Marketing is a vital component for any business to succeed
However, marketing to consumers is a different animal than marketing products and services to other businesses (B2B).
That’s true for commerce in industrial laundry. But there are even more differences between large, national laundry operations and more localized small to mid-sized facilities. How can smaller laundries compete in marketing against larger entities?
American Laundry News asked four professionals involved with industrial laundry marketing to share their expertise:
- Carmella Cadusale, founder and chief strategist of MCC Marketing Consultancy in Cleveland and a media partner/ad sales rep for TRSA.
- Katie Cox, social media and marketing specialist with the Association for Linen Management (ALM) in Richmond, Kentucky.
- Rebecca Dutcher, president and CEO of RED66 Marketing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which works with several industrial laundry clients.
- Emily Hauber, director of communications for CITY Laundering in Oelwein, Iowa.
Marketing for industrial laundries isn’t the same as for retail/consumer-focused businesses. What are the differences?
CADUSALE: Industrial laundry is truly a relationship business. You’re not asking someone to buy a pair of shoes. You’re asking them to trust you with a critical part of their operation. Purchasing decisions are based on reliability, service, quality and the ability to solve operational challenges. Marketing’s job is to build that trust long before the first sales call.
COX: Industrial laundry marketing isn’t about convincing someone to make a quick purchase. It’s about earning trust over time. Customers are looking for a partner they can rely on, someone who understands their operation, anticipates their needs, and consistently delivers.
For small and mid-sized laundries, one of the biggest advantages is the ability to build genuine relationships. They often know their customers personally, understand the unique challenges each account faces, and remember the small details that make customers feel valued. That’s something marketing should communicate, because those relationships become a competitive advantage that larger organizations often struggle to replicate.
DUTCHER: There is a longer buying cycle when contracts are in play. Staying in front of prospects to nurture them takes time.
Relationships take time to develop. It’s rarely a cold call or email that will get someone to switch providers or start an entirely new program. Businesses are doing more with less. With all they have on their minds and all the information available at their fingertips, standing out for how you will help them will get you noticed.
Industrial laundries’ target audiences often know what they need. Some uniforms/linens have standards or requirements that need to be met, which is important to them. There’s less educating them about the products or process itself and more about why their company can do it better, helping them save time and money. And ensuring that the benefits from switching providers far outweigh the pain and frustration of staying where they are.
Retail and consumer-focused tends to move faster, but still, if they are bigger purchases — think about a new roof or appliance — consumers will do their research and even select make, model, and where they will buy it from before they talk to many people. Some will visit the showroom or store to make the purchase they’ve already researched.
What laundries can take from consumer-focused businesses is that they are still working with consumers. People, when looking for a new solution for their business, will still look at reviews, do their research, and ask for referrals from others they know. Building a brand and good reputation are important no matter who your customer is.
HAUBER: We’re selling a recurring B2B service, not a one-time purchase, so the whole game is trust and long-term relationships instead of impulse purchase. Our decision-makers are business owners and facility, plant, and safety managers who care about reliability, responsiveness, and compliance, not a flashy promotion.
Lastly, the sales cycle is much longer, so marketing’s real job is to build credibility and stay top of mind for months or years until a prospect is ready to switch providers. We are playing the long-term marketing game vs. the quick marketing campaigns.
Share some of the more effective marketing methods for industrial laundries.
HAUBER: The most effective methods are the ones that build relationships and prove reliability and stability. We focus on local SEO (search engine optimization), targeted outbound to specific industries, customer testimonials and consistent educational content that shows we understand their world.
Referrals and word of mouth carry huge weight in this industry because owners talk to each other. Video content is also a powerful tool, since seeing our plant, our people, and our process shows authenticity, which builds trust faster than any brochure.
CADUSALE: I’ve noticed that companies that stand out are the ones that lean on education and partnership and expertise. Customer success stories; videos from the plant floor; employee expertise spotlights; trade show demos and connections; LinkedIn executive thought leadership; and industry publications all work together in a comprehensive way. The goal is to consistently demonstrate expertise and remind customers why you’re the partner they can count on.
COX: Some of the most effective marketing doesn’t feel like marketing at all. It comes from consistently demonstrating your expertise, building trust and staying visible to your customers.
Referrals and word of mouth remain incredibly powerful in this industry because business is built on relationships. Beyond that, sharing customer success stories, educational content, employee spotlights, community involvement, and operational insights helps reinforce credibility.
I also believe LinkedIn is one of the most underutilized marketing tools in our industry. It’s an opportunity to pull back the curtain and show the people behind the business. Share why your company exists, celebrate your employees, highlight customer partnerships and tell the stories. Those authentic moments help strengthen relationships with current customers while allowing prospective customers to connect with your organization before you’ve ever had a sales conversation.
DUTCHER: First and foremost is messaging that speaks directly to a customer’s pain point: missed deliveries, missing uniforms, rising invoice costs. Show them you understand their pain and bring proof points of how you solve that with testimonials and case studies.
Take the questions and answers that sales and service reps share with prospects and customers and turn those into website FAQs, social posts, even emails to prospects. You’re taking specific, relevant content and putting it on other channels.
With good prospect email data, you can create highly specific campaign messages that speak to pains in various industries and be available to answer questions right away. Emails can be personalized by sales rep, and if you know the current provider or contract end date, you can be even more specific.
Google Ads requires diligent keyword research, targeting, monitoring, and testing, but once you find that sweet spot, you can get very qualified leads on both Google and Meta, which is also one of the largest ad networks, and many people are on it as users. So, using it for retargeting (after someone has been to your website) helps reinforce your brand and your services.
LinkedIn is also great for awareness and some lead-generation support, but it can be more expensive.
Come back Tuesday for part 2 about marketing challenges and effective methods for smaller operations.
