This article was updated on July 15, 2022
7 Catchy ideas for house cleaning ads and how to start
In 2020, people’s homes were transformed into offices, classrooms, and exercise studios. With all the extra commotion, more people were looking for extra help to keep their homes clean. In fact, recommendations for cleaning services on Nextdoor increased by 30% in 2021.
Many of these transformations are here to stay. This means that the need for an extra set of hands is still prevalent. This guide will provide a useful tool kit of advertising ideas to help you get the word out about your cleaning business to potential cleaning clients.
What's Ahead:
- Start With the Key Pieces of an Effective Cleaning Service Ad
- Reassure Your Customers First
- Market Your Business to Locals with Nextdoor
- Stand Out with Social Media
- Set Up Referral Programs With Existing Clients
- Advertise Personally, With In-Person Flyers and Brochures
- Consider Unique Advertising Strategies
1. Start with the key pieces of an effective cleaning service ad
You may not be sure how to start developing ads for your house cleaning service business. Don't worry, there are many examples you can look at for inspiration. In general, ads have visuals, a tagline, ad copy with supporting details, your business branding, and a call-to-action. Follow this format and a few proven principles and your ads have a great chance to deliver results:
- Emphasize current specials upfront - Make your deals and specials easy to spot. Holiday specials, new customer referral discounts, or buy-one-get-one deals are always attractive.
- Explain how you are helping solve a problem - As a residential or commercial cleaning company, your service helps free up valuable time for customers to tackle their other priorities. Reminding them how you help solve their problem is an effective way to grow local businesses.
- Showcase your professionalism - Include quotes from local customers, or 5-star ratings that highlight your cleaning service. Including photos of your before and after work in ads speaks directly to your professionalism and work quality.
- Include a call-to-action (CTA) - Finish your ads with a call-to-action to improve your conversion rates. This could be a text hyperlink on social media that says "Schedule Now", or a phone number and email next to print text on a flyer that says "Call Today".
2. Reassure your customers first
Last year, cleanliness took on a new meaning. No longer was a clean home just freshly vacuumed carpets and sparkling granite countertops. A clean home meant safety for themselves and their loved ones. This idea is unlikely to change anytime soon.
To that end, it’s important to reassure your customers—both in terms of your professionalism and respecting their personal boundaries. In your advertising messages, this could mean highlighting specific policies, including:
- Requiring masks for all employees to start – Wearing masks in your customers’ homes may not be a permanent staple, but you should always start with them on. Once inside, feel free to gauge individual customer's comfort levels. If they're okay with you retiring the mask, go ahead.
- Using high-quality products - People are concerned about the efficacy of their cleaning products. In fact, data shows that sales of 'big brand' cleaning products increased in 2020, while sales of generic brands decreased. Use this statistic to your business's advantage by showcasing your use of high-quality disinfecting products to your cleaning clients.
- Utilizing cross breeze and open-air policies – When cleaning someone’s home, you can keep doors and windows open, allowing plenty of fresh air in. This is similar to the idea of wearing masks. The purpose is to ensure you’re prioritizing your customers’ comfort levels.
Whether you advertise using a flyer or an online platform, reassure your customers first and foremost. And always keep a pulse on the latest CDC safety guidelines in case any critical preventative measures change.
3. Market your business to locals with Nextdoor
Understanding your target demographic is one of the most important parts of advertising your small business. Home cleaning services are a perfect example of a sector that's usually geared towards locals–which is why creating a Business Page on Nextdoor can be a great way to reach and engage with your community.
Claiming your page is free and easy. With it, you'll be able to:
- Offer exclusive Local Deals to your immediate neighbors
- Position your house cleaning business as a community staple
- Keep neighbors in the loop with insider knowledge and the latest information on your business
- Show off your hard work by racking up local recommendations
Peachy Clean, a small business based in Austin, Texas, is an example of a local company that gets most of its new clients from Nextdoor. The company's owner, Maria, credits the success her company has been able to achieve to the trust her community puts in their neighbors on Nextdoor.
4. Stand out with social media
An astounding 72% of the American population uses some form of social media–and the majority of this demographic uses social media at least once a day.
While many people believe that ads on social media are much more about clothing, makeup, and other consumer goods, service-based businesses can easily tap into the same market.
In fact, according to MyHouseCleaningBiz, a New York City-based cleaning company named MyClean generated over $17,500 in sales over 7 months using Facebook ads.
So, how can your business utilize any given social media platform to enhance your house cleaning advertising efforts?
Social media tips and tricks
As a small business, you probably don't have an entire department dedicated to handling your social media presence– that's okay. All it takes are a few simple tricks for you to establish your brand voice and start reaching your audience on everything from Instagram to TikTok.
- Show Your Services, Don't Tell - Use social media to showcase your most impressive before and after pictures of your satisfied customers' homes. This can be done using carousel posts (or multi-image posts) that show different parts of the room before you and your team started working, and then after, in all its sparkly-clean glory.
