115. 👀 = 💲💲 with Brittany Centers

Jordan Berry 0:00
Hey, what’s up guys, it’s Jordan with the laundromat resource podcast. This is show 115. And I’m pumped, you’re here today because we’re in a never ending quest to continually try to push the boundaries try to be on top of what’s going on in our industry in this world and figuring out how to help all of us build better businesses. And to that end, today we have on the show, again, Brittany centers of center social, because we want to talk about what’s going on in the on line world. I’ve said so many times before marketing is the untapped potential in our industry right now. That is the low hanging fruit. And today we have Brittany on talking marketing, both through paid advertising and also through organic social media stuff. And we’re gonna talk through some tactics, we’re gonna talk through some of what’s changing. And it’s an awesome, awesome episode, as always, and be sure to check out Senator social.com If you’re interested in having Brittany and her team, helping out with your social media. But before you even do that, I just want to point out and this is today’s fast lane tip. Brittany has actually partnered with laundromat resource and is offered a pro member perk that actually exceeds the cost of joining the investment of joining laundromat resource pro community. So if you’re thinking about going with Brittany, to do some social media stuff, think about joining the laundromat resource pro community because it actually will save you money and add a ton of value to your life because you get everything else that comes with that pro community, which is a bunch of stuff. So check it out laundromat resource.com/pro If you’re interested in that. And also if you want to talk more about social media marketing and your laundromat or your future laundromat, join Brittany and now we’re going to be doing a free live webinars slash q&a on all things marketing and social media on May 3 2023 4pm, Pacific Time West Coast time 7pm East Coast time. So come join us there you can find out more information about that at laundromat resource.com/events that link and all the links we talked about today will be in the show notes or if you’re on YouTube down below in the description. And without further ado, let’s jump into it with Brittany centers. Brittany centers of center social how’s it going?

Brittany Centers 2:28
It’s going well how are you?

Jordan Berry 2:30
I am doing good. I’m doing really good. And man you are like a like a veteran on the podcast here. Had you had you weasel that?

Brittany Centers 2:39
That third time? Yeah. Number three,

Jordan Berry 2:41
that’s pretty big. There’s that’s a very exclusive club three times on the podcast. So very few people.

Brittany Centers 2:47
Thank you. I enjoyed being here.

Jordan Berry 2:49
Ya know, awesome to have you and awesome to talk about. I think it’s under discussed topic, which is marketing here. And you know, who better to bring on then a marketing agency owner for laundromat owner. So here you are, once again, what is going on in the world of online and the digital world these days.

Brittany Centers 3:17
I mean, a lot is changing. You know, every time I’m on here, always talk about how the algorithm is changing. And that is consistently happening still. You know, we’ve seen in the last six months, we’ve seen some of the most changes in the algorithm that like we’ve ever seen. I mean, I’ve been doing this since 2014. And the like the last six months, the biggest changes have occurred. And so that’s what I want to talk about about today. You know, I want to talk about ads, I want to talk about reels, I want to talk about house, like how you’re doing them, and all that stuff so that people can get some help. How to market their own laundromat.

Jordan Berry 3:57
Yeah. All right. Awesome. Well, we’ve got a lot to jump into. So let’s start with Well, should we start with some of the changes that are happening and that have happened over the last six months or whatever?

Brittany Centers 4:07
Yes, absolutely. So everything on social media is changing right now. Specifically, like today for just an example. So every time there’s a holiday, most of the time there’s an algorithm change. So like it, and then that also goes to glitching. Like there’s going to be small glitches on Facebook, Instagram, even Google. This year. I like wrong. last six months, I’ve experienced clusters with Google like Google AdWords, Google My Business that I have never experienced before. Because everything’s changing so much. But like today, it took three times that I had to exit off my browser in order to be able to log into a laundromat owners page and see their information. So it was glitching it wasn’t working. And it was just Easter. So of course like they I update things during the holiday, I don’t understand why they always update during the holiday. But most of the time with like they do, like, run after Christmas, there was a big algorithm change and like stuff stop working. It always happens like pig right after, like, during a holiday to update everything.

Jordan Berry 5:17
Maybe they think we should all be out having fun with each other instead of being on social media.

Brittany Centers 5:21
Correct. And, and that’s really true. Like most of the time, people are, I mean, they’re showing pictures of their family and stuff like posting, but as far as like, really worried about their business, you know, a lot of times it takes like a backburner to their family at those times. So one of the biggest things is that just like hosting a post, is it’s not enough anymore. Like there’s so many things that you have to do. So if your picture is poor quality, or then you’re not going to get the results as you want. And when I say poor quality, I mean, like, blurry or not attractive. But at the same time, I want to let everybody know that social media is not supposed to be like a commercial that you would see during the Superbowl halftime show. Like it’s supposed to be real life, people want to know what’s actually going on. And you’re wondering, right, so it doesn’t have to be amazing. It just can’t be blurry, or, like, you know, something that like, just doesn’t look good. I mean, if you’re doing

Jordan Berry 6:25
so no selfies for me, is what you’re saying.

