Your Carpet Cleaning COVID-19 Marketing Survival Plan

0:02
It’s John here from carpet cleaner marketing masters wanted to do this video here just to talk about the COVID-19 situation, because there’s lots of concern and fear going on. I talked to a lot of carpet cleaners, we have quite a few carpet cleaners, as clients, several dozen, and I talked to hundreds and hundreds online as well. And there’s just a lot of confusion and fear. And people don’t know what to do. They don’t know if they should be pressing forward. They don’t know if they should be holding back to protect them, their team and their customers. They don’t have to be shutting the whole thing down. So I kind of wanted to talk about the what we see is the COVID-19 opportunity.

0:44
And I don’t mean that to be a little flip. I’m not saying that, you know they’re, you know, Rosy times ahead. We’ll talk about that. But there really is only two ways to think of this. And you’re either going to hear the news, get scared want to curl up in a ball and watch Netflix or you You’re going to see this as an opportunity, and sit, try and separate ourselves from the competition. So I wanted to kind of walk through that. Now, again, as I said, I’m not trying to say that you know, Rosy times are ahead. The reality is, times are tough. And things are going to get worse before they get better, as they say, and we’re going to have this massive slowdown in the economy. So the reality is, in a slowdown, it tends to affect the larger corporations more. They can’t pivot and dodge as easily as we can, as small businesses. So small businesses can can make changes they can they can do a lot of things in the marketplace that really, really help them stand out better. So I was watching a webinar by Mike and what’s his last name? Michalowicz – if you’ve ever seen a profit first great book, if you haven’t read it. He also has another one called fix this next. I haven’t read that one. But profit first, he worked with over 200,000 small businesses. And this interview was just about a week ago. And he was talking about this situation right now. And the opportunity that exists to stand out to differentiate yourself for small businesses to really, really capture market share. So that’s kind of what we want to talk about here is just how we’re going to be able to do that. So the absolute fact is that customers still need your services. And that’s, that’s the truth. They need to know that you are in business. And in a lot of cases, they need you more than ever right now. So we know that you know, people are scared, they’re concerned about viruses, they’re concerned about human contact point sanitation. A lot of us you know, in the cleaning industry know all about that. We’ve been trained on that. We understand that and we can help reassure them they might be, you know, at working from home now they have the children at home because so many things are shut down. They might have elderly parents staying with them to take care of them. So they can take care of their elderly parents, things like that.

3:07
They’re sitting at home, seeing the mess concerned about what’s around them trying to figure out how, how to keep their home safe. So and that’s something that we can actually help with, with, you know, we can clean and we can sanitize and all of those kinds of things. So if you’re ready, there is an opportunity to stand out in front of these people with the right messaging, telling them that you know what you’re doing, you’re in the right place, and you’ve got all the right great tools in place and stuff like that. So we really don’t want to feel like this is a doomsday, we actually want to make sure that we can take advantage of this as an opportunity. So So really, the way to get your mind into this, this this point, is understand that you really got to know that there are really only two potential outcomes.

4:01
Outcome number one is this is the Armageddon, this is the end of times, things are never going to get back to normal. And if you listen to the news, which I strongly suggest you don’t get five minutes, 10 minutes of news in the morning, maybe 10 minutes at the end of day understand what you’re supposed to do, and shut the rest of it off. Because as the news cycle says, if it bleeds, it leads, they are really fearmonger. That’s the whole idea behind it. You’ve got to know what you’re up against. You got to know what’s going on in the world. And then you’ve got to shut it down and be strategic. So, you know, in the short term, you know, you’ve either got that choice of This Is the End of Times, or this too shall pass.

4:44
And I really believe obviously this too shall pass. There’s nothing that that that makes this a permanent situation. It is a blip. Whether that is in two months, four months, six months a year from now, this too shall pass and with that mindset You need to be very strategic in how you’re approaching this. You know, you want to make sure you keep your foot on the gas, you don’t want everything to fall apart. And there’s, again, your customers still need you. And there’s ways to get out in front of them. And there’s things that are going to happen with your competitors, that where they may not have that same mindset. And you’ve got the ability to actually take over and do a lot of very, very strategic things. So what we’re going to talk about here for the next little bit is sort of some of those opportunities that you can take advantage of right now with the right mindset. So having that mindset that this too shall pass, then what are you going to do to make that happen? And that’s kind of where we want to go with this. So, as I’ve been saying, most people are not strategic thinkers. They’re not planning well enough ahead. They see the moment right now they see the news right now they see schools closing and restaurants closing and people You know, crying blows me. And again, they would just want to put their head in the sand, lie on the couch, watch Netflix, and just hope it all goes away.

