Running a cleaning business is hard. You are up early. You are managing people. You are dealing with equipment problems. You are handling complaints from clients who aren't happy about something. But there is one thing that keeps most cleaning business owners awake at night: getting enough clients. Sure, doing good work matters. But if nobody knows about you, they can't call you.
Here's the problem most cleaning companies face. They think marketing is complicated. They think it costs tons of money. They think you need fancy agencies to figure it out. So they skip it. They hope word-of-mouth shows up on its own. Sometimes it does. But not fast enough. Not reliably enough. Not enough to actually grow.
The successful cleaning companies like CallingAgency know something that others miss: marketing doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. It just has to be:
This guide covers the real tactics that work. Nothing complicated. Just practical stuff that actual cleaning businesses use to fill their schedules, raise their prices, and build a name people recognize.
Before spending any money on marketing, figure out who actually needs what you are selling. This sounds obvious, but most business owners skip it. They think marketing to everyone is smart. Actually, it's a waste.
Commercial cleaning isn't one thing. It's many things:
Each business thinks differently. They make decisions differently. They have different budgets. They care about different things. Trying to market to all of them wastes money.
The smarter move? Pick one or two types of commercial cleaning leads where you can really shine. Maybe you are detail-oriented, and medical offices are perfect for you. Maybe you have the right equipment for large floor areas, so warehouses make sense. Maybe you are fast and efficient, so busy office parks appreciate you.
Once you pick your target, learn about them:
Understanding this shapes everything you do next.
If customers can't find your business online, you've already lost. You don't need to be a tech expert. Just get the basics right.
Get yourself a website. Keep it simple and clean. Show what you do, where you work, and how people contact you. Make sure it works on phones since most people browse on mobile. Add real before-and-after photos of your work because pictures prove you actually do what you say.
Include a clear call-to-action button:
Give people something to do when they land on your site.
Claim your Google Business Profile. This is completely free and one of the most important things you can do. When someone nearby searches "commercial cleaning" or "office cleaning near me," your business pops up here.
Fill out everything:
This single thing probably brings more business than most people realize.
Get on Facebook. Most business owners use Facebook. Create a business page, not just a personal profile.
Post regularly:
You don't need to post every day. Once or twice a week keeps your name visible.
Think about LinkedIn for bigger companies. If you are going after office managers at large corporations, they spend time on LinkedIn. A professional profile there looks solid and helps you reach bigger clients.
Keep everything consistent. Same business name everywhere. Same phone number. Same address. This tells search engines you are real. It makes it easier for people to find and remember you.
Keep your message simple and clear:
Be specific. People remember specifics.
Digital marketing sounds intimidating, but it really comes down to a few proven things. Google Ads gets your phone ringing fast. These show up at the top of search results when someone searches "commercial cleaning" in your area. You only pay when someone clicks. You control how much to spend.
Start small:
This is probably the quickest way to get business, but it takes some work to get it right.
Facebook and Instagram ads target really specific people. You can show ads only to office managers in your city at companies over a certain size. The ads usually cost less than Google. You see results pretty fast.
Test different approaches:
Email is cheap and way underused. If you've done work for someone or they called asking about it, get their email address. Then send useful stuff sometimes.
Send monthly emails about:
This keeps your business in their head. When they need cleaning again, they think of you. Write stuff that actually helps people. This builds trust over time. Create content your target customers actually want to read.
Examples:
This helps your customers and helps you show up higher in Google searches. Work with other businesses that complement yours. Find companies that serve the same customers but don't compete with you. An office supply company. A property management company. Someone who sells cleaning equipment. Refer business to each other. These partnerships bring steady referrals without much effort.
The best marketing tool is someone telling their friend, "You should call this cleaning company. They're great." Word-of-mouth is free, and people believe it because it comes from someone they trust.
First thing: do good work. No shortcut here. Show up on time. Do a thorough job. Treat people's buildings with respect. When you do this consistently, people naturally want to tell others about you.
Then ask for referrals directly. After finishing a job, tell the client how much you appreciate referrals and make it super easy for them to pass your name along.
Make it easy:
Most business owners won't mind. They just need to be reminded that referrals help you. Think about offering a referral bonus. Maybe a discount on their next job. Maybe credit toward their bill. The bonus doesn't need to be huge. Just show you appreciate their help.
Make sure it's:
This follow-through is huge.
