Proven strategies to generate qualified plumbing leads without breaking your bank account
One of the major challenges for any plumbing business is generating qualified leads. The key to booking a steady flow of service jobs is getting hot (and working leads). Without plumbing leads, your company won’t grow. In fact, without new leads, your business may not even survive.
After one decade of helping countless plumbing contractors like you, we have learned that one of the most effective ways of generating leads for your plumbing company is through appearing in online searches when prospects require your plumbing services.
According to a recent consumer review survey, 90% of customers used the internet to find a local business, with more than 30% searching online every day. The plumbing space, like other home service trades, is unique, in that its huge challenge is not marketing and sales but lack of skilled labor.
However, getting qualified plumber leads is the engine that generates new business. In this post, we are going to share 15 ways to generate residential and commercial leads for your plumbing business.
Without further ado, let’s dive into our post!
Types of Plumbing Leads
If you are a plumbing business owner, you understand the need to generate leads to help your company grow. But what are plumbing leads? How are they classified? And how should treat the various kinds of leads?
But before we dive into transforming prospects who are down in your sales funnel. Let’s explore the different types of leads you will come across at the top of your sales funnel.
Here are the eight kinds of leads that you can expect to find in your plumbing sales funnel:
Cold Plumbing Leads
A cold lead has not shown any interest in your plumbing services yet but suits your ideal client profile perfectly. These leads are typically generated through conducting comprehensive research or lead generation software. Regardless of how they got into your list, they are on the list of potential sales. Cold leads are regarded as one of the hardest leads to convert into prospects. But, they are the most common kind of leads, so you need to know the art of communicating with them.
Warm Plumbing Leads
A warm lead is already familiar with your plumbing brand. They may have found your plumbing company by following your blogs, watching your videos, or even a referral from a trusted friend or family member. No matter the source, these warm leads for plumbers are easier to convert into potential clients than cold leads.
Hot Leads
It is the type of lead that has expressed interest in your plumbing services in one way or the other. Perhaps they watched a demo your business offered or even contacted you directly, wanting to learn more about your plumbing services offerings. These kinds of leads need prompt attention since their interest may fade away when you take too long to address or respond to their queries. There is a higher chance that they may be reaching out to your competitors to find the best plumbing solution for them. Therefore, you should aim to strike the iron while hot.
Qualified Leads
A qualified lead is one that is just starting to research a solution for their plumbing problem. They are usually generated when they fill out a form whenever they want to download some resources from your plumbing websites such as webinars, free books, reports, and more. These leads have expressed a lot of interest in your plumbing services and are ready to book jobs with your company.
Exclusive Plumbing Leads
Exclusive leads are those contacts that have not been exposed to your rivals. They are typically generated organically and contact a specific plumbing brand or business directly. This means that they are already on the market for a specific plumbing service and have some insight of the plumber they are searching for. They are one of the most valuable plumbing leads available since they have the highest conversion rates and generally create the most repeat clients.
Shared Leads
Shared leads are generated from third-party brokers who sell information concerning various potential clients to multiple plumbing businesses. Such leads may not lead to higher conversions, and generally, most clients are those with repeat business. Many plumbers concentrate on obtaining shared plumbing leads only due to the myth that they are easier to get.
However, using the right plumbing marketing strategies can assist you to get exclusive leads easily as well.
Another classification of plumbing leads includes B2B and B2C leads.
Residential plumbing Leads
B2C leads are residential customers and are generally cheaper than B2-B leads, and this is because residential potential clients are not as complicated as commercial ones. In this case, the plumber lead generation strategy may not be as comprehensive as those used for commercial leads.
Commercial Plumbing Leads
These are B2B leads for commercial clients and industrial businesses looking for plumbing services. These clients generally have some knowledge of various plumbing lead generation strategies that may be employed to reach them, and it is more difficult to convert them than residential leads.
Lead sources are resources, platforms, or tools that plumbers can use to attract and find leads for their company. They can be an effective way to obtain new clients, but they can also be expensive.
