Self Promotion Ideas That Work for Laundries

Most business people are familiar with standard advertising outlets such as newspapers, radio and television spots and how to use more local shoppers and flyers such as ''Penny Savers''. However, the costs for using these forms of advertising medias may overstretch the advertising budget of a typical coin operated laundry. The following ideas have been used by coin laundry owners, and have worked for them. The ideas originated with the laundry owners themselves. They wanted to improve businesses without spending a lot of money. A central California operator had business cards printed. The thousand or so cards cost under $50. He used these cards to introduce himself. He used so few he saw it would take years before they would be used up. He decided to make a change and got a self inking stamp to place the following message on the back of the cards. ''Good for one free wash in our new top load washers.'' He left a line for his initials so that he could sign to authenticate the cards. Every time he met someone new he used the message on the back of the card to invite them to use the laundry. He left them as part of his tip each time he ate out. He got new customers as a result of using business cards that way. Except for printing the cards and buying the rubber stamp for the back, there was no other expense, just his time. He feels that he has gotten dozens of new customers for his laundry. Each free wash cost only the water and electricity to run the washer. He more than made up for that by the fact that nobody brings only one wash load and everybody needs to dry the loads that they wash. The owner of a card operated laundry does something similar. However, he gives people he meets a card that has a small amount of value on it. The cards are printed with the address and a map showing the location of the laundry. He feels that by passing out these cards he has gained many of the customers he has. His costs are very small for each of the mag stripe cards he passes out. If someone brings it in, they usually put more on the card to handle the extra loads they bring in. A California operator bought a computer to do his books. Along with it, he received a drawing program, which he used to design a flyer. On it he made a special limited price offer for anyone who brought the flyer in. It had a map showing the location. For a few bucks, at a neighborhood postal center, he had 200 copies made and put the flyers on windshields in parking lots around several nearby shopping centers. So he did take personal time to distribute the flyers. For someone to be able take advantage of that flyer''s special offer, customers had to bring in the flyer. On his first try there were 24 flyers returned. Advertising experts could tell you that is a phenomenal percentage of return. Out of those 24 he has gained 7 regulars who have been bringing in their laundry every week since. Some of his new customers worked in the area but did not know there was such a nice laundry so close by. Others had driven by his laundry for months and had never even noticed it was there. In any event, the first flyers paid for themselves rather quickly. The owner now does flyers every two or three months, and still draws new people. These few ideas show that possibilities are unlimited. What will work for your laundry