Grow Your Cleaning Service Using Danger in Ads
In today’s topic we are going to focus on how to sell commercial cleaning and janitorial services using danger. We used a mix of digital and print examples to make it easier but this can apply to a landing page, website, print flyer, sales letter postcard, etc.
Why do we want to use Danger? Two reasons mainly, one to draw attention and two to tap into emotional feelings. Danger, fear, anger, hate, love are all powerful emotions that can bring out the best or worst in our advertising pieces.
Often cleaning services want to use cleaning type of pictures in their advertising, before and after pictures, images of equipment, pictures of cleaners, etc. This all makes perfect sense seeing this is what we do, especially in social media or digital advertising where we only have a couple seconds to get attention.
The downside is every single cleaning service uses the same handful of stock photos so it can be difficult to separate yourself from the competition when 5 cleaners are all using the same 10 photos.
The topic or value proposition of this ad is equipment and training. Generally speaking specialty services like carpet, tile would use this type of value more than say an office cleaning service BUT rotating different ads in a sequence janitorial can also use this message very effectively.
There is not 1 topic that draws every single prospect in, which is why we want to rotate and bring them all in.
3 Images We Can’t Avoid
The second reason is just a simple human reason, there is 3 things for fact humans cannot avoid looking at. No matter how hard we try, we still have to glance at:
- Danger
- Food
- Sex
In the commercial cleaning and janitorial industry 2 of them make perfect sense. Food is the most common reason people have buildings cleaned and danger of spreading bacteria, viruses is another big reason. Not to mention danger of lawsuits which is a huge topic for large clients nowadays.
Sex is not generally a good fit for cleaning services but some have success by using attractive employees or attractively dressed employees, so it is used but in a far more subtle way.
Don’t Take A Leap Of Faith With Your Next Cleaning Service
This was a flyer we have used in the past that uses danger as a headline with a picture of a man looking over a mountain. The key here is finding a way to tie it into cleaning some way. Here we are trying to capture how a manager often feels when hiring a cleaning service.
Watch Out For That Next Step!
In this example we are trying to capture that feeling a building owner or manager feels, the uncertainty they feel, the fear they feel before signing a contract with a cleaning contractor. The general disorganization and unpredictability of most small contractors.
How To Sell Commercial Cleaning & Carpet Cleaning Services
In this second example we are more focused on the specialty cleaning services of commercial carpet cleaning, tile, VCT floor care, disinfecting, etc.
A lot of businesses will use the specialty services to get their “foot in the door” to then sell office cleaning, restoration or other project services in a package.
We are big proponents of using a rotation in marketing cleaning services, in this specific ad we are using the theme or value proposition of Training and Equipment. This is a topic more geared towards specialty services then office cleaning. On a percentage basis an office cleaning service might only highlight equipment/training 5% of the time but a specialty service as high as 20%.
Safety is a hot topic for commercial buildings nowadays and will be for the coming years. But we don’t always want to be so explicit and in use fear in our messages. In this example we are “planting the seed” by focusing on safety in a more subtle way.
Tying the picture with the headline
The first step is tying the image with the headline to make that quick 5 second connection. In this example we used the headline “ When having the right equipment and training is everything’.
Then used the image of a rock climber hanging from a cliff where it is literally everything.
Introduction
In the introduction section we introduce WHO we are, WHAT services we provide and WHAT area we service. All basic information a prospect needs to know before reading any further.
Mission Statement
The next paragraph of the body is a mission statement or company message. This is a general or vague statement that applies to every single customer and not specific to a target or group of clients. Examples might be largest, oldest, communication, greenest, most reviewed, most referred, fastest responding, etc.
Specific Message
This sentence or paragraph is specific to a group or campaign you are running. Maybe this is targeted to medical, industrial, etc and we want to use Safety as an example to highlight a specific message that prospect would be interested in.
Listing Logic and Facts
Next we go to a checklist format and layout some facts, logic to support our above statements. See above we made some general statements and now want to list some facts to support the above statements.
- State of the art equipment
- Green cleaning
- Following social distancing
- Gloves and PPE
- Certifications for training
- CDC products
Call To Action
Lastly, what do we want people to do? For a digital ad it is common for commercial cleaning prospects to request more information or schedule an estimate.
Looking To Sell More Commercial Cleaning Jobs? Slow Down!
The best way i have found to think of it is like your spouse. You didn’t just walk up to them cold and say “wanna have a couple kids and get married…” It took many, many, many small details until you made it to that big moment, big YES.
Another analogy people have used for decades is the balance sheet, you keep adding credits to the positive column and avoiding any negatives.
You don’t have to be in your face all the time in sales. Its more effective to show a prospect you are a professional, quality service, etc then ever actually say it. Let them come to the conclusion themselves.
My personal style has always been to ask questions relative to the job. What are the questions you need to know to complete this job?
Some examples might be…
- Where area are you located
- What type/style of carpet do you have
- Do you have any specific time/day you need
- When was the last time you had it cleaned, if yes was it protected?
- Is this a first floor or multi-level
- If you need apo then ask about water source.
- Do you need furniture moved
- Many others you can come up with BUT not too many…
Have to be casual though, we don’t want to come off as interrogators. Along the way look for opportunities for like interests, maybe they have a dog breed you are familiar with or live in an area your friends live in.
Relax, take a deep breathe… That opportunity will come at some point in the conversation, just wait for it.
Every prospect has different HOT buttons, its your job to find it. Sometimes its as simple as they need a weird time like 7:45 pm on tuesday or something, thats why you ask!