What is Plumbing Lead Generation?
Lead generation is the process of cultivating a customer’s interest in your plumbing service with the aim of converting that person into a paying client. Most often, that can be achieved by gathering their information via a form on your plumbing website so that you can follow up with them after they click off your website.
Lead generation is essentially the process of identifying, attracting, and finding potential clients into your sales pipeline so that you can interact with them, tell them about your plumbing services and move them through the funnel. You can generate plumbing leads online in various ways and on many different channels.
You can get leads at any stage of your sales funnel. In fact, you should ensure not to concentrate on one stage only. Ideally, you want to have ways to reach clients who are in the Evaluation, Awareness, and Conversion stages.
Why is lead generation for plumbers crucial?
For some businesses, such as eCommerce sites, transactions are simple, quick and dint need much back and forth.
For building or plumbing contractors, that’s not generally the case. The homeowner has to know that the plumber can meet her or his specific requirements and will do it affordably and reliably. And since many plumbing businesses are competing for the attention of the same potential customers, they have to research and weigh their options before making a final buying decision.
In order to be even an option, though, you should attract the attention of potential customers and prove to them that you are worth being contacted. This implies that you should try to strike a balance between generic and hard sales pitches and informative marketing messages. If you focus on either of the two extremes, you will not be able to gain new plumbing clients.
Lead generation is crucial because it helps you to narrow down your focus to qualified plumbing leads and sharpen your unique value proposition. It also assists leads to knowing about your plumbing company and gaining more confidence to hire you for plumbing services.
Without a well-defined lead generation plan, plumbers aren’t able to identify their target market and locate them online and as a consequence, struggle to drive relevant traffic that can be converted into sales appointments and quote requests.
Best Lead Sources for Plumbing Contractors
There are different lead generation sources for plumbers, from paid ads, content marketing, and email marketing. However, you should research how your clients act online and what platforms they frequent most. From there, you can create a targeted campaign to generate plumbing leads. First, look through your existing client database and website visitors to know who is your target market and how they interact with your plumbing business.
Once you have sifted through your business data, identify long-hanging opportunities. For instance, collect the email addresses of your past customers and run a targeted email campaign for a seasonal plumbing offer. Inversely, if your target market is not residential, partner with B2B plumbing marketers to develop an email campaign that brings value to your contractors. Simply put, leveraging your business data will produce the highest conversion rate at a minimal cost. The major problem with this lead source is scale and volume, and you will probably hit the ceiling quickly.
Lead sources work by offering your business a list of potential clients who might be interested in your plumbing services.
Your business then contacts these potential clients and attempts to sell them their services, or prospects contact you if they are interested in what you have to offer. Here are two types of lead sources you need to know:
Organic Sources
The first lead generation source for plumbers is through organic search. Search engines like Google or Bing are a very active form of digital media. Implies that people search for plumbing services they require right now.
For instance, millions of people search for “plumbers near me” every month. In your local marketplace, thousands of homeowners are searching for plumbing services. If your business can rank at the top of the page for organic plumbing searches appearing frequently, there are a lot of opportunities to get new jobs every day.
Organic lead sources are typically free and generate leads naturally, attracting prospects who have become interested in your plumbing services.
This occurs when clients conduct research online or use online directories to find plumbing solutions and come across your content. This could be articles, SEO, social media posts, email campaigns, and blogs.
Unlike paid plumbing leads, organic leads are not marketing or advertising messages that have been pushed on to potential clients. Instead, they are people who have discovered your plumbing company via a third-party source and decide to book a job with your company.
All you require is to craft high-quality content that will grab the attention of potential clients. Furthermore, organic leads are more likely to convert into paying clients than paid leads, so they are a low-cost way to grow your plumbing company.
Paid Sources
Paid sources of plumbing leads are a great marketing tool for plumbers who want to generate new leads. These sources can offer businesses high-quality leads with higher chances of converting into clients.
