Marketing Your Window Cleaning Business On Craigslist
I recently received a question from someone asking if it’s a good idea to market their window cleaning business on craigslist. He went on to ask if anyone else is doing that.
My response to this is to absolutely give craigslist a try. Any kind of marketing is worth a test to see if it brings in any business. Of course it does depend on what kind of investment is needed to run the test, but since craigslist is free to list your business and service, then you should definitely post your business information there.
I do know window cleaners who advertise on craigslist and they do receive calls. Understand though that it should never be your main source of marketing/advertising. The quality of the prospects aren’t the best, and you’ll get more price shoppers vs if they were responding to a flyer or postcard, but again, you’ll get some business from it.
For those of you reading this who aren’t familiar with craigslist, go to http://www.craigslist.org. On the right will be a list of cities in your State. Choose the city where you are doing business/want to get prospects from. Then look for a “Services” section.
A Synopsis of a Window Cleaning Business
Hey All,
Good morning to everyone. I hope you’re having a fine day. Today I wanted to post a couple of emails that I received yesterday from a window cleaner who is relatively new to the window cleaning business. Maybe it’ll inject an extra step in your walk as you go about building your own window cleaning business.
Email 1
Good day Steve!
I wanted to let you know how I am making out here with my new window cleaning business. Well, what can I say but that I am ecstatic!
I am starting to see how the business works and today I made more money today than I have ever made working for an employer ever. Two jobs today, $450 dollars, and I am not even 1 month into it at an official capacity (started on Jun. 1st w company name). I am getting referrals already, and happy customers all around.
Read more…
References Make a Difference!
Hi Everyone,
I thought I’d post an email that I received the other day. This window cleaner was asking how to go about asking his window cleaning customers for references. Have a wonderful day.
Steve
Hello Steve,
I am a little over a month into it, the postcards are bringing in calls and jobs. I have printed out almost every kind of artwork you sent me (tweaked very little), and have figured out how to make my own small full color small yard sign for less than $5 and have been leaving them in customers yards for five days after I clean their home. I have the thank you letters and magnetic business cards.
Read more…
Part 2: Editing Your DNS
Hey All,
Ok…back with you today to talk about domains, websites, and online related stuff. Actually I think today I’ll just finish up talking about the process that needs to be completed after you purchase your domain name and I’d also like to add some information that I forgot to mention in the last blog post.
What I forgot to mention last time is that when you purchase a domain name, do it from an independent registrar like godaddy.com. NEVER get a domain name as part of a hosting plan that you might sign up for.
To back up for a minute and explain, if you’ve researched different web hosting and hosting plans, you’ll notice that many of them offer you a free domain name with purchase of any of their hosting plans. Sounds good, right? Um…not so fast. In this case, “free” could wind up biting you in the butt.
Keep in mind that a hosting company has to buy a domain name just like you would. They buy it from a registrar. But when they buy it for you, they generally buy it in their name. This makes you indebted to them forever.
What happens if you ever want to leave their hosting company for any reason? You could lose your domain name. They know this of course and that’s why they don’t mind buying your domain name for you (thereby providing it to your for “free”) because they know you’re probably not going to go anywhere.
Read more…
Free Exposure for your Business.
Hey all,
The other day I received an email from a window cleaner in the UK, and in the email he describes something he recently did that brought in some free publicity for his window cleaning business. It is really quite an idea. So I thought I’d post the email here in it’s entirety:
Hi Steve,
I have recently started after becoming redundant in January this year – so I’m still learning….
With the current recession there are now lots of empty shops around town which make many streets look scruffy. I took it on myself to build my window cleaning profile around town by cleaning all of these empty shop windows.
The local paper and our town renaissance team picked this up and contacted the local newspaper. The Bridlington Free Press then wrote a story detailing my window cleaning business and what I was doing to improve the town.
It can be read here:
Read more…
Be Aggressive…Make Offers!
Hi Everyone,
I hope you’re having a fine day today. This is just a quick post to let you know that over in the right column of this blog under "Newsletters", you’ll see a new newsletter posted that is entitled "Be Aggressive…Make Offers!". So click that link to read it. Or you can click here.
Please let me know if I can assist you in your window cleaning business. Take care for now.
Regards,
Steve
256-546-2446
A Marketing Idea to Apply Now!
Hey All,
A few days ago I received an email from a window cleaner asking me for some thoughts on how to drum up business right now to cover his typically slow january/february (he’s in a colder climate). I figured that all window cleaners might benefit from my reply to him, so it’s posted below.
I hope your year is going super so far. We’ll soon be coming up on the busy, busy, busy season. Yippee!! Please let me know if I can assist. 256-546-2446. Take care.
Steve
Hi Aaron,
Good morning and it’s good to hear from you. From talking with other window cleaners in colder climates, it has been a bit slow this month. You should move to florida. 
)
Are you in an area with subdivisions/homes near trees? Just wondering if gutter cleaning is a viable service in that area. Some areas have limited trees which makes it a bit more challenging in offering the gutter cleaning service. But I know lots of window cleaners who are doing very well cleaning gutters. I spoke to a window cleaner last night who said he averages about $75 an hour cleaning gutters. He charges on average about $125 per home and it takes him no more than an hour and a half to do.
