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Written by admin on 26th June, 2008 .....  Print This Post

This is a great article, proving that you can grow your business using the Internet. If a Dry Cleaner can do it (without a website) anyone can do it.

May 1, 2005 12:00 PM , BY BRIAN QUINTON

One of the pleasures of owning a local business is the feeling that it’s an integral part of customers’ lives, as important to their daily routine as the newspaper and the mail. If properly nurtured, these people can develop a relationship with the business that no competitor can disrupt, creating an important base for future growth.

Bob Devaney knows this — he operates three “Dry Cleaning by Dorothy” stores in the South Boston suburbs. The stores convey a “family” feel in many ways, including employing several of the Devaney clan as managers. But he says weekly e-mailings to the 3,000 customers on his house list also have become part of the family tradition at Dorothy’s.

“Dry cleaning is largely a convenience business; you patronize a store because it’s on your way to somewhere,” Devaney says. “I’m interested in making my customers feel more like they’re family. Just the fact that I’m always visible, sending them something each week — that helps make me their dry cleaner.”

Like most small businessmen, Devaney says he found he never had enough time to devote to promoting his services properly. “I was running around like a headless chicken, fixing machines and talking to customers,” he says. “I always was sitting down to design my coupon ad campaigns at the last minute, and paying a lot of money to do so.”

So in 2001 Devaney put sign-up sheets on his store counters and offered $5 in free dry cleaning to customers who submitted their e-mail addresses. Four years later, Dorothy’s house list grows by 25 to 30 names a week, using the sign-up sheets and other acquisition efforts.
Small businesses usually don’t have a lot of ad dollars to spend, and many feel they don’t have the time or know-how to run an e-mail campaign on their own. But Devaney thinks they should at least investigate the available online options. “I’ve been marketing for 25 years, and e-mail is by far the best thing we’ve ever done,” he says. “I can contact up to 5,000 addresses for $50 a month. I can envision some day not doing any other promotion.”