6:08
And that’s never, you know, that’s not really going to be the best approach. One of the things that I learned years ago and something that is really, really worth paying attention to, is understanding that our thoughts, create our feelings. And then our feelings, create our actions, and our actions create a results. So it is linear like that. So if you don’t have the right thoughts, if you’re thinking, watching the news, getting all down and depressed and, and having those negative thoughts, then it’s going to create a sense of overwhelm, it’s going to create a lot of anxiety and stress, and that anxiety and stress is going to immobilize you, and that you know, and and then you’re gonna you’re gonna have those those negative feelings and you’re not gonna take any of the correct actions. You’re not going to make the right decisions, and the results are going to show for it. And you’re going to prove your thoughts right in the end, because you didn’t take the right actions. If you take the thought approach that this too shall end, I have an opportunity here to position myself as a market leader. And there’s just some things I need to do to get out in front of this. And just ride the tide, and help as many people as I possibly can. And you’re going to feel different when you think that way. If you keep that message in front of you, then the actions you’re going to take are going to be a lot different. And with those those different actions, you’re going to end up with much different results.

7:38
So some of the things I see around this, for example, there there there’s a bunch of opportunities from the marketing perspective, and from the digital marketing perspective. So you know, in digital marketing, there’s going to be an opportunity right now to create a stronger organic presence. So you want to keep content going out. You want to make sure on social media. You want to In your website, it’s a great time to start doing video content, just grab your phone. And we do some training on exactly how to do that we we advise that with all of our clients, but it is something that you need to be doing. And if you can get some video content out around this as well, what your team is doing things like that, then you know that messaging is going to get out in the marketplace, and it’s going to help brand you better, you’re going to get out the lion’s share of the phone calls and the work that’s out there. But you’re also going to be building up this organic presence, that’s just going to put you lightyears ahead of everybody else who’s quieting down and shutting down their efforts. I also think it’s a great opportunity for to continue with paid search. The benefit of paid search is that if people aren’t looking and they’re not clicking, you’re not paying. So it’s also being an auction system. When there’s less people in the you know, running paid search, the cost is less you actually get lower cost per per leads and acquisitions work. Finding that the, the leads that you do get can be a much higher ticket item because they’re going to need all of the sanitizing. They’re going to need all of this, you know this touch point work, they’re going to need to know that, you know, it’s been that what you’re doing in the home is helping make it safe. What you’re doing in businesses is helping them a lot of businesses are are doing double and triple cleaning and sanitizing. And that’s places that you can come in and help with with those things as well.

9:25
So, paid search is a really, really great way to stay out in front of people retargeting. Anybody who comes to your website, anybody who, you know, opens your emails, anybody who gets your message can be retargeted with the message that you’re here and you’re safe, and you know what you’re doing. And you’ve got lots of you get your team training, got lots of resources and stuff like that.

9:44
It’s also another time to start thinking about acquisitions. So there are people that are strategic thinkers that are just going you know what, I’m just going to shut it all down. And that’s that, well, it’s a time right now. We’re businesses when things like that happen, businesses can grow by acquisition, they can end up for, you know, pennies on the dollar, getting a phone number that that is ringing, getting rankings in an area that you currently don’t rank with getting a website that ranks somewhere else, you’re picking up that as well. And all that business, you could be picking up trained technicians that are two or three years plus trained that, you know, you’d have all that effort and time to do. You could be picking them up right now as well, to give them work. So there is a strategic advantage right now to thinking in those bigger terms of Hey, is there any equipment? Is there any zones of any territory and keywords, any, any any people resources that could be picked up if somebody else is not strategically thinking and going through all of that kind of stuff. So it really is the time to sort of think and capitalize on all of that.