- Pick and Choose Mediums - Focus on creating a few quality social media pages instead of spreading yourself too thin by trying to post on every platform. Quality over quantity is a sage piece of wisdom that applies to many aspects of life, and social media advertising is included.
- Cultivate an Engaging Company Voice - Part of gaining a loyal base of followers is creating a unique, recognizable brand voice. As you create a social media roadmap, ask yourself: Do I want my house cleaner advertising to be quippy or serious? Am I targeting millennials who like puns or older professionals who prefer facts? Either way, you will want to incorporate your brand voice into your mission statement in a way that aligns with the needs of your target audience. Plus, you’ll want to make sure to showcase your company logo across social media platforms to gain exposure among your audience. Your logo and mission statement can become two of the most significant assets of your brand.
- Ask Customers To Share Their Story - Maybe you regularly clean a home for a family with two working parents and four rambunctious toddlers. Maybe you help an elderly couple clean those hard-to-reach places. Whatever your customer success stories are, you can ask to share them on your social media platform. These customer testimonials create compelling content that is both genuine and authentic. To highlight client testimonials, pair statements with photos to boost the emotional impact of an excellent review.
CleanZilla Cleaning, an NYC-based cleaning company, is a prime example of a small business that's captured the power of social media. Their Instagram page boasts over 2,600 followers, and they even have highlighted stories with customer reviews.
5. Set up referral programs with existing clients
Setting up a 'refer a friend' program is an advertising idea that benefits all parties involved.
On your end of the equation, incentivizing referrals will help to bring in new business. Your existing clients can receive discounted cleaning sessions as a result. And best of all, new clients will enjoy a spotless home. That's a win-win-win.
As a business owner, advertising is all about generating a healthy ROI, and using a referral system can help you avoid sinking money into campaigns that don't pay dividends. Just be sure to:
- Let your customers know about your program via email newsletters, putting it on your website, or handing out referral cards with every service.
- Keep a detailed record of where the referrals are coming from.
- Set up a system to notify your customers when someone uses them as a referral and what discounts they receive.
Best of all, referral programs are a free form of free business advertising.
6. Advertise personally, with in-person flyers and brochures
What could be more personal than going into someone's home, caring for their belongings, and providing them with a safe and clean environment in which to live (and work, exercise, and go to school)? The nature of the home cleaning business means your advertising strategy should reflect the personal touch rather than be cold or corporate.
One way to add that familial feel to your local business is through in-person flyers and brochures.
By delivering your cleaning ads directly to people's homes, you put a face to the business and you can answer any questions a potential client may have.
7. Consider unique advertising strategies
While emphasizing your safety protocols is one way to advertise your services, there are other strategies you can use to bring the human element into your house cleaning ads.
Employee Spotlights
Let your customers get to know the people who are responsible for keeping their homes squeaky clean. Maybe one of your employees has decades of professional cleaning experience. Or maybe they have a way with even the friskiest of cats. Clients will feel more connected as you share with them your employee appreciation.
Whatever it is, give your client base an opportunity to get to know your employees. They might feel more at ease letting your team see their dirty laundry (literally).
Your social media pages or your Nextdoor Business Page are ideal places to put this idea into action.
Customized Services
Cleaning needs can vary widely between each client. While some homes may need a monthly deep clean, others might benefit from a basic weekly package. Advertising custom services is another way to gain your customer’s trust and establish a reputation for excellence with your small business.
Consider the following ideas to incorporate into your advertising strategy:
- Offer build-your-own cleaning packages
- Provide an avenue for feedback so your service will become even more custom-tailored over time
- Run flash sales on specific services
- 'Buy-one-get-one-clean' deals
Get inspired: Great Green Cleaning markets their customized packages as ‘concierge services’ and allows customers to choose from specific "lifestyle support services" like plant care, dog walking, and even yoga instruction.
Plan for a great year ahead
Whether you decide to try one or all of the ideas above, implementing a few new advertising strategies for your home cleaning business is a fantastic way to make the year ahead a success. Whether it's through Google Ads, Facebook advertising, or other pay-per-click ads (PPC ads), these ideas will help you land your next cleaning job and keep new ones coming in. Although some of the strategies above require an initial investment of resources, you'll likely be thankful you took the plunge when you start seeing results.
The new year brings an opportunity to start clean with your digital marketing and advertising strategy. To start off on the right foot, consider creating a Nextdoor Business Page to communicate with the customers who matter most: your neighbors.
Sources:
Reuters. P&G raises forecasts on sustained demand for cleaning products. https://www.reuters.com/article/procter-gamble-results/pg-raises-forecasts-on-sustained-demand-for-cleaning-products-idUSKBN2751GQ
Pew Research Center. Social Media Fact Sheet. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/
Nextdoor. Small Business Week: Peachy Clean, Austin, TX https://blog.nextdoor.com/2019/05/06/small-business-week-peachy-clean-austin-tx/
Claim your free Business Page to get started on Nextdoor. For resources on how to use Nextdoor to stay connected with your local customers, pertinent news affecting businesses, and more, follow us at @nextdoorbusiness on Facebook.
