When it comes to marketing a cleaning business one thing to realize is that there is a process to see results. Certainly, there are some marketing strategies that can work quicker than others, but most will not cause overnight results. In this post, we are going to cover how long it takes to see results from many of the most popular marketing strategies for a cleaning business.
Networking and prospecting for cleaning companies
The first aspects of promoting your cleaning business we’ll cover are networking and prospecting. We’ll cover this is first because you could consider this part of marketing “hustle-based”, so results can come quickly.
Basically, as aggressive you want to be at prospecting and networking to generate business you can be. Digital marketing is a great way to scale a cleaning business and we’ll get into how later in this post, but networking and prospecting can grow your cleaning business on your own terms.
Certainly, you can’t be networking and prospecting 24/7, but with advances in technology, you can work on developing relationships easier than ever before. One example of this is through growing your cleaning business on LinkedIn.
You can make connections and send messages to potential clients during off-hours for your cleaning business. Another option is to join both offline and online networking groups and your local chamber of commerce.
Again you want to focus on building a relationship first. Then when the timing is right you can shift into promoting your cleaning business. This also isn’t an overnight process, but you can prospect and network with large numbers of people so it eventually can create a steady flow of new leads from your network and active sales process.
No matter the success of your online marketing efforts, we suggest that you still continue this networking and prospecting. Doing so can help you to reach people your online marketing may not.
SEO for cleaning businesses
Another popular method of growing a cleaning business with digital marketing is SEO. SEO for cleaning businesses is one of the best marketing strategies you can use to grow organically, but it does take time.
SEO is a critical part of optimizing a cleaning company website, but a common misconception is that implementing an SEO strategy will create instant results. Search engine optimization works and it can work extremely well, but it is a lot like farming in terms of how fast it works.
Certainly, you can expect to see some results happen when you create a new page or piece of content on your website, but it doesn’t achieve its full potential for several months. In fact, depending on how competitive your local market is and where you are trying to rank your pages, it could take a year or more to see significant results.
Now does this lengthy time frame mean that you shouldn’t use SEO and focus on other marketing strategies? Well, usually it’s best to combine an SEO strategy with other marketing strategies that can generate results faster than SEO.
When you combine SEO with other strategies it can balance results and help you create a steady flow of traffic in both the short-term and long term.
Using a Google My Business page to grow your cleaning business
A somewhat faster marketing strategy that you can use to see results for a cleaning business is using Google My Business. Again this marketing strategy isn’t an overnight process, but depending on how competitive your local area is, you could see results quicker than other strategies.
When it comes to optimizing a Google My Business page there are a few things that can help your cleaning business rank faster. One ranking factor is how many reviews there are on your page and the overall review rating. This may seem like something outside of your control, but if you have an active review management strategy you can improve this rating faster.
Another way to get more exposure for your cleaning business from Google My Business is to post photos regularly. As you can see in the photo below you can get thousands of impressions to your Google My Business page each month by posting photos regularly. Having lots of real photos on your page can also help build credibility and legitimacy for your cleaning business.
Social media posting
Social media is important for a cleaning business but it’s common to have unrealistic expectations for results that can come from it. In most cases, social media is going to be a great way to network and prospect, but organic posting only goes so far.
Most social media platforms like Facebook have become a pay-to-play platforms to see significant results. This doesn’t mean that you can’t see any results from posting organically on social media, but it takes more work to see results.
There are several factors that can determine how successful your organic social media strategy is. One factor is the size of the following you have. On Facebook for example, if you have a Facebook business page, organic posting with a small following typically gets little to no engagement.
You could post several times a day but if no one is there to see it, it won’t do much. You need to spend time building an audience by networking and connecting with your ideal customers. The downside is that this can be very time-consuming in the beginning.
You also need to post content that engages your audience. If all you do is post about buying from you, or specials and offers, eventually your followers will stop paying attention. When you build a large following, post engaging content, and sell to your audience occasionally it tends to get the best results.
Unfortunately, following these steps can take a large amount of time, so in most cases, you will need to hire someone to do this. If you can’t afford that yet focus on just posting valuable content to social media and then spend time on other marketing strategies.
Blogging and Content Marketing
Another couple of great marketing strategy for cleaning businesses is blogging and content marketing. Both of these marketing strategies take advantage of SEO and can drive targeted traffic to your cleaning business website.
The beauty of these two strategies is that once you create a blog post or content page it can continue to generate traffic and leads virtually forever. The downside of these strategies is that they can take several months or longer to see their full potential reached.
For example, check out the image below. This is a typical growth pattern for a blog post or content page. As you can see, the page gets very little traffic early on, but after about a year it is getting several times the number of clicks and traffic it started with.