There are various paid lead sources available, including Google paid Ads, Pay-per-click advertising. Selecting the right paid lead source depends on your company’s budget and needs.
Once you have set up a strong online presence via business listings, search ads, SEO, and social media are your next lead generation frontier. There are two fundamental ways to generate plumbing leads on social media; ads and content. This is a great way to help you generate leads for your plumbing business fast. More specifically, you can create super-targeted ads that describe plumbing promotions to homeowners that actively require your plumbing services.
Get More Plumbing Leads with these 15 Proven Strategies
As a plumber, the good you are at generating leads, the more chances to book new jobs you will have. Generating quality leads for your plumbing business that will keep your inbox full, and phone ringing is simple. To consistently book more jobs, we recommend that you try the following 16 lead generation strategies:
1. Create and Optimize Your Website to Convert the Plumbing Leads You Want
If you have not created a website to generate plumbing leads, this should be your initial step. A Facebook or Instagram page is crucial, but a plumbing website offers your brand more credibility.
Your website is your plumbing company’s greatest tool for converting leads into paying clients.
Sure, you have been obtaining a ton of word-of-mouth referrals. But where do you think those referrals head to the moment someone recommends your plumbing services company?
Your plumbing website. They head over to your website.
If your goal is to increase plumbing lead generation, word-of-mouth referrals should not be your consistent stream of leads. You should start optimizing your marketing strategy and website to draw in more relevant traffic, and you should use conversion tools that can assist you to generate those plumbing leads once new clients land on your website.
Once your plumbing website design is in pristine condition, make sure it’s optimized for search engines. Your aim should be to show up on top of the search engine result pages. Google accesses your plumbing website on several important factors when ranking your website:
- Keyword usage-make sure to research keywords related to your niche.
- Integration with social media platforms
- Routine updates
- Mobile-responsive functionality
- Quality content, including blogs or videos
Related: 4 Reasons Why A Responsive Plumbing Website Design Is More Crucial Now To Win New Clients.
2. Put Effort into Local Plumbing SEO to Generate Leads Online for Your Business
One of the greatest ways to get more plumbing service leads is to appear on Google when prospects look for your services.
Most plumbing contractors operate within a specific geographical service area. Even if you are a large commercial plumbing business, you are probably restricted to a specific region of the state, like Middle Tennessee or the Pacific Northwest.
While you want to boost your plumbing company’s lead generation, you don’t want to draw in leads that are not relevant to your business.
Leads from other regions or countries you don’t serve are a waste of your time and advertising dollars.
One way to make sure that your lead generation campaigns are only working to draw in the right plumbing leads is to maximize your local SEO efforts.
That implies customizing your online presence – your website and digital listings – to clearly describe where you operate.
Google Business Profile
Your Google Business Profile is a great place to begin.
Anyone who searches “plumbing company near me” is going to pull up a Google search results page that highlights plumbers with Google Business Profile. For example, we searched plumbers in our area, Murfreesboro, TN, and three plumbing contractors popped up on top.
This is a free profile that Google combines together to assist users to find the best plumber for whatever service they are looking for. It has everything from your hours of operation to pictures of members of your team.
The more optimized your Google Business Profile is, the better.
At the very least, you should claim your company’s Google Business Profile and edit your service area information.
The service area company details help you to say what regions you serve clients in, where your plumbing company is situated, and more.
Related: The Definitive Google Business Profile for plumbers Guide
This assists Google to figure out your actual business location, which in turn helps you. When Google understands where you are and the regions you serve, they are more likely to show your company when a prospect searches for a plumbing company in their area.
When that occurs, you obtain more qualified, local plumbing leads.
Optimize Your Plumbing Website for local SEO
We highly recommend that you optimize your site for local plumbing SEO too, particularly if you want to rank it ahead of your competitors. This is another effective way of ensuring that you are improving your lead generation efforts for the qualified, right leads. A few ways to optimize your plumbing company’s website to drawn in more local leads include:
- NAP citations: Make sure your company’s Name, Address, and Phone number are precisely the same across all your digital assets like your social profiles, websites, and Bing/Google Business Profile.
