Chapter 1: Carpet Business Assets

Asset 1: Name Ideas

What is there in a name? Anything from your Dad’s last name to your name’s short form is good enough, right? One might think that it is just the services that matter. Who cares about the name? Well, you just might be wrong. Building a carpet business brand is all about differentiating yourself from the competitors. And what is the first thing that your customers notice in your company’s ad or listing? The name. A name can easily be the difference between lead conversion and bankruptcy. No one is interested in Paul’s Cleaning Service if they have the option of receiving the services of Shine carpet cleaning. The word shine here just plants the idea of cleanliness and shine in the customer. That’s precisely what they are looking for. It’s also necessary to realize that you can’t keep changing your business’s name. So keeping the name memorable is essential. Also, don’t go overboard either. Brag just enough of what you can offer.  If you’re struggling to find ways of finding the right name for your carpet cleaning business, we have got you covered. We have a few catchy phrases that you can choose for your online carpet cleaning business. Since you’re taking the business online with a full-fledged website and so on, the names shouldn’t be much repeatable. Otherwise, your brand won’t be able to establish an identity. Here are a few names and the unique properties that you can look at:

Example 1: Hi-Tech Carpet Cleaning

This kind of name suggests that your business is up to date with the latest technology available in the carpet industry. The customers would easily get influenced by such a prospect.

Example 2: Everglow Carpet Cleaning

When people hire a carpet cleaning service, they want them to do a job well enough that they won’t need cleaning for a substantial time. This type of name shows the sustainability of your business, and you can seriously consider it.

Example 3: Soap and Steam

You are here for the real deal, the business, and that’s what Soap and Steam are all about. It’s catchy, hygienic, professional, and, most importantly, memorable. 

Example 4: Plush Magic

It’s not wrong to go a bit overboard, at least in the name. Magic always entices people, and plush charm just shows you can make things unbelievably clean in hardly any time.

Example 5: Scrub Sponge

You can also choose an easy to remember name like this one. It just goes well with the services you offer and hence is easy to remember. 

Example 6: Scrub Lab

The name displays the professionalism of your company. The lab just makes an impression of a well-researched unit that will most probably deliver the results. 

How can you make a customizable company name?

1. List all the keywords and phrases directly or indirectly related to the carpet cleaning company.
2. Think of some metaphors or synonyms that describe your ethics and business
3. Mix words and fuse them to make something new and catchy
4. Look for name availability with the registration council
5. Get different heads into it
6. Review the list and keep reducing until you are left with just the one

Asset 2: Website

Creating a website is almost like a mandatory step of growing your company’s business presence online. Yes, the offline market still exists, but according to a recent study, over 91% of people in the US search on the internet for the services they need. So having a website is like marking your existence in the endless world of the internet. Since the internet is full of options, you have to do more than just create a basic website to get leads. Your website needs to be more than just a set of buttons and a call to action appeal. It develops credibility among the customers. The customer’s attention span today has gone down drastically over the internet. If it takes longer to navigate through your website, the customer might just get back never to show up again. And alas, you have just lost a valuable lead. You can’t afford to do that. Similarly, a poorly functioning website that isn’t optimized for mobile or loads slowly can be a significant turnoff. And you are losing real money here, not just some followers. Here we list a few key features your website must-have. Later on, we’ll discuss how we can help you build these

Feature 1: The website should be responsive

Smooth navigation is almost mandatory today. Nobody’s going to wait for your website to load for 10 seconds unless you’re Burger’s King or so.  You need to keep them on your website and help them move to the next step that is contacting you. A responsive website adjusts or optimizes the webpage according to the layout. That means a responsive website will load equally quickly on every device you have- a tablet, laptop as well as a mobile phone. Moreover, a quick website helps you rank better on the google search. A top result in organic search is what every carpet cleaning business aims for, and quick response can help you achieve that. Moreover, your website should be made such that its design is easy to navigate.

Feature 2: Quick Navigation

Navigation is the roadmap to your website. It allows your customers to explore more about your business and make the decision to take up your service. Poor website navigation can confuse the reader. They should be able to find links to your services, blogs, contact, and more at the top or the bottom of a page in an orderly manner. Placing a website navigation bar in the middle is also a turn-off and can result in increasing the website’s bounce rate.

Feature 3: Use Quality Content

People come up to your website with some expectations. If you don’t have the visuals and detailed services that meet their needs, they won’t take much time to move away. From the copy on your website to your services page, images, videos, client testimonials, and more, everything should exude a consistent theme. They should retain a minimum level of class and cover all kinds of customers. Putting in aesthetically pleasing images, cleaning videos, specific services offered like for a hotel or so can also help you convert more leads. Moreover, quality content is more shareable and can increase your reach by multiple folds. Having a credible blog also goes a long way in building the trust between you and the customers. Fair use of white space, short videos, tips, and more can make the website engaging and bring the customer back again.

Feature 4: Make the Contact Us easily accessible

Think of a scenario where your customers like your UI and services and are looking to contact you but couldn’t find the contact us button anywhere. You have just lost an obvious lead. You need to make it as easy as possible for customers to find a way to contact you. Perhaps using a customer information page is also essential to get their information. You can then follow up through email or phone if they haven’t decided to choose your service. You can also add a phone number somewhere around the top or sides and make it clickable to make a call from a mobile.  You should also make the Call-to-Action visible and accessible easily. Something like book an appointment, get a quote, or so is essential for the customer to take the next step. Moreover, a carpet cleaning business can hardly have a fixed price because of a variety of challenges in work. You get a quote button that can direct them to call or chat with your executive to get a quote for your service. You should also add your social media handles, if any, somewhere around the bottom of your website to increase your reach. Social media content is the easiest to share and can be the difference between a shop and a brand.

