Cleaning Talk - Professional Cleaning and Restoration Forum banner

Marketing help!

10K views 29 replies 23 participants last post by  BCSFacilities 
#1 ·
What has been the most effective marketing material for you? Flyers? Business Cards? Door Hangers? Can I see some samples of your flyers!?!?
 
#4 ·
Seriously?
Software to use webinars to promote cleaning businesses?

I mean, I can get past the simple fact that the landing page is NOT the actual software sales page but actually a review site for the software? Usually these review sites are... simply affiliate promotions of a product they are 'reviewing'....
So, knowing the landing page is an affiliate promotion and that you are either plugging it because you are the affiliate hoping some poor soul will click on it and buy it so you catch an affiliate fee -or- you were paid by the affiliate to place this (and many more like it on many other forums), I took the time to go to the website.

Hopefully you can come back and explain how a cleaning business would use webinars to promote their business so that a better understanding of why this promotion was made.?
 
#6 ·
Maybe I'm not in the "big league" some of you guys are. I only use a couple of online sites where people post their cleaning needs,. Mostly residential, some commercial. I post my profile, emphasizing the things about me that make me outstanding, and customers can post reviews of my work. I word my profile carefully, because I do not want to be dishonest about things. Using two online sites, I get all the work I need, being a one-person cleaning company with NO employees. NOR do I want employees, because I could not guarantee the quality of work of an employee.

Work of mouth has also been a big help to me. A customer will mention me to a neighbor, and the neighbor will call me and there - poof! a new customer. To do this you just have to do a very good job and show a lot of pride in your work. I manage to stay fully booked this way. But again - I am not in the "big league" with multiple employees, etc. Not my style at all.
Annie
 
#7 ·
We don't use flyers at all, only the big franchises do around here. Word of mouth referrals, Google & Facebook ads, SEO and direct sales are probably your best bet. Direct Sales can be very powerful if you research are commercial market segment you are interested in, talk your way in for a free test clean and quote.
 
#8 ·
Using the Web is the Most Cost Efficient Marketing

Anymore, the yellow pages are pretty useless. Flyers, door hangers, leave-behinds, etc. seem to be too low of a return for the expenditures.

I can launch a new company on the internet and start it ranking in the search engines and backfill with very well aimed & written Google Adwords and get new clients the same day.

We even tried an experiment with our new Miami restaurant hood cleaning company. We posted an ad on Craigslist for free and within 48 hours we had 5 phone calls off of it and brought in 3 new clients.

Now, the tough part is getting a good return on your investment with Google Adwords. If you write your ads poorly or you allow too diverse of a list of keywords, you'll pay for crappy results and Google will charge you extra for the lousy quality (they call it the 'quality score').

In some categories in the cleaning industry, you can buy top spots in Google for pennies. But you have to bid at the going rate for your area and then be discounted according to the relevance of keywords, ad content, and the page on your website that they're going to land on. If all of those items are perfect, you get a massive discount on your ad costs.

I'm going to put together a training class specific for cleaning companies so that people can learn to take advantage of Google Adwords without getting fleeced. I have one friend that was paying $7500 a month to Google Adwords, was getting a 1.1% click-through rate and was averaging a cost of $31 per click. This put him at a Cost Per Aquisition (CPA) of $320 per new client. YUCK! When we cleaned it up, we got it to a 5% click-through rate and Google discounted his click costs to $10. This brought his CPA down to $49.

So the important thing was that his average service call was $385 (of which $320 went to Google). With the labor costs, he was losing money on every call his guys went on. With a $49 CPA, he was able to make money.

Last note: my buddy is a plumber. In cleaning businesses, we don't have as high of a cost on the click-through rates. But this gives you a pretty good idea of the different quality scores can make.
 
#27 ·
Anymore, the yellow pages are pretty useless. Flyers, door hangers, leave-behinds, etc. seem to be too low of a return for the expenditures.

I can launch a new company on the internet and start it ranking in the search engines and backfill with very well aimed & written Google Adwords and get new clients the same day.

We even tried an experiment with our new Miami restaurant hood cleaning company We posted an ad on Craigslist for free and within 48 hours we had 5 phone calls off of it and brought in 3 new clients.

Now, the tough part is getting a good return on your investment with Google Adwords. If you write your ads poorly or you allow too diverse of a list of keywords, you'll pay for crappy results and Google will charge you extra for the lousy quality (they call it the 'quality score').

In some categories in the cleaning industry, you can buy top spots in Google for pennies. But you have to bid at the going rate for your area and then be discounted according to the relevance of keywords, ad content, and the page on your website that they're going to land on. If all of those items are perfect, you get a massive discount on your ad costs.

I'm going to put together a training class specific for cleaning companies so that people can learn to take advantage of Google Adwords without getting fleeced. I have one friend that was paying $7500 a month to Google Adwords, was getting a 1.1% click-through rate and was averaging a cost of $31 per click. This put him at a Cost Per Aquisition (CPA) of $320 per new client. YUCK! When we cleaned it up, we got it to a 5% click-through rate and Google discounted his click costs to $10. This brought his CPA down to $49.

So the important thing was that his average service call was $385 (of which $320 went to Google). With the labor costs, he was losing money on every call his guys went on. With a $49 CPA, he was able to make money.

Last note: my buddy is a plumber. In cleaning businesses, we don't have as high of a cost on the click-through rates. But this gives you a pretty good idea of the different quality scores can make.

Do you still do this?
 
#10 ·
Be sure to establish a signature on this forum, and make your signature link to your Google Map listing and website. After you have made 20 posts on this forum you can then leave additional links to your Google Map and your website within your posts, which will make those stronger in search so people can find you online when they search for cleaning businesses in your area.
 
#13 ·
Flyers and door hangers are totally out of the picture for us. Invest in your online presence. Don't cheap out on a website, you only end up losing customers down the road. Also, don't make fast decisions with who you partner with. If they reach out to you most likely they aren't your best bet. Our website was not cheap, but we rank well and get about 3 leads a day from it. http://www.newyorkhoodcleaning.net/
 
#19 ·
One thing I did, very early on, was buy magnetic car door signs. Cost about $40 for two. I was surprised at home many new customers I got doing this. I'd park my car at the grocery store, and when I came back, would see someone reading my door sign. Of course, I smiled and started talking to them. I think I found, maybe, 12 new regular customers doing this.

Now: if you do this, be forewarned: If you live in a warm climate, like I do (Florida), you MUST remove the signs maybe every other day. IF you dont, they will be baked - literally- baked onto your car's doors. I dont know how they perform in colder climates, but this is what I found here. I had to buy rubbing compound to get the baked on sign stuff off!!!!

On flyers. I cannot tell you many times people have left flyers at my door or on my windnshield. My AUTOMATIC response is to tear them up. I doubt I am all that different from other folks., and seeing those darn fliers just annoys me. Flyers, to me, say in loud words: "I am such a crappy company I have to pay someone to stick flyers under windshield wipers"!!!! To me, all it does is turn me totally off, and I do not bother to even READ the flyer. Maybe where you live, it's different. Who knows.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top