Increase Sales, Booked Jobs, And Leads With Our Proven Offline And Online Plumber Marketing Strategies
As a plumber, getting new business or leads can be an uphill assignment because of the stiff competition. This is because many plumbing contractors are out there, and it can be challenging to think of the best way to differentiate your business. Plus, the way property owners think about and look for home service contractors such as plumbers or roofers has changed over the last ten years, so plumbers must know how to capture the attention of modern customers.
Without a consistent stream of new plumbing leads or clients, your company will stagnate, wither or die.
To grow your plumbing company, you need the right marketing strategy, people, and approach to advertising your business. To succeed in your plumbing company, you must bring healthy bank statements. To have a good cash flow, you should keep new leads or clients coming in. Customers are the lifeblood that keeps your company afloat, and if no phone calls or emails are coming in, there is no one to promote your plumbing services to.
Plumbing is one of those lucrative industries where you should find many clients if you target them appropriately. Plumbing is more than repairing clogged toilets or fixing holes. There is no denying that marketing is crucial for your plumbing company. But where do you start, or what plumbing marketing strategies should you use? Without further ado, let’s explore unique ways to20 market and grow your plumbing business.
What Is Plumbing Marketing?
Plumbing marketing is the business or action of promoting your services, including advertising and market research. It also refers to your actions to advertise your plumbing services and attract more clients to your company.
This can incorporate running internet marketing campaigns, conducting market research to know your company’s ideal client, and even collaborating with influencers or other plumbers to improve social search (simply put, increase your company’s pool of prospective clients).
Operating a plumbing company presents unique challenges. Unlike other industries that can focus on a specific target market or rely on seasonal events, you require to reach two essential groups of prospects all year round:
- The panicked homeowners with a clogged bathroom or other emergencies require to contact a nearby plumber ASAP
- The install client or routine maintenance researches and compares plumbing contractors to identify the best fit for their project.
Since plumber marketing is either a business or an action, revenue and result can only be measured.
Because the art of marketing your plumbing company is wide-ranging, there’s no one-size-fits-all strategy.
As a plumber, you didn’t start your company to stay behind your laptop all day and analyze ad impressions or traffic. That’s alright since plumbing marketing is more than that!
You know more about marketing your plumbing company than you think; developing your plumbing business logo and name, spreading the word to family and friends, and requesting existing clients for referrals are all vibrant marketing strategies.
To get the most out of your plumber marketing efforts; we recommend that from the very beginning;
It would help if you built your brand.
Your brand is the promise you make to your prospects/clients, and it is what differentiates you from other plumbers and why clients will select you over other plumbers that appear when they Google “plumber near me.”
Advantages Of Plumber Marketing
While marketing your plumbing company may initially seem a huge investment, your business will get many benefits by getting its name out there. What can a well-designed plumber marketing campaign do for your business? Here are just a few advantages:
- Improves customer perception and attracts new clients
- Keeps your clients, both new and old, informed about your plumbing services
- Boosts your company’s online credibility and presence.
- It gives you a chance to increase your online reviews
- Build authenticity and voice in your plumbing brand.
Steps To Launch Your Plumber Marketing Campaign
1. Conduct Market Research
As with all business endeavors, the initial thing you need to do is study the current landscape. This would imply understanding the demand, the market, and the overall plumbing industry climate for plumbing contractors.
Begin by asking these crucial questions: What are close rivals doing? What demographic or market is your plumbing company targeting, and what does the ideal client want? What are the proven marketing strategies for the plumbing industry?
2. Know Your Ideal Customer
Before you kick off any plumber marketing campaign, you must understand your unique value proposition to prospective clients. Understanding the mindset of your ideal client is essential in building your plumbing company’s success.
Creating a good buyer persona will assist your business in retaining clients in the long run but can also help to refine its brand voice. Adopting such a persona will develop a defined vision of your plumbing company.
3. Be Branding Consistent
Ensure your company projects a consistent voice and image across each market you promote. As a plumber, you last want your client to get lost in finding your business because of inconsistent branding.
A good logo is essential when you want to brand your plumbing company. Your plumbing company logo can represent reliability, quality, and value for money. It is crucial because it will be plastered across all your marketing collateral. It will portray how a prospect identifies you, and thus it should represent you effectively. A professional company logo goes a long way to grow your plumbing business (both online and offline).
4. Build Great Client Experiences
The best publicity is usually free publicity! Your happy clients will do a lot of heavy lifting for your plumbing company if they have a superior experience. Satisfied clients can leave positive reviews and boost your company rankings in the search engines like Google or Bing for relevant industry keywords. One of the best free ways to market your plumbing company is to offer superior service.
