Perhaps you are wondering how to market your cleaning business. Cleaning businesses provide one of the most indispensable services known to man. We are going to explore some of the key things that you must get right if you are to do well in this market.
The best part about it is that you already know that there are people who are looking for your services. Those that are not looking may have yet to realise that they need your services. With these two factors in mind, our marketing planning for a cleaning business should tackle both. We should consider how to reach those who are looking. And how to educate those that do not know that they should be looking.
Contents
Fully Define your offer
Whether you have been running this business for a generation or are just starting off, clearly defining what you are offering goes a long way. The first step of it would just be listing the things that you can do. This can be done in the form of the skills that you have as well as the sort of work that you are willing to take on. For instance, the skills that you have may include:
- Oven cleaning
- Carpet cleaning
- Toilet cleaning
- Kitchen cleaning
- Leather cleaning
- Sofa cleaning
- Stain Removal
- Window cleaning
- Wooden surface cleaning
- Chemical cleaning
And so on
You may perhaps only want to deal with things that are related to the household. This would therefore rule out the chemical cleaning, in most cases. While we are still looking at what you are willing to take on, the next step in this would be to consider the volume of work that you can manage monthly. Write this down.
Knowing your capacity right from the beginning helps your business grow organically. You will know when it is time to bring in new employee or to not take in more work. Both of these are very important. Bringing in new employees would increase your capacity, while not taking in more work than you can manage would also help you maintain goodwill with your customers.
Take this opportunity to write down all of the equipment that you have. This usually becomes a revealing point. You may find out that you have some equipment that you are not making full use of. If fully utilised, it could allow you to expand the services that you are offering. On the other hand, you may also find out that it is time you replace some things.
Another thing that you need to make clear at this stage is how much you charge for each one of your services. You may also consider what discounts you could potentially offer. Would you provide a discount to a client on a weekly/monthly rolling retainer? Perhaps it would be for someone who places bulk orders. You may also consider running a referral system. When someone refers a client to you, they get a discount.
Figure out how much these discounts would be right from the start. You want to note if they would be fixed amounts or a percentage of the revenue generate from the transaction.
Comprehensively define your avatar
One of the most important parts of any marketing campaigns in ensuring that you know who you are trying to reach. Building a marketing campaign without defining your avatar is like trying to make a phone call without the number. It just wouldn’t work. The odds would be stacked against you. The smarter you plan, the easier the whole process will be for you.
Your avatar tells you the kind of person that you are planning to reach. Most cleaning businesses will be based in a certain location and cover a certain radius. Note this down. Whether you will be marketing online or offline, this information will apply.
Consider how old your avatar would be. This can be defined as a range. It does not have to be a specific number. In fact, it would be stupidly presumptuous to put a number to it. Most cleaning services would probably have clients between 23-45 and then 65+. This ties into the reasons that they are looking for your services.
Write down three potential reasons that your avatar needs you. You may have these from conversations that you have had with previous clients.
Some potential reasons could be:
- They live in a shared house and want the help.
- They are a busy professional that needs help.
- They are elderly.
Beyond the reasons, it would help to perhaps consider how much each of these potential category avatars would spend with your business. Consider them from a one-off service point of view as well as if they were to require the service frequently.
How to Reach Your Avatar: Execution
No matter how well you did on the rest of this plan, getting this bit wrong would sabotage it all. However, you will find that getting the other parts right make it more difficult to get this part wrong. You have all the information that you need to deliver a great marketing campaign.
Flyering/Leafletting
To start off you can go with the traditional route. It still works. Distributing leaflets guarantees that your message reaches a certain number of people. It is somewhat targeted. Perhaps not in the way that we would like it to be. You cannot get the sort of targeting
This is a good way to do it. There are various ways that you can go about the execution of this. The design phase is one that you can do by yourself. If you have the time, and want to save some money, doing the design is a good way to achieve this. There are platforms such as Canva that you can use for designing. I have picked some designs for you. All you would need to do it make use of the text that you wrote earlier about the services that you offer.
