I need help on how to get clients for my cleaning business.

>I need help on how to get clients for my cleaning business.

Door-Knockers

If you don?t mind hand delivering a marketing piece, then the most economical advertising for a new house cleaning business is hanging a door-knocker on the front door of homes you?re certain can afford your cleaning service. However, although they are inexpensive to produce, paying someone to deliver them can be costly. Also, there is the chance that they will toss the door-knockers out and add delivery hours to their timesheet.

Customer Referrals

Leave customer referral discount cards at every home you clean! We offer $20 off for each customer referred, and to the referring customer.

Internet Listings

Local service companies are often listed for free on community pages. Find them all and present them with your information. Many offer online submission forms ? but if you need to call and personally ask to be listed, it is well worth the effort. Include your logo, website and email addresses in each listing.

Website

Having a website for your house cleaning business is a must. A good percentage of your business will come directly from prospects surfing the web for service companies. Other prospects may receive a marketing piece or find your ad in the yellow pages, and visit the website before calling. Prospects that call but don?t book a service should be directed to the website as a means to reiterate your phone conversation and to view customer testimonials.

Yellow Pages

Many prospects will search the yellow pages for service companies. Some will look you up in the yellow pages when they receive a direct mail piece ? just to verify that you are a legitimate company. Most of the information which is on your postcard should be listed in the yellow pages ad. If this is cost prohibitive, then simply state ?Satisfaction Guaranteed? and always list your website address.

When considering the type of ad to place, remember that your ad must stand out from the competition. Research all of your local phone books and notice which ads catch your eye. A good bet is a ?knock-out? ad with at least 2 colors. The ?knock-out? removes the yellow background and leaves a crisp, attention grabbing white field among all the yellow ads. For a lesser cost you may list your company in the yellow pages free listing column with a knock-out and color. Make this ad a minimum of four 4 lines, with color.

Be certain to call your local yellow pages to ascertain their deadlines for placing ads in the next edition. It would be a shame to miss this marketing vehicle and have to wait a full year to be listed.

White Pages

Yellow knock-outs can be incorporated into your white pages listing. Make this ad a minimum of four 4 lines, and add color if you can afford it. Remember to list your website address here also.

Newspapers

Newspapers are the second most used form of advertising for small businesses, following directly after the Yellow Pages. Your ads should be placed in Home and Garden section to be read at a time that your prospects are focused on their home. Of course Sunday is the ultimate day to advertise, but also the most expensive. Also, most papers publish special sections that may run only once per month or several times per year ? budget extra advertising dollars to run your ad in all home or leisure specials.

Double check all written information from the sales department to assure that your ads will be run in the proper sections. Insist on viewing a ?proof? of the ad and having a final approval before publishing. Keep in mind that you must accommodate the newspaper?s schedule ? if you do not provide feedback in a timely manner your ad will either miss the print or it will proceed without your approval.

Finally -- read the paper to be certain that your ad was properly printed and placed. If the paper made an error, you should insist on a reprint in the next comparable edition.

Direct Mail

We have found that direct mail gives the highest return per dollar, and is guaranteed to reach all who you target -- if your mail piece is cost effective and your mailing list is accurate. Your choices for direct mail are letters or postcards. However, letters are most likely to be considered junk-mail and will be unopened. Therefore, the most desirable direct mail piece is a postcard. Postcards are non-invasive, quickly read, easily saved or carried to work, and are economical. Whether or not the cards are read, they display your logo on both sides; therefore, repetitively sending postcards instills name recognition.

Your postcard should state the customer satisfaction guarantee, services you offer, insurances carried, your website address, and phone numbers. You can have an advertising firm create a postcard for you, or save money by using the pre-formatted postcards available at MaidDocs.com.

Direct mail lists are available through a number of sources. The most economical lists we have found are the ?City Search? discs offered by Hill-Donnelly. Telephone assistance is provided by Hill-Donnelly to teach you how to extract information from the discs and save it as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Other lists are available through many sources which you can locate on the internet. Also, most companies offer the information pre-sorted onto mailing labels, ready to peel-and-stick.

Visit your local post office and purchase a First Class pre-paid mailing permit. The USPS representative will provide instructions on how to set up the permit block. When your postcards are printed you simply count out the number to be mailed, and then deliver them to the bulk-mail representative at your local post office. This saves time (no applying stamps by hand) and looks more professional.

Measuring Success

You can measure the success of your marketing campaign by keeping a record of how many estimates are generated, and how many are converted to customers. By tracking all responses according to their sources, you can test individual ad campaigns to see which marketing approach and special offers produce the most profitable results. Then focus your marketing budget on the avenues which are most productive.

Note: A further discussion of marketing your house cleaning business, can be found at http://www.MaidDocs.com. MaidDocs offers cleaning business forms and documents to help you become successful.

Copyright © 2004 MaidDocs® ~ All rights reserved.

Gwen's suggestions are great! Of course I would have to agree with the website suggestion. It is so important in this day and age to have a website because most shoppers of anything will do research online first before calling the establishment.

If you have any questions on how to get a website up and running, feel free to send me a message. I would be glad to help out!

Mindy Lepp
http://www.saltedwebsites.com/
$50 off your website if you mention Idea Cafe!!