9 Magnetic Marketing Tips for Self-Employed House Cleaners

When I started my house cleaning business over twenty years ago, dinosaurs 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 of friends about my service. They signed up for service and told others about my cleaning. Before I knew it, I had six customers.

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 flow 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 and draw a steady stream of prospects to your house cleaning business?

Start with a clear plan. Before you promote and advertise your business to customers, you need to have a clear idea of:

• who they are (age, location, gender and lifestyle)?
• what are their main pain points (lack of time, burned by unreliable cleaners or dislike cleaning)?
• what they value most (quality, convenience or price)?
• the best way to reach them (online or offline)?

Guides For Your Plan

Your Cleaning Biz, based in Australia published a couple of articles about ways to attract customers. The articles focus on creating a marketing system to create and maintain a flow of new prospects for your cleaning business.

Both articles cover some of the same ground but with a different view. One is focused on advertising. The other covers both marketing and advertising.

William, author of the two Your Cleaning Biz articles, revealed a set of marketing tips that:

• attracts your ideal customers
• draws them to your website or phone
• excites them enough to take action

The two articles are:

How to Advertise your Cleaning Business – 9 Simple Ways

How to Get Cleaning Business Clients – 11 Easy Ways

In one of the articles, “How to Advertise your Cleaning Business – 9 Simple Ways”, William points out,

“…you need to have a solid advertising strategy in place. Like any other business, for a cleaning venture to be successful, there should be a steady and strong consumer flow which is only possible through your consistently outstanding services and clever marketing policies.”

9 Marketing Tips To Get Your Plan Going

The two articles lists nine marketing and advertising tips, both off-line and online to draw in your ideal customers. They range from old school flyers and word of mouth referrals to Facebook ads and pay per click ads online.

The 9 Marketing tips are:

1. Referrals (word of mouth)

2. Ads in local papers (I guess some dinosaurs are still roaming around!)

3. A cleaning business website that converts visitors into customers through:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Blogging
• Email marketing

4. Social Media Promotion on:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Twitter

5. Paid Social Media Ads (on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google)

6. Posters and Flyers

7. Networking with local business owners and in trade associations like:

8. Trade Shows and Home Shows

9. Focus all of your marketing to a special niche or group of people

Trade Shows & Home Shows Were My Biggest Surprise

One method I’ve overlooked in my own cleaning business are trade shows or local home shows. I’d exhibited in trade shows several times when I had a gift basket business with great results. However, I never took advantage of home shows in marketing my house cleaning business because other methods worked so well.

Related: Start A Cleaning Business At Square One – Part One

William explains how trade shows and home shows can help grow your business this way:

“Trade shows are a great way to connect with people online as well. For instance, for people visiting your booth, offer discounts in exchange for their email addresses. This method can help you send them follow-ups through effective email marketing.”

In addition to discount offers for email addresses, consider surprise gifts like microfiber cloths or scrub sponges in clear gift bags labeled with your business name, logo and contact information to visitors who schedule a walkthrough at the home show or trade show. Not gifts for everyone who walks by, just prospects who’ve take the step of becoming potential customers.

Just make sure you get full information from everyone who schedules a walkthrough. This would be a good time to use an estimate app on your phone or use printed phone estimate forms.

Making A Splash At Trade Shows and Home Shows

In your trade or home show booth, you can set up tv or computer monitors to show videos from your YouTube channel or slideshows of before and after cleanings. Plus you can hold cleaning demonstrations once per hour.

You can also market specialty services like refreshing vinyl floors, laundry services, garage cleaning and closet organization with introductory discounts and coupons.

Just be aware that marketing at trade shows and home shows requires a large cash outlay. Also, before you exhibit in trade shows and home shows you should have a solid business record. People need to know you can deliver on what you promise.

Your cleaning business also needs to have a marketing presence on review sites like Google My Business, Yelp and ANGI (formerly Angie’s List). People will check those sites to see how your cleaning business rates. They may even do that on their phones while still at your booth, so be prepared.

Finally, you need to have a plan for following up with those email signups. What will be in your first three messages to those email sign-ups. What will you say or show them a month later? What do you plan to say to them in week seven?

Use These Tips to Build Your Marketing System

Attracting and maintaining a flow of prospective customers to your cleaning business doesn’t have to be scary. Nor should it be a full time job. With the tips from these two articles, you can get ideas on how to set up a marketing system that works to bring in a steady flow of cleaning customers.

You can mix and match online marketing and advertising with older, proven methods like flyers and referrals to build your house cleaning business. Plus you don’t have to worry about dinosaurs roaring in the background when you are on the phone scheduling walkthroughs with future customers. ☺️

Photo Credits:

Magnet – Peter Schreiber

Network – Hajnalikornel

Garage – Rubbermaid

Which of these 9 tips have you used to draw in house cleaning customers? Which ones worked best for you? Share some of your best marketing tips in the comments below. ⬇︎