As a cleaning company, should you be B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer)? Trick question! If you want to make the most money, the answer is both.
That doesn’t mean you have to start bringing your crew that wipes down counters to industrial worksites (unless that’s your specialty), but widening your clientele base will only get you more business, not less.
Business cleaning is almost identical to house cleaning, as we’ll touch on more below.
Want some other marketing tips to help your business get ahead of the competition? Read our guide below.
1. Business Cleaning, Not Just Residential
One big mistake cleaning companies make focusing too much on house cleaning and not enough on getting business clients. Cleaning an office building is almost the same thing as cleaning a home, except it’s usually cleaner.
Businesses can write off your services as a tax expense, so they’re more than willing to pay someone to clean.
When it comes to picking which businesses to target, look for small office parks, not giant buildings.
Giant builders are not only harder, but they’re more likely to have cleaning staff on contract already.
If you can land one business in a small business park, you’re likely to get clients from the offices around the original one too.
2. Do Something Differently and Tell People
Another mistake that people in any business, not just the cleaning niche, make is not telling people what differentiates them from their competitors.
Anyone can put together a company with a few employees and some cheap household cleaning spray. If that’s the main gist of your company, people are going to shop exclusively for price.
And since you want to pay your employees well and have them do a good job, you shouldn’t be the cheapest company in town. You should be the best or the most ____.
Maybe your company only uses natural products to clean, that’s a good angle to push. Or perhaps you hire veterans who need work or even people with mild disabilities.
Market-based on what sets you apart from your competition first, your quality second, and your price third.
If you stick to that order, even if it’s as simple as re-ordering your radio ad copy, you’ll see results.
It’s also a good idea to set up your website to reflect that order, too. See how www.southerncrosscleaning.com has done that on their site.
3. Set Up a Sales Funnel
When most people think of a sales funnel (if they even know what it is), they think of it exclusively for online businesses, but they’re wrong.
Even if you had no web presence (which would be insane), you can still have a sales funnel. “Sales Funnel” is just a fancy way to talk about ranking leads, which you’ve done your whole business-owning life.
There’s a difference between a cold lead, like someone you hand your business card to at the grocery store, and a hot lead, like someone who left a message on your answering machine, wanting to schedule a service.
Funnels have four main parts and are shaped like the kitchen (or car) tool you’re picturing in your mind. They’re full at the top and get smaller towards the bottom.
The top of the funnel are people who’ve seen your advertisements or have one of your business cards but aren’t otherwise engaged with your business. Maybe 1/3 of those people will move on to the next step, where they engage with your company, looking you up online and checking your rates.
Then a third of them will get to the stage you’re aiming for: conversion, or in this case, booking a service. Congratulations, you now have new customers!
And while you’d think conversion is the final step, it’s not. You want those new customers to be repeat customers, correct? And to refer others to your business? That’s the final step of the funnel, and one we’ll get into more detail with below. ‘
4. Get Repeat Customer Referrals
So many businesses neglect their referral plan, which is a big mistake. 84% of people trust the opinions of others (even strangers!) over what they hear from businesses or read in advertisements.
That makes your repeat customers your highest ROI in terms of marketing, but it doesn’t make it easy.
People don’t like to push things (like your services) on other people. To make it worthwhile, you need to sweeten the pot for both customers. Your referring customers should get a bonus if their friend books a service, and you should give them some coupons they can give their friend.
Which conversation sounds more likely to you?
Your customer: Wow, I just got my house cleaned, you should use this company!
Other person: Okay…?
or
Your Customer: Hey, I just got this coupon for $25 off a house cleaning from the company I use, do you want it?
Other person: Sure, thanks!
And if you’re waiting around for someone to ask your current customer for a house-cleaning recommendation, you’ll be waiting a long time. Sweeten the pot with incentives and watch it (literally) pay off.
Your Cleaning Business, Better and Busier Than Ever
No marketing tip is perfect. They’ll only work if you commit to them and have a service that you (and your customers) stand behind. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, our best advice is to start with one tip, like the business cleaning tip, at a time.
That way, you can try out what does and doesn’t work for your company without getting confused about which change is making the most impact.
We wish you luck as you start applying these tips and can’t wait to see your success! For more help, check out our business template tab for free resources!
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