What’s the Best Way to Market Your Janitorial Business?

February 2, 2021

There are more than 1 million commercial cleaning and janitorial services doing business in the US. It can be challenging to get noticed, especially in an online world, where in many cases, people just ask Google for “a janitorial cleaning service near me.”

It takes a strategic marketing approach to stand out from the pack and land new clients.

How Marketing Works

The best way to market your janitorial business is before clients even need your services. Consider the time before the internet: when people used the Yellow Pages, they would go to the section for commercial cleaning companies. If they recognized a name, they were more likely to call that company over one that they’d never heard of before.

Today, everyone searches online. If they already know your name, they’ll search for you. We want to focus on those who don’t and how they can get to know you.

Marketing works by getting your name and message in front of potential customers. As you think about the best way to market your janitorial business, keep in mind a few things:

1. Consider your target customer, so we can develop messages for them.
2. Explain what makes your service different from any other janitorial service.

Marketing Strategies for Janitorial Companies

Let’s start with a few strategies that won’t cost you anything.

Customer Referrals

One of the best ways to grow your business is to ask for referrals from happy customers. After doing surveys, marketers report that customer referrals generate the highest quality leads. When your customers refer someone, they’re giving you an implied endorsement.

Better Customer Relationships

The industry average for customer retention in the janitorial industry is right around 50%. That’s quite a bit of churn. Investing in improving relationships with your customers, making sure they are satisfied, and communicating frequently can pay dividends.

Happy customers will review you and refer you, which, as mentioned, can lead to more business. If they’re unhappy, they won’t be shy about telling their friends either.

Retaining customers also means a stable revenue and a more stable business model.

Improved communication leads to better customer service. Even when problems arise or customers are unhappy with the service, if there’s strong communication, any issues can be fixed quickly. In most cases, the way that you respond to a problem is more influential than the problem itself.

There’s another advantage to investing in strong relationships: current customers are more agreeable to upsell opportunities, so you will be the first call when they need additional services.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth is still one of the best ways to market your janitorial business. Take advantage of all the free or low-cost ways to plant word of mouth:

• Empower your employees to be ambassadors.
• Consider an incentive program for employees who provide leads.
• Use social media tools.
• Engage online with customers.
• Provide helpful information.
• Showcase your value and the story behind your company.

Solicit Reviews

You’ll also want to solicit reviews from satisfied customers. The best way is to simply ask them to review you, preferably on Google My Business. Make it easy: send them the link, and tell them how much you appreciate their business. Some janitorial companies will offer a discount on future services or another incentive for a review.

Remember, when consumers aren’t already familiar with your company, they’ll check out what others think before getting in touch. A mere handful of glowing reviews won’t help either. On average, research shows that consumers want at least forty online reviews before they trust the star rating.

That said, poor reviews don’t hurt as much as you think—as long as you respond to them promptly and resolve any problems.

Digital Marketing

There are all sorts of ways to use digital marketing: email, lead generation, content marketing, video, and more. All have value, but we’re going to focus on the two strategies that are must-haves:

Mobile-Friendly Website

More than half of all searches are done on mobile devices. If it doesn’t look good on a mobile device or takes too long to load, visitors will move on to your competitors. If it takes more than three seconds to load, that’s too long.

Pro Tip: Check your page speed load time for free with Google PageSpeed Insights. You can also check whether your website is mobile-friendly with Google’s free site checker.

Paid Search

It can take time to build up the content of your website to move up in organic rankings on search engines (also referred to as search engine optimization, or SEO). Paid search (search engine marketing, or SEM) can put you at the top of the page when people are searching for janitorial services. Hot tip: You can also buy your competitors’ search terms.

When using paid search, you’re bidding for the right to show your ad over someone else’s. You’ll pay each time someone clicks on it (hence the name Pay-Per-Click, or PPC). You can target the ideal customers for your service and limit your ads by the geographical areas that you service.

Pro Tip: Check the cost of various PPC keywords for free with Wordstream’s Keyword Cost Estimator.

The Importance of Metrics

Businessman John Wannamaker said that when it comes to marketing, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is, I don’t know which half.” That was in the 1800s, before today’s non-stop marketing onslaught, but it’s still true. Before you begin your marketing efforts, set goals and measure everything. What do you want to accomplish? Set your metrics to evaluate the performance of your effort and align it with your operational and financial goals.

The Best Way to Market Your Janitorial Business

You don’t have to be a national company to use the same marketing tactics that the big guys do. Start by employing the above tactics, and spend a bit of money marketing online in your area. Then, watch your business grow!

About Swept

Improve your customer communication and manage all your janitorial operations with Swept. You can manage all your janitorial needs, including:

• Tracking time
• Smart scheduling
• Having reliable inspection
• Giving team instructions
• Having worry-free supply management
• Reporting on-site issues

Swept’s janitorial software helps janitorial company owners build trust with clients and get ahead of the competition by giving them the tools they need to spend more time managing their business and less time working in it.

To see how Swept can help your janitorial company grow, schedule a free demo with one of our experts today!