Brittany Centers 6:29
But like if you’re doing a remodel, like how you need to oppose the if you’re doing a remodel every step of the way. I mean, if you could get it to where like say someone was, like doing a remodel for laundromat, if you can post a story or a reel, and a post every single day of that remodel like, even five times a day, then that further not the post. But for the stories. That would be fantastic. Because people want to see all of that they want to see the real life stuff that’s going on. But just throwing up a picture and be like, Oh, hey, we’re remodeling, that that’s not working. And you also cannot use a flag words. So there’s lots of words that the algorithm has gotten smart enough to know, if you say win, or if you say, win is one example, if you say giveaway, like those are words that the algorithm on Facebook and Instagram flagged you immediately and so they’re gonna push that down. But, and a lot of people want to do contests and contests are still very effective. You just have to know how to word it. So you have to be careful the words that you’re using the pictures that you’re using all that matters.

Jordan Berry 7:38
Oh, interesting. I didn’t know about flag words. So that’s a that’s a really interesting one. lakh words, how do we find out what these flag words are?

Brittany Centers 7:49
Well, it takes lots of research. And most of the time, really working with an agency told you, I’ve told everyone to so like when give away. But there are still ways that if you want to do a giveaway, or like a promotion or something, and we had a giveaway recently that for a laundromat in Missouri, and they had I don’t know what that I think it was, like 500 people enter that giveaway. It was it was really good giveaway. But we know the algorithm, we know how it works. And we weren’t using any of the flag words.

Jordan Berry 8:35
Yeah, yeah. Okay, good. So we want to stay away from flag words. I mean, it sounds like they’re just trying to cut back on the spammy stuff, right? So as long as you’re not being spammy, you know, you can say, hey, this could be yours, or I don’t know, maybe those are flag words. But you know, like, just don’t be spammy. Right?

Brittany Centers 8:50
Yes. Well, and that’s, it’s good that you said that. So Facebook is starting to switch over. Kind of like they’re mimicking Tik Tok a little bit like there’s like a, it’s almost like there’s a for you page. And then there’s a following page. And so it’s like, you can see like, the business side of it and the stuff that you’re interested in. And then you can see, like the people that you’re actually following, so they’re getting ready to split. I mean, they have on some cases, already split it, but I think it’s gonna be more of a divide because they’re mimicking to talk.

Jordan Berry 9:24
Yeah, tick tock really changed the game a lot. I think, you know, everybody’s got like a tick tock esque component right now like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, obviously, tick tock,

Brittany Centers 9:37
which, you know, I don’t know about LinkedIn

Jordan Berry 9:39
yet. LinkedIn laid on the game with the tick tock, come on.

Brittany Centers 9:44
I think LinkedIn is gonna say the same. Yeah, I mean, they’re obviously going to have some changes. But LinkedIn is very much like a business to business type of like, you know, people in your industry or how they can benefit you. So I don’t Think that tick tock is going to change as much. I mean, they’ve made some changes, don’t get me wrong. But I think that it’s going to be there. And I don’t think that their goal is different than what like tick tock Facebook and Instagram is

Unknown Speaker 10:13
totally. Yeah, totally.

Brittany Centers 10:15
Which, you know, leads me that. So one of the biggest thing in the Wonderland world is that you need to know what platform that you’re on and how to work it. So each platform is different. And there’s so many different things that you can do. So, you know, there’s stories. In the last podcast, we talked about stories. So stories are, you know, short clips, pictures, videos, that are going to reach the people that are actually following you like that. So that is getting repeat business is what I would call a story for the wonderment world like you’re reaching people that come to your laundromat, that see yourself and your are enticing them to be repeat business. And then you go on to reels. So the last time that I was on here, I talked about tick tock and reels and how tick tock so important. To be honest, everybody is a little afraid of tic toc right now, like we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. And, you know, there’s no prediction for this, like, you know, I’ve researched look studied, and we still just, you know, there’s some people, why higher up than us that are going to make these decisions about to dunk. But at the same time, the reels on Facebook and Instagram are very, very important. So if I would say, to any business owner, whether you’re a laundromat owner, whatnot, no matter what you are, you must do real, like, you are missing out because Facebook and Instagram, which they’re on by the same company, they want to take down tick tock, so they’ve changed their algorithm, so and so to like, Let’s fast, or let’s rewind back to like 2010 2010 2012. If you just posted a post out there on Facebook, then you would get lots of results, like people would see, because that was before everyone had jumped on. And so they are they’ve changed the algorithm for reals, that if you’re posting rules, you’re going to reach new people, because because they’re trying to take down tick tock they’ve, like they make it easier for your customers and potential clients, no matter what business that you’re in to see those rules. So they’re pushing reels like they want people to post reels. It works. I mean, you know, I have a reel that I just did that got 500 likes on Instagram.

