Creating safer, healthier homes means embracing green in everything we do.

Marketing in today’s competitive cleaning marketplace means you have to know your consumers well, and carve out a unique niche for yourself. You need to understand where and to whom you should be selling as well as why customers should choose you over another cleaning company. One way we defined our market for Better Life Maids was to build our brand and identity around being a green housecleaning service. Here are four important lessons we’ve learned in creating our green marketing message.

 

1. Start with Your Why

We chose to be a green company because it was something we really cared about. We are passionate about making our clients’ lives better, greener and cleaner. We wanted to help educate clients about best practices that would make their homes safer and healthier. This meant embracing green in everything we do. We even offer our clients the ability to purchase the green housecleaning products that we use to clean their homes.

This “why” is a big part of our marketing message. For example, our Dish Soap for Life program provides each new client with a bottle of our all natural dish soap. Each time we clean their home, we refill the bottle for free. This not only further strengthens our mission to help our clients keep their homes greener between visits, but they remember our company each time they do the dishes. At the end of this article you’ll see one of the marketing pieces we use to tell our clients about the program.

2. Do Your Homework

I am not preaching that you must become the “greenest” company on the planet with staff that arrives on electric-powered bicycles and carries solar-powered vacuums. What I am saying is that you need to know your stuff.  Changing out one product for a greener alternative does not make your company green. You need to take a holistic approach. Become an expert on green cleaning technologies, methodologies and products. In order to help your clients identify potentially hazardous products in their homes and show healthier alternatives, become and stay informed.

Sharing knowledge as you acquire it will also help you build credibility and establish you and your brand as an expert resource on green housecleaning. We blog and talk about all things green on our social media feeds. Not only do we create original content for these channels, but we curate great information from reliable sources as well.

3. Learn to Translate

There’s a lot of science behind green cleaning. It’s important for you and your team to understand this science. However, when it comes to discussing green with your clients, it’s best to translate the science into benefits. Clients want to know that green cleaning is improving their lives. For example, we might write a blog post called Improved Indoor Air Quality Can Reduce Asthma Attacks or Keeping Your Home Safe for Children and Pets. By building your green message around what’s in it for your clients, you will reach them on an emotional level and raise the perceived value of your service.

We also have a Read the Label campaign that focuses on various different reasons to choose green alternatives. My only warning here is that you need to balance this approach so that you don’t come off as too preachy in your marketing.

4. Embrace the Community

Being a green company is a big commitment beyond just changing out paper for microfiber and replacing a few chemicals. Community involvement is very important. The green movement offers a great opportunity to get involved and, of course, a great way for people to meet you and your team. Look for festivals, meet ups and other events that you can participate in to boost your brand and share your message and mission. We participate in a lot of annual festivals. We do live demonstrations, product and service giveaways. This allows us to collect information from potential clients that are truly interested in the green services and products we offer.  In addition to hosting our own booth, we sponsor the hand-washing stations where we provide our all-natural soaps with our logo prominently displayed. We also participate in local electric-vehicle showcases with our own Chevy Volts.

Company owners who embrace green cleaning have an incredible opportunity to improve the lives of their clients while expanding their business opportunities through targeted marketing. Though not an approach to be taken lightly, green marketing offers the type of unique, mission-based branding that resonates in today’s marketplace.

Matt Ricketts is President and Chief Experience Officer of Better Life Maids, a fast- growing maid service founded in St. Louis, Missouri and expanding coast to coast through franchising.