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5 Ways to Market Your Cleaning Business in Today’s Climate

One of the most frustrating feelings as a commercial cleaning business owner is feeling like your pool of potential new clients has dried up. You’re still doing what you’ve always done to market your cleaning business, but you’re not getting the same results you used to! Maybe you’re asking for referrals from all of your current customers, you’re in the Yellow Pages, you’re buying ads in the local paper, you’re putting up flyers and putting your business cards out on sales counters in your area… but nothing seems to work anymore.

Where have all the hot leads gone?!

Times Have Changed

Today’s business climate – largely due to the internet’s influence – offers your potential customers virtually limitless options and an overload of information. So to get different (read, better!) results from your efforts to market your cleaning business, you’re going to have to take a different approach.

Here are some approaches to consider:

Who Do You Really Want?

Rather than spending money hand over fist to try and blanket-reach everyone everywhere, take a minute to determine who your ideal clientele actually is. Look at your data over the past year or two and discover what industries or geographic locations are the most profitable for you. Start by focusing your attention there. (If you don’t have commercial cleaning software that easily provides you with this customized business data, you will want to start here.)

Using this more targeted approach as you market your cleaning business will help you tailor your brand’s message to better engage with the customers you really want.

Lucas Sankey 579871 Unsplash

Earn Your Referrals

You generally can’t base your entire marketing plan solely around referrals. However, you can hone your team’s efforts in niche areas to make you more marketable for referrals. When your current customers tell their colleagues that they’re fully satisfied with your ability to provide a specific service, whether it’s green cleaning, school cleaning, medical facility sanitization or carpet cleaning, you become more valuable. Your customers can essentially help market your cleaning business for you!

Once you determine who your preferred customers are (see the section above), you can then fine-tune your supply list. This reduces unnecessary expenses. You’re also able to be more purposeful with your hiring approach which reduces employee turnover. Finally, you’re able to intentionally train your team to produce results that keep your customers happy while increasing referrals.

Fish Where the Fish Are

If you’re a fisherman, you know that you can’t go to a lake with no fish in it and expect to catch anything. You need to be where the fish are! In the same way, to catch customers, you’ll need to be where they are. Don’t expect customers to just suddenly show up on your doorstep! To market your cleaning business to business owners and decision-makers, you must be where they are, look the part, and strategically put out the right bait to draw them in! Some of the “lakes” where you may find your customer-fish biting may include networking organizations in your area including Business Network International (BNI), All About Referrals (AAR), International Facility Management Association (IFMA), Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA), and local Chambers of Commerce. You can also get involved in serving at local events to connect with other business owners who may be seeking the services that you offer.

Serve Your Clients More Effectively!

Contact Janitorial Manager Today

Get Social!

Simply put, if your business is not using social media and today’s technologies, you’re missing the boat. As you market your cleaning business, you can reach specific target audiences in an immediately more engaging way by utilizing targeted campaigns via social media outlets. You don’t have to be on all the social outlets, but you should be using at least one: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google+. The options are constantly growing! You can share your services, blogs, promotions, and more on your business’s social page and on your own personal page.

Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and followers to share your posts! Social media has become the new word-of-mouth marketing. People are more than willing to share their opinions and experiences… good and bad. Therefore, be sure you prepare to field questions, requests and comments in a timely and professional manner.

David Clode 424534 Unsplash

Modernize Your Classic Approaches

Don’t listen to others who say that the more “classic” approaches to market your cleaning business are completely devoid of value in today’s business climate. Instead, simply realize that you will need to revamp the same-old approach to meet today’s standards and expectations.

For example, when purchasing print ads, ensure that the publications you choose to purchase space in are also going to promote their advertisers on their website or in their social media campaigns. Ask if you can include your ad on email-blasts to subscribers. Then, see if you can include your ad as a banner or sidebar on their website. Request to sponsor a weekly social media campaign that will give you more visibility to their followers. Lastly, express your expectation that your ads be leveraged in a variety of ways, rather than as one-and-done publication.

You can also modernize your manual phone calls to touch base with previous, present and potential customers by using quality software for your telemarketing campaign (like this one!). A power dialer can help you quickly work through cold lead lists to narrow down to a more purposeful pool of actual prospects to follow-up with. This campaign could be managed by a part-time person in-house with flexible hours. You could also offer bonus incentives for reaching specific goals.

Serve Your Clients More Effectively!

Contact Janitorial Manager Today

There’s Really No Wrong Answer, Except…

As you work to market your cleaning business, be as creative as you can! The options are literally endless. The only wrong answers are to not market your cleaning business at all or to get stuck in a rut of spending money on old approaches that are not producing the results that you need.

To help you better manage your clientele and to stay on top of the day-to-day data that will support your efforts to market your cleaning business to the right audience and to impress their socks off, connect with Janitorial Manager for a FREE LIVE DEMO today!

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