How Do You Find Customers For Your Plumbing Company?
Many plumbing contractors operating for a while rely on offline advertisements and referrals to obtain more customers. But the client’s behavior keeps on changing. No property owner calls or visits neighbors to ask for a great plumber. Instead, they turn to search engines like Google or Bing. They look for plumbers near them, check online testimonials and reviews, and schedule service appointments. That increases the need for a vibrant online presence.
To tap out clients who are actively searching on the internet and searching for plumbing contractors, you should ensure that you are visible to these prospects.
Why Does A Plumber Need To Market Their Business Online?
Plumbing is a very competitive landscape, where your target market is limited to local property owners (usually 40 to 50 miles); thus, your business should be focused on obtaining more leads.
The conventional way of advertising, where plumbing contractors would put ads in local dairies, do TV ads and distribute flyers, doesn’t seem to work nowadays and can be expensive nowadays.
Besides that, modern customers always look up to search engines like Google or Bing to answer their daily challenges. This makes it worthwhile to invest in digital marketing and grow your company with it.
At Blackstorm Design +Marketing, we have helped many service contractors, including roofers or plumbers, improve their online presence and generate consistent leads. We know how hard it is to research stuff that isn’t your specialization as a company owner. If you are reading this post, it implies that you have been looking for plumbing marketing ideas and tips online.
Using internet marketing strategies for plumbers can help outrank the competition and obtain more customers. Securing qualified leads in your local area isn’t as hard as you think. With the right platform mix, including advertising and social media, your sales volume and your brand’s affinity will skyrocket.
From our experience, we can be able to show you killer strategies that can help you generate non-stop leads and make your company stand out from the competition.
Internet Marketing Strategies For Plumbers
Nowadays, homeowners don’t have time to visit their neighbors, asking for recommendations from a great plumbing contractor they have always worked with. Instead, they prefer searching online for plumbing services they are interested in, which has increased the need for online plumbing marketing channels.
As the internet becomes a vital step in the buying journey, digital plumber marketing becomes a crucial investment. If you want to put your business in front of prospects searching for your services online, you require an effective internet marketing campaign.
If you are searching for plumber marketing ideas to grow your business, keep reading to learn about 16 lead generation strategies. Or schedule a free strategy session with one of our Growth Coaches if you need help creating a vibrant marketing campaign for your plumbing business.
As you go through our guide, note where you are succeeding or where you have room to grow or expand. By doing so, you will know where to invest your limited resources.
Without further ado, let us dive in!
1. Build a Professional Plumbing Website
The first thing any plumber needs today is a functional site that can attract customers to your business. Your plumbing website is the heart of your online marketing campaign, and having a plumber website increases your online visibility and establishes trust in the minds of your prospects/clients.
Besides pipe wrenches and drain snakes, a well-designed website is one of the best tools at your disposal. Nowadays, homeowners do everything online:
- Buy new faucets.
- Watch DIY sink installation videos.
- Look for the best local plumbing contractors when their toilets get blocked, or pipes start leaking.
Your plumbing website is what introduces you to the interested potential clients, so ensure your homepage has all the information that will inspire them to schedule a service call, a list of specialties, and multiple ways of contacting your company.
There are several factors you need to consider when building your plumbing website. Designing and planning your plumber website’s layout correctly is set to attract the right clients, and this implies that your plumbing website design needs to be:
- Designed for mobile: This is an essential first step. Google now favors mobile-optimized plumbing websites with higher rankings. And since more than 60% of organic traffic comes from mobile devices, you could be missing many prospects from the competition because of the negative client experience.
- Clearly describe your services: Plumbers typically provide various services; therefore, the best plumbing website design should clearly define areas of specialization plus any other services you offer.
- SEO-Friendly: You want your plumbing company website to be found by prospects online. Without optimizing SEO by including keywords, it will be hard or impossible to get found online.
- Build trust with reviews: Finding an experienced plumber can be tricky. That’s why you need to include client reviews or testimonials on your plumbing website, provide social proof and showcase exceptional work.
- Secure and loads faster: if your plumbing website has a complicated design, it will take too long to load, turning away clients who don’t want to wait. Nowadays, people have short attention spans; thus, your website should load in less than three seconds. In addition, it should have a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate to boost your organic rankings and prevent them from being hacked.
If creating a good website is something you cannot do on your own, partner with a reputable professional plumber website design agency to get your project done on time and on schedule.