Stay connected with old clients even when there's no current job. Send a quick message once in a while. Reach out around the time they usually book services. Remember things about their business and mention them. These personal touches keep your company top-of-mind.
Build real relationships in your community. Being known and respected in your community brings business over time in ways that are hard to predict.
Get involved:
Not everything directly gets you clients, but consistency in your community matters.
Reviews are basically free advertising that other people write for you. When you do good work and collect reviews the right way, they become one of your best marketing tools.
Ask your happy clients for reviews. After a big job or when a client seems really satisfied, ask them to leave a review on Google, Yelp, or Facebook. Make it easy by sending them a direct link.
Don't ask everyone, but ask regularly:
Most clients won't leave a review unless you ask. Once they do, that review helps you forever. If someone leaves a bad review, handle it well. Every business gets an unhappy customer at some point. When it happens, respond quickly and professionally.
Do this:
This shows future customers that you handle complaints well. Most people respect a company that fixes problems more than a company that never gets complaints. Put client testimonials everywhere. When someone says something nice about your work, ask if you can use their quote. Put these quotes on your website, in ads, on social media.
Real words from real people are powerful:
Vague praise feels fake. Specific testimonials from named people feel genuine.
Take before-and-after pictures. These are testimonials without words. The dirty parking lot is now clean. A gross bathroom that sparkles. Stained carpets looking brand new. Pictures prove you do what you say.
Video testimonials are powerful. A client on video talking about your work is incredibly effective. Nothing fancy is needed. Just have them record on their phone saying what they like about you. Realness matters way more than perfect quality.
Here's the biggest mistake cleaning businesses make: they do marketing stuff but never actually check if it's working. Then they spend money on things that don't work while ignoring things that do. Ask where clients come from. When someone calls or fills out a form online, ask how they found you.
Keep track of their answers:
Over time, patterns show up. Maybe 30 percent come from Google. Maybe 40 percent from referrals. This tells you where to focus your energy.
Use Google Analytics on your website. It's free. It shows how many people visit, which pages they look at, and whether they contact you. You don't need to get deep into details, but knowing basic numbers helps.
If your website gets a hundred visitors but nobody calls, something needs to change. Watch your ad spending closely. Whether it's Google Ads or Facebook, check on them regularly.
Track these numbers:
If you spend fifty dollars on ads to get a customer worth two hundred, that is good. If you spend a hundred dollars to get one, that is not working. Try different things and see what works. Test different messages. Test different ads. Test different types of targeting. Give each experiment a fair chance, maybe fifty to a hundred clicks or a few weeks, then look at the results.
Do more of what works. Stop what doesn't. This constant tweaking makes a real difference over time. Look at what your competitors are doing. You are not copying them, but you should know what they are up to.
Check out:
This gives you ideas and shows what's normal in your market.
Figure out your actual profit from marketing. If you spend five hundred dollars a month and get five new clients worth three hundred each, you made fifteen hundred dollars. That's good. If you get only one client, that's different.
Do the math:
This math helps you decide what to do more of and what to cut back on.
Google Ads usually works fastest. You set them up today and might get calls tomorrow. Referrals from past clients are also fast if you have any. Ads cost money upfront. Building organic presence takes longer but costs less. Most growing businesses use both. Start with what fits your budget and what makes sense for your type of clients.
Yes, they work, but you have to pay attention to them. You can't just set them up and forget about them. You need to test different messages, watch your costs, and adjust based on what works. If someone runs ads without watching them closely, they waste money. If someone's actively managing them and checking results, ads usually work well for cleaning businesses. The competition isn't as fierce as in some other industries.
Same answer. They work if you do them right. The key is knowing what words your target customers actually search for. Office managers search for "commercial cleaning services." Restaurant owners search for "restaurant deep cleaning." Know who you are going after and bid on the right search words.
It depends on your situation. Commercial jobs are usually bigger, longer contracts, and more predictable money. But the sales process takes longer, and you might wait weeks for paperwork. Residential jobs are faster to start, but smaller and sometimes pickier clients. Most successful cleaning businesses do both or focus on whichever fits their strengths and schedule better. Think about what you enjoy doing and what your business can actually handle.
Really important. Reviews affect where you show up in search results. They affect whether people trust you enough to call. They affect whether they pick you or someone else. Businesses with more reviews and better ratings grow faster. This has to be real reviews, though, not fake ones. Real reviews from real clients are what matter. Do good work and collect reviews from happy clients.
