[mystery]

Hello all,

Could really use a little help. Obviously I'm aware we are in a recession, but we have lost so much work and I just can't bring any new work in. We are only a really little business, so I'd be happy with just getting a a few new regular domestics or offices.

Whatever I seem to do, the phone just doesn't ring. I paid £300 to have my website optimised last year, we are ranking fairly well, but the site is not getting that much traffic, I have no idea why?? And hence, no leads from there. I have tried advertising, leaflet drops, cards in shop windows etc etc, but just nothing.

Is this just what I have to except because of the recession, or am I doing something wrong, any ideas and advice, would be so greatly appreciated, I'm pretty fed up of going round in circles now.

Julie

[topcat35]

Hi There!
Let your customers know your looking for new business. they may think your busy and dont have time. They will will be all to happy to help and reccomend you to there freinds. word of mouth and all that.
Why not rehash the customers you have and offer them a half price clean if they reccomend a friend. Also I think its the time of year for a good spring clean. you could offer your excisting custommers a speciall spring clean offer That will bump the hours up for a short while.
Good luck theres plenty of work out there. You have just got to find. Dont give up !!

[heritagecleaning]

I just googled 'Lincoln Cleaners' and you're nowhere to be found - could this be part of the problem?

[Taylor & Taylor WC Services]

Personally I'd be on the potential customers doorsteps..... face to face. That IMO is the best way to promote yourself.

Be a GO GETTER if it's not coming to you

[mystery]

I just googled 'Lincoln Cleaners' and you're nowhere to be found - could this be part of the problem?

Very strange!! I've just used the same search term and I've come up as number 3! I'm pretty much in the top 5 at least for all the main search terms as far as I'm aware and when I type them in, it's right there. I can't understand why you wouldn't see it?!?

[mystery]

Personally I'd be on the potential customers doorsteps..... face to face. That IMO is the best way to promote yourself.

Be a GO GETTER if it's not coming to you

I know window cleaners do this, but I've never heard of domestic cleaners doing it. Worth some thought, but I think I would need to knock a few thousand doors to get anywhere. Not sure I have the time to do that many.

[heritagecleaning]

Just did it again and there you are, 3rd

[mystery]

Just did it again and there you are, 3rd

Phew, I was wonderig what was going on for a minute there!

[newbroom]

Do you go to  networking event i don't mean BNI  i mean anny events where other businesses will be.

You must have parish magazines where you operate find the advertising medium that works best for your target market

People are obsessed with internet it is a tool in box but not the only one.

[mystery]

Do you go to  networking event i don't mean BNI  i mean anny events where other businesses will be.

You must have parish magazines where you operate find the advertising medium that works best for your target market

People are obsessed with internet it is a tool in box but not the only one.

Thanks for your reply. I have never been to a networking event, but as we are manly focused on domestic work, again, I'm not sure I would get alot out of this. I'm also time poor, so I would rathr spend than use up my time where possible 

I advertise in local business directories, local newsletters, parish publications, magazines, newspapers, in shop windows, etc etc....this has all worked well in the past and brought in new business very easily, but nothing anymore, i mean literally NOTHING  not even an enquiry, I just seem to be throwing money away.

On the advice of others, I got my site properly optimised and that's not really generating anything either, a couple of eot's and that's all!

I'm completely at a loss, I have really been trying and looking at new things, but they just aren't working anymore and I'm left wondering what I'm missing 

I don't know if the recession is just hitting people near me or what, but I've never had it so hard

[BDCS]

 Firstly you may not like my answer but hey ho

consider another name - maybe run alongside what you use now
spend precious time talking to people about what you do and how good you are
tell them what you do and what else you do
look at what your competitors do and how they do it
are the website key words optimised for what joe public would use to find what you do
Go door knocking just as you would for window cleaning
dismiss anything I say

[mystery]

Firstly you may not like my answer but hey ho

consider another name - maybe run alongside what you use now
spend precious time talking to people about what you do and how good you are
tell them what you do and what else you do
look at what your competitors do and how they do it
are the website key words optimised for what joe public would use to find what you do
Go door knocking just as you would for window cleaning
dismiss anything I say

  Thank you for your answer BDCS, I like all answers, if nothing more they will give me a starting point. I do not mean to sound dismissive at all, just trying to be frank about what I have tried thus far and also feeling a bit fed up of doing the same thing. That's not working, so I feel I need to change tack.

Change name? Seriously? I've only ever had positive feedback about my name, but haven't considered it much from a marketing point, However I do think it's more memorable than abc cleaning services.

I do talk about my business and hand out business cards at every opportunity

Hmmm, competitors?! Well, I know who they are and how much they charge, but I'm not sure why they are busy and I am not, ok, well the main 3 are franchises, so I suppose that helps but otherwise, how can I find out where there business is coming from? Take merry maids for example, I have never seen them advertise anywhere, so I wonder how they get new business, how would I find this out?