The Headline
When it comes to print media, your headline can be the making or breaking of any campaign. For your leaflet it could be the difference between going into the bin and getting a new client. You want it to be one that speaks to their need or clearly offers a service. The aim at this point is not to close the sale. It is to grab their attention.
Numbered headlines work a treat. You can use them as part of an offered discount/saving.
You can also throw them in as part of a statistic that would astound. In this case, you are appealing to emotion. This is the one thing that statistics do for us. They are used to give context to things that would otherwise seem trivial.
Option 1
Bringing a professional cleaner may improve your health.
Option 2
1 in 2 homes saw improved health after hiring a professional cleaner.
Option 3
50% of homes experience better health when they hire a professional cleaner.
Presale/Sub-heading
Anyone who is reading this part is already somewhat intrigued. Your headline has caught their attention. At this point, you are looking to draw them even further. This can be done by extending a proposition to them. You are saying, now that you are intrigued at the 50% health improvement that people see after hiring a cleaner, how about we make it easier for you to start off by giving you a promo code to use. Everyone loves a bargain.
Beyond this point, most people know enough to want to take action. Your job is to make sure that this action is easy to take. Consider any objections that they may have. I don’t want to pay by card online. No problem, you can pay in cash on the day. I don’t want to be locked in a contract. No problem, there isn’t one, unless you want it.
Put your phone number and email in prominent positions. It should not be difficult for your potential customer to find the details that they require to make the next step.
Distribution
I remember going to meet with a friend at this restaurant in London years ago. As I got off the train, I saw a young boy dumping a load of leaflets into a city bin. Some poor business had
How does one police this? Well, you can distribute the leaflets yourself or hire people who you know to have the integrity to deliver on their work. Setting some goals and milestones would also help. It could be a bonus if you receive a certain number of calls from the leaflets. There should be an incentive for them to deliver.
You could always go with the old, trusted Royal Mail service. You should enquire with your local postal service if you are not based in the UK.
What do they read
Another key aspect of marketing is making sure that the information is delivered through the right channels. Revisit your avatars and consider what sort of publications they read. These may be magazines or newspapers. If you don’t see your avatar as someone who reads print media, it would be silly to spend a lot of money on this channel. There is nothing wrong with testing. Sometimes this is where our best results come from. If in doubt, and the budget is there, take a chance.
This is also a great way to find cheaper advertising. For cleaning businesses, you know the age range that your avatar falls into. Use that to find publications that would be cheaper. There are a lot of local magazines that do not charge too much for adverts. Check the number of people that they reach and decide.
Head over to Google and search for:
magazines + your local city/town
This could be “magazines Swansea Wales”
Do not stop on the first page of the search dig as deep as you can. Get in touch with the ones you find to get more information about their publication. You want to know what their reach is.
Direct Marketing Channels
Most digital marketing campaigns go right back to the website. You may not be at the stage of having one custom built. There are just so many options nowadays. There really is no reason that you should not have one right now. Your website allows you one place to track the success of your campaign.
It also opens a host of new opportunities for a wide reach. Most searches for products and services start online nowadays. There is no better way to make sure that yours are found than using your website. Once the website is up and running you can set up funnels that would allow you to collect customer details.
Social Media Marketing
Social Media Marketing is the hype these days. Everyone is on there. Facebook has more and more data gathered about every one of us as each day goes by. This is a goldmine where marketing is concerned.
The best approach would be to create your local page. Make sure that you fill it in with as much detail as possible. Some will say that organic reach on social media is seeing diminishing returns. This is true, but there are still some returns to be had.
Use what you know about your avatar to fill in as part of your Facebook Ads details. This is where you may want to tread softly. It is easy to blow through an ad budget without getting what you wanted to get out of it. Start with a small budget and increase it based on the ROI.
Conclusion
As you have seen, marketing your cleaning business does not have to be too complex. There are clear steps that you can take to see good results. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section.
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