9 Free & Low Cost Ways To Get The Customers You Want

When I started my house cleaning business over twenty-five years ago, dinosaurs like fax machines and video cassette recorders still roamed the earth.

The internet was considered a fad that would fade away in a few years and there was no social media.

Attracting my first ten customers was pretty easy. I told everyone I knew I was starting a house cleaning business.

A former employer was my first customer and she told several friends about my service.

Her friends signed up for service and told others about my cleaning. Before I knew it, I had six customers.

Those six helped me get four more over the next few months.

Then I put a one inch ad in a couple of nearby community newspapers. Those cheap, tiny ads kept my phone ringing for years.

Between those ads and word of mouth, attracting customers for my cleaning business was rarely an issue.

My only problem was talking on the phone over the roar of those dinosaurs! 😉

In all seriousness, I know that attracting and keeping a steady stream of prospective customers can be a difficult part of starting and growing your house cleaning business.

In the beginning, you may not have any referrals or customer reviews.

You have to convince strangers to take a chance on you. That can be scary for them and for you.

Kick Fear To The Curb With A Plan

What can you do to kick fear to the curb? How can you draw a steady stream of prospects to your house cleaning business like a magnet?

Thing is, when you start a house cleaning or maid service, you may not know what types of customers you want to attract with your marketing efforts.

If you do some research before you start your business, you may focus in on the most prosperous parts of your city or county to look for customers based on income levels alone.

Other than that, anyone who pays you to clean seems like an ideal customer in the beginning.

However, as you gain experience with different types of customers, you will find that you prefer some customers over others.

You may find yourself wanting to work only with couples, seniors, singles, price shoppers, convenience shoppers or value shoppers.

At that point, you can start putting together a clear plan to attract exactly the customers you want⎯⎯⎯⎯your ideal customers.

Who Are Your Ideal Customers?

Who are they and what sets them apart from other customers?

What Causes Them the Most Pain?

What are the main pain points for your ideal customers:

Where To Start

Getting all of this information can seem overwhelming and confusing. I know it was for me in the beginning.

Over time, I found the answers to these questions by listening to prospective customers tell me about their experiences with other house cleaners during walkthroughs.

Those prospects often talked about why they needed or wanted a house cleaner.

They went into a lot of detail about their frustrations and pain about cleaning their homes.

They described what a good house cleaner does in their homes and how that made them feel.

Online Sources

I also read a lot of house cleaner reviews on Yelp, Nextdoor and online neighborhood forums.

What stood out on those online reviews is that the cost of house cleaning was less important than finding a trustworthy, dependable house cleaner who did an outstanding job month after month.

I also learned more about who lived in the neighborhoods I wanted to target by going over public records at the library.

These days instead of trips to the library, you can simply search online to get information about potential customers on your phone or computer to find out income levels, ages and house sizes in the neighborhoods or towns you want to serve.

9 Free and Low Cost Customer Lead Streams

Once you have a handle on your ideal customer, then you need to start figuring out ways to draw them into your world.

How can you build free or low cost streams of customer leads ready to sign up for your house cleaning service?

Begin with one customer lead stream that excites you. Set it up, get it moving, measure results, tweak it to make it better, then move on to the next stream.

It’s important to not get too cozy with one stream. Create at least 3 streams so that if one weakens, you still have 2 other lead streams running.

For example, start by building a stream of interested leads on Nextdoor. Join Nextdoor in neighborhoods that are part of your service area.

Set up helpful profiles with photos and cleaning tips in all of your chosen neighborhoods.

When you start getting a steady stream of customers from Nextdoor, build out another stream of prospects with a customer yard sign program.

1 – Relationship Referral Stream

Relationship referrals are the oldest and most effective ways to get new customers. Relationship referrals start with the “tell everyone” method.

Simply tell everyone you know and have a relationship with like friends, neighbors and family about your business and ask for leads and referrals.

Related: Start A Cleaning Business From Square One-Part 1

Even in this digital age, word of mouth and relationships are still powerful.

Customer referrals are built on trust. A customer trusts you enough to refer you to someone they know.

That person in turn, trusts whomever refers you and is willing to take a chance on you.

You can create a system and nudge things along with a paid referral program that rewards both current customers and new customers with gifts or discounts on your services.

2 – Referral Partner Stream

Referral partners are other business owners in related industries who share customer referrals.

Referral partners can be an amazing way to get clients without having to sell to cold leads (aka people who know nothing about you).

Referral partners for house cleaners are other business owners who work in the home service industry and serve the same people you want to serve. They can refer you to their customers and you can refer them to yours.

It is important you do good work that reflects well on your referral partner. You also have to take the time to build strong relationships with referral partners.

If you put the time in, they can bring you leads month after month for as long as your referral partner relationship lasts.

Keep in mind referral partnerships are based on give and take. If one partner gives lots of leads and the other takes leads with little return, the partnership will wither away.



Referral partners for house cleaners can include:

A referral group is a network of business owners who meet and share leads with other owners as a group. A referral group can be online or meet in person on a regular basis.

