The cleaning industry is hyper-competitive, to say the least. With numerous advantages such as not requiring any office space and needing little capital to start, numerous local cleaning businesses spring up every week.

This makes marketing an extremely difficult challenge. To add to that, the social distancing measures in place due to coronavirus are bound to only further complicate the already arduous task of marketing in a competitive industry.

The good news is that not enough cleaning businesses understand the power that online marketing provides them with. As such, you can use it to gain a huge edge on everybody else. Let’s take a look at a few ways to do that.

Stay Basic, Then Adapt

One mistake that people new to online marketing make is trying to do all of the advanced stuff when they are a beginner. This is not ideal as you may not understand the full implications of every decision that you make.

Over the long term, the difference between a good marketer and a bad one is how they analyze collected data and then optimize their ad campaigns based on it.

Once you start off with basic ads, you should be able to see how they are performing and where the improvements are needed. A great tool if you are marketing on Facebook is the Facebook Pixel, and we have a few tips https://developers.facebook.com/docs/facebook-pixel/ for you on how to maximize your conversions using it.

Build a Plan

Before you begin marketing, you should have a plan in place. Learning how to build a marketing plan is quintessential for any online business owner (unless you are planning on hiring a marketing agency).

Building a marketing plan is actually quite simple. Although it will require you to spend some time, the advantages that you reap in the next few months more than make up for it. Trew Marketing has a fairly comprehensive guide available for free that you can use to get started.

Build a Brand

Obviously, you do not need your cleaning company to be the next Apple. However, you will be surprised by how much impact a little bit of branding can have on your cleaning business.

I have mentioned the impact of videos on your marketing previously, and I must do so once again. What I have not mentioned is how you can get your previous customers to play a part in your videos. If possible, you could ask their permission to show footage of their office/home before and after your services were availed, followed by a commendation from the client directly.

This is important because once your client clicks on your ad, he/she needs to see that yours is a growing company with a robust client base. Spending a few hours a week building your brand will not increase the number of people that click on your ads, but it will definitely increase the conversion rate for those that do.

Another important tip here is to use photos of your own team across your website and adverts. Instead of using stock photos, having your very own team dressed in your uniform (perhaps standing in front of your company vehicle?) is a great way to legitimize your service and appear more professional.

Select the Correct Demographic

One thing that you must ensure no matter what platform you use for your advertisements is that you are targeting the correct demographic. For example, if you offer home cleaning services, you may want to specifically target “home-owners”. The vast majority of advertising platforms offer such a feature, so you should be making use of it from the get-go.

Alternatively, those who are targeting small businesses may want to target people with a high income. Chances are that those who earn less than $30,000 a year will not be able to afford your services. However, individuals making over $100,000 a year will probably have enough income to help you.

Combine Advertisements With Cold Calling

Simply running advertisements is not enough. Since most cleaning businesses operate within a limited area, it is possible for business owners to employ cold calling.

There are numerous ways through which you can do this. This is the one area where meeting a potential client in person (or at least calling them on your phone) is ideal. You can easily combine your online marketing with your cold calling efforts.  For example, you can cold call potential clients who have shown an interest in your cleaning company (e.g. they liked or commented on your Facebook page).

Use Online Marketing to Hire Employees

Lastly, online marketing can also help you hire more employees. While this will not help you get more cleaning business customers, it will still help you scale up and expand your business.

Personally, the best website that I have found for this is Indeed. Indeed is great as you can choose from literally hundreds of applicants, and finding employees becomes easier than you had ever thought before.

Conclusion

We just went through 6 different tips that you can use to get online marketing for your cleaning business right. While these tips are not particularly advanced, they are a great starting point for anyone who is new to online marketing. As you expand your knowledge, you will be able to use advanced tools and techniques to further expand your cleaning company’s client base.