
· 49.8% had not cleaned their carpets

Those surveyed were asked to give their top hopes and expectations of a professional service. Their answers were as follows:

They wanted their carpets to DRY FAST
They wanted their carpets to be clean
They wanted their carpets to STAY CLEAN. No recurring spots.
They wanted the carpets to be safe for family and pets
They wanted a pleasant experience with the technician

Noticeably absent from the top five answers was anything about price.

It should also be noted that of the 31.6% respondents who decided to rent a machine and clean the carpets themselves, 12.7% said they wouldn’t do it again because of expense and the labor involved.

Also, out of the 49.8% who had not had their carpets cleaned within the past 12 months, 32.4% said they were going to have them cleaned within the next year. (The economy was to blame as to why they hadn’t had their carpets cleaned sooner)

What can we learn from this survey?

Most consumers aren’t fixated on pricing as some would believe. They simply want a quality cleaning for a fair price.

Consumers expect their carpets to dry in a reasonable period of time (2-4 hours)

Want a dissatisfied client? – let the stains come back. Less than 5% of your clients will call you back to take care of returning stains. Next time they’ll call your competitor!

Think “environmentally responsible” cleaning solutions are a fad? Keep thinking that and you’ll start to see your business go to companies who take advantage of this trend.

If your technicians aren’t clean cut (or at least wearing clean clothes) and polite and courteous, don’t expect repeat or referral business.

Sovran Communications Group is an advertising, marketing and consulting agency exclusively representing distributors, carpet cleaners and restoration service companies. For more information on our services and company please visit us online at www.SovranCommunications.com

Positive Press Increases Business for Carpet Cleaners

One of the challenges facing business owners is how to increase “noise” about their businesses while holding the line on expenses. Many companies spend thousands of dollars annually on “push advertising” (Yellow Pages, direct mailers, newspaper advertising, television, etc.) in an attempt to get the word out about their products or services yet they spend very little in “pull advertising” and this is a mistake.

“Push” advertising refers to all efforts to get the word out to a large group of “potential” customers in order to hit the very few that “may” be interested in your products or services. More often than not businesses investing in “Push advertising” do not receive a sustained return on their investment. “Push” advertising is 100% commercial therefore your message comes across as an “ad.”

“Pull” advertising, if used correctly costs very little, tends to provide “stickiness” (visit our website for more information on “stickiness), can pull at the heart stings of a community and can draw customers to your company or website when they are in need of your products or services.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing and SEO advertising agency exclusively representing carpet cleaning and restoration services companies nationwide. Our only goal is to help clients position their businesses so that they stand out from the competition. We analyze our client’s business model, their competition, their marketing (or lack thereof) and their online efforts to determine the best methods to “brand” their company. Each client is different and for this reason we do not sell a “one size fits all” approach to branding their businesses.

When representing carpet cleaning and restoration clients, our recommendation is to invest 70% of their resources into “Pull” advertising and 30% into “Push.”

In an effort to help our Facebook fans increase their business and their “stickiness” we are recommending the following community “Pull” advertising campaigns. Not only will these efforts bring your company new business opportunities, they’ll make you feel good as well.

· Adopt a Family – With the holidays approaching, many impoverished families are looking forward to a very grim holiday. Your company can make a world of difference to a child or family in need by simply “adopting” them for the day. There are many fine organizations (Salvation Army, Social Services, Local Veteran Associations, etc) that maintain a list of children, veterans or families that have been screened and are in need of assistance. Your company can set aside a budget (as little as $100 for a Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner) and then contact the association and find your “family” for the holidays.

Once you’ve “adopted” your child or family, create a press release and forward it to your local newspapers so that they can do a community story on your good deed. A well written press release can bring your company tons of free advertising and the good will you’ve exhibited in helping someone in need will make you feel good for a lifetime.

· Sponsor a little league team or a public or private school sports team. No one spreads the word faster than “Soccer Mom’s” and what better way to reach them than by helping their kids? Team sponsorships can be as simple as paying for the kid’s jersey’s (with your company name on them if it’s allowed), sponsoring a banner, purchasing an ad in their newsletters, etc. With school budgets tightening, there’s many different ways your company can support your favorite school or team for relatively little money.

