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Why Carpet Cleaners Should Have a Marketing Calendar

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Over the last year I’ve used over 45 strategies to get new and repeat clients to use my company for their cleaning. I like Dan Kennedy’s story about one of his students who was asked “What ONE way would he recommend to get 100 new clients?”  His reply “I don’t know ONE way to get 100 new clients but I do know 100 ways to get one new client and I use them all”

You should maintain contact with your existing customers such as:

·    Putting in place a system of regular contact where you can mention additional products and services that might be of interest to your customers

·    Consider using tools of communication like postcards, newsletters, thank-you cards and sales letters

·    Sending out regular reminder cards with an offer

·    Providing helpful tips or passing along related information your customers may find useful

But how do you find time run 45 strategies and keep in touch with your existing clients while running a profitable carpet cleaning business?

I’ve found that the only way to accomplish all this is to have a system. And the most effective way to plan all this is to have a ‘Marketing Calendar’.

In other words, plan out exactly what marketing you will do over the next twelve months. Otherwise work just gets in the way. And before you know it, you’ve gone from being rushed off your feet to having hardly any work booked in. Of course in this business you will always have some sort of peaks and troughs. But advance planning in this way can at least level them out to some degree.

So how does a Marketing Calendar work?

It’s simply a case of having a plan of your advertising and marketing for the next twelve months. This could be done on a whiteboard on your office wall. And of course you must be sure to implement it.

Here’s a very simple example.

  1. Every month on the 1st of the month you could send out a client newsletter. That means that some time before that date there needs to be marked on the calendar when you will write articles for it, arrange to have it printed, stuffed and stamped and then posted. A lot of work? Yes but at least it’s a system. And one that can now become automatic. And because it’s systemised...it will actually get done...resulting in more jobs.
  2. Send out reminder cards or letters at regular intervals (eg every 12 months). With a computer this is actually very easy. Just write on the marketing calendar that on the 15th of every month you will instruct your computer to pull up a list of all clients that used you 12 months ago, 24 months ago and so on. Then simply send them a mail-merged letter reminding them of your service.
  3. Send out thank you letters a few days after every job. Again, simply write on the marketing calendar that at the end of every week (or month if you prefer) get the names of all clients from the week or month before and send them a thank you letter.

It’s always much better to have your marketing laid out in this way. A quick glance shows clearly what needs to be done and when. It’s a system that lines up new business for you automatically.