Asset 3: Business Cards

A business card is a physical card that you provide your customers when they ask for your contact. It’s more than just contact information, though. It helps retain your business’s name in the customer’s memory. A carpet cleaning business card has several features that can affect lead conversion. Firstly, a sound quality card leaves a lasting impression on the customers. On the other hand, how would you feel handling a soggy card, made of poor quality paper, and so? It seems cheap, just like the company’s service. To make a lasting impression and make the card last long in the lead’s pocket, you should get a high-quality business card printed.  It would need to cover some essential information the most dominant way possible. For instance, your company’s name should be the star attraction of the card. Then you’d need an address, contact number, email, and more. Having a two side business card is better in many regards. For starters, you can list the services you offer on one side of the business card. It makes choosing you easier. The customer loves to know crucial information like if you can help them before contacting them. The conversation after contacting is typically about pricing, timings, and so on. Visuals are just as important in a business card. Your card should subtly or dominantly display the service you offer. A vacuum cleaner’s image or real images of cleaning can make an immediate impact on the customer. They’d just remember you the next time they need such a service.

Asset 4: Flyers

Flyers might just be inching towards obsolescence, but that’s only in your mind. Yes, while you are busy just handing out business cards, your nearby competitors are handing out flyers that are comprehensive, catchy, and attention-grabbing. As a matter of fact, your shop will get overshadowed by your competitors. Because of that? A little flyer? Yes, that’s how essential a marketing tool is a flyer.  Having a catchy flyer containing every bit of information your customer needs can quickly help them make a decision and maybe physically visiting your place. Alternatively, they might make a call. But a lot of factors determine this. Your flyer’s design should depend a lot on your target audience. If you are targeting an older neighborhood with people above 50, you might want to have your fonts more extensive and easier to read. But if you want to cater to dorms, sorority houses, and more, you should go for colors that are flashier and fancier. You can also make the copy humorous and relatable to the youngsters. You can also get two designs printed to see what works for you. Being a bit flexible at the start doesn’t hurt. You should also include all the specific services you offer, like full house cleaning, one room, offices, hotels, and so on. It should have a catchy headline apart from your business’s name. It should be easy to scan through, and the contact details should be clearly visible. These are some of the mandates, although you can experiment a little. You need to be sure of what you want to serve your audience and how you want to be seen. Making a fake image through advertisement might benefit you in the short term but can hurt your business in the long run.

Carpet Cleaning Marketing Ideas

You’ve finally started on your long term dream of running a carpet cleaning business. How did this journey start, though? Of course, you’d know a thing or two about carpet cleaning. The potential also seemed enormous in the industry. Perhaps you can just see so many clients or potential customers right around where you live. Almost everyone needs to hire a carpet cleaner now and then. The need is never going to vanish. But as soon as you start your business, the potential clients suddenly seem to get lost. Indeed it can be challenging to know when someone needs to get their house cleaned and which particular market you want to target. Then you need to know where to do people look for a carpet cleaner. It might seem like a tough wait at the start, but it’s worth it because there is indeed a plethora of people looking for a carpet cleaning service every hour. The trick is in knowing how and where to target. That’s when the role of marketing becomes so crucial. While we will talk about the nuances of marketing and the right way to market a carpet cleaning business as we go on, you must know the options available.

Offline Marketing vs Online Marketing

Marketing is an integrated system of getting your business the most number of leads in a targeted time. So you have to market through a host of channels to maximize your reach. Broadly, there are two ways of marketing for a carpet cleaning business:

Offline Marketing

As the name suggests, offline marketing includes all channels of marketing other than the internet. You don’t need your audience to have access to the internet for marketing offline.  Instead, the traditional tool of marketing works through various channels like television, print media, newspaper, and so on. Here are a few common channels of offline marketing:

Channel 1: Television

Television ads are one of the most popular marketing tools apart from the internet in recent times. Television ads help you cater to a broad audience and send your message in a catchy manner. The broad reach can be a double-edged sword, though. For a small carpet cleaning business, you may not want to send out your ad to an audience that you can’t cater to. Moreover, it is a much expensive proposition compared to other channels.

Channel 2: Radio

A declining medium, radio has a broader reach in underdeveloped countries. Although, in a developed country like the US, the radio ad isn’t a handy form of marketing. Yes, it’s inexpensive as compared to television, but the dominance of visuals and user’s reliance on them makes radio a less popular channel.

Channel 3: Print and Collateral

Print media and collaterals are indeed a type of offline market that is very effective for local businesses. They help affordably reach a local audience. You should send out flyers, paste posters wherever possible, and get your service’s ad in the local newspaper. While all these methods are excellent for traditional marketing, they might not be handy for a carpet cleaning business. That’s because you can’t target a particular audience through them. You only want to cater to people who need your service or would need it at some point in time. But putting your ad in the newspaper or radio doesn’t let you take control of your reach.  Your target audience might not be receiving newspapers. Similarly, it’s a waste of money if your target audience doesn’t listen to your radio ad in the 20-second airtime you bagged. Moreover, nobody watches local listings in Yellow Pages journals or so anymore. Almost everybody just searches for it on the internet. So printing your ad on a services journal might not be beneficial mainly when you can target the audience so specifically.

Cons of Offline Marketing

Offline marketing does have a host of benefits, but it comes with a set of limitations, especially for new and small scale businesses.

Con 1: It’s hard to measure the success

Tracking the effectiveness of offline marketing is exceptionally challenging. Moreover, the results are rarely precise as that in a questionnaire.

Con 2: It is costly

Offline marketing means like billboard ads, television ads, magazines, and more are relatively expensive, especially for local carpet cleaning businesses. The cost of labor, production, and ad space are multiple folds more than online methods.

Con 3: It has a limited and vague reach

If you are running low on budget or have a limited one, it would be hard to cross your neighborhood. For a service business like carpet cleaning, you would like clients from around the city because one customer doesn’t come back until at least a few months.

Con 4: Ad Space is limited

You can only run your ads for a limited period in print media. For instance, a newspaper ad expires as the day comes to an end. If the user skipped it, it would be missed forever. You don’t want to put in so much investment in your business and then spend hundreds on ads that don’t reach your target audience. What is the better way? Let’s find out.

Online Marketing

Online marketing uses the means of the internet and its various tools to target a specific audience looking for the product or service you offer. The means of online marketing include search engine optimization(SEO), blogs, social media marketing, online banners, social media ads, email marketing, blogging, online listings, etc. Here are a few forms of online marketing:

Customer Source 1: Websites

Websites are almost necessary to stamp your presence on the internet. Your website is your online home. People can visit your website and see your services, select the options you offer, and contact you for a quick cleanup.

