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Growing your business without spending money on advertising

Marketing, social media, advertising

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
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Posted in a cleaning business owners Facebook group in response to someone asking how to grow their business without advertising:

..........

A great piece of advice I was given a couple of years ago was to “Spend your money on diesel and coffee.”

Get out there. Meet people - long enough to have a coffee one-to-one.

Let them know what you do. (Let everyone know what you do actually!)

*** Become known as “The XYZ Guy in ABC Location”. ***

Even if they don’t have work for you they can refer you to someone else.

Don’t be needy about it. Just have a coffee, and make sure you get them to talk a lot.

Try to tell a few stories as it’s the stories they’ll remember and recount to other people.

...

Another great piece of advice for when your back’s against the wall is to reach out to everyone you’ve ever done business with.

Send a short and non-needy note:

“Hi Andy,

How’s business?

Just thought I’d let you know that some time has freed up in our calendar.

If you or anyone you know needs help with XYZ then just let me know.

We must catch up sometime for a coffee.

Bob”

...

Always bear in mind that the most important formula in business is “R+R=Profit” where R+R is Repeat Business plus Referrals.

The cleaning industry lends itself well to R+R.

...

Capitalising on word-of-mouth:

If someone tells someone about you or your business name, but hasn’t told them your phone number, then how will they find you?

Put yourself in their shoes and try and find yourself by name and by business name. Use Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.

If you can’t find yourself then any word-of-mouth is not going to result in new clients.

Consider very strongly bidding on your brand names on Google. Branded searches will be low volume, low cost-per-click, and convert into sales very well.

Heck, I’ll set that up for you if you want. No fee. You just pay Google.

Bear in mind that this “fails safe”. You only pay when someone searches for you or your business by name, and they click-through to visit your site. If you currently have no word-of-mouth then there will be no searches and no click-through.

...

When you get into a property to clean, what do you do to increase the likelihood of Repeat Business?

Can you leave a stack of business cards so they can also hand them out to friends and family?

Can you leave a fridge magnet? (We have one holding up the school time-tables, from a plumber who we know left Ireland over two years ago!)

...

I’m actually an AdWords dude looking to help my sister-in-law and her sister-in-law get some more cleaning jobs. I may or may not end up going the whole hog and create a cleaning biz for them.

As an AdWords dude since 2009 I have never advertised my business.

You might find that strange, but I know that people buy from people they know, like, and trust.

I get my work by doing everything I suggested above. I don’t bid on my brand name because I’m all over the Google listings for “Andy Black AdWords”.

What works for me is helping folks. Giving them tips and advice - freely. Letting them get to know, like, and trust me. NOT pitching. NOT PM’ing people out of the blue and pitching them. NOT asking people to PM me.

*** Consider this post an example. I’ve been doing this for YEARS and it’s how I’ve built relationships and ultimately my business.

Top tip: Business is ultimately about building relationships, and win-wins.

Are there local groups where you can join in as a peer and just help people whenever you can? It doesn’t have to be about cleaning all the time.

I’ve even picked up clients by attending workshops for local business owners!

...

People buy from people.

They need to get to know, like, and trust you first.

There’s lots of ways to let people know what you do, and move along the know, like, and trust scale.

Paid advertising is just one of many ways you can get in front of people who don’t know you already, so you can start that process.
 
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Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
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May 20, 2014
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Things to note:

1) I can’t help myself but chatter in forums and Facebook groups and respond when people have questions. I go all-in on my tendencies.

2) What started as a quick response ended up being pretty beefy. I have posted to another Facebook group already, and dropped it into TFLF and other places.

3) I am NOT pitching. If no work comes of this then fine. My goal was to *** help someone *** not make a sale.

4) What do I do best, that my team members can’t do? Focus on that and outsource the rest. I make it my job to “turn up and be me”.

5) I did this all on my phone. I’ve not logged onto my PC this morning and don’t intend to.


What were your takeaways?
 

ay47

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How did u find your calling, Andy? How did u know u wanted to be the AdWords guy?

I'm at a crossroads now where lots of my friends know me as the guy who has a business on the side. And the guy who negotiates. The guy who invests.

How did u decide which guy u want to be?
 
Last edited:

MisterBHZ

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You might find that strange, but I know that people buy from people they know, like, and trust.
Yep. My first business told me all about this.

I advertised in the beginning & then I no longer had to.

Because referrals & word of mouth business became the bread & butter.

It was the key to getting cold customers.

It was the godfather of securing business without ever having a previous relationship.

Most customers didn't know me from a turd on the ground.

Because leveraging other people's relationships is a deadly skill for getting people to know, like & trust you without them ever knowing, liking & trusting you...beforehand.

Like when I first read TMF .

Who the F*ck is @MJ DeMarco?

Idk...but all these people are talking about his book. I guess I'll buy it now.

Now...I know, like & trust him because I pay for an INSIDERS membership, bought both books & checked out all his videos & his articles.

