For months I have been posting on ~25 buy/sell groups on Facebook with an ad that will say something like:
Title: Professional Pressure Washing
Description: I am a professional pressure washing service provider serving … blah blah blah.
Photos: A nice before/after.
The description never made much of a difference in response/close rates, which averaged roughly 1 job per week posting the ad new every day.
However, this new title made a HUGE difference. We’re talking 3 jobs PER DAY, with free advertising.
Title: Cleaning Vinyl Siding And More!
Photos: A picture of the sign on the side of my truck as the primary photo, the same before/after as before as a second photo.
Just wanted to share this with other guys out there.
My hunch is the picture. Anybody can claim to be “professional” and post before and after pictures. Not everybody can post a picture of their truck. I think that instantly sets you apart.
When you are competing against the $99 guy, you have to show you’re different than the $99 guy. Take a picture of all 5 of your pressure washers lined up from smallest to biggest. Take a picture of yourself in a lift washing a big building. Take a picture of 45 different power washing chemicals lined up on a shelf in your garage. Take a screen shot of your profile from the forum where it shows you’ve read 20,000 posts about power washing. And, oh yeah, by the way, here’s a before and after pic.
Interesting you mention to show your rig, I recently bid a curb job in a gated community, but lost to a cheaper company, but also they chose them/him because they were impressed by his rig. They never saw mine to compare, but the fact that they saw his sold them!
Just from a marketing perspective; the pics of the sign/truck likely made little difference in your response rate.
Your rate increased because you specialized your offering.
“Professional Power Washing” is vague. Houses? Decks? Pools? Potatoes? What do you wash?
The “Vinyl Siding” made the difference. It took the consumer from ‘my house might need to be washed’ to ‘I HAVE VINYL SIDING! OMG! IS IT DIRTY? I’LL GO CHECK!’
Same as if drive a Tundra, and one ad said ‘Car Repair’ and the other said ‘Certified Toyota ASE Specialists on Staff’
Fantastic job finding the trigger and utilizing it. Countless marketing companies charge big bucks for what you’ve just discovered.
Further testing confirms what you said! Posted 1 “Pressure Washing” ad with a truck photo per day for the last 5 days. 1 hit. Just today, posted “I clean vinyl siding” with a truck photo, 2 hits. We’ll see how this plays out, but so far the data favors the title being the difference.
HOA’s only care about the bottom line. They just went with the cheapest option. I would follow up with them to find out if they were happy with his service.
Just this week i watched 2 guys spend 2 entire days cleaning about 600 ft of curb in front of my office. One was pump spraying outdoor clorox while the other followed with a homeowner machine. It was painful to watch.
I watch my city workers do the same thing. There for days doing 100ft of storefronts maybe 15 ft wide . Not to mention there hooked directly up to a hydrant with no back flow device. And rinsing it rite to the storm drain and into the river a few hundred yards away