The keywords, I spent quite a bit of time on and I think I've just abot got them right according to google "cleaner lincoln" is searched for 1200 times per month, but I'm only getting like 60-70 hits per month, and that is only 1 search term I'm ranked in the top 5 for. To be honest, I think something is not right there, the traffic just seems to low and when we put on a couple of adwords, the traffic quickly rose, so I can't seem to get my head around what's going on there. But it isn't generating any leads either?!?

Door knocking will be a very last resort, my own opinion is that it would require too much time to generate single lead and I would find it difficult to knock on peoples doors also. If other things don't yield any results, then I will give this a chance, but I'd rather try other things first.
Sorry for the long drawn out post, but I wouldn't want to be dismissive 

[Matt Gibson]

has anyone had anything to do with the whole BNI thing?

[mystery]

has anyone had anything to do with the whole BNI thing?

No I haven't. Just googled it and it seems they have groups near me. Never been to one before, is it likely to generate new leads? What's your experience?

[BDCS]

No - they meet way before I crawl out of bed!

I googled" cleaner Lincoln" and merrymaids were on google maps.

I am no expert as my missus does our websites but how many url's do you have ? I don't think one site can cover all the options - we have about 20 and are cross linked to cover each town / delivery area and the various trades I cover. Url's are £3 for 2 years and hosting is £6 a month, your £300 would buy a lot of web presence. VIEW the SOURCE of your competitors sites to see their key words.

Name - I read things into things and saw Shat O cleaners - sorry

[mystery]

No - they meet way before I crawl out of bed!

I googled" cleaner Lincoln" and merrymaids were on google maps.

I am no expert as my missus does our websites but how many url's do you have ? I don't think one site can cover all the options - we have about 20 and are cross linked to cover each town / delivery area and the various trades I cover. Url's are £3 for 2 years and hosting is £6 a month, your £300 would buy a lot of web presence. VIEW the SOURCE of your competitors sites to see their key words.

Name - I read things into things and saw Shat O cleaners - sorry

Yeah, I am also on google maps, my website also ranks higher than theirs, so I don't see they have any advantage there.

I don't understand what your getting at having 20 domains, I am also not techie either, my Dad does mine so forgive my naivety. But how would that help? 20 Domains into one site? Or 20 different websites? If just one site then I can't understand how that would make much difference?!

[Matt Gibson]

Ive never had any experience with any BNI groups, though i did get invited to my local one recently, hence why i asked.

[Mark Farrimond]

Julie,

What BDCS was getting at with the 20 domains was to have one for each town.  That way you can be much more specific with your keywords on each site.  Google likes sites that are specific.  For example if you have www.chateuclean-Reepham.co.uk or even better www.cleanersinreepham.co.uk or www.house-cleaners-reepham.co.uk etc.  Spread your net further.

Then your keywords need only be "house cleaning, domestic cleaner, reepham"

The more you have, the more chance of one of them being seen.  You could even find that you dominate the top 10 in Google for Lincoln that way. 

If I can offer one piece of critique on your site?  You don't have a phone number visible at all times.  If you want your phone to ring, show the number in big type at the top of your page, next to your name.

[suffolkclean]

Hi Julie
Google 'womans networking groups' I've been to 1 BNI meeting & it wasn't my thing but will be going to a local womans networking group soon. They tend to meet on a monthly basis. When you did a leaflet  drop did you have a special offer on it? We've only really done 2 lots of leaflet drops we put a special offer on both lots & did get a response as everyone is wanting a good deal at the moment.
You could do something like book a 3 hr trial clean & only pay for 2 hrs - Heading could be 1 hour FREE Cleaning. Then if they like the service you provide can book you on a regular basis.
Just an idea. You could also get a/this special offer on your website too.
barbara

[mystery]

Julie,

What BDCS was getting at with the 20 domains was to have one for each town.  That way you can be much more specific with your keywords on each site.  Google likes sites that are specific.  For example if you have www.chateuclean-Reepham.co.uk or even better www.cleanersinreepham.co.uk or www.house-cleaners-reepham.co.uk etc.  Spread your net further.

Then your keywords need only be "house cleaning, domestic cleaner, reepham"

The more you have, the more chance of one of them being seen.  You could even find that you dominate the top 10 in Google for Lincoln that way.  

If I can offer one piece of critique on your site?  You don't have a phone number visible at all times.  If you want your phone to ring, show the number in big type at the top of your page, next to your name.

Thanks Mark, Ive sent that to my Dad, to see what he thinks. It never occured to me that my number is not on every page, small thing, but may well make a difference.

Thanks for that

Julie