How Cleaning Professionals Economize When Marketing In A "Down Economy"

When smart cleaning professionals think of economizing, they shouldn't necessarily think of trying to save money at any cost. What they should think of is getting the absolute most from any money they have to invest in marketing.

The smart cleaning professional must have the insight to know that economizing has nothing to do with cost; but rather it has everything to do with results.

To be sure, the smart cleaning professional must adopt a philosophy of economizing. One key to economizing is to not think in terms of purchasing, but in terms of acquiring. That means you open your mind to bartering, sharing, renting, even modifying an existing item or even borrowing it. It means possibly learning a few skills so that you can do rather than hire.

Learning A Few Skills So That You Can Do Rather Than Hire.

Desktop publishing software such as Microsoft Word or Publisher enables you to save a ton of money usually paid to pros. The smart cleaning professional must also be keenly aware of when it makes sense to hire a pro. But, not in haste!

They might hire a professional designer to give their marketing items a powerful visual format, then use their own staff members or themselves to continue generating marketing materials that follow this same format. (Paying a designer to build Word & Publisher templates is money well invested). They learn from every consultant they hire.

By understanding that economizing does not mean saving money, but investing it wisely, smart cleaning professionals test their investments on a small scale before plunging headlong into any kind of marketing. They don't have to fear failure, providing the failures are small ones and knowing that even one success in ten tries means discovering a path to profitability.

The smart cleaning professional knows that real frugality is more about priorities and results than just saving money.

Of all the methods of wasting money and not economizing, the number one money waste in all marketing is failure to commit to a plan.

Untold thousands have been invested in marketing campaigns that had everything right about them except a real commitment on the part of the cleaning professional. The smart marketer has learned that it takes time for an investment to pay off and instant results rarely occur.

Abandoning even the smallest marketing campaign before it has a chance to produce wastes money in three ways.

First, it means all previous investing in the campaign has been wasted.

Second, it means new investing will be necessary to generate the share of mind that precedes a share of market.

Third, it means creating new marketing materials all over again.

Cleaning professionals have other ways they waste money as well.

• Some pay a "guru" to do marketing research instead of doing it themselves.
• Others blindly commit precious dollars to a campaign touted by a "guru" that they themselves haven't tested.
• Still others pay a pro for marketing materials that must be updated regularly, rather than creating timeless or easy to redo marketing materials.
• High on the list of ways that small cleaning professionals waste precious marketing funds is that of blindly investing in "guru" generated marketing programs that usually only reward the "guru". Marketing has an obligation to put money in your bank account, not smiles on the face of an industry "guru".

Marketing To Existing Customers

The most effective method of economizing is also one of the most overlooked -- marketing to existing customers. It costs one-sixth as much to sell a service to an existing customer than to sell that same service to a non-customer. The price of discovering and convincing likely customers is astronomical when compared with the price of doing the same with current customers. Database marketing has dramatically lowered the cost of marketing to existing customers and yet some small cleaning professionals fail to even try to market for repeat sales or referrals!

Avoid Buying What Isn't Really Needed

Small cleaning professionals must avoid buying what they want and don't really need, don't fall prey to slick "guru" salespeople representing "cookie cutter" marketing tools, avert bad decisions by refusing to make quick decisions, and constantly ask themselves -- "If I didn't need this yesterday, why do I need it today?"

Economic errors often made by small cleaning professionals are:

• Failure to negotiate, comparison shop or use the internet for pre-purchase research.
• Not knowing exactly where every one of their marketing dollars are going and not recognizing that the leaner their spending today, the fatter their cushion tomorrow.