Customer Source 2: Blogs

Blogging is a form of online marketing where you discuss popular topics among your community and target audience. You try to solve their issues and gain credibility.  Blogs are optimized for search engines so that your website pops on top when a lead searches for a relevant issue. For instance, as a carpet cleaning agency, you can create a blog for quick hacks to keep your carpets new for longer. People will click on your link and can turn into customers if they need your service.

Customer Source 3: Social Media

The umbrella term includes a variety of channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. Having the right social media presence lets you attract and target a specific audience interested in your service. You can put targeted ads on social media like Facebook. You can target people from particular demography, gender, area, age group, location, etc. Moreover, Facebook and other platforms use the help of your searches across the internet to list ads. That means if someone has searched about carpets or carpet cleaning on Google, Facebook will get the information and show them the ad on stories, feed, and such places.

Customer Source 4: Email

Email Marketing might seem old fashioned, but it’s still one of the most effective means of marketing available. One of the primary reasons behind it is that it is personal, you can target people interested in the service and so on.

Customer Source 5: Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click ads to help you get featured on top of the search engine results whenever someone searches for a service that you have to offer. For instance, if someone searches for carpet cleaners in California, and you have put your website on Pay per Click, your website might pop up on top.

Customer Source 6: Local Listings

Another common way of advertising, particularly for service businesses, is adding their numbers on local listings websites like Yelp, Yahoo Local, and more.

Which one should you choose?

It’s clear that the internet is the most common way of finding leads for a carpet cleaning business. It offers a targeted form of finding customers who are trying to see you. Facebook and other social media apps integrate into the search results and show your ads to interested people. Since the time between the first search and lead conversion is relatively short, it’s essential to be as visible as you can. Online ads run throughout the day and show up on a customer’s timeline day in and day out time and again. Hence they might just remember your name whenever they are in search of a carpet cleaning business. Here are a few reasons why online marketing is the way forward:

Pro 1: It is measurable

One of the drawbacks of offline marketing is that it is almost impossible to measure the return on investment. In online marketing, you can measure the ROI in real-time through graphs, statistics, and more. You can see people who watched your ad, the ones who clicked on your number, and more. You can hence decide whether you are doing something wrong in marketing too.

Pro 2: It is convenient

Online businesses are accessible to people all over the world. You can share information just through a click. However, the authenticity of the ad is also crucial. You need to create an instant impression, and hiring a digital marketing agency to help you with this can help you get the desired ROI. Once you start becoming successful on the internet, there’s no going back.

Pro 3: You can get direct feedback

People would comment on your posts or send you direct messages for inquiries, complaints, suggestions, etc. Hence, you can know how to modify or improve your service and marketing technique and gain trust in customers.

Pro 4: You can target instant leads

If someone is searching for the best carpet cleaning businesses around them, they are indeed an instant lead. You need to reach these people. One way to do it is through search engine optimization. You can upload optimized blogs on your websites, and it can show up on top of their query results.  Similarly, you can tap onto the questions section and provide answers to commonly asked questions on Google on your website to show up on the results. It’s highly likely that people click on the first result as 31.7% click on the first Google result.

Pro 5: It’s inexpensive

Offline ads cost a lot, and all that can go to waste if you don’t reach your desired audience. Online marketing is mostly inexpensive and, at times, free of cost too! For instance, uploading blogs and using the organic search engine optimization techniques cost you nothing. Social media ads on Facebook and Instagram, on the other hand, costs only as much as you want to reach. You can start with a smaller audience and then expand as your business grows. Moreover, they only charge you based on the time you put the ad up. We can help you save money by putting up the ads only when your target audience is the most active. But that’s not a piece of cake either. It can be overwhelming to market your service on the internet, mainly if you aren’t an expert. With an abundance of competition, it’s hard to stand out. Understanding the algorithms is essential to get your website ranked on top of the results. Then your website should be good enough to attract people there and convert the leads. Similarly, posting ads on social media won’t get you instant leads unless your ad is catchy, attractive, and answers their worries. You’d need an expert’s advice to manage all that so that you can concentrate on providing the best services at nominal rates. We can help you with that and much more. From website building to posting ads, getting your website ranked on top, online listing your ads, and finally getting you an abundance of leads, we can do it all. Our team of experts is adequately experienced and have helped businesses to kickstart their service businesses through online marketing.

Chapter 2: How to grow a cleaning business fast?

When you started your carpet cleaning business, you might have had a plan in place. But as days pass and you invest considerable time, effort, and money into the business, you start realizing how it is stupid to have just one plan. Yes, everyone wants to grow their business quickly. But how many succeed at that? Many of us are left scratching our heads. You might come to a crossroads where you have to choose between offering cheap services at a low profit or excellent services at a higher cost. The first thing you need to do is being proactive and flexible in your approach. Instead of staying back and just getting the job done, there are a few methods you can apply to improve your business quick and fast.

Step 1: Broaden your workforce

If you want to grow your business, you need to have more hands in place. And it’s not just about the quantity of the personnel but the quality too. Think about how skilled your workers are or how many hours do they put in. If you want to cover a broader customer base, you should be ready with the appropriate number of workers and equipment. Otherwise, you might get many orders, but you run the risk of losing customers and credibility. Consider hiring more staff as you become more aggressive in spending on ads. You may also have to cover the costs of insurance for the large workforce that you’re hiring.

Step 2: Expand your marketing expenditure

Once you are ready with more workers and equipment, you need to find more customers to cover the cost of their salary and keep them busy. It’s no rocket science that you have to market your business more aggressively. The initiative is threefold. You have to increase your ad budget, widen your reach on various social media platforms for an integrated marketing campaign, and deliver accurate messages. It can be too much of a task, but we have got you covered. While you focus on providing the best services to your customers, we can handle your online marketing and broaden your business’s reach. Here are a few avenues you might want to consider broadening your reach through:

• Facebook Ads
• Social Media campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and more
• An SEO compliant website to make your presence felt on Google
• Magnets
• Flyers
• Billboard ads
• Listing your business on online classifieds sites
• Focus on Providing Excellent Service

Customer retention is much easier than finding the leads in the first place. You need to ensure that you don’t lose your previous customers while finding newer ones. Otherwise, instead of boosting up business, you’re just maintaining your profits. Moreover, poor service can lead to the tarnishing of the brand’s image. As a result, you are losing your previous as well as prospective customers. Think of how you recommend your preferred wifi network to a friend. Yours satisfied by the service and market the product for free. That’s the opportunity you are losing when you are not providing good enough after-sales service. You can’t be running away from customers unless they are completely satisfied.