3 – Business Cards with QR Code Stream

Handing out business cards are the ultimate old school marketing method. Nothing beats a pocket full of business cards for getting your name into the hands of dozens of possible customers.

Update your business cards with a QR code so a prospect can use their smartphone to go directly to your business website, main social media page or a video on your YouTube channel.

Related: 5 Ways to Energize Your Cleaning Business With QR Codes

4 – Flyers and Yard Sign Stream

Flyers are still effective if used with a plan. You have to commit to distributing flyers in neighborhoods 6 or more times to show you are serious.

Flyers with your phone number on tear off tabs can be used on telephone poles and community bulletin boards.

Yard signs in front of current customer’s homes are a great way to get your business name out there and show social proof at the same time.

Yard signs let neighbors and passersby know that the home owner knows and trusts you enough to post your business name on their property.

This is why house painters and landscapers often use yard signs to advertise to their customers neighbors.

Offer one time bonuses or discounts to customers if they agree to you posting a promotional yard sign in their front yard for a few months.

5 – Cleaning Business Website Stream

A cleaning business website is real estate you own on the internet. A business website is a 24 / 7 / 365 sales tool to get people to reach out to you.

You can’t be “shadow-banned” or kicked off your business website. The words you use to reach cleaning business website visitors won’t be “filtered” out or hidden from view by the social media algorithm.

Also, if your favorite social media platform goes bust overnight, your cleaning business website will still be there, selling for you, 24 hours a day / 7 days a week / 365 days a year.

Start With A Simple Website

If you have the time, energy or know how, set up a simple business website. There are platforms like Canva, Wix and Weebly that have free website plans plus ready made templates to get you started.

A basic cleaning business website should have these 4 pages or sections:

Your cleaning business website should offer visitors a way to take quick action with an irresistible new customer offer.

6 – Social Media Stream

Promote your house cleaning business on Facebook or Instagram. Create a solid Facebook business page with all your contact info, descriptions and images. Also consider adding videos of your work to your page.

Encourage happy customers to comment and leave reviews on your business page. Join local Facebook groups that include people you want to reach as customers.

Activate Facebook Messenger. Many prospects will contact you through this messaging app.

Instagram can connect you to people in your area who are ready to buy. 

Especially if you use #hashtags with your reels and posts that guide people to your services like:

#housecleaningyourtown 

#condocleaningyourtown

#apartmentcleaningyourtown

LinkedIn is also a good way to reach out to other businesses, like home staging companies and realtors.

7 – Customer Review Site Stream

Customer review sites like Google Business Profile and Yelp are where many people look online for services like house cleaning.

House cleaning prospects often check reviews to find the best, most trusted services.

You can create free listings and get leads on these sites, but they will take time and energy to set up and maintain.

Your business listings on those sites can show up in online and on Google Maps. So, it’s important to add a description and service listing that ties into your local area.

To get your best clients to leave you reviews simply ask them after a few cleanings. You can also make getting these reviews part of a paid referral program.

8 – Email Newsletter Stream

Send a monthly email newsletter to everyone you know. That includes all of your customers, past and present.

Also send an email newsletter to people who contact you for a quote whether they sign up with you or not.

Be sure to ask their permission first with the email invitation, so you’re not spamming them.

Start by sending them an email invitation to your newsletter with a sign up link.

When they confirm their email address and give you permission to send them email, they are automatically added to your email list.

Keep your newsletter short and to the point. Write about your happy customers, what you offer and little about you and your helpers or employees.

Also include mention of seasonal specials like holiday party clean-up.

You never know when someone who said no to your quote a year ago calls you up for a special project and becomes a full-time customer.

All because they kept hearing from you through your email newsletter.

9 – Special Group Stream

With a special group stream, you focus all of your marketing on a special niche or group of people.

That group can be new moms, seniors, nurses, people who work for the same company or people who live in the same apartment building or condo association.

A lot of times, they are very connected to each other and are happy to refer you to someone just like them.

Reaching out to your special group can be as simple as leaving a few extra business cards with current customers to creating a special landing page on your business website with sign-up deals.

You can also reward customers with a paid referral program with gifts or discounts on your services.

✨Bonus – Business Networking Stream

Networking with local business owners in groups like the Chamber of Commerce can connect your business to small business accounts and homeowners.

Cleaning trade associations also offer excellent opportunities for building relationships with other cleaning business owners for referrals, subcontracting and joint ventures.

Some cleaning business trade associations include:

Use Lead Streams to Build a Free & Low Cost Marketing System

Attracting and maintaining steady streams of prospective customers to your cleaning business doesn’t have to be scary. Nor should it cost you a ton of money.

A free or low cost marketing system benefits brand new business owners and long-time business owners alike.

Setting up a free or low cost marketing system that attracts steady streams of the cleaning customers you want will take an investment of your time. Time to start and keep the system running.

You can mix and match streams like social media and websites with older, proven methods like flyers and relationship referrals to build your house cleaning business.

No matter how you set up your system, at least you won’t have to worry about dinosaurs roaring in the background when you are scheduling walkthroughs with future customers. ☺️