Flyers & door knocking are great when you have the time - but it is time consuming.
Plan ahead for when you are busy - get all you social media accounts setup & keep them active, get your website working for you,… these things take time to build up, but they keep working when you start to run short of hours for dropping flyers etc etc.
The more people that know about your business and your reputation for high quality service the better. Use “every avenue” for marketing your business, flyers, doorhangers, social media, website, CL, door knocking, referrals from past and current people or business you serviced…dont leave any stone un-turned.
The window cleaning part is easy, the business side is the more difficult side of it all.
To be honest, I run on referrals. I spend time talking with my clients and about their dogs, families, similar interests… then funnel it down into who they may know that are successful people with homes.
For me, it’s about being good with talking to 40+ year old people.
I’m a single dude without alimony or child support, so window cleaning is a no-brainer. I wish all the people wearing yoga pants in town would be stoked to date a window cleaner, but there may be a conflict of interest.
“You’re paying how much to stretch?? Namaste my bum… do you even know wtf that means?”
Flyers and door hangers:
Cheap (about 10-20 cents per unit for color prints). Basically guaranteed calls. My experience tells me about 1%-2% of all flyers will call within a month. 0.5% or less will call between 1 and 6 months. Of all the calls, you will be doing well if 70% convert to paying jobs. They are a good way to get work but cost you more time than anything else. If you can justify adding 4 virtual hours to every job for the time you spend dropping door hangers then this could be a viable marketing strategy for you.
Business cards:
Don’t bother leaving them anywhere except when you’re face-to-face with a potential or existing customer.
Face-to-face:
The best method for acquiring new accounts in my current estimation. Highest conversion rate from introduction, to estimate, to paying work. Costs you nothing but a smile and a handshake. Just get in front of as many people as possible every single day and spend some time chatting about what you do. You can visit BNI chapters a few times for free as a guest. You can sometimes attend chamber of commerce events as a guest as well. Send emails to HOA’s and offer to take the chairman or director to lunch. Get on NextDoor and tell your neighbors you are going into business as a window cleaner. Go knocking door-to-door (if legal) and offer free estimates. Make your brand about YOU and the more people you meet, the more work you will get.
My $0.02 
They do not have to be interactive so that you can see. Don’t treat them as your only source of exposure. If you can swing it use it. Always ask your new customers how they heard about you. :::BAM:::
I got a call for a huge home yesterday. They were looking for Sparkle Cleaning and Googled it (which apparently has gone out of business) and my business popped up, Super Sparkle Window Cleaning, so I got the call. 
You never know where your next customer will come from.
Most “Big Dogs” will tell you that EDDM is the way to go. But that requires a pretty decent investment. If you’re tight on cash then door to door is your best option, or even door hangers. Door to door being better imho. I fill my empty spaces in my calender with Thumbtack but I’d say half of those jobs are slightly underbid. Because we do quality work they usually they usually lead to repeat service and referlls though. If you’re just starting out your best move is to build a killer high ranking website with a professional image. Even if you’re a small one man operation try to give the appearance of a professional commercial operation. My motto is fake it til you make it, or act like what you want to be. If you keep it consistent it will come in time.
Yeah I totally agree with this statement.budget wise EDDM is kinda expensive for me and my operation, it would be nice but you kind of have to have a pretty killer budget.door to door is time consuming but hey you gotta do what you gotta do.I also use to use thumbtack to fill voids in my schedule but lately here in Vegas thumbtack has gone waaay down hill.customers I’ve talked to say someone’s on there way under cutting bids which sucks because its gotten to the point its not worth the bid prices now.so totally getting bucket bobbed out of thumbtack to where its not worth the bid price so have to look for other endeavors
You can also look for upscale businesses in your local area and e-mail them about your window cleaning services - both commercial and residential - because upscale businesses usually are run by people with upscale homes. 
Edit: Diversify your reach.
+1
so do you get their contact information from the client you’re speaking to, or do you have the client contact them?
what exactly do you pitch to the chairman or director at these lunches?
Caring
Doing amazing fucking work
Asking for referrals after ensuring #2
In this area, a relationship with the HOA can make or break a service person trying to get work.
The biggest thing is just to let them know you exist. Depending on the community, you may also be required to jump through a few hoops before they will let you work in there. So getting face to face with the pres is the easiest way to cut through all the red tape and prime yourself for activity.
As an example, a really wealthy community near me has a very short list of “approved” service people. The residents go to the HOA list to do all their hiring. To get on that short list you basically need someone in the community to know you personally, hire you to do work, then vouch for you at the HOA.
I dropped door hangers on those streets for weeks without a single call. Finally got to talk to the HOA head. If I hadn’t made contact I would never have known why nobody was calling. But, by getting some face time with the boss I got a rundown of their community policies and was thereafter able to adjust my approach.
Some HOA heads are sticklers for the community rules and treat them like actual laws. Some are very protective of their community (and rightly so) due to the concentrated wealth that makes them a target for scams and burglary. Some HOA heads are just looking for kickbacks in exchange for permission to do business in their community. By going to the source you can skip all the fussing and decide your best tactic right off the bat.
In short, I just like a meet and greet with lunch to establish rapport. Makes it a lot easier to gain traction in the community.
I have found newspaper to be effective, there are many older ones who aren’t computer or internet savvy and still read the paper. I like the saying " the more hooks you put in the water the more fish you catch ". I always ask customers how they got my number and keep track of that.
good point, that is why i took a yellow page ad this year.
Best form of advertising?..Happy customers who refer you to others.
true but can be slow. you need to go out and grab those first customers in order to have referrals.