Step 3: Set up a referral program with your customers

Apart from providing satisfactory services to your customers, you can also try employing a referral program to win more customers through your previous ones. Referral programs might seem like an old idea, but it is still beneficial for local businesses like carpet cleaning. You can ask your existing customers to bring more customers to take your service. And to lure them into doing so, you can add a little token of appreciation in the form of a discount coupon or commission on the sales for them.  You can provide them a 20% discount on their next service or a commission in the sales they help make. It’s a viable as well as an effective method of marketing that you, as a local business, must apply.

Step 4: Practice Upselling and raise your sales game

Once you’ve got yourself an opening by entering a house to clean a carpet, you need to capitalize. Instead of offering a one-time cleaning, you should practice Upselling. Upselling is the practice of providing additional services at a discount when the customers have started taking your service. For instance, think of the time when you are at the gas station, and the salesperson offers you a discount package or loyalty coins if you spend this much. This way, you’ll keep coming back to that station to redeem the benefits. Similarly, you can try looking at other parts of your customer’s house to see what you can offer. For instance, you can offer them a cleanup of their couch or another rug in the other room for a discount while completing in service.  You can also offer discounts like a service free on a five services package or so. You can also practice cross-selling by selling cleaning products to make your customer’s home keep afresh for longer. This way, you can even sell products and make a better profit along with your service.

Step 5: Keep your profits moderate

Yes, you don’t have to provide services at a meager profit or no profit, no loss way. But you can surely try to keep your earnings moderate and prices competitive when you are trying to build a name in the industry. Offering better services at nominal costs will let you beat your established competitors, which is the major obstacle when growing a new business. Once you have built a substantial customer base, you can increase your profits in various ways. Until then, keep practicing upselling and cross-selling to cover-up for the moderate gains you’re selling your services.

Cleaning Business Profit Potential

Your vision of starting a cleaning business already puts you above most of the other aspiring entrepreneurs around. While people are blindly running behind the sexiest business model, your interest in a carpet cleaning business speaks a lot about your understanding of successful entrepreneurship. That’s because of the surprisingly low investment and risk in the business. The other major factor behind the cleaning business being profitable is its meteoric rise since the 2008 recession. The total profit of cleaning businesses in the US reached as high as 61 billion dollars in 2018! The thing is that the demand for house cleaners is enormous right now. You can quickly charge anywhere around $30-40 per hour as a professional cleaner. Hiring a professional cleaner would cost you around $10-20 per hour. That makes it a straight $20 profit. But that’s just the start of it. If you hire professionals on salary, practice upselling, and so on, you can increase your profits substantially. Keeping a per hour rate, though, makes the calculation of profits a lot easier. 

Start-Up Costs

While the profit potential in a carpet cleaning business is immense, it all depends on how much you can grow your reach. You can’t be expecting to make big bucks overnight. Indeed, the more orders you get, the bigger your customer base, the better the profits. Instead of just looking at the margins, it’s essential to look at the market share you can grab. Indeed, in some cities, big cleaning companies have a share of as much as 50% in the total market. You must keep an eye on their technique and find the chink in the armor to exploit. The good thing is that startup costs are minimal for such a business. You don’t have to think much before investing in a hot water extraction portable unit. It costs anywhere around $3000-6000 but would make you much more profit and help you establish your business. Moreover, you can further cut down costs by purchasing a used unit you can easily find in various local inventories. You can get a reconditioned machine, upholstery tools, cleaning wands, and more at about half the price of new. Yes, your local competitors might be dishing out crazy deals like $19.95 for three carpets or so. You don’t always have to decrease your prices to be counted. Instead, look for the services they offer, and you can find an area that they haven’t tapped before. The cost is just one factor of being counted in a new industry.

How to get your first cleaning client?

Getting that prized first client can be the push that you need. You might find one out of pure luck at times. Think of an instance when you see a new business opening around you. If you were looking for that service, you might want to try this one. It’s a curiosity that often brings the first customers to you. But the world isn’t meant to be as effortless and straightforward at times. You might have spent a whole day waiting for a call from your local listing or expecting someone to watch your flyer and give you a call. Instead of wasting that day and along with it the rent and cost of maintaining a business, you should become proactive. Try to find ways to just be visible at first. Don’t go into the depths just as yet. Yes, you need to create a USP like you’ll provide a guarantee of 6 months or offering an inaugural discount. But you also need to run an integrated marketing or promotional campaign, especially at the start of the business.  We’ll discuss more about the promotional strategies in the next section. Before that, here are a few things you can do to boost your carpet cleaning business:

Tip 1: Offer Inaugural Discounts

Inaugural discounts are essential to provide the push and get the first handful of customers that set the tone. That gets even more important in a competitive environment when you have competitors around locally.

Tip 2: Hand out flyers

Don’t wait for customers to come to you. Approach them to try your service. You can also try SMS marketing apart from handing out physical flyers to customers around you. You never know when someone just becomes a lead.

Tip 3: Increase visibility in digital space

Getting a considerable amount of reach on the internet can get you multiple leads in just a few hours. More than trying to get instant tips, you should try to make the customers retain your name as a carpet cleaner. We’ll discuss this in detail in the next section.

How to market/promote/advertise your carpet cleaning business?

Step 1: Create a powerful logo

When was the last time you saw a brand without a logo? Well, that’s not a brand, and no one would remember it without a logo. A logo sends out a powerful message of ownership, credibility, and relevance of the brand. The logo should convey your message, should be catchy, and should clearly define your USP. For instance, a logo with a vacuum cleaner or bubbles around can be suitable for a carpet cleaning business. A good logo can help you differentiate yourself among your competitors and is the first step in building your brand.

Step 2: Transform your Cleaning Vehicle into a moving advert

If you’re using a van for your carpet cleaning business, you should make use of it as a portable space for advertisement. You can add your logo, list your services, and add a catchy tagline to the large space. Don’t forget to put your contact number flashing behind or on the sides to make it easily visible. A catchy design can attract viewers on the road and get you leads when you least expected it. You can also put in other details like your website around the van’s exteriors.

