In addition to running my own successful cleaning company and consulting business, I’m also the founder of Cleaning For A Reason, a nonprofit that provides free house cleanings for women who are battling cancer. For years I’ve seen the benefits that companies gain by participating in this program and donating their services to women during their treatment.
By aligning your brand with the concept of giving back to your community, you will create more positive brand awareness for your company than anything else you could do. This type of marketing is called “cause marketing” and it’s a way for you to get absolutely free press. I’d like to cover a few simple strategies related to cause marketing that will help you gain more exposure for your business.
When you start giving back to your local community, you’ll get people talking about your business and telling their friends and coworkers about your company. This is a good thing—you want people talking about your brand and your name.
Consumers expect to do business with brands that give back to the community and have a social conscience. Studies show that consumers will switch to or pay more for a brand that is making a difference in their neighborhood. Consumers want to know when they spend money with a business that some of the money is going to help people. There is nothing better for your business than to align it with a caring attitude and giving back to your community. You can enjoy the feel-good benefits of making a difference AND reap financial benefits at the same time.
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
— Winston Churchill
One benefit of providing free services to your community is the opportunity to differentiate your business. It’s hard to stand out from the pack of other cleaning businesses when everyone offers the same money back guarantee, everyone promises to provide all supplies, and everyone says they conduct background checks on their staff. If you participate in Cleaning For A Reason, you’re helping your community AND it’s a great way to stand out from the competition.
When you join Cleaning For A Reason, we do the hard work of vetting patients to confirm that they qualify for a free cleaning. We’re also a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, and by aligning yourself with us, your local media and customers will trust that you’re really offering a service, not a bait and switch. Sometimes people are suspicious of others’ generosity and are afraid to take a chance to contact you for the free cleaning, wondering what’s the catch. By being a part of our program, you take the risk away so customers and journalists know you’re the real deal.
By participating in something like Cleaning For A Reason, your company stands out and it’s an incredible conversation opener. What a great talking point for your chamber of commerce meeting when you stand up to announce that you’re offering free house cleanings to women who are battling cancer!
Are you already in the Cleaning For A Reason program or some other local giveback program? Please leave a comment below— I would love to know what you are doing!
Our organization has served over 29,000 women since we started, partnering with cleaning companies all across the U.S. and Canada to donate over $10M in free house cleaning services. Those numbers really get the attention of the media. Your local newspaper will be happy to interview you about your participation especially when you include that statistic. We help you track your individual contribution, and you can include that detail in the story as well; for example, if you did 20 free cleanings over the past couple of years, you’ve donated over $3000 in services. We track the data for you and help you use that data to your advantage.
One of the rewards of giving back is creating lifelong relationships with the patients you help. You also get customers, but that’s not why you join. It’s a side benefit when some of the women go on to become paying customers.
This is just a sample of the kind of help I can offer in my Cleaning Business Fundamentals course.
