he doorbell rang right in the middle of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. A man wanted me to know about his new residential carpet cleaning company. We have hardwood floors in the house. The experience got me thinking. Canvassing may work for political campaigns in the election season, because it’s expected. Canvassing as a business marketing tactic is a live, face-to-face version of a telemarketing call. It’s an interruption. It’s out of context. It’s irrelevant.
Baskin Dimbulb’s post about Charmin experiential promotion inspired me to further ponder, what could the cleaning company do to put the service into context and make it relevant to home (and carpet) owners. Sure, it’s tricky. Customers can’t know the benefits of the service until they see the result. You can’t easily do demos because you’re delivering your service inside people’s homes. You have a tiny budget. Here are my first thoughts:
- Offer someone with a big home free cleaning for a year, if they agree to periodically open their carpeted house and invite neighbors to come check out the clean carpets, eat cookies, and chat. Clean the neighbor’s carpet. Repeat.
- Roll out a red carpet on the neighborhood’s main drag, Woodstock Boulevard. Let passersby walk all over it. Clean the red carpet. Repeat.
- Set up a mock living room in the Safeway parking lot, with furniture, lamps, books, space heaters, and as big a rug as possible. Invite shoppers to sit a while, drink hot cocoa, walk on the rug or even spill their drinks or some of their groceries. Clean the rug. Repeat.
Would any of these stick? Generate word of mouth? What do you think? What other guerrilla tactics would you suggest to a small residential cleaning company?