Jordan Berry 12:56
I did, I did a reel with my daughter. And out of nowhere, it was like, first of all we ever did. Nowhere, I got 177,000 views, and we’re like, whoa, what just happened? And I was like lightbulb moment, you know what I mean? Like, whoa, that’s crazy.

Brittany Centers 13:11
Yes. I mean, you could almost do nothing else besides reels and the Okay. It’s, you know, it’s one of those things that like stories disappear within 24 hours, but you’re updating like keeping it current, like kind of what’s going on if they’re specials reverse promotions and that’s just reaching your current clients, but reels are going to reach the people who could be your potential client. Now obviously, your followers and stuff are gonna see your reel some, but most of the time, it’s new people.

Jordan Berry 13:44
Yeah, and in fact, you know, so I do a little bit of real just for a lot of my resource stuff and I actually set mine to where it doesn’t show up to my normal subscribers. I mean, you can still find them you can go and there’s a playlist for all the all the shorts and everything and the reels, their shorts on YouTube. And, but actually just set it so it doesn’t pop so it doesn’t, you know, bombard the subscribers with videos because you post them a lot more often. Can you can you talk to what so so Okay, talk to a laundromat owner talk to me on laundromat owner right talk to me. What? What’s the difference between stories and reels in terms of like, how should I be thinking of what should be a story and what should be a real?

Brittany Centers 14:33
Okay, so a story should be like small updates or a promotion or something going on something that you want your current clients that have entered your laundromat who know who you are to see like you’re updating. So a lot of times it’s like okay, so what what, for instance, let’s talk about like, I was wondering like this, so like an email was like an email blast most of the time is to get repeat customers. That’s what a story is you’re reaching out to your customers who have already been there who already know your stuff. And you’re updating that. A real, which there’s an overlap. Don’t get me wrong, like some of your customers are gonna see your reels. But most of the time it is getting new customers like people to see whether you’re doing pickup and delivery, whether you’re doing self service, whether you’re doing Wash, dry fold, like it is getting those new customers now, currently, right now, you cannot run an ad on a real but it’s coming, we’ve already sent out like emails and notifications, like, I would say, within the next two months, we’ll be able to run ads on reels. And then that’s, I mean, that’s honestly going to be a game changer, because so many people are seeing the reels already. New customers like new people. And then once you can specifically target people with those reels, and define it down. I mean, it’s a game changer, in my opinion.

Jordan Berry 16:08
Yeah, maybe I’ll run some ads just to make people look at my face.

Unknown Speaker 16:14
You should definitely do that. Just to torment them.

Jordan Berry 16:18
No, no, thank you for breaking that down. Because I think, you know, I, you know, it’s, it can get all confusing, right? There’s all these different things. I mean, without really looking too far into it, you look at a story and you look at a reel and you’re like, it’s basically the same thing except for story disappears, right? So how do I know what to post on each and

Brittany Centers 16:39
every reel. So and I’m glad that you said that, because reel is very important with the music. So you can have like the original sound, but you also need reels with training music. Because, you know, it really, if you think about this, like this is the first time that people have been able to use like, songs from people and not get like because you know, if you say you go on from a video and you posted as like a video on Facebook or Instagram, then you’re gonna get the copyright law thing, and it’s gonna take this all the sound out, but reels, the music, it’s trending. And so you have to, like we have, like a spreadsheet that we monitor every week of the the music that’s trending. And we watched, like, how many rules have been posted. And so the more rules that are posted with that sound, the more results it’s going to get. So what drills, you have to watch the sound and I mean, the sound is very important for training purposes, and we do about I mean, we doing like, original sound, and then we also do like the original audio, I mean, and then also the training sounds. And we study all that because, you know we have to now

Jordan Berry 18:00
Yeah, I mean it because it changes so fast, right? I mean, like you were just saying like, you can’t put other people’s music on your videos, but you can’t almost not put other people’s audio on your on your reel. Right, like, so it’s kind of, you know, you got to keep track of that stuff. And, you know, okay, so listen, we’re the laundromat business here. We’re we’re stodgy old laundromat owners. We as a group as a whole, obviously, not a hard and fast rule, but as a as a group and as a whole. We kind of bucked the trend, right? That’s part of why we’re in this business. Right? And we were not trendsetters. We’re not trend followers. So I mean, do we have to pay attention to these trends? Or like, what’s, what’s the way around this? What like, what can we do here?

Brittany Centers 18:51
You have to do it. Okay. I mean,

Jordan Berry 18:55
or hire somebody to do it for you. Right?