- Add location pages to your plumbing website: If you serve multiple locations, develop a dedicated page for each, and include every service area unique hours of operation and service hours. This will assist your business to rank in those areas.
- Develop local plumbing SEO content: Prospects looking to complete a plumbing project in your region may have questions about what they need in terms of local building requirements and codes. Developing localized plumbing website content that address those location-specific questions can help to improve your online presence in local search results.
- Schema Markup: Ask your web designer to implement a local business schema on your plumbing website.
- Online reviews: Reviews are crucial to local plumbing SEO. Regularly solicit online reviews and put up strategies to generate more reviews on the search and social profiles.
3. Manage Online Reviews Carefully to Get More Plumbing Leads
Another low-cost way to obtain more plumbing leads is to manage your online reputation carefully and consistently. Most potential clients look for trusted nearby plumbing contractors with awesome online reviews and always avoid plumbers with low average star ratings or negative reviews before scheduling an appointment.
Potential client feedback on review websites such as Facebook, Google, and other plumber social media and business review sites can make a huge difference when clients decide which plumbing services to hire. According to a client survey, more than 90% of clients identified positive client reviews as the main factor that makes them want to hire a particular plumbing business.
Real clients who leave stellar reviews help to establish trust in your plumbing business. Your prospect read an average of about 10 reviews before trusting a plumbing business, and more than 80% of these people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, according to a recent survey.
4. Create Quality Content That Draws in More Relevant Plumbing Leads
More relevant traffic = more leads for your plumbing business
Content marketing is one of the effective ways to improve your plumbing website rankings. Plumbing content includes everything from videos, blog posts, infographics, guides, and more.
Potential clients regularly seek out information and solutions to their problems online, and you can utilize your content to furnish them with the information they require to become clients.
Leveraging content marketing, you can attract many plumbing leads and users to your website. Once they land on your plumbing website, they can begin exploring your company and the plumbing services you provide.
Creating high-quality plumbing SEO content makes you an authority in the field. When prospects see you sharing nuggets of knowledge, they will trust that you are good and experienced at your trade.
One of the factors that Google considers when ranking your web page is the time prospects spend on your plumbing website. If they dwell on your plumbing website for long, it is a good sign to Google that they love your plumbing website and find it relevant.
If people stay longer on your page, reading your blog, or watching videos, this sends a positive signal to Google that you are reliable and helpful. Content marketing can have a huge impact on driving qualified plumbing leads to your business. You can attract people to your plumbing website by sharing your knowledge, and this is an effective way to establish trust and gain new plumbing leads for your business.
5. Social Media Marketing
Social media is a lead generation tool that many plumbers tend to misuse or overlook. It presents a real chance for you to market your plumbing business at little or no cost. Many plumbers create a page on Facebook but later abandon it simply because they don’t have content to share. The second blunder you can do on Facebook is to overwhelm your target market with blatant self-promotion messages.
Considering that an average American spends more than one hour on social media daily. Perhaps that explains why social media marketing is the most famous form of internet marketing.
Since anyone with a social media account can utilize it to advertise, social media marketing is free. But much like PPC ads or SEO, the most successful social media advertising efforts need a specialized skill set and budget.
When used properly, social media works perfectly to deliver crucial content that engages your clients. You can also utilize social media accounts to give small nuggets of information, such as a weekly DIY plumbing tip. It is a great tool to assist you to stay in front of customers and showcase your expertise when they don’t need your plumbing services.
If you are already spending a huge amount of time on social media, this could be an effective way to generate plumbing leads. Otherwise, you may require to hire a social media marketing agency for your plumbing business.
6. Get Ready-to-Book Plumbing Leads with Pay-per-Click Ads
Plumbing PPC ads are an effective way to get in touch to interested leads. These are paid ads that show up at the top of the search results on Google when homeowners conduct a search related to your ad, like “emergency plumbing services in Murfreesboro, TN.”