Step 3: Develop a website to stamp your online presence

It’s hard to find a brand without a good website these days. Having an OK functioning user-friendly website increases your brand’s online presence and credibility by multiple folds. It’s like your online home or shop where the customers can come and explore your services. But making a barely functioning website won’t do any good. A common mistake that most carpet cleaning businesses make is that they just make a website for formality.  They don’t put out valuable marketing materials like testimonials, services videos, and more. If your website doesn’t have a proper UI or isn’t optimized well, the customer would look for another cleaning business in seconds, and you’ll lose a lead. We can fix that issue for you and help you build a website that not only increases the visitor’s attention span but also directs them to contact you even just for asking for a quote.

Step 4: Use SEO and Social Media Marketing actively

It’s essential to be found instead of trying to find customers. Such an activity is cost-effective and maximizes your chances of getting leads as the people who search are already looking for you. We can help you build websites and develop a location-specific blog. SEO helps Google find businesses that are most relevant and nearest to the enquirer. We will help use such marketing phrases to help your business show on top of the search rankings. Putting sponsored ads on Google is another way of gaining top rank in results. You also need to build a social media profile that seems legit and attracts users towards it. It contains a lot of aspects like putting up a variety of posts before putting ads and capitalizing on festivals and other occasions to build your social media brand.

Chapter 3: Carpet Cleaning Facebook Ads

Now that you have understood the importance of marketing to gain leads, it’s essential to understand the most trending way of moving forward. When we talk about increasing the reach of a new business, we must speak of the place where the largest of audiences unify. Without a doubt, social media today is a platform where most of your clients spend at least an hour every day. According to Statista, 223.03 million people access Facebook from the US alone. Similarly, you’ll find a host of your target audience on various other platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and so on. But many business owners don’t realize the importance of using Facebook to put up their ads. You might think who even clicks on the ads while scrolling through their social media feed, right? With millions of users accessing the world’s most popular social media platform, your reach can skyrocket in days if you put up an effective ad. Think about what you’re missing out on if the client nearby your house doesn’t order newspapers or local listings and just uses Facebook four hours a day. If he’s looking for a carpet cleaning service and meets an ad on his favorite platform, what are the chances of him clicking on it to enquire? I would say chances are relatively high, mainly if you feed him with the ad consistently, and the ad is catchy enough. And when we talk about Facebook ads, it’s not the Boost button on posts that we’re talking about. Adding a new Facebook ad is a separate task where you need to visit the business.facebook.com, where you put the ad. We’ll discuss the challenges of putting Facebook and making it work for your business later. First, let’s check out the benefits of putting an ad for your local carpet cleaning business on Facebook and why it is almost necessary today.

Advantage 1: Facebook allows you to micro-target your audience

Facebook allows you to be completely flexible in terms of the audience that you want to reach. You can filter demographics, languages, locations, behaviors, preferences, interests, age ranges, connections, and get the 30 people interested in your service 5km from your business! Facebook’s targeting capabilities are more advanced than any other social media today. Intelligently layering the filters can help you eliminate a lot of people that won’t be interested in you. For instance, it is a waste of money showing your ad to a 13-year-old who has the least interest in getting his carpet cleaned. Similarly, people in other states where you don’t offer your service won’t need to watch your ad. Since we’re talking about lead conversions, the quality of the audience is essential. You need to target customers that will buy your service now or sometime in the future. 

Advantage 2: You can set objectives on Facebook

Facebook allows businesses to set objectives that they want to reach with the ad. That means you can choose if you wish to increase engagement, get calls, likes, and posts, and so on. Based on your targeted accomplishments, Facebook alters the audience that the ad will reach. Moreover, you can set the time when the ad runs and eliminate when your target audience isn’t online to save costs. The ad is customizable, and hence you can create something that fits your brand’s message.

Advantage 3: Facebook Analytics game is strong

It’s hard to find another platform that provides such detailed analytics on the ads. You would never have to predict or assume the performance of your ads. The ads manager lets you know everything from reach, impressions, shares, best-performing time, days, and more. This way, you can improvise your ads if they didn’t get you leads in the first go. Having that much power is unreal and impossible for other marketing techniques like SEO, offline ads, etc

Advantage 4: Facebook allows remarketing

The most common issue with offline ads and other one-time ads, is that they don’t have a lasting impression. People have a short attention span these days, and they won’t act when they saw your ad the first time. They might just scroll away since they don’t trust you. But Facebook feeds the people who have clicked on your ad or revisited your website. This way, you can refresh their memory and start gaining their trust because you are everywhere. On average, it takes about 3-7 glances on an ad for a customer to take action. 

Advantage 5: You can find leads based on your previous leads

Facebook’s advanced algorithms now include a “lookalike audiences feature.” You can share the previous leads, or it selects a custom audience based on your last leads and searches for a lookalike audience that is likely to buy your product. It uses conversion pixels that install data from apps, along with your Facebook fans, to target your lookalike audiences. You can customize the size of your reach and select various filters to ensure your ads are reaching the right audience, and you are getting leads continually.

Advantage 6: Call Now Button takes the user straight to you

You don’t even need to build a formidable and engaging Facebook profile for your ad to work anymore. You just have to add a Call Now button and start converting a probable lead. You can also add the book now option and provide them with a quote according to your needs. You can also practice Upselling on the call in this way. Now you might be thinking that you should just log on to Facebook, place an ad, and start receiving calls. Well, it’s not that easy either. It does require you to be informed about a lot of functions that work together to reach your audience and get your business leads. So what are the steps of putting an effective Facebook ad for a carpet cleaning business? What are the challenges that you would have to endure? Let’s find out.

Challenges of creating a Facebook ad for cleaning business

Step 1: Understanding Relevancy

Facebook rewards relevant and well-targeted ads with cutting ad expenditure. Moreover, relevant ads are more likely to get you leads quickly. The social media platform wants its users to bring engaging and relevant ads for a better experience. For instance, if you’re creating a carpet cleaning business ad and the ad copy is about keeping odors away and freshen the carpet, homemakers should be the ideal target audience. The most popular and relevant ads are posts that already have organic likes, comments, and shares. If your post has already gained engagement before posting the ad, Facebook will lower ad costs. But it’s not easy to build a social media profile from scratch. We can help you build that up organically, though.

