I must admit, for several years I was not a fan of using Facebook to market janitorial services to prospective clients. My reasoning went something like this. While Facebook has hundreds of millions of users, our client list is only several hundred or perhaps a couple thousand long. Mass advertising on social media is like using billboards. You may get lots of views, but rarely, if ever, will these views turn into bidding opportunities, much less a sale. I have used Facebook ads for a variety of purposes, recruiting cleaners being one of those, but never to win new cleaning contracts. But I’ve changed my mind and here’s why.
Admittedly, I know I’m late to the game on this, but I recently realized that Facebook will allow you to target individuals based on an email list that you load into your custom audience. Facebook will attempt to match those emails with Facebook users. You can then pay to place ads in front of these users. Pretty simple!
Now you may be asking the question, “What type of ad would I place?” I like to think of Facebook marketing as a subtle way to increase your brand recognition. If you are making phone calls and sending emails to prospects, those are direct marketing tactics. You are personally intruding into the space of the prospect hoping they will have some level of interest. With Facebook marketing, you are not intruding on their space, but rather subtly “hanging out” in areas where the prospect might see you. This gives them the chance to come to you instead of you coming to them.
In terms of ad types, I recommend a catchy ad that links to a piece of content the prospect might find valuable. For instance, maybe you have created a case study showing how you saved a customer money and improved service. You write this into an article, including customer quotes, and put the article on your website. Your Facebook ad would attract the prospect to click the link to read more about the story.
Remember, no single marketing tactic is complete all by itself. A robust sales and marketing program requires multiple arrows in your quiver. I would encourage you to try Facebook using a custom email list and see if it improves your bid opportunities. This isn’t a replacement to cold calling, emails, and snail mail. Rather, it is a another cheap way to put your name in front of prospects.