Brittany Centers 18:57
Right. I mean, like, and that’s what I meant, like, either you hire someone to do it, or you do it on your own. I so we send our social for just wondering, my owners were doing about 35 reels a week for laundromats and some of those laundromats are only getting one reel per week. I mean, so we have a lot of customers that are doing rails and I mean, you know, whether you’re doing it yourself or whether you’re hiring someone to do it, like it is the most important thing on social media that you could be doing except for ads, which we’re going to talk about in a few minutes but Yes,

Jordan Berry 19:35
can I throw into like a little this is just a little idea that just popped into my head so it kind of combines with okay, I need this is gonna sound weird because we’re talking about reels right now, but I need to Quick disclaimer. This is not financial advice. This is not tax advice. I’m not a CPA, go talk to your CPA bla bla bla, right but I was talking with a CPA who was not giving you specific advice was just talking to me Me and saying that, hey, you know, you can, you can pay your kids, I think they said, you know, if if they work for you if you can basically kind of hire your kids, and you can pay him I think it was up to like $12,500 per year tax free if they’re, if they’re working for you, right. And you know, what popped into my head was my daughter who’s nine and Brittany, you and I were talking about this, she’s got her own YouTube channel, and she’s been making her own videos, she just crossed 100 subscribers super excited about it. And the thing that crossed my mind was like, hey, but my daughter can help me out with these reels like, I bet, you know, I can get her thinking about, you know, just the trends. I mean, she she likes all the little trends, and you know, all that stuff, and I can’t for the life of me, like, yeah, keep up with all of it, right? But pay her to do that, for me and to pay attention for me and maybe even film some of those videos for me, because let’s face it, people would rather see her cute face than mine.

Brittany Centers 20:59
Yes, absolutely. And so, you know, I have experienced this my, my son, so we have a reptile business, which we talked about it the last time on the podcast. And it’s grown a lot last time. But he since December, he has gone viral multiple times on Instagram and Tiktok. Yeah, rocking out his chameleons,

Jordan Berry 21:26
some about those kids, you know what I mean? But I mean, you know, here’s, here’s the thing is like, there, there is power in being seen, right. And if it’s for your if it’s for your business specifically, you know, I know you guys breed reptiles, right. And, you know, that’s really great exposure for your reptile business. And, you know, but let’s bring it back to laundromat owners here, you know, being seen. There’s just a power in that, right. And, and you see, like these, like these movie stars, like you think of like the Kardashians, right? And they somehow got famous, but then they, you know, some of them turn, I don’t really know any of their names, but I know for a fact that some of them turned their fame because they were seeing they were known into like huge wealth, right, like huge amounts of money. And you look around and you see people who are known who are seen who are able to leverage that, you know, in, turn it into a business or to, you know, improve their business, grow their business, scale their business. So there’s a power in being seen there. So being on top of the trends, actually, you know, for those of us in the business that, you know, that’s sort of against our nature, man, just recognize the power in that and find creative ways to do it, hire somebody to do it for you, or hire a kid to do it for you, or, you know, whatever you got to do. But there’s power in that.

Brittany Centers 22:55
Yes. So kids. So recently, we started, as in our social life, we started offering different packages and changing it up a little bit. And then especially with like, filming, and videos, so we have like, a fee where we can send someone in to take the videos and what we want, or we walk you through the process, and of how you can do it. Because with real like, Here’s what some people don’t understand is that with reels like we have to have updated content all the time. And I say all the time, but not all the time, but often because we we needed to be able to post and so like we’ve started working with a lot of distributors recently, and they have like the sheet voting machines, and they have or they’re selling sheet voting machines, and they’re selling like the machines that make the cake with a hydraulic press. I had no idea of all that existed until, you know, the Oh, the clean show. That’s where I figured out like all this stuff really existed. But so I mean, really, you need a 10 second video. So that’s important thing about a reel. Is that, right? Three, three months ago, they the perfect time for reals was 16 seconds. Now it’s between it’s about six seconds. Yeah. No, I mean, next month, that could totally be completely different. So but yes, like short videos, we want clients to send us stuff. And then, you know, oh, well, going back to what you were saying is that, like, if you have a kid, I mean, they’re creative, mostly because they lived in the world of technology and and so they know like, they can totally take the videos, and then whether they could either I mean, if they’re really capable then like it is awesome or send them to the agency that the laundromat is working with and they could add them use this Sound, you know, know all the key words and everything and then post it?

Jordan Berry 25:04
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think it’s, I think it’s super interesting just kind of how everything’s changing, you know, all the time and in the digital world and, you know, laundromats until recently we’re, we’re not a, we’re not a big bunch of changers, right. And things are, you know, things are changing here too now, but you know, I think it’s more and more important that we stay on top of what’s going on in the world. Right. And it’s, I mean, obviously, it’s not just, you know, with social media and what Google’s doing and stuff like that, you know, we just went through a pandemic, and everything changed. And, you know, so we, we’ve got a, really the whole, the whole world is changing all the time. So we’ve got to stay on top of some of this stuff and be paying attention and be reacting accordingly.

