One of the most important parts of running a business—any business—is marketing. It’s a non-stop activity that starts even before you open and continues well after you’ve first launched. In fact, it can even be argued that marketing is even more important late into the game when people are already used to your presence and new businesses start cropping up.

When it comes to marketing your cleaning company, there are three important things you need to focus on:

  • Your quality and efficiency of work
  • Your scope of services
  • Your pricing

The first one is arguably the most important. After all, you don’t have a tangible product to sell and customers are easier to convince to buy something if they can see and touch it as proof. You can’t do that for a cleaning service, where your product is a promise of quality.

That said, the task isn’t entirely insurmountable. Here are a few tips to help you get started with the effective marketing of your cleaning company:

Market Yourself as a Solutions Provider

People have all sorts of problems, that much is a given. Moreover, they spend their resources in finding solutions for those problems. As such, it’s a better idea to market your services as solutions.

The key is to not focus on yourself, your skills, and your equipment. All of these are secondary. Rather, focus on the customer, their problem, and how your services can be of help. It won’t matter to the customer if you’re extremely good at what you’re doing if they see it as unhelpful for their dilemma.

Study the Market and Specialise

Cleanliness is an important component of health and safety. In short, everybody needs it. However, the thing with marketing is that you can’t just say that your services are for everybody. That’s simply not wise and quite ineffective.

What you need to do is to conduct some market research. You also need to determine your target market. Are you planning on becoming known as the experts in cleaning hospitals and health facilities? Do you want to advertise yourself as an office cleaner? Do you want to go extremely niche and be the authority for cleaning and restoring carpets?

By establishing your target market, you can craft a message that’s customised and targeted. Focus on one or two main services first. Expansion can come later once you’ve already established yourself as a reliable and high-quality cleaning company.

Show How You Work

The proof, as the old saying goes, is in the pudding. The problem here is that this is a little hard to do with cleaning businesses because again, you provide something intangible. You can’t simply go off handing samples or testers to passersby; you actually have to do your job to show what you can do.

In this regard, documentation is important. Take before and after photos. Film short videos of your staff at work. Build a portfolio, so to speak. Just make sure that, if you’re taking photos and videos while working in a client’s premises, you have permission to do so.

Give Guarantees

When it comes to cleaning, quality is very, very important. Indeed, it doesn’t matter how many certifications you have; your customers will hardly care about these if you can’t guarantee that you’ll leave their property sparkling clean.

Thus, if you’re absolutely sure that you can solve your customers’ cleaning problems through a combination of expertise and equipment, extend a guarantee. Give that reassurance that your services are well worth the price.

Consider a money-back offer in the event that the customer is dissatisfied with the results. This is not just a show of confidence in your cleaning company’s calibre. It’s also a good way to continuously push yourself and your staff to always be at the top of your game.

Capitalise on Social Media

Nowadays, almost everyone with internet access is on social media. Thus, it’s definitely a sound marketing strategy to be present on these platforms. However, you need to make sure that you understand how each social channel works to maximise the results.

For example, Facebook allows business owners to set-up pages where you can upload content, engage with customers, and inform them of your latest products and services. Customers can also leave a review on your business page, which goes a long way in promoting your cleaning business through word of mouth.

Meanwhile, Instagram is specifically built for visuals. This is where you can put a high-resolution gallery of your before and after photos, quick videos of your team at work, and similar content.

Finally, LinkedIn is more professionally inclined. It’s where you can build a healthy network of business partners, fellow practitioners, and potential clients, while you also create a credible image. LinkedIn is also a good place to find employees, just in case you’re looking to expand your team.

The bottom line here is that you have to have a different approach to marketing for services over marketing for products. You’re banking on a promise that you can deliver top-notch cleaning for a reasonable price, and you have to effectively communicate that.

Hopefully, these tips have helped you get started on a good marketing plan to boost your cleaning company.

Good luck!