Today, the average human attention span is just 8.25 seconds. The need to stand out has never been greater. Whether your wash-and-fold service is non-existent, new or long-standing, unlike someone just starting in the laundry industry, you already have a captive and engaged audience. Why not mix things up with your wash-and-fold marketing using one of these fun ideas?

Mystery Laundry Box Subscription

People love an add-on service. In addition to your monthly wash-and-fold program, consider creating an ‘add-on’ ‘Mystery Laundry Box’, where clients sign up to receive monthly laundry-themed goodies. This could include items like lint rollers, stain sticks, sample-size detergents for travel, dryer balls and branded swag. Just because your customers use your wash-and-fold service doesn’t mean they’re not doing laundry at home. If you sell merchandise in your retail stores, you can add product samples to encourage future purchases. To make it more cost-effective, ask local businesses if they want to add an offer to your monthly box. Sticking with cleaning care services like pet groomers or home cleaning businesses will keep you on brand.

Sock Puppet Videos

Why create a boring video when you can get creative? For an ‘out there’ idea, consider using sock puppets to advertise your wash-and-fold services. Sock puppets are playful, engaging and memorable, making them perfect for capturing attention. The puppets can be featured in videos and on your social platforms to create a fun narrative around the often-mundane task of laundry. Sock puppets offer endless creative possibilities – from short videos about missing socks to educational content on how your service works – I guarantee it will be memorable!

Laundry Olympics

There’s never been a better time to tie the Olympics into your social media marketing. Consider creating a social media video, with your CSR or production team dueling it out to win the Gold Medal of the ‘Laundry Olympics’. Incorporate challenges or events like sock-matching, speed sorting lights and darks, and stain removal. I recommend keeping these videos short – about 15–30 seconds. They are great snippets to highlight the spirit of your team and the care you put into your wash-and-fold service. While this is a fun idea, it also shows your customers that, like Olympians, your employees strive for greatness. These videos would perform best as short-form content on social media sites like TikTok, Facebook or Instagram.

Mascots – Superheroes to Fairies

Did you know that brand mascots, animated personalities and characters can increase profit and emotional connection with customers by up to 41%? Consider introducing a brand mascot to promote your wash-and-fold or fluff-and-fold service. From a ‘laundry-themed superhero’ like the ‘Lintinator’ or ‘Dr. Stain Remover’ to a ‘laundry fairy’ named ‘Tumblina’, these types of characters will add a whimsical connection to the service. Historically, creating a mascot was time- and cost-intensive. Today, many platforms enable you to create a business mascot for a fraction of the price. Tap into the power of ‘gig-economy’ sites like ‘Fiverr’, a platform that connects you with graphic designers specializing in mascot design. They work on an hourly or project rate, some starting at just $30 an hour. There are also graphic designer platforms like ‘Place It’. Start with a quick Google search to establish your options.

Use ChatGPT for Creative Taglines

If you feel a mascot doesn’t gel with your brand, consider a witty, fun or playful tagline to market your service. Rather than brainstorm for hours or call your ‘most creative friend’, tap into the powers of AI. Open up ChatGPT in your browser and ask the platform to develop 5–10 taglines for your wash-and-fold service. Once it’s generated a baseline, ask it to create taglines with a unique tone or to ‘pretend’ it’s a type of person. Here are a few I generated with the following prompts:

1. Prompt – Come up with three marketing taglines to advertise my wash-and-fold laundry service using the tone of Superman:

• ‘Fighting Stains Faster Than a Speeding Bullet!’
• ‘Saving Your Laundry, One-Fold at a Time!’
• ‘The Hero Your Clothes Deserve!’

1. … using the tone of the Terminator:

• ‘Stains Are Terminated. Laundry, Complete.’
• ‘I’ll Be Back – With Your Clothes, Perfectly Clean.’
• ‘No Wrinkle Can Escape – We Finish the Job.’

1. … using the tone of Donald Trump:

• ‘Nobody Does Laundry Better, Believe Me!’
• ‘We Make Laundry Great Again – Trust Us, It’s Huge!’
• ‘Your Laundry, Perfectly Clean – It’s a Total Win!’

This exercise took 5 minutes and already generated some awesome ideas!

Do you have more ideas on how to market your wash-and-fold service? Share them in the comments below!