2. Invest in Local SEO to Get More Plumbing Clients Online.
Once your plumber website is ready, you need to optimize it for search engines to find it when searching for online plumbing services. People are constantly conducting searches daily, looking for services/products, information, and companies. Businesses or homeowners are searching for plumbing companies like yours, so optimizing your website to appear in front of these wallets and potential clients is crucial.
According to the Home Improvement study, online searches are the top ways clients find service contractors, including plumbers. And, when searching for plumbers on search engines like Google or Bing, clients typically take a local approach.
Conducting searches with keywords like “plumber near me” is common. That’s why it is incredibly crucial for plumbing contractors to have a vibrant presence in the local search results.
This implies that your plumbing marketing strategy should incorporate a local SEO. This strategy helps you get found in the search engine results when prospects search for plumbing services in your area.
If conventional SEO for plumbing contractors makes your website indexed and ranked on search engines like Google or Bing, local SEO concentrates on your locality and region.
Here’s how you can leverage local SEO to get more plumbing customers:
i)Online client reviews: There are multiple directories where clients can express how unhappy (or satisfied) they are with your business. The more positive reviews you have, the simple it is to rank on search engines like Google or Bing.
ii)Name, Address, and Phone number {NAP} citations: Make sure that all your online listings are 100% consistent across every platform to allow prospects/clients to contact your business when they need emergency plumbing services.
iii)Online Reputation Management: Sometimes, customers will leave negative reviews, but you can manage to change their experience in how you respond. Customers are waiting to see how promptly and professionally you respond to bad reviews. If you do it right, it might close a sale just like a positive review would.
iv)Ranking in the map listings (Local pack): This will depend on the proximity of a property owner to your plumbing business. And it can help to ensure that your primary category matches your plumbing service and has lots of reviews across the web.
v)Use white hat SEO strategies; White hat” refers to the use of best practices to generate great results for their clients. On the flip side, “black hat” refers to any practices that violate search engine’s best practices and get your plumber website penalized.
3. Submit Your Plumbing Business to Major Online Directories
Plumbing is primarily a local business, so your prospects will find you through local business directories, and thus having your company published in online directories is essential. Listing your plumbing company in major online directories can boost your visibility online.
Adding your plumbing business to online directories will establish trust and improves your chances of getting found by potential customers.
Here are some of the major directories that you can use to list your plumbing company:
Google My Business Profile
When property owners search for local plumbers, Google compiles a list of plumbing contractors that satisfy user search. Such results appear in a box known as the local three-pack. Generally, the pack lists three major plumbers that satisfy the user search query based on proximity and their search for the business’s location.
As a plumber, you must register and claim your Google My Business listing to help more prospects find your plumbing company. Homeowners will find all the details they require in your listing, making them interact with your listing, and it can make them visit your plumbing
website if they want. Getting your Google My Business profile is one of the
best plumbing marketing ideas, particularly when you want to drive traffic to
your local plumbing business.
Yelp
When searching for a plumbing company, homeowners no doubt look for reviews. And your clients do the same. Yelp is one of the famous online directories where customers can leave reviews. So how can you leverage Yelp for your plumbing company? Click here to know to make the most out of this platform.
Here are other online directories where you can list your plumbing company:
4. Get New Plumbing Clients Through Pay-Per-Click Ads
If you want to get qualified plumbing leads online, invest in Pay-Per-Click ads. PPC is an effective plumbing marketing idea since it helps you reach prospects likely to close and become paying clients.
To get started with PPC campaigns, choose the correct keywords. Like plumbing SEO, concentrate on the long-tail keywords, which will drive relevant traffic and keep your ad spend low.
Once you have discovered your keywords through tools like Google Keyword Planner, Semrush, or Ahrefs, bid for the placing of your ad.
This plumbing marketing strategy is cost-effective because it allows you to control how much you want to spend per click.
Once you have set the PPC, you can begin to get more leads for your plumbing business. To make the most out of your paid search campaign, you can also run Google Local Service Ads
for plumbers.
Such ads show above PPC ads, and they offer all the details a homeowner would require to contact your business, so your marketing dollars are only spent when a browser converts than on clicks.
However, to run Google Local Service Ads, you must pass through a verification process to become Google Guaranteed. This simply implies that Google will verify your insurance and license information and tell prospects that a particular layer of protection and trust comes with partnering with your plumbing business.
Pro tip: If you want to target prospects likely to schedule service appointments, invest in Pay-Per-Click ads to drive such prospects to your plumbing business.
