A video explaining why a stain came out, or a story from a family that’s used the same dry cleaner for three generations, does something a discount code can’t: build trust before the garment ever changes hands
That shift, from promotion to education, is reshaping how dry cleaners approach social media, one post and one story at a time.
“We really tried to shift from, ‘Hey, we’re running a discount,’ or, ‘These are the services we offer,’ to trying to become a resource in the community and foster good, honest, transparent relationships,” says Zach Pozniak, co-owner of Jeeves NY, the New York drycleaning operation he runs with his father and co-owner, Jerry Pozniak. “Maybe they don’t sign up next week, but they know about us, they trust us, and they become a customer a year from now.”
Ditching the Discount Code
Janet Garman co-owns Glyndon (Maryland) Lord Baltimore Cleaners with her husband, Mike, and the business is celebrating its 105th anniversary. Garman describes her strategy in three parts, with promotion coming last.
“One is that we’re trying to educate consumers on the variety of services we offer. We’re not just your neighborhood dry cleaner. We have area rugs, wedding gowns, all these other services,” she says. “And we like to feature local clients, because they could be your next-door neighbor. The No. 1 purpose is to showcase the variety of services we offer.”
Pozniak has taken that logic further than most. Across Jeeves NY’s video content, he estimates the split runs about 95% general education to 5% anything resembling a pitch.
“I don’t think I’ve ever explicitly said, ‘Come to Jeeves,’” he says. “I’ve heavily alluded to it, showing how we care for leather, for instance, but I’d say it’s 95% general education and 5% ‘look how amazing our business is.’”
The same thinking shapes his email newsletter, sent to roughly 8,000 subscribers. “We talk about what’s going on in our area, garments we’ve saved, case studies,” he says. “We really go for more of a soft-selling angle.”
Pulling Back the Curtain
For both operators, the highest-performing content isn’t polished marketing. It’s a look at the work customers never see.
“We’ve had the best engagement, for posts or reels, with images or videos of people who work here, or when we’re out in the community,” Garman says. “People love to see what’s going on behind the scenes. They love seeing your team. People are fascinated by what we do in this industry. Things you might think are mundane, other people find interesting.”
Pozniak has built an entire content philosophy around the same instinct, and around what he sees as the industry’s biggest branding failure.
“I think the biggest mistake is that old mindset, such as a ‘paper flyer’ discount code turned into a social media post,” he says. “The other mistake is staying anonymous. Dry cleaners are incredibly mistrusted in most people’s minds, and I wanted to bring a trust, kindness and authoritative angle to it: showing off the team, how knowledgeable a good spotter is, why pressing a piece is so difficult, why it costs $45 to clean a blouse sometimes and close to $100 for a dress.
“Pulling back that curtain and saying we really don’t have anything to hide, I think, is an advantage. People want to know who’s behind it.”
105 Stories
To mark Glyndon Lord Baltimore Cleaners’ 105th anniversary, Garman set out to record and post 105 short videos of customers, employees and community members, each with a connection to the business. The idea started with a modern collaborator.
“About a year before our 105th, I went to ChatGPT and just started brainstorming ideas for how to celebrate the milestone, and this was something it suggested,” Garman says. “It triggered something in me. I’m very project-driven, so I laid out how I would make it happen, because it’s a huge undertaking and it has to be well organized.”
She built a prospect list of longtime customers, nonprofit partners and community members, then started filming, tracking every step on a spreadsheet.
“In this whole process, there’s been only one client who, for privacy reasons, chose not to participate,” she says. “Everyone else I’ve asked has been more than willing.”
The project has taken on a life of its own.
“Sometimes we’re at the store filming somebody’s story and someone else walks in, wants to know what’s going on, and then they have a story, too,” Garman says. “I was at a luncheon, and a woman sat next to me whose mother-in-law used to work here years ago and would hand her son money through the window while he was at the swimming pool. I said, ‘This is perfect content for 105 Stories.’”
Come back Thursday for Part 2 of this series, where we’ll look at choosing platforms for social media efforts, along with where newsletters can fit into a cleaner’s overall strategy.