My most read chapter in Unscripted ?

Chapter 32..................*coughs*

Damn.

How to get people to work for you for free?

Easy.

Get them talking about you.

Then there will be no advertising needed.
 
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Litza

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Apr 24, 2018
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Valencia, Spain
Posted in a cleaning business owners Facebook group in response to someone asking how to grow their business without advertising:

..........

A great piece of advice I was given a couple of years ago was to “Spend your money on diesel and coffee.”

Get out there. Meet people - long enough to have a coffee one-to-one.

Let them know what you do. (Let everyone know what you do actually!)

*** Become known as “The XYZ Guy in ABC Location”. ***

Even if they don’t have work for you they can refer you to someone else.

Don’t be needy about it. Just have a coffee, and make sure you get them to talk a lot.

Try to tell a few stories as it’s the stories they’ll remember and recount to other people.

...

Another great piece of advice for when your back’s against the wall is to reach out to everyone you’ve ever done business with.

Send a short and non-needy note:

“Hi Andy,

How’s business?

Just thought I’d let you know that some time has freed up in our calendar.

If you or anyone you know needs help with XYZ then just let me know.

We must catch up sometime for a coffee.

Bob”

...

Always bear in mind that the most important formula in business is “R+R=Profit” where R+R is Repeat Business plus Referrals.

The cleaning industry lends itself well to R+R.

...

Capitalising on word-of-mouth:

If someone tells someone about you or your business name, but hasn’t told them your phone number, then how will they find you?

Put yourself in their shoes and try and find yourself by name and by business name. Use Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.

If you can’t find yourself then any word-of-mouth is not going to result in new clients.

Consider very strongly bidding on your brand names on Google. Branded searches will be low volume, low cost-per-click, and convert into sales very well.

Heck, I’ll set that up for you if you want. No fee. You just pay Google.

Bear in mind that this “fails safe”. You only pay when someone searches for you or your business by name, and they click-through to visit your site. If you currently have no word-of-mouth then there will be no searches and no click-through.

...

When you get into a property to clean, what do you do to increase the likelihood of Repeat Business?

Can you leave a stack of business cards so they can also hand them out to friends and family?

Can you leave a fridge magnet? (We have one holding up the school time-tables, from a plumber who we know left Ireland over two years ago!)

...

I’m actually an AdWords dude looking to help my sister-in-law and her sister-in-law get some more cleaning jobs. I may or may not end up going the whole hog and create a cleaning biz for them.

As an AdWords dude since 2009 I have never advertised my business.

You might find that strange, but I know that people buy from people who know, like, and trust you.

I get my work by doing everything I suggested above. I don’t bid on my brand name because I’m all over the Google listings for “Andy Black AdWords”.

What works for me is helping folks. Giving them tips and advice - freely. Letting them get to know, like, and trust me. NOT pitching. NOT PM’ing people out of the blue and pitching them. NOT asking people to PM me.

*** Consider this post an example. I’ve been doing this for YEARS and it’s how I’ve built relationships and ultimately my business.

Top tip: Business is ultimately about building relationships, and win-wins.

Are there local groups where you can join in as a peer and just help people whenever you can? It doesn’t have to be about cleaning all the time.

I’ve even picked up clients by attending workshops for local business owners!

...

People buy from people.

They need to get to know, like, and trust you first.

There’s lots of ways to let people know what you do, and move along the know, like, and trust scale.

Paid advertising is just one of many ways you can get in front of people who don’t know you already, so you can start that process.
Thanks for sharing that, Andy!

I´ll investigate about ´bidding on your brand name on Google´.

And lastly: do you work on that field? (I´ll read other posts from you to try to find out)
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
How did u find your calling, Andy? How did u know u wanted to be the AdWords guy?

I'm at a crossroads now where lots of my friends know me as the guy who has a business on the side. And the guy who negotiates. The guy who invests.

How did u decide which guy u want to be?
I didn't want to become "an AdWords guy". I even hired a marketing consultant for a while to try and rid myself of that label. Then I realised it's what other people refer to me as. It's what they prefer to call me and introduce me as. So I resigned myself and rolled with it.

Here's a couple of threads that might help:
 

Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
I advertised in the beginning & then I no longer had to.

Because referrals & word of mouth business became the bread & butter.

leveraging other people's relationships is a deadly skill for getting people to know, like & trust you without them ever knowing, liking & trusting you...beforehand.

How to get people to work for you for free?

Easy.

Get them talking about you.
Then there will be no advertising needed.

There you go. The TL;DR of my post. Thanks!
 
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Andy Black

Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
370%
May 20, 2014
18,568
68,703
Ireland
Thanks for sharing that, Andy!

I´ll investigate about ´bidding on your brand name on Google´.

And lastly: do you work on that field? (I´ll read other posts from you to try to find out)
Your're welcome. I'm glad it helped.


Check out my signature, and this post in particular:
 

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