Brittany Centers 25:53
I think yes. I mean, absolutely. Like, you know, I had when the pandemic hit, I had a nine year old and then, or a nine year old, I don’t even have a nine year, a nine month old, and also got pregnant literally, march 2020. And so what I’ve realized recently, is that within the last year, as the world is opening up, like my middle child, he had no idea how to go to a restaurant. He had no idea like how to do any of that stuff. But now he’s learning like, you know, we are getting to that point where we can go out and eat, we can go to church, all that stuff. But yes, you’re right, right, like how much the world has changed even in the laundromat world. You know, something that I hear often is about gas prices, with wandering mats and the electricity. And then we’ve had lots of clients recently that have had like, brigands. Um, you know, we had one client who, they broke into the laundromat and stole all the copper out of their laundromat. So, yeah, I mean, there’s, there is so many changes, and I think that a lot of it is from the pandemic, because there’s so many more costs that people don’t realize.

Jordan Berry 27:10
Yeah, let’s be like the kids who are adapting to a new life after the pandemic, where they didn’t really remember what it was like before that and let’s adapt along with them. The world changes with that. Alright, so what other tips do you have for like getting seen online? Because I mean, like I said, there’s power and being seen. So you got any other tips for us?

Brittany Centers 27:33
ads? So, you know, I in the laundromat world, I’ve watched so many podcast, and just with just in the wonderment world, and I’ve listened to I mean, I’ve listened to all different types. You know, I’ve read websites that I get all the emails from, like the different types of laundromat industry, people, not even listening names or anything like that. But the most

Jordan Berry 27:59
things, throw them all under the bus. Are you talking about me though? Hold on timeout. Are you referencing me? This is your third time on you can’t be referencing me. Come on. Alright, go ahead, continue. Okay. Okay.

Brittany Centers 28:11
But adds, like, no one in the laundromat world really is talking about ads on social media. And, I mean, you, you have to do at this point, like, you don’t have an option. Now, I’m not saying that you have to spend an astronomical amount of money, like you don’t, you know, I have, I mean, I’ve had clients that have paid $2,500 For one month, just adspend like, just ads. And there, there was a grand opening and their revenue increase, like an I mean, an astronomical amount. But also, like, I have clients that are spinning like $50 You know, if they’re in a smaller area, um, month on ads, or $100 or 150 or $200. And but the thing is, is that just like everything else in the world is changing. And all prices are going up. So like now you having a social media presence and not running ads is almost

Jordan Berry 29:21
man, that was a that was like a very heavy statement. Okay. Can you unpack that a little bit, as you said, having social presence and not running ads is almost pointless. Can you unpack that a little bit? Why is that?

Brittany Centers 29:34
Because, well, for one, you know, social media, everybody’s trying to make money, like the platforms are trying to make money. And there’s some people on those platforms now. And they switch as we talked about earlier, you know, like there’s the almost like the for you page and you know, like your family and like your people that you want to see and then the businesses and so you are competing Eating with so many people and used to organically you can get some reach now you still get reached with rules, which is why rules are so impactful. But as far as, and then for ads, you have to go on the back end, like so, every now Well, no, there’s this new thing called meta meta business suite. And in order to see your numbers, like on your actual social media, you have to switch over to meta business suite. And it’s not easy to always get there. So like right now, some of our clients pages, there’s a, it’ll say, on the left hand side switch, and then it’ll say, like a bar across the top like switch, and one of the buttons will not always work. Hence, back to how social media is glitching. But you have to actually switch to go into meta Businessweek to see your real numbers. And so one of the other things about ads and stuff is that in laundromat salon or my ads, I mean, we all know this, we’re all in the laundromat, business. laundromats are not always very exciting. And if it is exciting, it’s probably not a good thing, like you’re getting broken into or something like that. And people aren’t always going to, like your post or comment. I mean, they do sometimes, but you know, if you’re a restaurant like or, you know, like a place that has loved music or something like that, like people are going to comment a lot easier than what you will with a longer man. And so my biggest stressor to people is that you’ve got to know your back end numbers. So like it could look like five people have walked your comments or lecture posts and a month. But if you go into the back end, then I mean, literally this happened today. They had reached 17,000 People in the last 28 days. So but that’s part of the ads. So when you’re running the ads, you’re targeting people. And with wandering mass, you know, there’s self service visual stuff, well, there’s pickup and delivery. And so each ad is different. And that’s how your target people based on their demographic with each you know, whether it’s self service, wash our phone, or pickup or delivery. But yes, ads are something that you must be doing. Because if not, then you’re not going to be originally people and I’m not talking about boosted posts, a boosted post is I mean, it’s a boosted post, you’re gonna get a little bit results by that, but you have to go into the actual metal business and the ads manager and actually create the ads to get the best results. Does that

