Why you shouldn’t stop your marketing plan during a pandemic

Are you quarantined at home an not sure what to do? Are you fearful that your cleaning business is losing clients and are thinking it might be time to cut down your overhead as quickly as possible? Certainly, you don’t want to be needlessly throwing money away in your business, but some aspects should stay. Your marketing plan shouldn’t be one of the things you eliminate and in this post, you’ll learn why you shouldn’t stop your marketing plan during a pandemic.

You aren’t the only one stuck at home and using social media

It’s unfortunate, but a lot of people are stuck at home right now, and some of them are working, and others have a few weeks off until things settle down. What do many people do when they have idle time? They sit on their phones and use social media.

If you aren’t marketing your cleaning business on social media right now you could be missing a lot of potential leads and new clients. While most people are in fear and paralysis mode, you can capitalize on your competitors doing nothing.

Let’s face it, you probably aren’t the only one with a cleaning business in your area right? While most business owners are in fear mode and cutting back on their marketing, it leaves you a wide-open market with little to no competition.

If your cleaning business is the only one running Facebook ads, for example, your company now becomes first in mind for your potential customers. Another benefit to maintaining or even increasing your marketing budget is that if your competitors are slowing down and cutting back you could experience lower ad costs due to less competition.

Growing your email list could be even easier during a pandemic

This too shall pass. Here’s the thing, many of us are stuck inside and are anxious for things to be back to normal. It’s chaos out there right now, but these times won’t last forever.

We don’t know exactly how long this will last, but things will get better and most people know it. Now can be a great time to build your list for a fraction of the cost by being the light in the darkness.

Instead of spreading doom and gloom, promote something positive and share with people how your business can make their lives better. People are more concerned than ever right now about keeping their family safe, so why not create a cleaning and sanitizing guide for businesses and homeowners (or let us do it for you)?

If your cleaning business provides these services right now, you could actually be increasing your business rather than going backward. Making a checklist or guide centered around cleaning for health could be a quick way to generate a lot of leads for your business.

By creating a lead magnet that is timely and useful and start promoting it on social media and your website right now, you can generate a lot of leads quickly. Some of these leads can become clients right away, others you can convert when things are back to normal.

If you stop your marketing plan, it doesn’t work like a light switch that you can turn off and on and expect instant results

A common misconception with marketing is that it works like a light switch that can be turned on and off to produce quick results. The reality is, marketing is a lot like farming.

With farming, you plant seeds and tend to your crops, and then after a few months, you reap a harvest. This is how marketing works as well.

Imagine planting some corn, and the next day walking out to your field and yelling at the ground in frustration when you didn’t see corn stalks that were waist high. If you did that, you’d probably be crazy.

Well, it’s the same thing with marketing your cleaning business. You can’t turn on ads or create blog posts and implement content marketing today and expect to have hundreds of clients tomorrow. You need proper expectations and realize that an effective marketing plan takes time to produce returns.

When you start and stop your marketing, it’s like going to the field and digging up all of the crops before harvest and then planting seeds again when you turn your marketing back on.

If you start and stop your marketing, it causes you to lose all of your momentum and it will take longer to see results rather than sticking through this short drought.

Can you add relevant cleaning services people are still buying right now?

We know some cleaning businesses are really hurting right now, but some are actually thriving. Some of what we have seen is that cleaning businesses that are focused on cleaning for health, sanitizing, and disinfecting are experiencing an increased influx of work and clients.

Do you have a sanitizing or disinfecting service for your cleaning business? Now could be the perfect time to promote it, or if you don’t have one, see what you can do to get the necessary equipment to add these services.

Traditional residential cleaning we have seen take a hit, but there are options to stay afloat even during these hard times. One strategy could be to offer pre-paid services for when things get back to normal and offer them at a discount.

Doing this can lock in future clients for yourself and continue your cash flow when most businesses are losing clients. Another similar option is to sell gift cards at a discount that people can use when normal cleaning resumes. It could be something like spend $250 on gift cards and get $300 in value.

Are you adopting safety practices during this pandemic? We suggest sending an email to all of your clients and promoting your new safety standards for your cleaning business that keep your clients and staff safe during this time. If you have the right safety precautions in place your clients shouldn’t have anything to fear with continuing services.

Another option could be to expand into commercial cleaning if you are in residential or vise-versa. Commercial cleaning businesses can add some upfront cash flow with residential clients, and residential cleaning businesses could add some larger accounts with more businesses than ever focused on staying clean and healthy to remain open as long as possible.

If a recession does happen, double down on marketing instead of eliminating it

None of us knows how long this pandemic will last and how soon things will return to normal, but it will impact the economy either way. Some think it will lead to a recession, others thing maybe even a depression, but either way, it will take some time for things to recover.

With that in mind, is it best to wait until things go back to normal or take action now? Well, according to Forbs, they say if a recession does come, don’t stop advertising and don’t stop your marketing.

If you are going the route of promoting sanitizing and disinfecting, it could be a great time to double down and advertise it. Again, if you stop advertising or cut back, your competition can gain valuable market share and you can lose all momentum you’ve built up over the past few years.

Cleaning may seem like a luxury service during a recession, but if you emphasize the time-saving aspects of it for homeowners or can help you maintain business. Time is money and instead of wasting time cleaning their home, people can use that time to work and make even more money or spend quality time with their families.

Businesses can save by outsourcing cleaning to your company instead of trying to do it in house. If a recession does happen you can still gain business you just may need to change up your messaging and offers to remain effective in the marketplace.

Should you stop your marketing plan?

We know things are a bit crazy right now, but in the world of business, the ones who truly succeed look long-term and don’t only make decisions based on short term situations. Cutting back on your marketing right now could be a huge mistake even if the short term setbacks you may be facing right now are serious.

Obviously the last thing we want to happen is for your company to go out of business, and we understand you may need to make cutbacks. However, just consider that cutting back on your marketing could be a major cause of continued losses, rather than maintaining your business or even increasing it during these uncertain times.

If you’re interested in learning more about our marketing packages or scheduling a call with our team, click here to learn more.