Need a marketing plan for your janitorial business? Here are 9 janitorial marketing ideas, tips and tricks that will help you generate leads, close deals and retain your best clients.
#1: Design a lead generation janitorial website
The focal point of your lead-generation efforts is your janitor website. It’s your business card, brochure, service description and salesperson — all wrapped into one.
Think of your janitor website as a guide. It helps people understand the value of your services and gives them a good reason to select you instead of your competition.
It also guides visitors towards taking the action of contacting you so they become a lead. You want a strong call to action with highlighted contact information. Be clear about where you’re located and what your services are.
You want something modern but simple. An open design with a clean layout and strong use of white space will give the right impression of your business.
After you’re done, run some usability tests. Compare your website to the competition. Is the value of your offering clear? Would you choose you?
If you’ve done a good job with design and content, you should be the clear choice in your area.
#2: Communicate your value
There are three important things your janitor website content should do immediately:
Communicate a value proposition that differentiates you from the competition
Make sure you communicate where you are and/or what your service areas are
Have a call to action for leads to contact you
All of this information needs to be above the fold on your homepage (meaning people won’t have to scroll to see it) on both desktop and mobile phone screens.
#3: Master search marketing
Office managers looking for commercial janitorial services are likely to turn to Google to see what their options are. Commercial janitorial services need to rank on page one for searches in their area. You do this in three ways.
The first is to use pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. You use the auction system (Google Adwords) to bid on keywords and gain placement at the top of the page. The top four results on any search page are all PPC.
The second is the Google My Business listing. This is a free listing that ties into local search and Google Maps. It’s important to optimize your description and service listing with the keywords, particularly for the cleaning services you specialize in. As a cleaning service, this listing will tie into your physical location. To get search results in other areas you service, you’ll need to run PPC ads. Also, more positive reviews will help your ranking.
When you do all these search tactics well, you can actually get three places on page one.
If your business is not appearing in at least one of these spots, that’s your priority. Start with paid ads at the top, then work on your organic listings.
Pro Tip: Edit your Google Business Profile location
Most janitorial companies target areas outside their primary location. Some cover large regions of a state or even multiple states.
Make sure you correctly edit the service area in the address section of your Google My Business listing. This identifies your business as one that works on-site with customers instead of having a storefront.
To edit your service area details, follow these steps:
Sign in to Google Business Profile
If you have multiple locations, open the location you’d like to manage
Click Info from the menu
Click Edit for the Address section
In the window that appears, select Yes next to “I deliver goods and services to my customers at their locations”
Enter your service area information. You can set your service area based on the zip codes or cities that you serve, or on a given area around your location. Note: If you want your complete address to appear on Google and your business location is staffed to help customers during its stated hours, check the box next to “I also serve customers at my business address”
Click Apply
#4: Build a strong reputation
Today, it’s impossible to ignore the influence of online reviews. The simple truth is people trust what your customers say about you more than what you say about yourself. You can have a tight, convincing value proposition, but it probably won’t have as much impact as what your last five clients said about on Google or Top Rated Local®.
The good news is you can get the content working for you. It starts by realizing that your service levels directly connect to the review content that gets published about you. When you keep your promises and even surpass them, it will help your marketing. When you cut corners, it is likely to cost you later.
You’ll also want to be proactive about getting positive reviews so your review profiles are plentiful and fresh. You can just verbally ask your best clients, but we’ve also had success using email follow-ups with templates like this:
When they click “Good,” it links to a review site for them to review you. When they click “not good,” it opens a feedback form. Use this to get reviews on Google, Yelp, Facebook and Top Rated Local.
You can also use the Top Rated Local badge to connect to review content directly from your website and organize it. This lets people see your ratings without having to leave your janitor website.
#5: Get more leads with retargeting
Online marketing benefits from a kind of digital persistence called retargeting, which are ads that display to people who previously visited your website or Facebook page.
This works because people rarely make immediate decisions online. They procrastinate and get back to their web surfing. Retargeting ads remind them that they still need to find that janitorial service for the office.
The best retargeting ads have clear branding and a strong call to action. Often, janitor leads will click back to your website to convert, but the ads also increase brand awareness that leads to direct traffic to your website.
#6: Create SEO monster pages
To rank higher for specific terms (for example, “janitorial services Denver”), create what we call a monster page.
A monster page is an SEO-focused page that uses fully developed content and design to rank higher organically in search. It works well for informational searches, and can also rank well for geo-targeted searches.
For example, if you have multiple cities or regions you want to target – but that are outside your primary location – you can use monster pages to rank organically and as landing pages for targeted paid search campaigns.
You can create these pages for all the services you’d like to rank for in your area, increasing the free, organic traffic to your site.
#7: Use LinkedIn
For commercial janitorial services, you need to make contact with decision-makers in offices, like office managers, human resources personnel or possibly outside property managers.
Start by using LinkedIn, which is the most useful social media platform for commercial janitorial. On this platform you can connect with people based on jobs and location, letting you get your name in front of the right people at large office complexes. You can run ads, directly contact people and share information on how to maintain a clean, healthy office space.
#8: Use CRM and email software
Most of what we’ve talked about here so far has to do with new HVAC lead generation, but don’t forget that your existing clients are your most valuable contacts.
Use CRM software and email to keep in regular contact with your clients. Start with a quarterly newsletter (you can email and snail mail this) with updates on your services, tips on commercial janitorial and special offers. The idea here is just to keep your brand name in front of people and remind them that you appreciate their business.
Use CRM software to track the work you do for clients and to keep all communication updated. You can also personalize messages as needed, sending out reminders and greetings (birthday or holiday wishes, for example) to specific clients.
Never overestimate how much clients care about your services, and never underestimate how aggressively new competition will advertise to try and steal them. Keep in regular contact with clients and make sure they know you care and that you always offer the best value.
#9: Work with an all-in-one marketing company
When we talk to janitorial businesses marketing in large, competitive urban areas, we discover many have the same problem.
They have one agency doing paid search, another doing organic search and yet another designing their website and banners. Somebody’s niece is doing some social media. The marketing is all over the place.
It’s all but impossible to execute a cohesive janitor marketing strategy when you’re using all these different resources. And it is impossible to track what you’re doing and make improvements based on solid data, which is what marketing is all about.
We developed the Marketing 360® solution to counter this problem. Our software and talent hybrid is the perfect all-in-one solution for SMBs, like janitorial services. You can track all your marketing in one place. You have one Marketing Success Manager who is your point of contact. ou see complete — but not overwhelming — data on your marketing across all channels.
Best of all, you get a lot of hot leads that you spend your time working. That means more paying clients you spend your time serving. Most business owners prefer this to spending all their time trying to figure out the latest changes from Google or Facebook.