As a cleaning business owner, you should understand that content marketing and blogging can work extremely well, but it doesn’t create instant results. When you create content allow it time to grow and account for that in your cleaning business marketing plan.
Lead magnets and lead generation
Generating cleaning leads is one of the main reasons you should implement a digital marketing strategy for a cleaning business. There are a few strategies that work well to generate leads and they are offering free quotes or a lead magnet.
A lot of marketing experts talk about using lead magnets and funnels these days, and while they aren’t wrong to use them, often they set improper expectations of results that can come from them. Lead magnets and sales funnels can be effective tools for a cleaning business, but there are other factors involved that can determine success or failure with them.
When it comes to your quote request forms one thing that can help you get results quickly is to ask fewer questions. There is usually a tradeoff between asking a lot of questions and the number of leads you generate.
With this in mind, if you want to generate more leads ask only the absolute necessary questions you need to provide an accurate estimate. Certainly, you can ask more questions to improve the quality of the leads, but you’ll likely generate far fewer leads that way.
Also, you need to consider what other marketing you are doing if you expect to generate leads quickly. If you have a simple website with little to no content and you aren’t running ads to drive traffic it’s going to be hard to generate leads. Even if you have the best lead magnet that people want, if no one comes to your site, you can’t generate leads with it.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is another strategy you should use to grow your cleaning business, but it doesn’t guarantee instant results either. Typically email marketing is used to turn cold leads into warm leads.
This often is not an instant process. Email marketing is also a great way to automate some of your follow-up processes. Thanks to this it can help you leverage your time.
Most people decide to do business with your company because they feel like they know, like, and trust you. Email marketing in combination with content marketing can help you build trust and rapport with your email list.
It doesn’t happen overnight, but each email you send can help build a relationship with your list. When the timing is right and a lead wants to hire a cleaning company, they choose you vs the competition.
Some people who are added to your email list will be ready to buy from you right away. However, the majority will take some warming up. Email marketing is most effective when it works passively in the background to convert leads. An email marketing strategy for your cleaning business can help improve conversion rates of new customers when used with your other more active strategies.
Facebook advertising
Now when you shift gears into paid advertising typically you can see results faster. However, understand that running paid advertising like Facebook advertising is still a process.
For starters, at the beginning of your campaign, your ads will be gathering data. Certainly, it’s possible to generate leads in a few days, but if it doesn’t happen immediately, don’t quit advertising. This is because your ads will require an optimization process to maximize results.
When you make changes to your ads it can take a few days to see the results from the changes. Because of this we really recommend not making drastic changes too often. Doing so can prevent your ads from ever fully optimizing.
Another thing to understand with Facebook advertising is that converting leads into sales is going to be a numbers game. You’ll have to talk to several people that don’t end up hiring you for each one that does. Some people may end up hiring you down the road and not right away as well.
When you advertise on Facebook your ads are focused on interests. This means most people aren’t actively searching for a cleaning business. With this in mind, you’ll need to sell them on why they should hire you.
Running Google Ads for your cleaning business
Another advertising method that can help you generate leads and results faster than some marketing strategies is running Google Ads. Google Ads function a bit differently than Facebook ads, but the optimization process is still very similar.
As you are running Google Ads you’ll still need to account for an optimization process. Instead of interest-based targeting like Facebook, Google Ads uses keyword and search-based targeting.
Part of this optimization process is to find the best keywords but also removing keywords that aren’t relevant. Typically you should start with your obviously ideal keywords. However, as your ads run you’ll discover additional keywords that work well and those that don’t work.
Unfortunately, the only way to find these keywords and search terms is to run your ads. That obviously takes time. Certainly, you can generate leads and traffic while you are optimizing your ad campaigns, but it can take several months of optimization to maximize results.
Conclusion
The reality is that some marketing strategies can work faster than others, but every strategy takes time to see results. When you know this you can optimize your marketing plan.
For example, when using long-term strategies like blogging, SEO, and content marketing, combine them with faster results strategies. These can be strategies like networking, prospecting, and paid advertising.
Part of creating a successful digital marketing strategy for a cleaning business is allowing for your strategies to get results. Most strategies can take weeks or months to see results, so don’t evaluate success too quickly.
You also want to hold off on making drastic changes too frequently. When you make changes without enough data, it doesn’t allow you to properly optimize your marketing. Also understand that even though paid advertising can generate results faster than organic strategies, they still require optimization.
When you understand the time required for each marketing strategy to get results, you can choose the best marketing strategy. You can then choose the right strategy given the goals you have for your cleaning business.
P.S. If you are struggling to get quality leads for your cleaning business, Click Here to Learn How to Get More Clients for your business with these Top 10 Lead Sources For Cleaning Business Owners.