How to Advertise Your Cleaning Business For Free

It goes without saying that free marketing and advertising is always helpful. If you’ve just started a cleaning business, you may be wondering “where can I advertise my cleaning business for free?”

The best thing you can do to advertise your cleaning business for free is to tell your friends and family. Ask them to become your first customers and recommend you. Word-of-mouth still matters in the digital age.

Other types of free advertising include but are not limited to online marketplaces (MyClean and TaskRabbit), email proposals, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Yelp, and Craigslist.

In this post, we will share with you the 9 most effective ways on how to advertise your cleaning business for free. All you need is a little bit of creativity and a whole lot of consistency to land your first few clients.

Where can you advertise your cleaning business for free?

1. Friends and family

Telling your friends and family about your cleaning business is an effective free advertising method. It creates a chain reaction via word-of-mouth that spreads like wildfire (as long as they are happy with your work).

If you’ve just started your new cleaning business, don’t hesitate to tell your friends and family about it. In fact, offer them a free trial or a discount for being your first batch of customers.

After finishing a project or a cleaning job with them, ask your friends and family for constructive feedback. Then, politely ask them to recommend your cleaning business to their friends and families.

According to Marketing Charts, nothing beats word-of-mouth. About 93% of consumers go to their friends and family for trusted information about brands and services.

In fact, recommendations of friends or family members are more potent than review sites and have far more influence over purchase decisions made after seeing ads by influencers or celebrities.

Indeed, this study shows that as long as you provide a great service to your friends and family, they would be happy to recommend your service, in this case your cleaning business, to their friends and family. This, in turn, would give you free advertising for your cleaning business.

2. Online Marketplace

With the gig economy, advertising your cleaning business online has become easier than ever. And the best part is, it’s free! There are several popular apps that can help you to find customers:

MyClean

MyClean is a platform that allows anyone to book a cleaning online. You can become a cleaner on MyClean, but you will be considered an employee of MyClean, not gig economy workers. It’s a good starting point if you don’t have experience and get firsthand knowledge of what it’s like to be a cleaner.

TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit is an online marketplace that connects freelance labor with local demand, allowing consumers to find immediate help with everyday tasks, including cleaning, moving, delivery and handyman work.

If you want to advertise your cleaning business without a budget, you can register to become a tasker on TaskRabbit, where you can connect you with clients in your area and keep 100% of what you charge, plus tips!

3. Email Proposals

Advertising your cleaning business does not have to be fancy. In fact, using plain text emails and letting your message speak for itself can be just as effective. If you’re short on time (and budget), you can email prospective clients directly via email in order to tell them about your services for free.

If you need a sample email template to promote your cleaning business, here is a free template you can use. That article also breaks down what makes a good email proposal to ensure you get a good conversion rate.

4. YouTube Shorts

YouTube shorts are simple and easy to make. And it’s free too. 

You can only create a short using a mobile device. Open the YouTube app on your smartphone and begin a new project by tapping on the Create button at the bottom of the home screen. Select Create a Short from the pop-up menu. Once you’ve given YouTube access to your camera and microphone, you can begin filming.

To promote your cleaning business, do one of two things: educate or entertain. You can even do both. Create YouTube shorts that are engaging and provide value to your audience. At the end of each video, don’t forget to include a call-to-action to your cleaning business (to book an appointment).

With YouTube, consistency is key. YouTube is all about finding the right niche and creating a community around it. Write one catchy line introduction at the beginning of your video to pique your viewer’s interest.

5. Instagram and TikTok

Just like YouTube Shorts, Instagram and TikTok is a social media platform where you do not need to invest in expensive equipment to make lengthy videos. All you need is your phone and you can start.

Part of why his content has became a success is because he simplified the process of cleaning in his videos. He educated his audience about the process of cleaning a pool, which piqued the interest of his audience.

Try to post content every single day about your cleaning business. Remember, always educate or entertain, or both! Slowly but surely, you will build an audience and secure clients for your cleaning business.

6. Facebook

Facebook is a great way to advertise your cleaning business for free. Once you get your Facebook business page up and running, you need to do is to invite friends and family to “Like” your business page.