Step 2: Targeting the right audience

How do you expect to know which audience to show your ad? You undoubtedly see a range of areas where you can deliver your services. If you only work inside the town, you should set the location in the city. Similarly, think of the age of the audience your previous customers are. Here are a few parameters you’d need to set:

1. Location – You should set this one very carefully
2. Gender – women are the ones dominantly involved in such decision making
3. Demographics – married people are more likely to order a carpet cleaning service
4. Age – we can check people who clicked your ad and modify the audience’s age as per preference
5. Interests – we can filter through multiple options like people who have pets and children are likely to order carpet cleaning faster

Moreover, you can also choose any of the filtered audiences, or of the audience should be more specific. That means you can select the audience to fulfill all or a few of the criteria. You can also choose options like “everyone from this location” or people who live in this location. All that can be quite overwhelming though your sole focus should be providing better service and managing a new business. You can also choose a custom audience like groups, past customers, website visitors, and more. 

Step 3: Ad Placements

Facebook shows your ad in as many places as possible include feed, stories, banners, in-stream articles, marketplace, and so on. You can select a few or several of these options and choose where your ad should be placed according to the objective. There’s also a messenger inbox option which comes in useful when you want the consumers to text you or message you on Facebook. 

Step 4: Setting Schedule and Preparing Budget

Another time consuming as well as crucial task is setting the schedule and planning the budget. Indeed putting an investment will lead to leads. But you would have to decide how much money to start with and how many days you want to run your ad in a week. You should at least put the ad for a couple of days in a week. After you place the advertisement for a couple of weeks, you’ll better understand which days your audience is most active. A holiday would always be a better option as people have a lot of spare time. Your budget will decide how frequently you get calls or messages. You can better understand your progress through the analytics after running the campaign for a month. Understanding analytics is another challenge in front of you.

Step 5: Creating the Ad

Now that you have set everything up, you will think you are ready to post your ad. But where is the ad? What have you created? How are you going to sell your service? The ad should be catchy and send out the message loud and clear instead of running in circles. A glance should be enough to make the viewer understand the message. Sometimes something as simple as a before and after photo can work. The ad should ideally have a catchy copy, attractive visuals, and a call to action.  Your ad copy should connect to the audience emotionally and not just straightforwardly send your message. You want to gain the trust of the customers. That won’t be possible without hiring a graphic designer. You can surely think of ideas like putting in testimonials, making a video ad, highlighting a unique feature, discount, putting in meme images, and more. But a graphic designer and social media specialist is best equipped to deliver the right message crisply and vibrantly. That’s where our role as a digital marketing firm becomes essential. From the start of the process as the planning part of publishing the ad and tracking leads, we have got it all covered for you. Moreover, we can handle your social media too. As you’d know, people trust the businesses that have more posts, engage better to the audience, and have more followers. We can help you build an organic reach and put out ads that can provide you leads quickly.

Cleaning Services Leads

The motive behind all this long and comprehensive process is, of course, one, generating leads. Everyone needs a steady flow of leads to sustain their business. Otherwise, the salaries of the staff, rent, equipment, and bills can lead to massive losses quickly. Here we list down five practical ways to generate leads for cleaning services business:

Create a lead magnet

At times, we need to offer the customers more than just our services to attract them. Maybe someone is looking for a cleaning product before he can finalize on a cleaning service. You can get people’s information by making them fill up a quote form and putting their email and contact. Similarly, you can make a guide for the best house cleaning hacks or products to attract more visitors and gain their information. Once you get the contact, you need to persuade them by reminding them how your service is more valuable and useful than others.

Blogging

It might sound like a long shot, but blogging can actually get you leads. You can answer your client’s possible questions, solve their issues, and educate them on the advantages of hiring a cleaning service through your blog. Blogs don’t require you to be salesy and yet help make a sale in a quick time. People love to buy opinions but never when they are being sold. Blogging is a subtle traffic attracting technique and can build your brand’s image too.

Facebook Ads

As discussed earlier, Facebook ads are the top way to generate leads today. A lot of the audience that makes such decisions is one Facebook, and hence you need to tap the space there.

Use review ads

Review or testimonials can make or break a service’s credibility on the internet. Perhaps at least half the people look for reviews before buying a service. Putting in review ads or testimonial ads can undoubtedly help generate more leads and improve credibility.

Set up Google My Business

You can advertise on Google’s search engine and put yourself on the Google Map by enrolling in Google My Business. It’s also essential to have positive reviews on Google as that will increase the chances of the customer calling your business than your competitors. Likewise, setting up your My Business profile right can get you on top of Google Map results too.

Eye-catchy house cleaning ads

Idea 1: Before and After

Before and After ads are incredibly useful as they can show how effective your work is, you can gain the valuable trust of customers through these ads. These catch the eyes of the viewer, and he can feel attracted to these.

Idea 2: Vibrant and Colorful banners

You can list your services and catch the eyes of the readers in a second with a vibrant add like this. Pop colors bring the reader’s attention, and they’re like to make a call or at least remember the brand for long.

Idea 3: Comparing Technologies

You can make comparisons of your advanced technologies or service to the outdated services of the competitors. Similarly, you can find out a lot of things to compare from your competitors. You can point out quick delivery, price, and more.

Commercial Cleaning Leads

Tip 1: Research Lead providers

If you’ve got the money but are struggling with time to market your cleaning business, it’s best to hire a lead generation service or a digital marketing firm like us. We can start from scratch and help you build a strong base that’d get you a stable flow of leads. We also offer a free trial. Since there are many lead generation services and digital marketing firms trying to offer the same service, a free trial becomes essential. You can’t just put your money and wait for results to come.

Tip 2: Measure Return on Investment

Once you have hired a marketing firm to promote your cleaning business, you should compare the amount you spent with the return you got. It’s unwise to go to a route that didn’t provide results or recognition as expected again.

Tip 3: Pick a niche

Being vague about your promotion tactics can look quite unappealing. To increase the appeal and chances of lead conversion, you should pick a niche. The best way to do so is to look for online listings for customers looking for a cleaning service around the area. Communicating with these will quicken the process of zeroing in on a niche.

