10 Steps To Create a Winning Marketing Program For Your Housecleaning Business

Here are ten steps to creating a powerful marketing program for your housecleaning business:

1. Determine what services you are going to sell. When starting a marketing program, you have to be very aware and clear about what you are selling to customers. If you are selling just your cleaning services, you're not going to stand out to your potential clients and you won't get any extra business. Think of add on services like window cleaning, cleaning tools & products for example.

2. Choose a target. If we were to summarize a high level MBA marketing degree in one word, it would be "targeting". Marketing specialists spend thousands of research hours in conducting focus groups, interviews and surveys to better understand the characteristics that define their clientele. You need to figure out who you are trying to sell your services to so that you can focus tailoring your services to them rather than the public at large.

3. Determine a process. Although some might think you are getting a little ahead of yourself, you can't accept new clients if you don't have a process in place to handle common operational issues such as contact information, hours of operation, booking, billing, and follow ups. Plan in advance to handle people who can't pay you right away or even don't pay at all. Once you come up with a general set of rules, write them down on your computer and utilize when needed. Most businesses never have to think about how to handle payment until someone doesn't pay. Thinking about these things upfront will save you major headaches in the end.

4. Create a match made in heaven. Once you've decided what you have to offer, and who you're offering it to you are then saddled with the task of finding ways to show your target market how they can benefit from your offerings. If you're appealing to home owners and you're selling a high value service, find out how to best explain how you are the perfect business for their needs. The better your explanation, the more concrete your sales pitch.

5. Produce your produce. When supermarkets want to sell fruit, they put it out on shelves for people to come and view. Similarly, you need to create various kinds of materials that can be viewed by your target market. Common items include business cards, brochures, pamphlets and even letterhead for your business. One great way to decide what items to create is by calling a few potential clients and asking them how they picked their cleaning business. Feel free to even call your primary competition and see what they are offering for services and how it's been received by homeowners.

6. Sell yourself, to the clients. While some old school business owners tell stories of direct selling, door to door salesmen aren't very well liked by the general public these days. Find unique but impacting ways to communicate with the audience you chose in step number two. For example, if you want to appeal to busy mothers who don't have time to clean their homes and could use an extra hand around the house, put up fliers at schools, gymnasiums or anywhere else they might see those advertisements.

7. Remember that everyone is in sales. Once you've produced a service to sell, it's easy to be excited about your potential. That enthusiasm can quickly give way to disappointment if people aren't booking your services very quickly. If people aren't scooping up your services like you had hoped, it's helpful to remind yourself that sales is not an easy business. Try and stay focused and remind yourself what your goal is.

8. Rework and reword. Whether people swarm your phone line to have you clean, or the phone has cobwebs on it, remember that perception is everything. If people don't see the value in your services, there's no way they will pay for it. Look at how you are explaining the service to your target market and see if there is anything you can change to help deal with common objections.

9. Focus on the positive. While looking into how to improve, it's often very easy to be negative. Try to focus on the positive advancements you have had rather than the negative ones. If someone buys your services, try and replicate that success. If you already have a steady client base, ask them why they continue to do business with you. Using what you already have will help you to see what you can do better without becoming negative.

10. Extend your reach. Look for new opportunities to communicate with your clients beyond the common or expected methods. If you want to clean an apartment complex, look to get one person signed up then offer them a discount for every extra apartment they get to sign up with you. Look to emails, texting, Facebook, and any other potential venue you can think of to extend your reach beyond what might be readily available.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/6194452

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