Inviting friends and family to like your page has many benefits for your cleaning business because it sets you up with a digital footprint on Facebook, and it provides you with a valuable test audience.

Invite your friends to like your cleaning business page by navigating to your page, clicking the three dots next to “Share,” and clicking “Invite Friends.” Type in your friends’ names, and click “Send Invite.”

Another way to promote your cleaning business for free via Facebook is to offer something consumers would want in the form of an offer or Facebook contest or giveaway. The more interesting the incentive or deal, the more likely it is to generate “shares” and “likes.”

Promotional offers and Facebook contests for your cleaning business include:

• Offering customer discounts for “shares” and “likes.”
• Holding a draw for a one-time cleaning service (keep a record of new followers and pick a winner).
• Create the event on Facebook that your audience would want to share and bring friends to get the word out about a new service, a cleaning demonstration, or product giveaway.

Once you’ve built an audience on Facebook, interact with those who follow you or comment on your posts. If a person comments on your post, thank them and follow up with a question related to the comment.

Facebook’s algorithm shows your interaction with users on the News Feeds of users who follow your page as well as the individual’s Facebook News Feed. This is great to boost your cleaning business visibility.

7. LinkedIn

Just like Facebook and Google, LinkedIn is an advertising platform. It’s not free (one click can cost between $6 to $9). However, there are smart ways you can do to promote your cleaning business for free on LinkedIn.

The first thing you would want to do is to create a professional LinkedIn company page. It works similarly to your personal page, however, a company page gives you a way to tell potential clients, partners, and random strangers a bit more about your cleaning business.

Keep your About section focused on the problems you solve and benefits you provide. Google indexes the first 156 characters of your description, so make your LinkedIn company page SEO-friendly and easy to find by starting off with the important things. This also makes you easier to find through LinkedIn search.

Once you’ve created a company page, join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to your business, in this case, the cleaning industry. Share your articles and insightful content that add value to the readers. You can also comment on other posts and engage with members of the group to gain visibility to your company page.

The key to advertising your cleaning business on LinkedIn is to provide valuable insights rather than promotional blather. This will build your brand and get your company out there while attracting the right audience. Be careful — it’s easy to get booted from LinkedIn Groups if you spam or self-promote.

You can also participate in online conversations related to your industry trade shows, customer experiences, business trends compiled by the LinkedIn staff. The key here is to respond intelligently (not spamming) and take advantage of any opportunities you might find to promote yourself and your cleaning business.

8. Yelp

Yelp is a platform where users can submit a review of their products or services using a one to five star rating scale. As a cleaning business owner, Yelp is a great platform to gather positive customer ratings.

A Yelp Business Page is free and is a great way to spread the word about your cleaning business. Not only do many consumers use Yelp to search for great local businesses, but the business information that you add to your Yelp Page (hours, website, contact information), is pushed through to Yelp partners.

You can also sign up for Yelp Ads, which places your business listing throughout the Yelp site. This no-contract advertising campaign allows you to choose your own budget and pause/cancel whenever you like.

Although you need to pay for Yelp ads, many businesses are eligible for a free Yelp Ads credit if they haven’t tried ads before. All you have to do is sign in to your Yelp for Business account and click the Yelp Ads tab. If you need more information, contact a representative to determine your eligibility.

9. Craigslist

With a little preparation and a consistent posting and testing strategy, Craigslist can be an effective source of clicks and leads for your brand new cleaning business at little or no cost.

One of the reasons for the success of Craigslist is its local approach. You have the option of choosing the city on which your listing appears, even detail the specific area of the city, when you create a listing.

Although it's never possible to tell which Craigslist ads are legitimate and which are not, creating the best listing possible increases the success rate of your Craigslist efforts. Provide as many details as possible, written in a clear, legible manner and include your website (if you have one). 

The more information you can include about your cleaning business, the more viewers will see that it's authentic. Lastly, the title is crucial, so make sure to make it catchy and unique to capture more eyeballs.

The right plan is more important than advertising

And there you have it, the simple guide on how to advertise your cleaning business for free. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a lot of money to promote your cleaning business.

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