5. Connect With Your Potential Clients with Social Media Advertising
Social media provides a great platform to interact with your potential clients. Nowadays, no plumber marketing plan is complete without leveraging the benefits of social media marketing channels, and compelling platforms such as:
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Instagram
Instagram is mainly a powerful platform for plumbers since its content is visual. You can utilize it to build a massive following, demonstrate past projects, share your vision, and portray your plumbing business as an authority. Ensure you engage with your prospects regularly, post content regularly, and keep your content varied and evergreen. Possible social media content for plumbers may include:
i) Interior design photoshoots
ii) After and before pictures of completed projects.
iii) How-to videos
To promote your social media posts across channels, include your account handles on business cards, brochures, and other marketing collateral, like at the footer of your plumber’s website or email signatures.
Using social media posts and paid ads, you will reach valuable leads for your plumbing company. This will help you connect better with your target audience and offer valuable insights that interest them.
6. Share Your Plumbing Knowledge with Some Compelling Content
Content marketing is an essential part of digital marketing for plumbers since it is integral to other strategies. It can help boost your plumber’s SEO efforts, give you content to post on social media and offer you something to use in your emails, for instance.
That’s why it is an essential strategy to help your plumbing company build its customer base. But when creating content, concentrate on the value it offers your readers, and it should provide answers to the questions your audience has. To drive relevant traffic to your company, focus on writing topics about the plumbing industry.
By writing informative, compelling content as a part of your plumber marketing strategy, you will attract more valuable traffic to your plumbing website.
7. Improve Your Online Reputation
Review management is an integral part of any successful plumbing business online. Property owners regularly read online reviews or testimonials to see how others perceive your business. You must manage your company’s online reviews to ensure that new prospects/leads select your business.
As a plumber, you will have both negative and positive reviews. However, negative reviews aren’t the end since prospects also expect them. The essential part is how you respond to such reviews.
Here is a good way of dealing with online reviews; thank clients for their positive compliments while addressing the negative ones. Acknowledging your customer’s problems or experiences is an excellent step toward showing clients that you truly care for their needs.
If you want to grow your plumbing company on the internet, invest in online reputation management services for your plumbing business.
Pamphlets, Business Cards, and Flyers
This plumber marketing technique is simple yet effective, particularly in service areas where word-of-mouth recommendations can be used to grow your business.
Business cards remain a powerful and effective weapon for plumbing contractors. They provide a personalized yet quick method of connecting existing and attracting new customers. Only place the vital details on your card, and avoid the temptation of sharing all your plumbing services on a single business card.
Flyers and pamphlets can offer any additional information about your plumbing business that cannot be traced on a business card at a glance.
8. Use Quality Videos to Engage Your Target Audience
Video marketing is no doubt one of the most effective ways of delivering messages within a short time.
Plumbing videos provide a fun way for homeowners to get crucial information. It allows one to showcase past projects, build brand awareness and explain complex topics.
As a plumbing contractor, you want to create informative and helpful videos for your audience. Such videos can assist them in digesting huge amounts of information within a short span. You can create quality videos to showcase things like:
- How to fix a leaky toilet?
- How to fix a bathroom faucet?
- Bathroom remodeling tips
So, suppose your business continues to post such videos. In that case, prospects/ clients will begin to associate with your brand with relevant and helpful videos and can contact your company in case of major plumbing emergencies.
9. Use Geofencing Advertising to Reach New Plumbing Clients
Geofencing advertising is an effective plumber marketing technique that can help you reach new customers. Using this strategy, you set up an “invisible fence.” The fence, such as your plumbing business, encompasses a specific area surrounding a building.
Once property owners enter the fence, they get a notification about your business or a Google or Facebook ad about your company. This can cause them to come to your door or think about contacting your plumbing company.
As a plumber, you want to target conferences, trade shows, and other events that homeowners or business owners attend. It is an effective way to get attendees to consider your plumbing business at the first chance.
10. Add Branding Everywhere
Suppose your plumbing company doesn’t have a unique branding strategy. Plumber services lend it well to branding on uniforms, vehicles, and more.
Let’s face it: if you have vans or technicians driving around your neighborhood, a branded vehicle wrap would be a simple way of marketing your plumbing company.
Pro tip: Ensure that your branding incorporates a link to your plumber’s website and your phone number, so it’s easy for prospects to find out about your company when they see your brand.
11. Retarget Your Potential Clients
Not every visitor who lands on your plumbing website will schedule a plumbing service appointment or call you for their plumbing needs, and they might go to another plumber or come back later when ready to use your plumbing services.
