Here is some recent advice that Steve gave to a business owner on Free index

Katheria the owner of a new cleaning company aksed the following “please advise me on the best was to go about generating new leads”

Hi Katheria,

That’s a very open question to which there are many answers.

Here are a few basic pointers.

1. Your website is a free low grade website and this will reflect on the service that you provide. You need to present a professional image if you want to service commercial clients. Consider investing in a professional website.
2. Get yourself listed in Google Local to achieve a quick page 1 listing for Cleaning Services Swindon (see sc.betterbusinessresults.com for a free guide to help you do this quickly)
3. You should also consider using a better domain name like swindoncleaningservices.co.uk or officecleaningswindon.co.uk
4. Look at some of your competition to see how they present themselves eg http://www.swindoncleaning.biz/ This is what you are competing against in the eyes of your customer.
5. Is there a niche within the cleaning business that you can specialise in and become known as the local expert for that type of cleaning. This would then differentiate you and make it easier for you to target your potential customers. eg Do you specialise in cleaning Nursing Homes or Commercial Units – Just two extremes to get you thinking.
6. Do you make any offers for first time customers? In order to land a new client you may have to offer a first clean free or at least 100% money back guarantee if not completely satisfied. Or offer 3 cleans for the price of 2 if paid in advance.
7. Do you have a top 100 list of businesses you would like to target in your area. (this information can be purchased from a good marketing company like ours) You may want to set up a multi-part mail out campaign where you send a sequence of multiple direct response mail shots to your target list.
8. Are you using social media, ie Do you have a Facebook Business Page and Twitter account. You would probably also want a good linked-in profile for your line of work.
9. You could consider running Google Adwords (PPC) ads for a select number of geolocal keyword phrases to catch the people that are actively looking for your services right now. Also consider Facebook Ads as well.
10. Do you have a good list of testimonials from past clients or could you get them.
11. Are there complimentary service providers to yours that you may be able to do a joint venture with? ie Use the relationship they already have with the customer that you want to get to. Pay a formal commission for all introductions that lead to new business.

Sorry there is no quick fix or magic bullet. But marketing is a large subject and you should really look to get someone to either mentor you or do it for you so you can concentrate on building the business.

Best regards,
Steve.

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