Cleaning Business Marketing: How to Market Cleaning Services
Ideas and examples for marketing your cleaning company
By Jane Pardo | Updated February 4, 2023
Marketing a cleaning business requires careful planning and effective implementation to get a positive return on investment.
But how do you select the right strategies? What exactly should you do to beat competitors?
Fret not! We’ve done all the legwork to answer your questions and help you discover the best marketing plan for your cleaning company, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been running your business for years.
We’ve compiled the following best practices for marketing cleaning services using smart offline and online strategies.
Read on to fine-tune your marketing approach today.
How to Market a Cleaning Business
1. Define Your Brand
Your brand helps your customers recognize and remember your company. From your logo and company name to your color scheme and tagline, your brand paints a unique picture that shapes your audiences’ perceptions.
Before launching any marketing strategy, build a memorable company brand for your cleaning business:
- Choose a short, distinct, and easy-to-remember company name.
- Design your ideal logo.
- Pick the right color palette.
- Be consistent. You should add your branding to everything your customers see, including your website, social media, flyers, business cards, vehicles, and employee uniforms.
2. Establish Your Target Audience
Your marketing efforts will be a lot easier if you know exactly which types of clients you want for your cleaning business.
Are you looking for homeowners and renters? Or are you targeting property managers and business owners to get commercial cleaning contracts?
Understanding the demographics of your market will help you personalize your marketing strategy and reach the right people.
3. Expand Your Local Network
Building valuable relationships is a powerful move that can drive your cleaning business forward. Networking helps make your business known.
The more people you connect with, the higher your chances of getting introduced to more prospects.
Meet new people, put yourself out there, and share your business goals with other cleaning company owners and local business owners from relevant industries.
4. Go Door-to-Door to Spread Brand Awareness

A pleasant face-to-face interaction will greatly increase your chances of closing on sales. The best thing you can do when marketing your business is to be friends with your customer.
Scout the area you’d like to dominate to discover ideal cleaning opportunities. Check the neighborhood’s HOA and local laws to be sure you’re allowed to solicit.
For example, if you’re providing office cleaning services, target at least three office buildings and provide custom solutions with accurate pricing. You can even offer to clean the smallest room for free to demonstrate the quality of your services and set your business apart, especially if you’re a budding startup.
Tell your customers you’d like to provide a free cleaning estimate, and schedule your next visit to give them a special quote and offer a cleaning proposal. Even if some people decline your cleaning services, there’s still a chance they might call you in the future for their cleaning needs.
You’ll be their go-to cleaning company when you leave a memorable first impression.
5. Market With Flyers, Brochures, and Door Hangers
Handing out flyers, brochures, and pamphlets is a low-cost cleaning business marketing method that produces outstanding results. When designed right, these marketing materials can make people notice and remember your cleaning business.
Flyers, pamphlets, and brochures are:
- Affordable
- Effortless to design with your branding
- Easy to print at short notice for events
- Effective with simple-to-track results
Here are several strategic opportunities for flyer distribution:
- Door-to-door
- Set up your own booth at local events, like trade shows, concerts, and festivals.
- Insert in newspapers to reach a particular audience.
- Community centers
- Stores with public bulletin boards
- Laundromats
- Chambers of Commerce
- Municipal buildings and offices
- Subways, train stations, and bus stops
It’s a good idea to get permission first and check local ordinances before posting flyers. Thrown-away flyers are simply a waste of your investment.
Additionally, you can ask permission to post flyers in restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, and hardware stores.
Find out where your prospects frequent to discover the best opportunities for distributing your marketing materials.
Door hangers are inexpensive and effortless to display, easily sharing your company’s contact details with prospects.
6. Distribute Marketing Mail
Send premium flyers with special discounts and standout deals to entice potential customers. You can use cleaning service flyers and postcards containing your company information, a list of cleaning services, client testimonials, and limited-time offers. Be sure to price your cleaning services accurately and avoid undercharging just to get more clients.
Businesses typically have to pay for postage and send flyers through the Post Office.
Whether distributing flyers in community centers or through direct mail, create distinct promo codes to track areas with the highest number of successful sales.
7. Always Carry a Business Card
A business card makes it easy to share your business information with clients, prospects, and other business owners, so make sure you carry a handful of cards when you’re out and about.
Your business card should professionally represent your cleaning company and include your essential contact details, such as your phone number, website, and email address.
8. Add Signs To Your Company Vehicle
Do you want to grab attention wherever you go? A fully branded company vehicle will turn heads and make people interested in your business.
Transform your service vehicle into a powerful marketing tool by having it professionally wrapped to showcase your company name, phone number, website, and logo. A visually stunning design with eye-catching graphics lets you promote your cleaning business effortlessly each time your car hits the road.
A vinyl wrap or a custom paint job will do wonders to show your brand to potential clients. Custom decals and stickers are excellent alternatives if you’re on a budget.
9. Create a Stunning Cleaning Website