Jordan Berry 32:40
do and I agree with that? Totally. Here’s the other thing about ads, okay, like this. Okay, it’s we’ve been talking about the power being seen and going viral, and you know, even like, laundromat viral, you know, it might be like 1000 or 2000 views, you know, laundromat viral, but unless your investment ROI, Brandon killing it with the hundreds of 1000s. But here’s the thing about ads, right? So, so when you go viral with a real or you just get more views than normal with a real or something like that. You know, the thing about that is those can be people all over the place, which is awesome. If you’re an online brand, or you know, you’re something that’s location independent. We’re very, like hyper local businesses, right. So, you know, Britney seeing my, you know, me dancing on top of my washing machine to the latest trend, you know, for my, my laundromat is awesome and hilarious, because I’m such a bad dancer or whatever. But it’s not really going to help my business, right? Not so well. It could Yes, it could. But But my point is, is that when you run an ad, it’s like you can force your content to go viral by running the ad. And you can do it exactly to the people that you want it to go to so definitely target. Yeah, so I’m not going to run my ad to Brittany unless I’m really trolling her which now that I’m thinking about it, I might geofence your house and just run ads to you all the time.

Brittany Centers 34:14
I am probably the other way around. I should because you know you have a reptile like I should geofence

Jordan Berry 34:22
Alright, we’re about to get in an ad trolling war.

Brittany Centers 34:27
Yes, that’s a the most important thing about ad so like for self service, if there are apartment complexes near you, like, you know, and most of the time for self service, you’re targeting the lower income and families and individuals and so when you’re running the ads, you’re targeting that those people like an apartment complexes and then within like a certain radius, you know where you’re located. And that changes based on states you know, in California. I don’t mean We have, uh, I don’t know, we have between 20 to 30 clients in California now. I don’t actually know off the top of my head. But, um, so in California, like, especially LA, I mean, you’re targeting like a mile two miles. You go to AB. Yeah, exactly. But you go to Tennessee or in Kentucky, I mean, you’re targeting, like, I, the town that I live in. There’s, or the county I live in, actually, there’s one laundromat. And the city itself has like, 30,000 people. So yes, like, you can target people up to like 2530 miles. radius. So it’s always like important. That’s why we study whenever we were able to know your demographic, which almost I mean, oh, wanting met owners know what demographic and their zip codes that they’re targeting and stuff. But that’s how, like you, you know, like how to narrow it down because you want to study everything, you know, self service pickup and delivery wash profile, that’s all different. And with ads, you can target those individuals specifically, like washer fo it’s going to be most of the time, not always, but most of the time, like the middle of the road Inca. pickup and delivery is going to be like the we are targeting like the higher income like the top 10% within your area or the top 25% within your area. Because those are the people that can you’re you’re basing everything on like what they can afford. But with self service your by saying you know, on a lot of times like what they need? Because they don’t have, you know, washer and dryer. Yeah,

Jordan Berry 36:41
yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I mean, I think that goes right to your point of, hey, they’re different. You’ve got different audiences, you need to run different ads, depending on self serve, drop off laundry, pickup and delivery laundry, target those people specifically both in terms of who they are as a person, and, and their demographic, and also where they’re located.

Brittany Centers 37:06
And that’s the greatest thing about social media is that, you know, with Google most of the time, like you’re using Google Adwords, like they have to be searching for you. Or they have to be trying to find you most of the time. But with social media, you can target people that don’t even know you’re there, but they need you. And then you’re enticing them to enter your business or drop off their laundry or use pickup and delivery.

Jordan Berry 37:32
Yeah, I would argue that the greatest thing about social media is cat memes, but maybe a close second is that I don’t know. It’s close. Actually, I don’t really don’t like cat. So I’ll go with yours. Okay, yeah. So, I mean, ads super important. And, and like you said, I mean, you don’t have to just jump, jump all the way in to spending, you know, hundreds or even 1000s of dollars, you know, into these ads. And in fact, you know, running ads is a little bit art and a little bit science, right takes a little bit of time for ads to run through. So if you’ve tried ads, and you’ve maybe you tried them for a month or two months, and you weren’t seeing the results, you couldn’t figure out if they were working or not, which is one of the problems of running ads specifically for self serve, is that it’s really difficult to see. And to know if it’s actually working and how well it’s working or not.

Brittany Centers 38:32
I mean, I almost went to differ a little bit with so so

Jordan Berry 38:37
beg to differ, then do it. I do I’m sorry, you want to be wrong? That’s fine. I’m just kidding.

Brittany Centers 38:44
So service is one of the easiest, or is the easiest out of washer fo picking delivery to determine about social media. Because you just study, like if you’re running the ads correctly. And once again, and also this what I’m gonna say, again, boosting a post is not really an ad. I mean, isn’t that on social media, you’re boosting it, you’re paying money for it, but it’s like, there’s so much more capabilities on the back end of social media. But self service is the easiest way to tell if social media is working or not.