Janitorial Marketing

Tip 1: Create authentic content to generate traffic on the website

Google recognizes the company’s marketing tactics and put the websites that offer organic and helpful content on top. A simple, well written, problem-solving content will provide more traffic than a marketing-oriented one. It can help customers develop trust in your janitorial service.

Tip 2: Focus on Social Media Marketing

It’s stupid to ignore the power of social media in the new information age. You should develop a strong engagement through your social media channels. Increased attention not only increases the chances of getting leads but also boosts your chances of lead conversion as people start trusting your brand. We can help you cover that, too, with our integrated social media marketing approach.

Tip 3: Personalize Emails

Email marketing is one tool that still gets one of the highest clicks. But people simply ignore vague emails. Instead, try to focus on a particular niche and list down the services you can offer to the client. Your email copy should be different for a hotel cleaning pitch than that of a house cleaning.

Tip 4: Go for Local Listings

Local listings are one of the more common places where people search for cleaning services around their area. You can register your business in these at relatively low costs and expect multiple inquiries as your rating goes up.

Carpet Cleaning Advertising

No matter how much you focus on organic marketing, advertising is a must for a local business. You can’t reach your targeted audience just through building an organic website because getting the top and inviting customers to your website can be a long and time taking task. Instead, try to think of ways to advertise and reach a more extensive and targeted audience with minimal effort. Putting offline ads is a must. You should put up banners and put your ad in the newspapers as slip ins. Apart from that, creating engaging Facebook and other social media ads is a crucial tool to appeal to a larger and targeted audience. You can also use the Google search engine’s marketing space on the top to put your cleaning business on top of search results in your area.

Chapter 4: How to get cleaning contracts?

A lot of the time, businesses focus too much on getting individual household cleaning contracts. While that is an excellent strategy to keep your business up and running, having a few long term deals can be highly beneficial. First of all, it provides you the security of having work even when the individual customers aren’t calling as much, or the market is a bit down. At these times, it really helps if you have a long-term contract with organizations like schools, businesses, churches, and so on. It not only keeps you motivated to keep working but also keeps the flow of profit steady. Repeat customers, moreover, are easier to retain than new ones. It is also cost-effective since you don’t have to spend a lot on marketing to them.  Just fulfilling their requirements would do. You may even get an increase in pay when you renew the contracts. If you are looking to find such long terms contracts, here are a few tips that you must employ:

Step 1: Be clear about your specialization

It’s good to cover all aspects of cleaning and provide a variety of services. But being specific in your approach and having particular specializations can lead to increased trust in respective organizations. For instance, a mall looking for a cleaning service is more likely to choose you if you list out to specialize in cleaning malls and complexes. Similarly, if you specialize in cleaning with organic products, you’d appeal to a specific audience looking for such a service. You don’t have to limit yourself but instead specialize in some services to make yourself stand out. It doesn’t have to be your only gig, but instead, your specialization can get you long term contracts.

Step 2: Make your booking process smoother

Your website should be user friendly, and the visitors should know how to approach you first. You should make the process of quoting and inquiry quicker by responding to online queries instantly. Your speed of closing on deals can reasonably determine the number of your contract deals. You can also provide the customers with an option for online booking and then take the deal forward. Providing a proper plan of visits and running by the schedule can help you close more sales than others. Moreover, you should keep a record of the schedule, and customer records can let you know the best way to deal with a customer.

Step 3: Expertise in closing sales

You need to study about bagging long term deals and have a practical and transparent approach towards it. Customers might not be willing to take a long term deal at first. You should train your sales agent to provide lucrative packages and convince them to indulge in long term contracts with you. You should initiate conversations about repeat bonuses and one-time subscription discounts instead of expecting the customer to ask you for one.  Analyzing your past performance can also help you improve your approach. Think about how many times you have to approach the customer before closing on the lead. What were the closing questions that helped you brag long term deals? You need to quicken up the sales process and add it actively.

Step 4: Broaden your vision

You should keep looking for opportunities, especially when there are far and few. For instance, you have a cleaning contract with a firm, check if they have any other branches you can offer your services to. You can provide a single vendor solution to increase your profits that way.  If you have a seasonal customer, think of other services you can offer them. You can also think of providing a loyalty bonus or surprise to your customers and building a fruitful relationship. Focusing on the customer experience is a must to increase your chances of bagging long term deals and getting them renewed.

How to get cleaning contracts with banks?

Getting a clean contract with a bank can land you lucrative deals, especially at the start of your business. But the process of finding an opportunity and negotiating with a bank isn’t so smooth.  Banks are incredibly skeptical and do their research before hiring companies because of obvious security reasons. Moreover, they want to ensure that your service is prompt and timely since they allow only a limited time for outside vendors to operate. Here are a few useful tips to get that prized cleaning contract in a bank:

Step 1: Do your research

Conduct research on all the banks in your area. Banks typically hire the same big shot cleaning service for all their branches. Loom for banks around your area and target the ones with lesser branches. These banks are likely to offer contracts to smaller firms to cut costs. Before contacting locally operated banks, make sure that you have enough resources to get the job done. This will let you further filter which banks to target.

Step 2: Connect to the property manager

The property manager is responsible for hiring cleaning services, so make sure you contact him at first. Ask him to take you for a tour of the bank to see what benefits you can offer them. You should also know which security-sensitive areas you don’t have to clean before making a quote.

Step 3: Ensure your employees are willing to worm

The federal laws allow banks to conduct background checks on all external contractors. You should hold a staff meeting to ensure that no one in your staff has any criminal record. You may also have to hire additional staff if your employees refuse the background check or have criminal convictions.

Step 4: Decide on your costs

Before offering a quote, you should thoroughly determine the costs you would incur on solvents, equipment, cleaning supplies, and staff salaries. You may also have to rent or buy specific equipment to clean safes, doors, and lockers in the bank. Moreover, determine the time it would take for you to clean a similar property and the number of workers you have to employ before giving a quote.

Step 5: Present a detailed action plan

Present a proposal that comprehensively contains the timeline, frequency of visits, and the kind of service you provide. Make things transparent and put the quote just a bit more than you’d have otherwise, as some banks accept the early proposal without negotiation.

