Creating Customer Profile

Before creating a flyer, first we want to create a customer profile and identify key fears and pain points. The core principal of account based marketing is using specific messages for specific leads and prospects.

Property Manager’s Fears

1. Don’t answer calls promptly
2. Late to appointments
3. Unpredictable pricing
4. Inconsistent service

Now that we have a list of pain points, we now can think about what kind of solutions to reduce those fears.

The key is trying to think about this from the customers perspective and what benefits them and not what benefits us. Try and think if you had that job, how would you feel.

One more thing I’d like to point out is we don’t always have to come out and say something or write something directly but can imply it through images and words. See our how too using property managers as an example

Flyer Headline and Image

We started with the headline “Watch Out For That Next Step”. In this situation we are using a metaphor and implying, think about this brochure before you make that next decision.

Behind the headline we are using an image of a business person about to step on a banana peel, potentially falling down. Its critical to find images that match up with the headline an overall message of a flyer or brochure.

Prospects can process images much faster, split seconds compared to reading text. If we can interest someone with the image then it’s much more likely they will continue to read the text.

Brochure Layout

At the top is our headline and image, below is a sub-headline “Looking to hire a commercial cleaner?”, this can be changed for your specific service. Next we identify the fear or pain point and finally provide the solution to those challenges.

Identifying The Problem

In this section we focus on identifying a challenge, problem or fear a lead, prospect might have.

Under the sub-headline “looking to hire a commercial cleaner?”, provide a description. The goal here is remind them of some bad past experiences they may have had or feelings they have in general about cleaning contractors.

Most cleaning services are smaller and often we do lack the management structure and organization of a major corporation. Here we point this out.

Providing a Solution

Lastly, provide a solution! We can’t just complain and point out flaws of “the other guy” without also providing a dedicated solution.

This can be a great place to use bullet points with some spacing so the reader can process it quickly and get the point.

In our example we included 3 bullet points

1. Get a dedicated project manager

2. Locked in pricing for the term of contract

3. On time appointments

Obviously if you are a smaller company you might have to change this to the owner inspects all jobs upon completion or something. The seed to be planting is somebody is supervising and managing this project.

In conclusion, here are some ideas to map out a commercial cleaning brochure/flyer. I think you will find this process is a lot easier if you map out an outline to follow.

Marketing Cleaning Services To Churches

This is a blog and video on creating a commercial cleaning brochure, targeting churches and religious organizations in general. One of the challenges with marketing to churches is they are non for organizations and often do not have a lot of money. The other challenge is how to let them know we specialize in churches but at the same time be subtle and not offend anyone.

We were super careful in creating this brochure not to include any symbols or reference to a specific religious organization as we do not want to offend anyone.

Start The Marketing with A Headline

We started with a headline of “Don’t Take A Leap Of Faith with your next carpet cleaner”. The keyword here is faith, just a subtle way to let prospects know we understand their organization. Next to the headline is a picture tying into the headline of taking that leap of faith. The point here is we wanted to use keywords instead of being direct.

Solving Their Commercial Cleaning Problem

The paragraph or body we started with another keyword, the key to having immaculate carpets is. Then the body was devoted to solving problems common among churches. Some are not having to buy expensive equipment, devoting maintenance staff’s time and of course the results. Often when in house cleaners try to remove spills and stains they just wick back anyway in a couple days because they do not have the training, detergents and equipment.

Next to the paragraph is a snapshot image of carpet cleaning, the problem here was finding the right picture to plant the seed of a religious organization or church without using any symbols. Some religions find that offensive and as marketers we want to avoid offending the prospects we are trying to influence.

Focusing on Benefits

Last section is geared towards showcasing the core benefits of using our service. The challenge with churches is they often have tight budgets for commercial cleaning, carpet cleaning, etc. Most are staffed with lots of volunteers and it can be difficult for a volunteer to pay top dollar for a cleaning service or any contracting service when they are working for free.

The key points we want to get across here is:

-setting up an ongoing routine, with larger ones we could split up in sections while smaller buildings rotate services.

-Low cost solutions, now low cost doesn’t equal low profit when we are splitting into sections or rotating

-main benefit of course is keeping a clean uniform appearance

This was a quick overview of some ideas to think about when creating a commercial cleaning brochure, targeting churches.

Selling Cleaning Services To Medical Buildings

Doctors, dentists, clinics, medical

This blog is about using a commercial cleaning sales flyer or brochure when selling commercial carpet cleaning, janitorial, tile cleaning services. This theme is geared towards the medical field of doctors and dentists.

I like to use sales aids when selling commercial cleaning services, the more specific the better in my opinion. Now there is a couple different ways to approach a sales aid, we can go with different services, industry specific theme or customer testimonials. Plus whatever else your creative mind can come up with!

This specific brochure or sales flyer is geared towards the medical field that can cover doctors, dentists, clinics, hospitals and nursing homes, plus any number of niche services.

We first started with the picture of a common problem, the condition of a waiting room. For a doctor’s office this is the first impression a patient has and can plant the seed for the whole experience. In my opinion a great place to focus our initial marketing.

Afraid of looking at the condition of your waiting room? With a picture of the child covering his eyes adds a little humor, we hope.

On the right sidebar is a couple paragraphs where we are looking for some hot buttons or common challenges a medical office may face.

We start with the problem

Eliminate unsightly carpet stains, remove odors and sanitize your carpets & furniture.

Then point out we are specialists

We specialize in carpet, tile and furniture cleaning for medical facilities in the TOWN area.

Followed by the solution

We’d be happy to give you a quick inspection and demo on how we can freshen up your office this year.

The point is to segment leads, prospects and provide specific solutions to their specific problems. This specific brochure will not make you millions I guarantee but it’s the thought process that is important here.