Jordan Berry 39:16
How do you know? Like, how do you know if people responding to your ad or not? Because you’re like, actually, okay, yeah, but here’s here’s my point is I don’t disagree with that. I think it’s hard. I think it’s harder to attribute that then if you said hey, come to come drop off your laundry use this promo code and you know I mean, or do pickup or delivery use this promo code now I know the ad worked I know they used it and I know specifically where that customer came from self serve. You could see the income increase be don’t know No, I mean, you can infer but you don’t know know that. They came from that ad. I guess that’s my point. I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong there too. Well, correct Welcome to be wrong.

Brittany Centers 40:02
No, no, no. Yeah, I mean, you’re not wrong. But at the same time, like it’s easier to get self service customers, right? Yes. You’re not asking them to spend as much money. It’s like one of the hardest industries in social media is real estate. Because you’re asking someone to spend, you know, like hundreds of 1000s of dollars. So anytime that on social media, if you’re asking people to spend like more, the more money you’re asking them to spend, the harder it is

Jordan Berry 40:32
to convert them. Yeah, yes.

Brittany Centers 40:35
Now you can track the conversions with like Worcester, IFO and especially pickup and delivery and pickup and deliveries very easy to track, because you’re running an ad, you’re directing them to the website. And they’re using, you know, whatever content delivery system, whether it be like since curbside or clean cloud, those are just three, you know, like, kind of on. And so you can track all that and the links, and then you can also use Google Analytics. As far as that is your right self service is the hardest to track is like a trail.

Jordan Berry 41:08
Yeah, yes. Hardest to track is to convert. I’m glad I was a little nervous. I’ll be honest with you, when you beg to differ with me that I was going to be wrong in front of all of my friends. Right? No, no embarrassed. You’re also right, like,

Brittany Centers 41:24
self service customer. Yes, yeah. And it is to get washed off out. I’m picking the military.

Jordan Berry 41:28
Well, and I think part of that too, is that specifically for pickup delivery. But also I think for drop off laundry, there’s a little bit of an education factor in there, too. Not everybody knows that they can drop their laundry off and have somebody else do it. And definitely not everybody knows that they can, you know, fill out a form online and somebody will come to their house and pick up their laundry, wash it, fold it and bring it back to them. And so you know, I mean, I think for sure, I think you’re dead on like, the more money you’re asking people to spend, the lower your conversion rate. But also, there’s that education factor where you got to say, Hey, did you know? Yes, well actually just come to your house and grab the laundry from you. And you don’t even have to think about it until we drop it off. All folded and clean for you smelling good, ready for you to look sharp.

Brittany Centers 42:17
You know, that’s the power of social media, like say, a CEO of a major company. They’re probably super busy. They have no idea that their laundry most of the time, they have no idea that their laundry could be like they just, if it’s just gonna be done for them, someone’s gonna pick it up, someone’s gonna deliver it. And they have almost nothing to do. And that’s the power of social media, because we’re targeting people that could use the service, but don’t even know that. It’s there.

Jordan Berry 42:47
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And here’s a little hack for you. Huge, high level CEOs out there. Why don’t you just go by laundromat and start a pickup and delivery and then you don’t have to worry about it at all You don’t have to pay for it’s great. Just kidding. Use your local laundromat, pick up delivery service and support your local laundromats you big week CEOs that are listening to this podcast right now. Like Brittany, you’re kind of you’re kind of the demographic here. You’re a big CEO of Senator social. So,

Brittany Centers 43:21
I mean, maybe I have kind of three small boys that have lots and lots and lots of laundry. Yeah,

Jordan Berry 43:30
yes, we do all know that kids are filthy disgusting creatures. So yes. Slash our best customers.

Brittany Centers 43:39
Yes. That’s very true. Yeah.

Jordan Berry 43:43
Yeah. Awesome. I mean, yeah, a lot going on right now there’s a lot of a lot of things changing algorithms are always changing. You know, the, the landscape is always changing right now. It’s still hot to be posting those shorts, reels tiktoks to get that exposure. But also, I mean, like you said, and it’s been this way for a while, but you know, running those ads is, is a big deal. And I would say hey, listen, if you’re if you’re pretty new, to run an ads, number one, I mean, you got you’ve got a couple of options. You know, you can either go learn all this stuff yourself and then spend a lot of money you know, figuring it out, which is fine, because you’re going to end up spending a lot of money figuring out how to run ads, or you can hire somebody to do it. There’s no right or wrong way. There’s some di wires and there’s some, hey, I’m gonna get it done by somebody who already knows no right or wrong way there. But either way, like get started now because I think, you know, like what Brittany was saying. I think there’s gonna be a small window for a huge opportunity to start to get in early and start running those ads on the reels, the shorts, the tiktoks and running those. Those ads and get in front of the people in your neighborhoods, and whether that’s, you know, getting them to come to your self serve laundromat. Or if it’s getting them to come, you know, and try out your drop off laundry or or pickup and delivery laundry service. So, but but be read, don’t experiment on that try to be ready for when that that pops up and in jump on that early. And I mean, I think there’s going to be, you know, ad costs are going to be low, and your views are going to be high, early on, and those you know, those will start inverting over time where the ad costs will continue to rise and your your impressions are going to be lower down the line. So get in early on that.

