Poll: Today’s Successful Laundry Owners are Online

By PlanetLaundry staff | Jul 12, 2010

A recent PlanetLaundry.com poll asked laundry owners their main reason for developing a Web site for their business. And the answers were all across the board.

The majority of the respondents who had Web sites (27 percent) saw them as an important way to generate walk-in business. The next two most popular reasons (at 13 percent each) were to build awareness of their stores within their communities and to stay competitive with other coin laundries in their markets. Other respondents felt that their Web sites were an effective way to generate drop-off business (7 percent), while some thought their sites were the best method they had to communicate with their customers (7 percent).

Only 27 percent of the poll respondents did not have a Web site for their coin laundry businesses.

Whatever your reasons for creating and maintaining a Web site for your self-service laundry, here are some cardinal sins to avoid with your site, according to Lisa Barone, co-founder of Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company:

• It’s written like a brochure. “Do you read brochures handed to you while at the mall or when walking into a new establishment? No, you don’t. You don’t read them because even though they may hold important information, they’re as engaging as the phone book. You don’t want to commit the same sin on your Web site. Write your Web site as if your customer was sitting in front of you and you were verbally explaining to them all the benefits of your company and what you offer. Said simpler: Your Web site should sound like a person, not a corporate robot. Go read your Web site aloud and see which category you fit into.”

• It’s littered with typos. “The larger your site, the harder it is to prune every sentence; however, each typo a user finds puts another ding into your credibility. Do your best to find typos and squash them dead.”

• You don’t say why you’re different. “If I’m on your site, it’s because I want to know what you’re all about and what you offer that the other guy doesn’t. Your site should be able to tell me this. If it doesn’t and you can’t clearly outline your point of difference, that means you don’t have one. I’m going go find someone who does.”

• It hasn’t been updated in five years. “One way to establish trust and show people there are living people behind your site is to keep your Web site as fresh and up to date as possible. That means giving it a good scrub as needed to reflect industry changes, new product offerings and maybe even new keywords customers are just now searching for. While you’re updating your content, also make sure you’re updating your copyright, as well. Nothing says, 'We’re dead' louder than a copyright date of 2004.”

To help its members launch their businesses on the Web, the Coin Laundry Association offers its LaundryWeb Network program, which entitles every CLA member to a free Web site that the association will build and host.

Members simply complete a short form and, in less than four weeks, their site is up and running – at no cost to the member. Each site contains vital store information on every page – location, hours and a map with driving directions. The four initial pages include store services, photos and a contact form.

To learn more about the CLA’s LaundryWeb Network, visit coinlaundry.org, or call (800) 570-5629.