Create a target of leads and provide specific, exclusive if possible solutions.

Another great idea here would be adding a testimonial from a similar customer.

Commercial Tile & Grout Cleaning

This is an example of how to use metaphors

This is a quick presentation on How to use metaphors in advertising a cleaning service. Now this can apply to commercial cleaning, janitorial, commercial carpet & tile cleaning, whatever segment of the market you focus on.

In this blog we are covering how to use metaphors for a commercial tile cleaning brochure but you can just as easily use it for any commercial cleaning service. Also we used a brochure or flyer but the point is the concept and can be created for a landing page, website page or any other digital marketing.

What is a metaphor? A metaphor is a figure of speech, symbol, something abstract. Doesn’t mean literally but more of how someone feels.

This brochure is a perfect example with the picture of a woman carrying an elephant with the headline: Is keeping your tile floors clean becoming a heavy lift? Next we show a picture of a typical office manager, general manager trying to lift a heavy object, in this case an elephant. Obviously the elephant is just a symbol of something heavy and not a literal representation.

Why use metaphors in advertising?

The next question will be why are we doing this? The goal in advertising is to connect with people on an emotional level, an instinctive level. One thing that has been discovered in brain research over the last 10 years is how much of our decision making is made at the instinctive level, emotional level and not rational. Just think of math which is very logical, how many people are good at math?

With an image we can really connect with prospects on an emotional level, this is exactly how the typical office manager feels about hiring a cleaning service. Think about how the prospect feels about the process of choosing a cleaner. They have to call 3-4 businesses, take salespeople on walk thrus, come back and go over the proposals or estimates and then ultimately decide.

Think about how much work that is for an office manager, they want to focus on their customers just like we do. They also have eight million different challenges just like us with finding employees, customer service, chasing invoices, etc. It can be a “heavy lift” to go through the process of hiring a cleaning service.

We are trying to plug into, dial into this emotion and provide an EASY solution. They don’t have to look anywhere else because we are experts in solving this problem and understand it.

Providing A Solution

In this section I’m going to span back and show the whole brochure so you can see how it all fits together. The top part is the emotional part and now we are going to be more technical or rational and provide a solution.

Salt residue, tar/oils from parking lots, general traffic are all causes of dirty tile and discolored grout lines. Grout is porous and can stain easily  …  These are all practical causes.

One part I would highlight is SEALING, we have found that people who buy tile cleaning have a lot of interest in sealing. In their minds after cleaning a floor, sealing will keep the floor looking that way over the long term. The main point we are trying to imply is we specialize in this service, we are experts and understand their specific problems and have a solution.

Commercial Cleaning Additional Services

The last part is highlighting common areas that become dirty in commercial buildings. Lobby floors, restrooms, cafeteria’s, these are the most common places of tile and grout in commercial buildings. Making restrooms stand out is great because restroom cleaning always ranks #1 for cleaning complaints in commercial buildings year after year. Plugging in that emotional part again!

Health & Safety

This flyer is focused on health & safety. Also can be used to highlight equipment and training

This is a quick tutorial on how a cleaning service can create a sales flyer or brochure using subtle messages. This can apply to commercial cleaning, janitorial and carpet & tile cleaning services.

In this tutorial we break down the different sections of creating a sales flyer or brochure. Often in marketing businesses can be a little too “in your face” or explicit in messages but what we want to point out here is how to become more subtle.

One of the biggest cleaning strategies I promote is create several value propositions or messages and rotate them I would not think of this as an ONLY piece but an AND piece that is rotated.

Prospects buy for all kinds of reasons and not just one, we want them all!

Headline

We start at the top with the headline ” when having the right equipment and training is everything”. Here we are implying we have the right equipment and training for their cleaning problem.

The key here is tying the headline with the picture, we dont always have to use a cleaning related picture. We can also use images that get the point across.

Body and Introduction

In this section we are introducing who we are, what we do and looking for opportunities to plug words in. In this example we sprinkled health, safety, employee safety, health and safety program throughout the body.

Checklist

Here we start to include a checklist or bullet points of some specific areas, tasks, values, etc . One way to think of this is to add anything that people ask about.

What detergents do you use, are you certified, what kind of training does your staff have, etc. We are trying to jump ahead and answer some questions that are often on prospects mind.

Call To Action

Lastly, what do we want the person reading this to do or think? How do they contact us.

 

Sample Carpet Cleaning Brochure

In this brochure we are using the metaphor of “turning back the clock” or restoring commercial carpet, tile or furniture. Really can apply to any material

Technical, this is a technical value proposition which can work when talking about specialty services. anywhere from 10-15 of prospects will value technical information

 

Client Testimonials

This brochure is a client testimonial, this is especially useful when a prospect asks do you clean other industry specific clients. Often when bidding on a medical building prospects will ask if you clean other medical buildings.

Another example is when belonging to a trade association or chamber of commerce. People will ask if you clean for other chamber members or if you belong to a dental association, etc.

This is the perfect time to pull out this sell sheet.

 

Selling Restroom Cleaning and Disinfection

This is what we call a technical bulletin, it is not supposed to have a lot of pizazz but be pointing out and providing a solution.

A good 10 percent of prospects will be analytical personality types and will want information straightforward. When you identify this person, this would be the flyer to use.

In our example we focused on restroom cleaning and disinfection but could also be used in other topics.

 

Sample Janitorial Introduction Flyer

This is a general overview or also can be thought of as an introduction flyer, sell sheet. We used the headline is keeping your office clean driving you crazy?

Then highlighted 3 top services we provide.

The next section covered basic business topics and questions people ask.

 

Carpet Cleaning Flyer

 

This last example is dedicated to carpet cleaning, here we broke down 2 different methods to clean commercial carpet and then planted the seed for selling a dedicated program or carpet protector.