· If you've seen a news article where a child’s bike has been stolen, a family has lost their home to a fire or flood, someone has stolen a donation jar at the local convenience store etc., your company can contact the press and offer to help out. You can purchase a kid a new bike; provide a family with a meal gift certificate that’s just lost everything (oftentimes you can partner with a local restaurant and purchase the gift certificate for half its face value) or offer to make a donation to replace the funds lost as a result of theft of the donation jar. Whatever life altering events that happen in your community, offer to help out. The press LOVES a happy ending and so do its readers.

For most companies, the majority of their business is derived from the community in which they live. Try giving back – you’ll save money, increase business and make a difference in someone else’s life.

For more marketing ideas and to learn about Sovran Communications Group, please visit us online at www.sovrancommunications.com

SEO for Carpet Cleaners - Why It's Important.

To understand why SEO (search engine optimization) is important, you need to know what SEO does for a website.

If you needed to hire a new technician for your company you would let people know about the opening by advertising. An ad in the paper would include the position, title, job description, and how to contact you. It might also state how not to contact you (i.e., no phone calls).

Meta data and other codes provide similar information to search engine “robots” including titles, descriptions, and instructions on how and what to read on a webpage.

A robot is what search engines (and other information gathering companies) use to find your site, analyze it, and then decide what to do with it (ignore it, ban it, or index it).

Think of SEO as advertising your site to search engines. If robots do not know about you, like what they see, or cannot understand what you are saying, you will not get search engine “air time.”

Robots – Make Them Your Friends

The Internet search engine process is not run by people. It is run by robots (spiders, webcrawlers, worms, and webants) that (hopefully) visit your site and try to understand and index it. If your site is not indexed, it will not show up in search engines. Period.

A site with good SEO attracts robots and provides instructions, descriptions, and content that robots can understand, analyze, and assign relevance to. A site with no or poor SEO will either get ignored, or worse – tagged as spam or blacklisted.

Great Website Design – Poor SEO

As an advertising and marketing agency specializing in SEO for carpet cleaning and restoration service organizations, we’ve seen some beautiful websites that fail to show in the top 3 pages of Google, Yahoo and Bing. While some of these sites razzle and dazzle the sites visitor with flash and animation, they fail to impress search engines, and as such, they fail to attract new customers to the sites owner.

The perfect website is well written, has an appropriate mix of information and pictures, and has been optimized properly. This “perfect site” will have an equal mix of back links, supporting blogs and “stickiness.” It doesn’t matter how much you spent in the development of your website, if the backend SEO and associated links aren’t there, your website is a failure. We’ve seen $500 websites outperform $10,000 websites.

Sovran Communications Group is a marketing and advertising agency exclusively representing carpet cleaning and water restoration service companies. Our insiders approach to web development, SEO and marketing helps our clients “stand out from the crowd.” Unlike some SEO and marketing companies to the industry that teach all of their clients the exact same thing, we analyze our clients market and competition and develop solutions designed to help them capture their targeted audience.

For more information on Sovran Communications Group please visit us online at www.SovranCommunications.com For a FREE no-obligation review of your website, visit our website and on the homepage click on the SEO Consultation pane.

Yellow Page Advertising Advice for Carpet Cleaners

Not sure what to budget for Yellow Page advertising next year? The facts are phone book advertising is losing ground rapidly to the internet. When planning yellow page advertising ask yourself what did I spend last year and what were the returns? If the numbers work, keep doing it. If the answer to this question is “I don’t know,” we have a suggestion.

Keep your yellow page advertising, just reduce it by half. Take the 50% you save on your budgeted yellow page fees and use it to directly drive online prospects to your company. If you’re satisfied with your current yellow page advertising, reduce it by 20-30% and take that percentage and invest it online. As phone books and directories continue to diminish in value, you’ll be ahead of the curve.

Sovran Communications Group is an advertising and market agency exclusively representing the carpet cleaning and restoration services industry.

For more information on our company, please visit us online at www.SovranCommunications.com