Maid in the Shade: All the elements of a well-done promotion

Friend, colleague, and once and future Opinionated Marketer John Whiteside sent along a promotional e-mail he’d received from a local (Houston) cleaning service, Maid in the Shade - with the suggestion that this would make a good blog topic as an example of a well conceived and executed promotion.

I wish I could include the full e-mail here, but I was having problems bringing in the full image, but here goes my summary version:

• The promo comes with two coupons. The first one, for $10 off for a single cleaning visit, can be used by anyone - new client or returning client. The second coupon offers $20 per visit for the first five visits when you sign up for regular weekly or bi-weekly cleaning.
• The copy for the promo speaks to the current economic climate. It acknowledges that, these days, people are being a lot more careful with their money - putting off the flat screen TV purchase, etc. It then talks about people spending more time nesting in their homes, which leads to the desire to have a cleaner house…

First off, the offers, in John’s words,”just seem really well-matched to the desired behavior, which is to get people to sign up for regular service, or failing that, at least get one visit to hopefully make customers want it all the time.” It’s also nice that the single-visit, $10 off coupon can be used by existing customers. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not a big fan of businesses that offer all the goodies to new customers, but do nothing for the Old Faithfuls. I used to have my hair cut at a place that offered twenty percent off to newbies. Fine. I understand that you need to attract new clientele. But there was never anything for returning customers - no “20% off on your 10th appointment,” no “FREE shampoo and conditioner” coupon for when you hit a certain spending point. Customers like getting rewarded for their loyalty - at least I do. Which is why I keep going back to places that do so. For me, that’s Cosi (best salads in the world), LL Bean (duck boots, etc.), Copley Flair (cards and gifts). Sure, I might patronize all these places anyway, but when I’m going to buy a greeting card, I make sure I do so at Copley Flair and get my card punched.

While the single visit coupon is smart, the $20 off for new customers who sign up for recurring cleanings is ultra-smart. As John mentions, it drives people toward the behavior that Maid in the Shade wants: regular customers. I don’t know what the base price is - I’m guessing in the $60-100 range for a cleaning visit - but the discount is hefty enough to get someone thinking. And since they’re considering lapsed customer new, it’s a great way to woo people back in the fold.

Acknowledging the economic realties is also smart. No, they don’t bring up that someone might consider it supremely discretionary to use a cleaning service (especially if they’re home staring at monster.com all day long). But they cleverly tie the economy to a new interest in staying at home. And if you’re staying at home, it certainly follows that it’s more important than ever for your home to be clean and orderly.

Us B2B tech marketer types could take a lesson or two from Maid in the Shade by making sure that we don’t forget our old customers, and that, with any promotion, we really consider the outcome we’re after. Are we just trying to cram some revenue in by the close of quarter? Do we want to make sure that customers make add-on purchases and really get tied to us? Do we want to drive license revenue? Service revenue? Both?

Like Maid in the Shade, we need to design our promotions around our goals.

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A shout out to John for sending this along. And another shout out to Maid in the Shade for their great name and logo.

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