How to Market Your Cleaning Business

Now that your cleaning business is off the ground, it’s time to get the word out about your services.

Knowing how to market yourself is an essential part of staying afloat in a competitive economy, and the cleaning industry is certainly no different. No matter how prepared you are to start sweeping up the competition, it’s important to build a name for yourself with intuitive marketing strategies that can help you stand out.

In this article, we’ll provide insight on how to:

• Ensure you have airtight client contracts

• Create a strong online presence

• Successfully bid on contracts

• Buy the right business insurance

If you’re ready to start drumming up more business for your cleaning company, read on for our tips on how to get cleaning contracts.

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1. Make sure you have an airtight contract

Before you start looking to get your leads to sign onto a periodical cleaning contract, it’s important to make sure that you have a template that includes all the relevant terms and conditions with your client.

While every job will be different, you’ll want some standard items on your contract template, such as:

• Length of contract

• Area to be cleaned

• How often cleaning sessions will take place

• Payment terms, amount, and frequency

• Cleaning services required

• Termination requirements

For a small fee, it doesn’t hurt to have a lawyer look over your potential contract with a professional eye to ensure you aren’t missing anything.

2. Have a strong online presence

As a commercial cleaning service, ensuring that you’re recognized online is an important way to garner leads for valuable cleaning jobs. There are a number of different ways get noticed online, such as:

• Build an appealing website. The first thing you should do is put time, money, and resources into making sure that your website looks good. This is one of the first impressions you’ll have on most of your audience, so it’s important to make sure you impress them right off the bat.

• Be active on social media. Never underestimate the power of social media to gain prospective clients online. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are all valuable ways to gain exposure to an audience that you may not have been able to reach otherwise.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With the right know-how, SEO can be a great way to increase your Google page rank without paying a dime. Using knowledge of how to create original content to ensure that your business is visible to search engines can be invaluable to your visibility. If this isn’t your strong suit, investing some capital into SEO can certainly pay back in dividends.

• Pay-per-click advertising (PPC). Another great way to get commercial cleaning contracts is to pay for clicks on your ads, which redirect the consumer to your website. There are plenty of ways to engage in PPC advertising, from social media advertisements to paying for Google search results. Using Octoboard's PPC reporting software will let you know whether the strategies you adopt are actually pulling their weight. This type of campaign has the potential to spiral in terms of costs without delivering a decent return if you fail to properly monitor ad spend, so you have to keep your eye on the ball here.

• Send out strategic emails to your leads. Oftentimes, a good PPC and SEO strategy can create attractive leads that you can reach out to. It’s important to send out email blasts strategically, doing your research to target and cater to specific demographics. It’s important to not seem “spammy” or annoying in these email communications, as this can contribute to your brand looking illegitimate.

• Ask clients to write online reviews. Having a great online rating can be the difference between getting a contract and not getting a contract. Potential customers may make their decisions about what local business to investigate based on which one ranks the highest, so getting satisfied customers to vouch for you online is imperative.

Related: Small business marketing ideas

3. Learn how to bid on cleaning contracts

Let’s say you find yourself in a bidding war for an office cleaning contract. Offering commercial cleaning services is a great way to get locked into making potentially lucrative money, so you want to make sure you do everything in your power to get the contract, such as:

• Schedule an on-site walkthrough. This is a great way to meet the client face-to-face for an opportunity to “wow” them with your thoroughness, personality, and work ethic. After all, wouldn’t you rather enter into a business contract with someone you had met personally, rather than a voice over the phone?

• Understand the client’s needs. This is also a great way to gain a unique perspective on exactly what the client is looking for. For example, maybe they didn’t renew their previous contract because of something small that you can do better. Remember to ask questions to identify exactly what their pain points are.

• Calculate the cleaning area. Come prepared with measuring tools just in case they don’t have them readily available. How large the cleaning area is will be a major factor in how much your quote will be, so this way you can give them an approximate quote before you leave the site.

• Quote the business according to area, services, and staff. Remember that area isn’t the only thing you should base the quote on. Take into account the number of services they’d like done, and the amount of time they’d like it done in. Some jobs may require different equipment, such as a steam cleaner. Other jobs may be required in half the time, so double the staff will be required.

4. Ensure you have the proper insurance policies in place

Some potential clients will only hire a commercial cleaning company that has business insurance, as a way of protecting their assets. Not only is it a good idea to have the proper insurance in place in order to not miss out on jobs, but also for your own peace of mind.

Accidents can happen, and having the correct policy can save you from having to pay out-of-pocket should there be property damage or bodily harm while you’re on the job.

APOLLO’s Small Business Insurance bundles together multiple policies, like Professional Liability, Commercial General Liability, and Contents, to provide you with comprehensive coverage that meets the unique needs of your company.

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