Acquiring new clients for your cleaning business can be accomplished through various methods. One more novel strategy of acquiring new clients is using Thumbtack, an online platform connecting businesses to targeted clients. Thumbtack is an online community where companies can build a profile and advertise custom jobs. Through the business profile and posting of custom jobs, your cleaning business will have the opportunity to reach customers directly based on the customer’s set expectations. This type of setup is helpful in that it ensures businesses get the best bang for their buck when using Thumbtack’s services.
Getting started with Thumbtack is a relatively simple process. The first step is to sign up for an account using Thumbtack’s pro-sign-up page. Once you have successfully signed up for Thumbtack, the next step towards acquiring new clients is to set your business preferences and complete your cleaning business profile. Next, you must garner client reviews and take the necessary steps to improve your rank on Thumbtack by fine-tuning your cleaning business profile. Following the fine-tuning of your profile, you should begin to receive leads, and you should respond as quickly as possible. You can then take time to review your insights within Thumbtack to implement any necessary changes that will assist your cleaning business with finding new clients.
The first step towards acquiring new clients using Thumbtack requires that you sign up for an account. Signing up and creating a business profile is completely free, and there is no monthly or annual subscription fee. You will only be charged if an interested customer makes contact with your cleaning business. Additionally, Thumbtack offers a guarantee known as “Price Assurance” to ensure businesses can feel secure using the online platform.
Once you have signed up for an account, you will want to log in and set your business preferences. It is also imperative that you complete your cleaning business profile. If you do not set up your targeting preferences, your cleaning business will not appear in search results within Thumbtack. Setting the targeting preferences and completing your cleaning business profile will assist in filtering results to better match your business with potential clients. Since leads obtained cost money, you want to be sure your profile is accurate and ensure that you have appropriately set your targeting preferences. You can acquire many more clients if you represent your cleaning business precisely. This will mean less money wasted on leads that do not pan out and more spent on leads for individuals who chose to become clients of your cleaning business.
After completing your business profile and setting your business preferences, you will need to set aside time to garner client reviews and fine-tune your profile. It is vital to understand that your cleaning business will not show up in search results within the Thumbtack community until you have set your targeting preferences and received at least one review. This is why it is imperative to have a minimum of one of your current clients review your cleaning business on Thumbtack. You can then work on fine-tuning your profile to improve your ranking. Businesses with a higher ranking are seen first by potential clients. Thus raising your ranking will directly impact how many new clients your cleaning business gains.
Finally, after successfully garnering client reviews and fine-tuning your profile, you must review your leads and respond within four hours to be eligible for Thumbtack’s “Price Assurance” guarantee. Responding to leads coupled with reviewing your insights will help give you a deeper look into the success of your cleaning business profile and targeted business preferences on Thumbtack. Studying insights will allow you to tweak your preferences and update your profile in a manner that will allow for a better representation of your cleaning business and a greater chance at successfully gaining new clients using your profile.
Creating Your Business Account on Thumbtack
Creating an account on Thumbtack is a quick and painless process. When you visit Thumbtack’s pro-sign-up page, you will be prompted to enter your line of work and your location. Before you even click the button to confirm sign up, the site will automatically provide you with a specific number of customers per month active on Thumbtack specific to your line of work and location. You will be required to enter your email address and answer a few questions about your business, the kinds of clients you are seeking as well as an estimate of your weekly budget to spend on Thumbtack.
Thumbtack values the trust of potential clients. As a result, you will be required to verify your identity. When prompted, be sure that you enter accurate information. You will only be offered the opportunity to enter your data once, so be sure you enter it correctly on the first try. Verifying business identities helps provide peace of mind for potential clients, ensuring that they are working with precisely the business they see represented on the business profile. This is important for gaining clients because new customers can be incredibly skeptical, and knowing that your business has verified its information provides an additional layer of trust for potential clients.
Setting Your Targeted Business Preferences and Completing Your Business Profile
Once you have created an account, you will want to set targeted preferences for your cleaning business. Setting targeting preferences allows you to specify the types of jobs your cleaning business handles. Preferences include the location of your cleaning business, your hours of availability, and what services your cleaning business provides. If targeting preferences are not set, your business will not show up in Thumbtack search results. To edit your targeting preferences, you must visit Thumbtack’s “Services” page. From the “Services” page, choose the service that you want to set targeted preferences for. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the option that reads “Target customers.” Here you will have the opportunity to set your targeted preferences.
The critical thing to remember about targeted preferences is that these preferences are what drive clients to your cleaning business. The first option involves where you are willing to travel. You can set your business’s location preferences based on distance from your physical address or by specific areas. Keep in mind that while adding specifics can help obtain new clients, it can also work against your business if not used properly. If you choose to set your business’s travel preferences based on distance from your location and you limit it to only a five-mile radius of your cleaning business’s physical location, you will be doing a great disservice to your cleaning business. This is because you will have limited your potential client pool to such a small radius. You want to be sure to find a happy medium that will allow for a unique group of potential clients without going too far out of a reasonable radius.
The next available option to modify is your cleaning business’s hours of availability. Thumbtack recommends selecting any day or time as your availability, but you will likely want to set specific hours for your availability as a cleaning business. Be sure to only include days of the week and times that your business is actually open. If you list Saturday and Sunday, but your cleaning business is closed, you risk receiving leads specific to weekends and wasting money on those leads since your cleaning business will not accommodate clients on those days.
Next will be the option to set your price. It goes without saying that this is one of the most powerful targeting preferences that you will set. Cost is often one of the most important factors when potential clients are looking for services. It would be wise to review competitor pricing and ensure you are providing your services at an appropriate price point. You do not want your prices to be too low or too high, so doing a little research before setting your prices can help your cleaning business get more clients. If potential clients are reviewing your business and feel that you are overcharging for your services, they will be unlikely to reach out even if they initially are interested in your cleaning business. Setting prices appropriately will draw in many new clients.
