How to start a cleaning business: 6 – Email marketing

“No matter how old it gets, email marketing will still be relevant” – Paras Arora

Now that I’d defined my target market and purchased my cleaning equipment, I was ready to start finding clients.

I had no idea how to approach this as a new business owner with no business or marketing experience, so I thought I’d just ask. I figured that if I asked enough people to do business with me, one of them would eventually say yes. And if one business said yes, then so could three, or ten, or fifty!

So with ignorance and energy to spare, I drafted a ‘cold-call email’ that basically said “this is who I am, this is what I do, how can we work together?”. The email I created was based on these principles. Once I was happy with the email, I got online and started looking for businesses that fit my commercial target market. I did this in two ways. Firstly I focused on a specific type of business such as dance studios, yoga studios, gyms, law firms, bookkeepers etc. Secondly I focused on suburbs or particular areas, starting closest to home and working my way out. I’d compile lists of businesses, find their contact details online and shoot them an email.

I had little to no hope of this succeeding, but after only 20 emails I was contacted for a quote. This gave me a lot of confidence, and I continued to compile lists and send emails. It goes without saying that most of my emails were ignored and understandably so. At one point I had a tally counter on my phone that kept track of emails sent and contracts tendered. I deleted the app after I reached 1000 emails. Compiling so many emails in my spare time was boring and tiresome work. I’m sure there are many more efficient ways to market a business but like I said, I was new to it all and this system was working, albeit slowly.

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read”. – Leo Burnett

After two or three months I had twelve commercial cleaning contracts to my name and was feeling pretty proud of myself. I was servicing five dance studios, a yoga studio, two offices, two showrooms and two health centres.

I still use email marketing as an effective tool to approach prospective clients. I’ve refined the email over time, however my conversion rate remains about the same. Have you used cold call emails to generate sales? If so, share your story in the comments section below!