A professionally designed website is your best investment when it comes to digital marketing for cleaning services. People will look you up online when they hear about your cleaning business and immediately form a great impression when they find an amazing, easy-to-navigate website.
Your website is where prospects learn all about your cleaning services, read testimonials from past clients, conveniently book your services online, and see samples of your work.
Be sure to hire experienced web designers to build a conversion-focused cleaning website for you. At Scalebloom, you’ll never go wrong with our hardworking team of seasoned web design and digital marketing experts.
A conversion-focused website should:
- Use an effective call-to-action (CTA).
- Include a simple menu for an easy sales process.
- Use professionally written, simple-to-read copy.
- Incorporate your company branding, including your logo and color scheme.
- Load smoothly from page to page.
Read our article discussing our most recommended cleaning website design ideas to get inspiration for your cleaning site.
10. Optimize Your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile (GBP) is a superb tool to promote your cleaning business online, allowing you to attract prospects searching Google for local cleaning services.
Elevate your chances of converting leads into loyal customers with these optimization tips:
- Add your complete and accurate business information, including your company name, address, work hours, website, phone number, and services.
- Interact with customers by engaging with posts, user reviews, and Q&As.
- Optimize descriptions within your profile, and add relevant keywords.
- Choose your specific category. You can add secondary categories if necessary.
- Upload high-quality photos to build trust and make your company look reputable.
- Encourage customers to leave positive reviews.
- Post content regularly, especially about new services and exciting offers.
11. Implement Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Cleaning service company SEO is a priority if you want to reach page one of Google and get found by prospective clients.
A comprehensive SEO strategy involves on-page SEO, where you optimize your cleaning website through keywords and quality content creation, as well as off-page SEO, which focuses on improving your domain’s authority through social media marketing, email marketing, and link building.
Regularly create easy-to-read and informative content for your website’s cleaning blog that your target audience would love to read. Sprinkle it with long-tail keywords and apply an internal linking strategy to help Google understand what each page is about when crawling your site.
You can write about must-read residential cleaning tips, top recommended cleaning products, and everything in between.
12. Reach Your Market With Targeted Facebook Ads

With around 2.5 billion active users, Facebook is a powerful social networking and sales platform. Facebook ads for cleaning businesses serve as an effective medium to reach your desired audience through advanced marketing options and insightful data analytics.
Think of Facebook ads as the online equivalent of a sign twirler on the side of the road trying to get people to come into the shop. They have to have a sign with a great offer. Creating a truly great offer is difficult but worth it when it works.
To drive online sales and get the best return on investment, keep these tips in mind:
- Customize your cleaning ads by getting specific with your audience. You can refine various criteria, including your customers’ demographics, interests, and even life events.
- Create Custom Audiences, which are Facebook users already familiar with your brand, so you can target custom groups with personalized ad campaigns.
- Incorporate videos into your Facebook ads to boost conversions.
13. Get Active on Popular Social Media Sites
If you ask any digital marketer if a business should have a strong social media presence, the answer is a resounding YES!
Use social media to its maximum potential by staying as active as possible. You’ll successfully raise brand awareness, increase loyalty, get more engagement, drive traffic to your site, and ultimately gain a lot more sales.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube are some of the top social media platforms where you can promote your cleaning business.
14. List Your Cleaning Business in Local Contractor Directories
In addition to Google Business Profiles, platforms like Yelp, Yellow Pages, and Craigslist make it easy to create business listings, increasing the chances of clients finding your cleaning business online.
These platforms have cleaning leads that are at the bottom of the funnel, meaning they are ready to hire now.
Yelp ads can be particularly profitable. 97% of Yelp visitors end up making a purchase. But the effectiveness of Yelp varies by location, so try it out in your area for a few weeks to see if you get good results.
Get your business listed in various local directories to improve your search engine visibility and brand reputation.
FAQs About Marketing for Cleaning
How Do I Create a Referral Program for a Cleaning Business?
You can create a referral program for your cleaning business by leaving a card, promotional flyer, or sending a thank-you email after every successful cleaning job.
Offer enticing discounts if your clients refer your business to friends or hire you for regular cleaning jobs.
It’s best to encourage satisfied clients to share positive testimonials online to let others know about your stellar cleaning services.
Should I Cross-Promote With Other Cleaners and Business Owners?
Yes, cleaning companies should foster a mutually beneficial relationship where they refer clients to each other. You can offer to promote the products and services of other business owners if they agree to market your cleaning services as well.
For example, if you’re marketing for house cleaners, you can build relationships with companies offering janitorial, commercial, pest control, or pressure washing services.
How Can I Market My Cleaning Business Within My Community?
Contact your local chamber of commerce to know about upcoming events that can help you network with other businesses. Joining organizations for your particular niche will open doors to meeting new clients.
You can also hold your own events, provide sponsorships, and offer free or discounted cleanup services to charitable institutions.
Local events and business owner meetups provide excellent networking opportunities.
Written by Jane Pardo

Jane Pardo is a senior contributing writer who lends insight into digital marketing methods and business solutions. She regularly writes at Scalebloom to help business owners take their online marketing to the next level.