How to Get Clients for a Cleaning Business: 16 Marketing Tips

1. Understand your ideal clients

When you’re starting a cleaning business, you need to know who your ideal clients are. Write down information about them, like their age, income, location, and online browsing habits.

Knowing this information will tell you who you’re speaking to, where you can advertise to ideal clients, and what message will prompt them to contact you.

Already have clients? Look through your client list and pick out the ones you like working with. See what they have in common and how you first got in contact with them.

This will show you how to reach more ideal clients—in ways that you’ve already proven to be effective.

2. Choose your unique selling proposition (USP)

Think about what makes your business stand out from your competition.. This could be the types of cleaning services you offer, your status as a licensed and bonded cleaning business, or the cleaning supplies you use (especially if they’re green cleaning products).

It could also be something extra you provide with every visit, like a freshly baked cookie or a handmade bar of soap. Whatever you offer, this unique selling proposition (USP) should be something no one else offers.

Once you’ve chosen your USP, mention it in all of your marketing materials. This will help ideal clients recognize your business more easily.

3. Brand your business

When your business looks professional, your ideal clients will take you seriously and want to work with you. Start with a cleaning company name and logo like the example below.

4. Write a marketing strategy

A marketing strategy helps ensure you’re reaching the right clients in the right way. Start by making a list of the marketing methods you already use. Here’s one example of what that list could look like:

• Posting on Facebook and Instagram twice a month with inspirational quotes about cleaning and organization
• Leaving behind cards after each visit, asking clients to tell others about your business
• Personally leaving postcards in all the mailboxes in your neighborhood

Now think about your marketing goals and your ideal clients. For example, say you want 20 new clients in the next three months, and all of your current clients have found you online.

Take another look at your list of marketing tactics, keeping your goals and ideal clients in mind. You can add, remove, or provide more detail for each item on your list. Your updated list could look something like this:

• Posting on Facebook and Instagram twice a week to share before-and-after cleaning photos (posting more often with targeted content that’s relevant to your ideal clients)
• Leaving behind cards after each visit, with a link to your Google Business profile so clients can leave a review (asking clients to do something more specific)
• Creating a business profile on a platform like Angi or HomeAdvisor so your business will show up in search results

Notice how we’ve also removed marketing postcards from your list. If all of your clients have found you online, this marketing tactic may not work for your specific business.

5. Create a cleaning business website

Create a professional-looking cleaning business website where ideal clients can learn more about your company and book your services.

It’s easy to build your own site using Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress. Write content that describes your services, and show off your work with testimonials and before-and-after photos.

You can use Jobber’s online booking feature to let clients book cleaning services through your website. When a b

6. Ask for referrals

One of the strongest ways to promote your cleaning business is through word of mouth. If you have existing clients, ask them to refer you to their friends and family.

You can encourage referrals by setting up a customer referral program. For example, each time a current client refers a new client, your current client gets a discount on their next visit.

Don’t have any clients yet? Not to worry. Talk to your own friends and family, and ask them to spread the word about your business. You can even clean their homes so they can share their experience with others.

7. Make a Google Business profile

A free Google Business profile helps you show up higher in Google’s search results. So when clients search for local cleaning services, they can see your profile and learn more about your business.

Your profile is free to make and includes your business’s name, location, contact information, hours of operation, and website link. Clients can also leave reviews on your profile.

8. Ask existing clients for reviews

Having lots of positive customer reviews on your Google Business profile makes your business easier to find on Google.

To ensure you ask every satisfied customer for a review, set up automatic review collection in Jobber. Jobber automatically sends a text to the customers you want reviews from.

When you make an invoice in Jobber, you can choose if you want to send the customer a review request.

9. Post in community groups

Your ideal clients spend time on networks like Facebook and Nextdoor. That’s why it’s a good idea to join groups specifically for the neighborhoods where you want to work.

Post once every few months to introduce your business and answer any questions about your services. Just make sure you don’t post too often, or moderators might remove you from the group.

10. Pass out business cards

A business card is a quick, easy, and inexpensive idea for marketing a cleaning business. All you need to include is your company name and contact details.

It’s a good idea to keep business cards handy at all times. You never know when you might run into someone who’s interested in cleaning services, whether it’s at a restaurant, gas station, or grocery store.

11. Send out flyers in target neighborhoods

Cleaning service flyers, postcards, and door hangers are a fairly inexpensive way to introduce your business to a large geographic area.

In these flyers, talk about what types of cleaning services you offer and share your contact details. This makes it easy for your ideal clients to understand your business and get in touch.

Consider including a special offer, too, like 15% off the first cleaning visit with the promo code “HELLO.” This will help you understand whether your flyer was an effective marketing tool and worth the investment.

12. Participate in community events

Attending community events will get your name in front of many people at once. It’s a great way to advertise, and it shows your ideal clients that you care about the community where you live and work.

There are lots of ways to get involved with events, like sponsoring a car wash fundraiser, donating a cleaning visit to a silent auction, or cleaning up the finish line at a race.

Whatever you choose to do, just make sure you’re wearing your branded uniform. And be ready to talk to potential clients about your services!

13. Reach ideal clients on lead generation sites

When homeowners are looking for cleaning services, they’ll often look for cleaners on lead generation sites like Pro Referral, ServiceWhale, or Angi.

These platforms are free for you to use. It’s easy to set up a profile for your business that includes your contact details and photos of your work. All you have to do is answer messages from potential clients.

If you’re looking for cleaning contracts, consider apps like Thumbtack or Porch instead. These platforms cost money to use, but you only pay when you get a lead.

14. Get active on social media

Social media makes it easy to connect with your ideal clients online for free. And when followers see your work in action, they’re more likely to want to hire you.

Start by setting up social media pages on Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram. You can also consider video-based platforms like YouTube or TikTok.

Regularly post useful content that your ideal clients will enjoy watching. This could include before-and-after photos, time lapse videos, and cleaning tips that followers can try at home.

15. Connect with other local businesses

Running a successful business often depends on who you know. Introduce yourself to other local business owners, and see if there’s an opportunity to refer clients to each other.

For example, you could try partnering with a home organization business that doesn’t provide cleaning. After they’ve finished a job, they could refer a client to you for ongoing maintenance.

And if you have a regular client who struggles with home organization, you can refer them to your partner business. Good business relationships help everyone involved—including the client.

16. Advertise your business online

Your ideal clients use search engines to find the information they need. Use Google Local Services Ads to help your business appear in search results and attract potential clients.