Does Text Marketing Work For Cleaning Companies?

One of our members recently had a marketing company contact him about text marketing for his cleaning company.  "He said that for $99 per month, they would send out 3,000 texts to people who had 'opted in' to receive marketing texts. $.03 per text. Not bad."

But is it really a good deal? I recently saw a story on one of the morning shows about the poplularity of text message marketing. One woman said, "I love getting texts with deals from local businesses because it saves me a lot of money". But she was talking about discounts at restaurants, coffee shops, discounts on oil changes, hair cuts, and dog grooming. These are all purchases that are quick, inexpensive and don't require a lot of thinking or planning.

Hiring a cleaning services is not a quick-decision service, unless you're practically giving it away like some of the coupons I've seen at Groupon. And even then, people need to do some planning to get it scheduled. Is this the type of service you really want to provide? Most of us are looking for regular clients with ongoing service. Text marketing is designed to generate traffic and quick sales in the hopes of upselling when they get in the door. I don't know too many cleaning company owners that like to market their business this way.

Do you agree? Post your comments below.

Comments

[Jim Hilbrandt]

I completely agree with your position against text message marketing for a big service like cleaning. Perhaps it was the $99 per month that got this guy hooked. After all, most marketing efforts cost a pretty penny, and this would seem like a negligible amount for anything considered marketing. To some people, something is better than nothing ... even if that something is pretty impractical for your type of business.

[Roger Taylor]

I think text message marketing could be great for businesses that want to advertise promotions such as free oven/refrigerator cleaning with a move-out or move-in cleaning appointment or schedule now for a move-out or move-in cleaning at the end of the month and save $???.

I would not suggest offering "coupon like" deals, but advertising a promotion would be great to generate new business. Unlike the "coupon like" deals that require a consumer to pay before they call, you can promote deals through text message marketing that require the consumer to call, discuss their requirements, agree to the price minus the promotion, etc. It would not be any different from someone searching Google and calling for an appointment.

In addition, this would be a great way to promote business on a small budget and could later supplement other marketing campaigns.

[Claudia]

Yes, what good is a great price for marketing if it doesn't reach your target audience, at the right place and time with the right offer.

[Kevin Freeman]

You make a great point that texts are great for small, quick purchases and discounts, but not so effective for cleaning services. People like to read reviews and check out who's going to be performing these services before buying - definitely not a quick decision.

[Craig Sedoris]

We have recently begun looking into ways to market our business, and I would certainly agree that this doesn't sound like a good idea. People do much more research on cleaning services before they buy. Text marketing just doesn't make sense for us.