How does plumbing PPC work?
Plumbing PPC operates on a bidding system. You choose the keywords and set a maximum bid, which reflects the amount you are willing to pay every time someone clicks on your ad. Your maximum bid, along with other factors such as the quality score, determines the placement of your ad.
Many plumbers like this method since it helps them to control your budget. You will never have to pay more than the maximum budget you set.
This method is an effective way to reach plumbing leads. In fact, more than 60% of high intent searches result in someone clicking your ad. People who click on plumbing PPC are likely to convert since they are already searching online for keywords related to your plumbing business.
Furthermore, PPC ads can drive fast and immediate results, and it is easy to track the number of people that became clients after clicking your ads.
PPC ads is a great technique to include in your plumbing lead generation strategy. You will obtain more qualified leads and drive insane amounts of traffic to your plumbing website.
7. Nurture Plumbing Leads for Free with Email Marketing
Email marketing is an effective way to obtain and nurture new leads for your plumbing business. The initial step to leveraging email marketing is to develop a subscription list. You can obtain subscribers by including email signup forms on your plumbing website. However, you should not fall into the temptation of buying email lists, as such leads won’t be credible.
Once you have created an email list, you can start sending out emails about your special offers, sales, or content. These plumbing service leads are important since people opt to sign up for such emails, so they understand you are interested in your plumbing services. You can nurture these leads and assist them to convert by sending emails that appeal to them.
8. Use Retargeting Ads Like a Boss
On average, only two percent of your plumbing website visitors will convert to become clients. Retargeting ads goes after 98% of strayed visitors.
Have you ever visited a website and all of a sudden come across it everywhere? That’s retargeting, and it helps your business to seem like they are “following” people all over the internet by showing ads on the platforms and websites they frequent most.
9. Lead Generation Partners
The last option for generating exclusive plumbing leads is effective and straightforward. Simply pay a lead generation agency to do all the work for you.
It makes sense if you have the advertising dollars to use this option. This option reduces the time you will have to spend getting qualified leads for your plumbing business so that you can concentrate on other things- such as closing leads you obtain and running your company.
The disadvantage, of course, is the expense.
Many plumbers are typically reluctant to buy plumbing leads initially. But even the most experienced pay-per-lead generation companies for plumbers are cost-effective. Although the initial cost is considerable, a few new service jobs will typically cater for the cost of those leads.
But we highly recommend that you clearly understand what you are getting into before signing any contract with a plumbing lead generation company. Make sure that you understand all the billable terms. Also, read through their contract to ensure you know of any possible hidden costs or fees.
In general, we recommend that you select a company that provides exclusive plumbing leads, has a clear dispute resolution process, and allows partnerships without long-term contracts. You can expect plumbing leads to begin coming in from anywhere from a few days to several weeks.
10. Use Nextdoor to Advertise Your Plumbing Services to Neighborhoods with Older Homes
What if you focus your ads to older neighborhoods with homes that require new pipes? Or a neighborhood with a new house? Or a neighborhood where plumbing jobs average is higher than in other neighborhoods?
Nextdoor is a neighborhood networking app that Americans are utilizing to obtain recommendations and find local plumbing service providers. Here are some reasons why Nextdoor advertising is a great source of plumbing leads:
- To register for the platform, homeowners must be verified before signing up. That implies each person in the app is a real homeowner, a resident in a real neighborhood. Since all members are verified, Nextdoor’s user base trusts the recommendations and reviews from neighbors.
- It is a hub for local recommendations, with more than 20% of all posts asking for local service business recommendations, and more than 90% of recommendations on Nextdoor are home improvement services recommendations.
11. Video Marketing
The use of videos to advertise plumbing services has become famous in recent years for all kinds of businesses and can be utilized for your business as well. Videos that have been recorded of plumbers at work can be used to market your services and can even be embedded in your plumbing website.
