CHICAGO — Few people enter the dry cleaning industry to tackle digital marketing problems, but those who do embrace them dismiss them as “not practical for them.” advantage over humans.
This was the message from Donna Botti, president of Delos, Inc., in a recent webinar presentation, “Get More Customers and Clients in 2024 with a Digital Marketing Success Plan,” hosted by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB). is.
In Part 1 of this series, Botti listed some of the digital marketing trends he sees coming in 2024 and the first important marketing action: focus on the right clients. In Part 2, we considered the value of assets that your cleaning company may already have but may not be aware of. Today we'll end with a look at perhaps the most important part of your digital marketing efforts: making sure it gets done.
Key Action 3 — Make it easy and manageable
“Half-brained marketing practices aren't working,” Botti says. “There's no time to not have one strategy.”
Planning your content and when to use it will help you automate your marketing program and prevent it from becoming an avoidable chore.
Botti offers the following tips for incorporating deliberate marketing into your schedule.
remove silos — Use the same message across all channels instead of putting effort into making each channel “unique.” “The same message is fine across all channels,” Botti says. “You can put it on your website, you can put it on social media, it’s good to actually repeat it.
Reuse and reuse — Botti wants to reuse and repurpose things. Finding different ways to package and present existing content increases the value of the content and frees owners from constantly having to think of new ideas.
Combine timely, seasonal, and evergreen content — It's great to have messages related to sales and other timely events, but with evergreen content always available on your website and sent at different times in your emails and social marketing efforts. We also recommend planning seasonal messages.
Batches and schedules — “It's easier to sit down and say, 'I'm going to take one day to record eight videos and use one a week,'” Botti says. “I just created two months' worth of content, and it's much easier than sitting down and trying to create a video every week. The same goes for email marketing.”
Use automation — By using tools to automate certain marketing activities, customers are better served and owners do not have to spend time responding to specific actions individually. “When someone requests information, is there anything that can automatically redirect you to that information?” Botti asks. “Can you understand chat to answer questions so you can reply to people in a timely manner?”
Botti believes a great use for automation is onboarding. “One of our client's girlfriends is Jim,” she says. “When you acquire a new client, you will automatically start receiving a series of six emails telling you how to get the most out of your membership, as well as tips and motivation along the way. Once you take the time to set it up and do your best, everyone will receive the same treatment.
Use Al for ideas — Artificial intelligence is growing and getting smarter. “When you start brainstorming the problems that people have, AI tools can be very helpful,” Botti says. “Give me some ideas. This is my client. What's the best way to reach them? What are the top 10 problems they have? All of these become content ideas.
Utilization of AI
AI tools are becoming more powerful every day, but Botti says they need to be used wisely because ultimately messages and content need the voice of the user.
“The importance of what questions to ask, or prompts, is where a lot of people stumble,” she says. “You can't say, 'Please tell me a blog post about You should be talking about “Is there a person?” This is my customer. This is the person I'm creating this for. This is their concern and this is the problem they are trying to solve. This is the solution I would like answered. ” Then ask them to write an email that will result in people taking a specific action. ”
Seeing AI in the right light is important for marketing efforts.
“Think of it like an internship,” Botti says. “This solves the 'blank page' problem, but you'll need to edit it. And you'll need to keep editing until it actually matches your voice and speaks to the customers you've identified. If you put it out there and read it and you don’t think that’s what you’re actually saying to your best customers, then it’s probably not true.”
small step
Mr. Botti concluded his presentation by urging business owners to keep their digital marketing efforts in perspective.
“All of this is progress, not perfection,” she says. “And you have to start somewhere. And just take the necessary steps and follow the plan.”
Botti believes the best step to success is planning and scheduling. Otherwise, they will become something that gets pushed aside when the busy daily work is over.
“Planning ahead also gives you the opportunity to work on special events,” she says. When the time comes, what you need will already be there. ”
No matter what target, message, or channel a dry cleaner uses for its digital marketing efforts, Botti says the most important thing is to make it a habit.
“The number one thing I've seen that motivates people is that consistency creates traction,” she says. “Create a calendar to keep track of what you're doing and what you'll be doing in the future. It's really important to actually do this on a regular basis.”
Click here for part 1 of this series. here.Click here for part 2 here.