How to get cleaning contracts with schools

Getting a cleaning contract with a school is indeed a dream for most cleaning businesses since these institutions have a heavy foot load and never run out of work. Hence you can ensure a steady flow of income all year long by grabbing a school contract. You might not expect a very lucrative offer in schools, though, and the work can be more hectic than an office because of the foot load. Here are a few tips that can make you stand out and get a contract in schools:

Step 1: Ensure your employees can pass a background check

Like banks, schools are also very reserved for keeping third party services. They can carry a background check, and it can be a deal-breaker if any of your employees have a criminal history. 

Step 2: Ensure continuity with staff

Schools prefer staff that stays in for long. That eliminates the possibility of a criminal background and also builds a degree of trust. You can ensure you have a steady core crew by providing them frequent increases in pays and job security.  Moreover, health benefits and sick leaves would also ensure your employees are happy working with you. 

Step 3: Offer organic cleaning

Schools these days are inclined towards taking an environmentally friendly way to market their courses. In such a time, citing the guidelines from the Environment Protection Agency that states that organic cleaning products can improve air quality and reduce pollution can improve your chances of grabbing a cleaning contract. You can pitch it in a way that would benefit the students.

Step 4: Target smaller schools

While everyone is running after city schools, and those with multiple buildings, the competition can be overwhelming. Instead, look at smaller schools that have a few rooms on each floor.  You’d be facing off with fewer competitors, and hence it becomes easier to grab a deal. Even if they don’t pay extravagant prices, you can ensure a steady flow of income by working for them. Doing an excellent job at one school can also open your opportunities with word of mouth sales.

How to get cleaning contracts with apartments?

Tip 1: Contact real estate agents

If you have been ignoring the role of real estate agents in landing you a deal with apartments, you are missing a significant opportunity. These agents have an excellent network and knowledge about the right people to pitch. Get in touch with them, and with a little commission on your first sale, they can get you a long-term deal. Apartment owners contact these agents to ensure the reliability of the cleaning service so they might already have leads. 

Tip 2: Use newspaper ads

Apartment owners still often look at the classifieds column of newspapers to look for cleaning services. That is because even they place their ads on these pages, and hence they have every reason to look for yours. Moreover, classified ads are cost-effective. You can also put in flyers inside the papers and distribute them in apartments around you.

Tip 3: Build a compelling website

Building a website not only makes your presence on the internet but also allows you to speak more about your business. If an apartment manager saw your ad online or offline, they might want to visit your website before asking for a quite. You can offer discounts, subscription packages, and client testimonials here too.

Tip 4: Partner with local organizations

Think of businesses that have similar target audiences like you and try to partner with them. For instance, real estate owners and grocery shop owners have identical target audiences in apartment households. You can partner with them through networking and put out an integrated marketing campaign. You can also exchange contacts and make each other spread the word about your businesses.

How to get cleaning contracts with offices?

Tip 1: Be specific with your marketing approach

You should carefully analyze if you are going to straightaway pitch big shot corporates or start with small businesses. Your marketing approach can include testimonials from previous clients. You should also try to remarket to companies you are already serving. Providing discounts or perks isn’t a bad technique to lengthen your contract there. 

Tip 2: Networking and Referrals are essential

Networking is still one of the practical approaches to get more office clients. You can ask your current clients to refer you to other businesses they know. You should also ask for video or text testimonials that you can post on your website and social media. You should also look for opportunities for participating in sponsorship and donation events that allow you to meet new people. The goal is to spread the word and increase your reach as a business.

Tip 3: Closing the deal

You must walk through the office and determine the number of hours and effort it will take to clean up space. Each office space is distinctive, and you’d need to analyze it before quoting a price. Ask the client how often they need the service and quote a competitive price. Try upselling by offering more services at a discount.

How to get contracts with the church?

Tip 1: Write a formal bid

Churches often require formal bids for cleaning service businesses. Keeping a respectful and welcoming tone is essential when writing to the church. Ensure that you keep your company information clear with a letterhead. Name the document as a ‘Cleaning Services Bid.’

Tip 2: Meet with someone responsible for the church

You should contact someone from the church and have a detailed discussion about the areas that would need cleaning. Try to have a church tour, be respectful to the surroundings, and quote a reasonable amount. Check on the church’s operating time and determine the frequency with which you’d need to clean.

How to get clients for the office cleaning business?

Office cleaning accounts for around 20% of the $35bn janitorial service, and hence you have excellent prospects as a cleaning business. Here are a few tips to get clients quickly:

Tip 1: Create an engaging website

Include testimonials, contact information, and detailed videos of the services you offer—also, print business cards for distribution in business parks.

Tip 2: Put your ad in business catalogs and magazines

You can place your company’s ad in business magazines where B2B clients are commonly found. Hence that is a targeted approach to get you more clients.

Tip 3: Select a service area

You should target businesses in a particular area actively to increase your chances. You need to market yourself quite well in an industrial or business park and concentrate on making a name in one place at first.

Tip 4: Identify the point of contacts

You should know the person you have to talk to or pitch in an office. Write an email to the manager regarding the services you offer, the packages you can identify. Make an appointment to view the cleaning area and quote accordingly.

Church cleaning jobs

Church cleaning jobs are easier to find and long-term prospects, but only if you pitch correctly. You should offer a lucrative package because of the presence of the feeling of welfare in such places. You can earn long term profits with little work as these areas don’t get much dirty either. 

Real estate cleaning services

Real estate businesses should hire a reliable cleaning service because it’s part of their job to make the properties look best to attract customers. If you partner with a real estate service, you can get frequent and profitable employment all through the year. They want the photographs on the listings to look attractive and hence get the areas cleaned before clicking and placing ads. The real estate business would also be able to earn more in this way as they can charge the owners double of what you charge them!

Carpet cleaning contracts

It’s possible to bag long term cleaning contracts with hotels, office business, and churches only if you market yourself right. Creating a compelling social media presence as well as a website can boost your chances of bagging these profitable long terms contracts that provide job security. We can help you build websites and create engaging ads that can help you make a reliable name in the industry. Trust building is essential to getting these contracts, and we can help you build that through an integrated marketing program.