On this blog, I do have some blog posts about gutter cleaning and other services to be provided in the winter. You may have to search a bit to find the posts, but it’s good information that I think will benefit you.
When you say your return on flyers is low, how low? And how many do you pump out? I talk about numbers all the time within my newsletters/manual, so is there any chance you can consistently distribute 1000 flyers each and every single saturday? That’s some strong numbers that’ll provide you strong results. I did this repeatedly using 2 to 3 kids (pay ‘em $20 each). We’d go into 2 or 3 subdivisions and in 3 hours, at least 900 to 1000 flyers were left behind. Doing this consistently has to overall give you good activity (phone calls/jobs). But it’s all about getting in the habit of doing every week. I had it inked right in my schedule:
Saturday: 9 to 12, flyers to Haile Plantation, Meadowbrook.
With that said though, given the time of year, sure, I think some folks will definitely hold onto the flyer and call more towards march during spring cleaning time. I think that’s a natural response. Not everyone of course. But it’ll definitely happen.
To avoid this (having people wait ’til march to call), maybe you could offer a discount or special of some kind that "expires" at the end of the month. Or maybe have it expire at the end of feb 15th. I’m usually not a big fan of discounts, but it could drum up some good business if done correctly. And when I say done "correctly", I’m referring to building it up by distributing multiple versions of the flyer to let’s say 2 (no more than 3) neighborhoods at most. So this flyer would be your "discount" flyer. Clearly show the expiration date of Jan 31st or Feb 15th (i would lean more towards feb 15th). And show the normal pricing (ex: Gutters are normally $125. Until feb 15th, take advantage of our $99 special). But don’t just rely on that initial flyer. I mentioned "multiple" flyers above. You have to follow up with another flyer a week or so later. This flyer would remind them about your specials and that the expiration date is coming up.
The final flyer (distribute 3 flyers total) can be distributed one week prior to your expiration date offering prospects one last chance to take advantage of your specials. This really, really works. So I would start working on creating the flyers today. Determine what specials you can offer and what your expiration date is and go from there. Make a slight tweak to flyer #2, but keep the same "look". Again, you just want to remind them of your specials that’ll soon expire. And the same applies to flyer #3.
And finally, have you thought about sending a "new service" or "winter special" letter to your current customer base? This is a great way to drum up business fast. Since you’re a member of The Customer Factor window cleaning software, this is piece of cake to handle. Create the letter, think of what specials/new service you can offer, and send it to all the customers in your database.
The advantage of a letter is that you can explain the "why". In a flyer, there’s usually not much room for the "why". I’m referring to why you’re offering the special. So in your letter, explain to your customers that this time of the year is typically the slowest for window cleaners, so you’ve decided to do something out of the ordinary. For example, you can write that you’ll include a free ceiling fan cleaning with each window cleaning if their service is completed by feb 15. Or your gutter cleaning service is just $99 until feb 15th, etc. etc. I’m sure you get the idea.
A word of caution. Be careful of going to crazy with discounts. Keep in mind that if you offer to do a window cleaning job at half off, chances are that you won’t be able to go back in a few months or a year later and get full price for it. And the goal in this biz is to create "repeat" customers, not "one time" customers. Sure…the one time customers are nice at this time of the year just to drum up business. But you want to turn those one time customers into repeat customers at some point, and it’s hard to do (and remain profitable) if you’re doing their follow up service at half off or something similar. So please keep this in mind.
I hope the above helps Aaron. Take care for now and have a great day today.
Regards,
Steve
Happy 2009!
Hi All,
Happy New Year to all of you in window cleaning land! Let’s make 2009 a year to remember. Even though the so called experts are giving the economy low marks, window cleaners overall are cleaning up literally. Although clean glass might not be as high of a priority to homeowners as some other home type services, if we go after the right prospects, you will get business…and plenty of it. So try and avoid the constant blah blah that you hear all around you every day. I know it can be hard, but there is no question that the business, jobs, and profits are there. We just need to go after it.
Speaking of "going after it", what many business owners will do during tough times is scale back their promotional efforts and dilute their marketing strategies. I can’t speak for other businesses, but in window cleaning, this is what you don’t want to do. The last thing you want to cut back on is your investment in your marketing. This is actually the time to pour it on. The reason? Because most window cleaners have cut back. They’ve followed the crowd and they believe the sky is falling. So this opens up tremendous opportunities for the window cleaners who are aggressive in their efforts. By the time the economy straightens up and they get back on their horse, it’ll be too late because you’ll have all their customers. 
Just kidding of course since there’s plenty of customers for us all. But you will have put a serious dent into their potential prospect base because you’ve already "been there, done that".
It’s simply necessary to think out of the box in a major way and do the exact opposite of what most window cleaners are doing currently. I love what warren buffett said recently. I’m not sure I remember the exact phrase, but it went something like this: "Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful." So as most investors are sitting on the sideline afraid to invest, he’s going on a stock buying rampage and buying, buying, buying. He’s a smart cookie because he knows that most people are herd followers and just do what everyone else is doing.
Anyway…I wish you all the very best in 2009. If you have any questions or need assistance, please let me know. My number is 256-546-2446.
Sincerely,
St eve
