When starting a business, everyone always thinks to themselves, “well, if my uncle Joe can run a business, why can’t I?” It’s funny because when it comes to window cleaning, the cleaning is the easy part; it’s getting on the job site that is the hard part. I’m sure you’ve seen countless times: the chief, carpenter, or electrician that is insanely good at what they do opens up a business. But, it doesn’t last more than a year because they simply don’t understand the business side of it. Marketing is a KEY element to figure out early; you can actually go to paid classes to get better at it or figure it out with trial and error on your own. Either way, there are tons of tricks and avenues to navigating the marketing side of the business.
One of the best ways to market yourself and your business is by having an online presence, obviously!
Credit: Robert Marquez
There are so many engines out there that you can uses to optimize your business, whether it be Facebook, Google, Next Door, or Home Advisor, just to name a few. I know with Facebook, it can be tough to figure out at first, but you can actually target a specific group when sending out marketing material. You can target the 35-50 year old woman with two dogs, and the kids are out of the house off to college; Spooky, right?
There are also tons of other ad services or lead generators out there that can help with marketing by putting your company on Angie’s List, Home Advisor, or Next Door. These all help get your name, face, and brand in front of people. That is the name of the game, and that is no secret; branding is a crucial part in pushing your marketing. Consider McDonald’s, Walmart, and Apple. These companies advertise to their key audience. They know their niche, and they take advantage of it. Find who makes up your niche. Also, when you pass out door hangers, send out postcards, or get print marketing for EDDM, use your brand logo and colors to your advantage.
Make sure you can PRINT the same logo, colors, and font that everyone knows and loves. That helps A LOT with marketing.
Similarly to your online marketing strategy, you’ll need to pound your brand into their heads.
Another great “secret” for marketing is to give the customer such an over-the-top experience that they HAVE to tell all their friends and neighbors about you and give you 5-star reviews daily. Now that is so much easier said than done, BUT I have found over the years that going the extra mile can go a long way with their customer. Another thing is try and connect with these people on a personal level, let them know you are a real person cleaning their windows and you are not some weird window cleaning robot who can only think and talk about window cleaning. If you just bring something of theirs up, most people will talk for hours; people love to talk about themselves.
The best thing about referrals is you don’t even have to pay for those leads. That is 100 percent profit on that job, AND these customers already have a perspective of you and your company, so they will usually be easy to work with.
“Another secret to marketing? Always keep your face in front of people”
I don’t care if you think everyone knows who you are and you have the best company in the world. The truth is, there will always be more people out there to turn into customers. There are a few things you can do to make it happen. You can change the cover photo or profile picture on your company Facebook page more often, which will pop-up on the news feed for people to see. You could wrap your trucks and equipment with your company’s name, number, and logo. After providing the service, your could give them a fridge magnet to hhold up the receipt. There are tons of things you can do to gain leads. But, keeping your marketing at the forefront needs to be your number one priority.
-By Austin Grubbs