10:53
So yeah, right now you want to make sure that you’re responding to the opportunity and Trying to gain as much market share as possible. So the kind of messaging you want to get out there is you want to let them know that you’re open for business. People don’t know that you want to make sure that on social media on, on on Google on on your website and email marketing, phone phone blasting, you want to let your clients know that you’re open for business so that they understand they can call you because there’s a lot of people that just go you know what they’re probably not around, so I’m not going to worry about it. You let them know you’re open for business. You’re going to get you’re going to get the leads in the calls. The other thing they’re going to be scared about is Who are they letting into their home? What are these people know you want to get the message out that you know what you’re doing that your team is prepared, that you’re wearing booties and gloves that you’ve got masks available. If you do that to you know for in the home as well, that you’re got walk off match you’re going to be sanitizing with with a hospital grade EPA certified sanitizers. You’ve got sanitizing services where you’ll you’ll you’ll do touch point sanitizing around They’re home for them as well. Your you know, your your team is washing their hands regularly through the day. They’ve got hand sanitizer and you’re using it, you’re sanitizing all of your equipment before and after every single job and doing a full sanitizing of your vehicle every night at the end of the day, a full wipe down and sanitizing of the vehicle as well. You’re testing your team members, you’re taking their temperature, if anybody seems to be sick, if anybody’s reporting being sick, you’re not letting them out on the job. You want to let the customers know that this is the amount of focus and attention you’re putting on it to be safe for them. They really really want to know that that you are a safe operation to have it and if they trust you on that level and you come across sincere and can tell them all those things on your website on your social media and all of that, then they’re going to they’re going to use your services to help solve those fears that they have, about you know, needing things clean. We all know the you know everything. You know the health authorities. The CDC, the environmental protection agencies. All of them are saying that right now is a time to be cleaning and sanitizing. So you want to be cleaning and sanitizing your hands, you want to be cleaning and sanitizing your steering wheel you with your pumping gas, you want to be cleaning and sanitizing, you know all of that mess up around your home, you want to be cleaning and sanitizing. And that is something that we can help out with in businesses, they want to be seen cleaning and sanitizing, we can help out with all of that, we just have to get the message out.

13:23
So really, if you can see, there’s a huge opportunity to take market share. There’s a huge opportunity to get a message in front of people that you know what you’re doing to come across as a local authority and an expert and really, really stand out things like again, you can be doing videos, you can be doing messaging on your website, you can be doing social media, and stuff like that. So we put together a kit, any of you that are our clients. We’re doing a lot of this for you already. And if there’s more that needs to be done, just let us know. But we’re helping with all that messaging. We’re getting all of that out there as far and wide as we can so that people know that you’re in business. For the people that aren’t our clients, we’re going to make this kit available. We’re going to give you a kit of sort of some information, a messaging kit, the types of blog posts that you can put out there, types of messages, you can put on your website, kinds of things you can put on social media, even the types of videos you should be taking and posting out as well, those kinds of things. So put a kit together, just sort of the messaging to make it easier. So if you don’t know what to say, you don’t know what to do, we’re going to make that available for you to help out as well. So there’ll be a link available on with this video, my team is going to put a link around this video so that you’ll know where to go get that kit. And again, if you’re one of our clients, give us a call if you’re not one of our clients, and you need some help with any of this kind of stuff. Give us a call as well. I’m planning to do more videos like this, some of the marketing opportunities that are available things that we’re hearing from our customers things that we’re doing ourselves, things that are available in the marketplace. to really reach out show your expertise. Show your Care and how you’re willing to respond to this, keep your your pedal to the metal. And as I said, this is this, this too shall pass.

15:07
This isn’t a permanent situation, and you don’t want to be dwindling and falling backwards. As this is, you know, this, this process has moved through. And wrapping up. The mindset is very, very, everybody’s in a hyper state right now the anxieties running high, and fear is running high, but that people are going to have to evolve into the new normal. And the new normal is going to include the services that they need, that helps solve the problems. So sitting around at home and noticing that everything around them is dirty and smelly, that they just don’t notice on the weekends. Having everybody staying at home and staying at home, they’re just going to be festering in that and they’re going to want it cleaned and restored.

15:50
So getting out in front of that message is going to be your strongest, strongest asset right now. And keeping an eye on your marketing and making sure that that you’re in not backing off on marketing messages, you’re being very strategic with your marketing messages. It’s no different than the, you know, 2008 2009 recession and previous recessions before that the companies that survive and grow are the ones that continue to market and create market share and dominate. Pivot a little bit here and there, respond to the situations and the times, but make sure that you’ve got a strong cohesive message that you’re marketing out to the marketplace because the marketing is what creates the awareness, the awareness creates the the lead and the phone call and your authority and and reputation and in the marketplace, is what creates the conversion sale. So you need all of those pieces in place. You can’t just market a message with no authority or reputation. You can’t just have authority and reputation without marketing and you can’t do you can’t get the phone to ring at all if you back off on all of that. So you’ve got to make sure that you’re you’re doing a lot of stuff It’s sort of like the bootstrapping times if you started a business, and you know, on a shoestring budget as well, you know how to bootstrap? Well, we’re back to bootstrapping, in the mix of effective marketing and great messaging, you can come out of this as a dominant player and take over your marketplace, and literally be the market leader.

17:18
So that’s what we like to see with our clients. That’s what we like to see with our industry. We’re really here to help. And we do see this as a short term, short term issue. I see this as being something that will pass and the strategic businesses will have grown through it. So anyways, I hope you found this message helpful. If you have any input anything you need from us, just let us know. And I look forward to talking to you soon. It’s john from carpet cleaner marketing masters. Take care