Garnering Client Reviews and Fine-Tuning Your Profile
Now that you have your business account, set up your profile, and set your targeting preferences, you can focus on garnering client reviews. Your business profile has been completed, and you have specified your targeting preferences, but your business still is not showing in search results. This is because Thumbtack requires that your business have at least one review before allowing your business to be listed in search results. This step is crucial to gaining new clients by using Thumbtack. If your business is not listed in the search results, potential clients will not be driven to your profile.
There are many ways to go about getting a review on Thumbtack. Reviews are important because most potential clients will read reviews before making contact with a business. A review from a client can make or break a business because it can sway an indecisive client in either direction. Possibly the best method of obtaining reviews is to reach out to your current client list via email, requesting they submit a review of your cleaning business. Thumbtack provides every company with a unique review link located on the “Reviews” page. Sharing this link with current clients will allow them to click the link and be taken directly to Thumbtack to review your business. Most clients are willing to review your cleaning business, especially if you have developed a solid reputation.
A second option available is to import your Google reviews directly to Thumbtack. This action is also performed by visiting the “Reviews” page. You will be prompted to log in to your Google account to link your Google reviews to your Thumbtack business profile. This can be an excellent option when you first get started on Thumbtack, especially if you find it challenging to get your current clients to review your business. Thumbtack users will, however, be able to see which reviews are direct from Thumbtack customers and which reviews were imported from Google. While importing reviews can be helpful, you mustn’t rely solely on outside reviews to acquire clients using Thumbtack.
Another critical factor concerning reviews involves the necessity of providing a personalized response to each review your cleaning business receives. When your business gets a review on Thumbtack, you will be given the opportunity to respond. Be sure to remember that your response will be posted next to the review, so anything you include will be viewable by all prospective clients. This is both a curse and a blessing. When responding to reviews, be sure to check your response for spelling and grammatical errors as well as clarity. Once you post a reply, it cannot be edited. Your response to customer reviews will give potential clients a glimpse into how your business represents itself.
In addition to getting reviews, you will also need to fine-tune your profile. Though you have already entered the specifics regarding your business, you will now need to advance further by fine-tuning your profile. Every business is ranked within the Thumbtack community. To find out where you rank, simply look yourself up and note where your cleaning business appears in the search results. Is your business buried further than any client is likely to look? Since you have just begun using Thumbtack, your cleaning business likely has a low ranking. No matter where you see your business ranked, you can take steps to improve your cleaning business’s ranking and increase its visibility.
Thumbtack calculates business rankings based on several factors. The first key factor is quick communication. By responding promptly to leads, Thumbtack will view your business as available, and your response rate will be high, increasing the chances of clients selecting your company. Another piece of the ranking algorithm involves the number of reviews your business has received in conjunction with your review rating. As you get more reviews, your ranking will climb. Adding pricing is another component that improves ranking since it allows for better matching to potential clients. Lastly, ensure that your profile is engaging. Include high-quality videos and photographs within your profile to capture potential client’s attention. The more potential clients engage with your profile, the higher your ranking will be, leading to your cleaning business getting a more significant number of clients.
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Once you have set up your profile, set your targeted preferences, and have at least one client review, you will begin to receive leads. Leads are simply potential clients reaching out to your cleaning business directly. Direct leads are the ones you will want to primarily focus on. Understanding the different types of leads will assist you in being more successful at obtaining new clients. By navigating to the “Leads” tab, you will be presented with four different labels. “New” leads are leads that you have not yet seen. “Exact match” leads are leads that match your targeting preferences exactly. “Paid” leads are leads for which you have already paid. “Only picked you” leads are those which the potential client has not contacted any other professional.
The best strategy is to review the “Only picked you” leads first. Since these potential clients have not yet reached out to any other professional, there is a greater chance that they will choose your cleaning business, especially if you respond very quickly to their message. The early bird gets the worm is a good phrase to remember in this scenario. Once you have reviewed all the leads within the “Only picked you” category, move on to “Exact match” and “New” leads to check your remaining leads. Choose to either reply to the potential client or select the option “Can’t do it” to notify the potential client that your business cannot accommodate their request. Responding to leads within four hours is necessary if you want to maintain eligibility for Thumbtack’s “Price Assurance” guarantee. It is also essential to respond quickly because your response rate directly impacts your rank within the Thumbtack community.
Over time you will begin to get more and more of a variety of leads. This may lead you to become curious about how your cleaning business is doing on Thumbtack. Thumbtack offers a report known as “Insights.” Within this report, you can review a comparison of your business to other professionals listed on Thumbtack. The number of customers who have viewed your profile and contacted you will be shown in the report as well. Your response rate and review rate are also shown in comparison to your competition. These statistics are vital because they can help you identify weaknesses in your profile. If you review competitors’ profiles ranking higher than you, you can better understand how to update your profile to draw in more clients.
Notwithstanding the minimal cost associated with receiving leads, Thumbtack is a brilliant way to gain new clients for your cleaning business. Setting up your account, specifying your targeting preferences, completing your profile, getting clients to review your business, fine-tuning your profile, responding to leads, and reviewing your insights will significantly increase your ability to get new clients. Businesses presented on Thumbtack are verified and provide potential clients with the opportunity to first read firsthand accounts of interactions with companies. Leads are matched based on specific targets ensuring that you are being connected directly with customers who are actively seeking your particular services. If appropriately managed, a Thumbtack account can lead to a multitude of new clients for your cleaning business.