Brittany Centers 45:39
Yes. And that’s one thing that I would like to say like, if you’ve owned a laundromat for 3020 years or whatever, like, just because it’s working like, I mean, the the world is changing, you know, millennials and all these other generations, like how are you going to reach those people? Like, just word of mouth and that you’ve been here forever? It’s gonna stop working.

Jordan Berry 46:02
Yeah, you know, just to kind of speak to that veteran demographic, too, you know, it’s the whole old dog new tricks. Well, number one, don’t be an old dog. And but number two is, you know, even just think about it in terms of the value of your laundromat, at some point, you’re gonna want to exit that laundromat and the value of your laundromat is going to be higher, if your demographic isn’t aging with you, right, you. And you see that a lot in, you know, like, I grew up in churches and stuff. And you see, there’s like a generation that kind of gets up. And then you see these churches that are like, old churches. And there’s not a lot of young people anymore, but it’s because they weren’t able to kind of, you know, speak to upcoming generations in a way, you know, that resonated with them. And the same is true with businesses. I see this with businesses all the time to where if you know, you lose your demographic, if you’re not keeping up with with the trends, not necessarily of social media often necessarily keep up with the social media trends. Have somebody else do that for you. But just keeping up with the trends of hey, what matters to what matters to younger generations to so just keep that in mind, I guess.

Brittany Centers 47:18
Yes, I agree. Awesome.

Jordan Berry 47:21
You got anything else for us? Before we wrap this up? This has been awesome.

Brittany Centers 47:24
I am good. But you know if anyone has any questions, you can feel free to reach out to me or

Jordan Berry 47:32
you want to drop your email address. I’ll put it in the show notes too. But

Brittany Centers 47:35
yes, it is Brittany at center social.com or info at center. social.com.

Unknown Speaker 47:43
Okay, and what’s your website? Senator central.com.

Jordan Berry 47:46
Okay, I’ll put all that in the show notes. And then also, I’m mentioned this, I say that, but I haven’t yet, but I will mention this. And you will have already heard it in the intro. That we’re going to do a webinar just talking about social media and advertising. On May 3, four o’clock Pacific Time, best Coast time, seven o’clock, East Coast time, least Coast time. That’s May 3, we’re gonna do a webinar on social media and advertising. So come join us. We’ll do some q&a. At the end of that you can talk with Britney, you can listen to my sweet, sweet voice as I ask Brittany questions, or just listen to Britney. But yeah, come hang out with us. That’d be fun.

Brittany Centers 48:30
Thank you, Jordan.

Jordan Berry 48:32
Thank you. And I’m looking forward to that. And for the rest of you guys. Hopefully, you got something good out of that go, you know, jump into this. This marketing thing I know, it’s not been a big topic in our industry for ever, almost never. But it is becoming more and more of a big deal. And I am seeing like I have had this cool privilege of being able to talk to laundromat owners all over really the world but all over the country or all over the hemisphere. And, you know, I am seeing more and more people utilizing social media marketing, Google advertising, social media advertising for their laundromats. It’s not necessarily and if you build it, they will come the world anymore. And it’s moving more and more away from that world and more and more to just a little more competition there. So don’t get left behind. Jumping on that game and Brittany once again, always Always a pleasure and I can’t wait to do the webinar with you. Thank you all right, another incredible episode with Britney so much good stuff in there. And man, here’s my big takeaway is number one. You got to be doing this stuff. You got to be doing some advertising, you got to be posting on social. You’ve got to get your business in front of eyeballs. That is critical and consistency is key. So that’s my one big takeaway consistency is key and just do it. Nike sponsored by Nike. I don’t know why I just said that. Nike sponsored me. I don’t know why they would but you know, I don’t know Michael Jordan of laundromats Jordan berry of lawn I don’t know. Okay, anyways, that’s my big takeaway. Listen every episode, pick one thing, whether you own a laundromat yet or not pick one thing. There’s tons of stuff in here that you can put into action this week, put into action. Remember, it’s that action that’s going to help you achieve your goals. It’s going to lead you to success. So pick something, put it into action, maybe go share it on the forums, automat resource.com/forums and we will see you in next week’s episode which is a doozy. Alright, we’ll see you guys then. Peace.