But should you let go of these potential clients just because they are unsure or ready? Of course, not! You should retarget these prospects by utilizing smart marketing techniques.
One of the most effective ways to retarget such clients is to ensure they see your plumbing service ads even if they are not browsing your site. Such an ad will ensure that the idea of getting professional plumbing services doesn’t slip away from their mind so that they call you once they are ready.
Common Plumbing Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
The goal of any plumbing contractor is to get more revenue by driving new business. So how can you avoid the common pitfalls that most plumbers make?
To run an effective plumber marketing campaign, avoid these mistakes:
Mistake 1: Skipping the Research
Plumbing marketing decisions shouldn’t be based on emotions or feelings. As a plumber, you don’t have enough resources to analyze your market in-depth, and that doesn’t imply you should create promotions in a vacuum.
You have one significant advantage over larger plumbing companies, access to your clients. Speak to your clients about what they deem helpful. As a rule of thumb, don’t invest your marketing dollars in a campaign that won’t lead to plumbing service appointments. There has to be a demand for your services if you want to book more jobs.
Mistake 2: Trying to Create Your Plumbing Website
Persuading a site visitor to contact your plumbing company is a science that most plumbers do incorrectly. Here are some plumbing website designs pitfalls that you need to avoid:
- Not explaining what you want people to do after visiting your site( i.e., booking an appointment)
- Not using a user and SEO-friendly web copy (i.e., brochure-style or cluttered website)
- It is not satisfying the search intent (different groups, varying needs).
How can a plumber avoid this?
Resist the urge to utilize readymade website templates or hire your nephew to create your plumbing company website. Instead, use a reputable plumber marketing agency like Blackstorm Design+ Marketing to ensure that you are guiding as many property owners as possible toward contacting your company for services.
Mistake #2: Creating a plumbing website no one visits
A common misconception is that property owners will magically visit your newly built plumbing website. After all the money and time you have invested in creating the plumber’s website, you should make sure that property owners can see it.
How can you avoid this?
Fortunately, our search engine optimization experts can help you optimize your plumbing website for users and search engines like Google or Bing.
Mistake #3: Not Knowing if your plumber marketing campaigns are working
Maybe you sponsored a local event or gave out brochures. But do you know how many property owners visit your plumbing website or contact or email your business due to such online marketing tactics?
Your marketing dollars can easily be wasted if you don’t know the number of prospects and clients your advertising produces.
How can you avoid this?
The good thing with internet marketing is that everything is measurable. There are strategies to measure precisely the number of calls, emails, and clicks generated from one advertisement. This will encourage continuing with your marketing efforts.
Mistake # 4: Not Converting Browsers into Paying Clients
Generating interest in your plumbing company will help you succeed, but you and your staff need to take it to the next level.
Make sure you pick up every call. One missed call, and you lose your prospect to the competition.
How can you avoid this?
Improve your systems and control how prospects are contacting you. Level the playing field by investing in good CRM software, building your plumber website, and managing your leads on autopilot.
Plumbing Marketing Services FAQ
How can I market my plumbing company?
There are several strategies that you can use to advertise your plumbing business, including but not restricted to:
- Creating a plumber website that converts browsers into paying clients
- Get and manage online reviews
- Optimize your website for search engines and users.
- Claiming your listings in major online directories.
What is internet marketing for plumbers?
Internet marketing, also known as digital marketing, is a term used to denote marketing activities online. This can include Search Engine Optimization, web design, PayPerClick, online reputation management, retargeting, social media advertisement, and so much more!
Why should plumbing contractors invest in internet marketing?
Plumbing contractors should invest in online marketing because over 90% of property owners require a plumber, and the initial place to look is online. If your plumbing business doesn’t have a vibrant online presence, then you stand to lose leads to the competition.
What internet marketing services for plumbers do you offer?
At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we offer a full suite of online marketing services for plumbers. This includes everything from website design, Search Engine Optimization, Online Reputation Management, Retargeting, PPC, and Social Media advertising.
Stop Wasting Your Dollars on Plumber Marketing that doesn’t work, and Let Your Phone Ring off the Hook.
As a plumber, you have better things to worry about than what keywords search engines love these days. If you are tired of wasting your dollars on plumber marketing strategies that don’t generate desired results, our experts would love to help.
Schedule a free strategy session online with one of our Growth Coaches or call us at 1 (865) 205-8822 to get an excellent plumber marketing plan today!