Besides, being a search engine, YouTube increases the odds of potential clients coming across your plumbing brand while browsing the platform. Other potential clients may be exposed to your plumbing videos embedded on the site as Google considers the presence of videos when ranking websites.
The reason why YouTube is such a great option for promoting your plumbing company is that people generally spend many hours daily on the platform.
Offline Plumbing Lead Generation Strategies
Some plumbers still prefer to market their plumbing services the old-fashioned way. In fact, these marketing strategies are crucial to keep as not all your prospects are involved in the digital world.
Here are some effective ways to generate exclusive plumbing leads offline:
12. Direct Mail
Homeowners still love to obtain mail – of course, not junk mails or bills, but a visually appealing and pleasant mail. A well-designed postcard that is correctly targeted can be very beneficial. Remember to assign any offers you advertise in this way a special promo code so that you can track how your client or prospect found your business.
Look at previous client records and identify homes that had toilets or showers installed by your business some years ago. Build a direct mail campaign focusing on this group of previous client offering repair, installation, or maintenance services. Include the install date and current model. This brings a level of authority and authenticity to your mail pieces.
13. Print Ads
Another effective form of offline plumbing lead generation is print ads, such as in magazines, newspapers, or other publications. People are always glued to their screens all day long. But there are still those who love printed publications like newspapers and magazines. If your target market contains readers of this category, printed ads can be a great channel for getting in front of them.
14. Truck Wraps
Not all plumbing advertising occurs online, though, it assists to get online interest in the real world. For instance, printing your plumber website URL onto your company truck wrap makes a mobile billboard for your brand online. As more users look for your website or directly visit it on their browser, the more Google recognizes your brand as an entity. Furthermore, local residents who become accustomed to your company logo will remember your brand and establish an intuitive trust for your plumbing service.
15. Referral Programs
Referrals make marketing easier than ever for plumbing businesses. Establishing relationships with referral partners like plumbing suppliers, real estate companies, and other local plumbing contractors can assist your company to circumvent the heavy lifting. Your business obtains a tremendous level of brand loyalty when you give some incentives for any referral they get.
When a client obtains the high level of service and cares that you offer, they spread the good news to their co-workers, friends, and family. This creates new leads for your plumbing business, and make referring your plumbing services company easy.
Frequently Asked Questions About Plumbing Leads
How can I obtain more plumbing leads?
Here are some of the ways to get more leads for your plumbing business including but not restricted to SEO, PPC search ads, turn your plumbing website into a lead generation machine, email marketing, and more.
Where can I get good plumbing leads?
The top lead sources for plumbers include referrals, former customers, competitors, relationship marketing, and more.
How do I promote my plumbing company?
You can start to market your plumbing business with these strategies including PPC, Facebook ads, Google Local Service ads, Online reputation management, and building a conversion-focused plumbing website.
Why not just buy plumbing leads?
Many plumbers want to fill their sales funnel quickly and thus the temptation to purchase leads. Buying leads, as opposed to organically generating them, takes less effort and time, despite being super expensive. Avoid the temptation of purchasing expensive plumbing leads by partnering with Blackstorm Design + Marketing today.
Get Professional Help to Implement These Plumbing Lead Generation Strategies
If you are too busy operating your company to invest in these plumbing lead generation tips, we got you covered. Blackstorm Design + Marketing is a full-service internet marketing agency that specializes in getting your company leads.
We understand that your plumbing business is unique, so we take the time to know it and analyze your needs. Our team of digital marketing experts are dedicated to your campaign and will never offer cookie-cutter solutions.
Unlike other plumbing marketing agencies, we provide transparent pricing. We share with you our prices upfront to help you make the best decision for your plumbing business. Your budget is crucial, so we strive to offer you all the details you require to make a good decision.
Do you want to begin generating plumbing leads for your business? Schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to see how we can assist you to generate more valuable leads for your plumbing business.
