Increase your clients base, and maximize profits in your plumbing company with digital marketing KPIs
Do you have an idea of what makes your plumbing company’s marketing or advertising campaigns a success? Clues why is your business not generating enough leads? Why is a plumbing company doing so well?
Well, suppose you are not closely monitoring your plumbing marketing efforts online. In that case, you will never understand what is working or not, and that’s where digital marketing Key Performance Indicators come in. Using KPI, you can measure and track metrics that matter most to your plumbing business growth.
Before internet marketing was introduced, a plumber would only establish how a specific campaign was fairing based on office visits and the number of new clients acquired. However, such results rarely displayed an accurate calculation. But with the right plumbing marketing KPIs, you can know your weak areas and conduct the much-need tweaks in your strategies for maximum results.
That said, here are a few things to understand before selecting and monitoring your digital marketing for plumbers’ KPI.
What Are Plumber KPIs?
A Key Performance Indicator is a measurable attribute showcasing how ineffectively or effectively your plumbing company reaches its desired goals. Plumbing marketing KPIs are quantifiable measures or metrics employed to assess the performance of your company’s marketing objectives. These metrics can be traced to different aspects of your plumbing business, ranging from employees and leads generated to sales.
Internet marketing KPIs go hand in hand with your company’s online marketing strategies regardless of sales growth, brand awareness, SEO strategy, and lead generation. Examples of such metrics include details on conversion rate, engagement rate, sales revenue, page conversion, marketing qualified leads, and SERP. Any measurable figure in your plumber marketing plan that can be acted upon constitutes a KPI.
KPI comes from Google Analytics, lead conversion tool, Google Ads, Google Analytics, or even from your plumbing sales representatives.
Why Track Your Plumbing Marketing’s KPIs? 5 Reasons
When properly used, plumbing marketing KPI tracking can be an incredible tool for growing your company. Some of the key advantages of measuring metrics and acting on data include but are not restricted to:
1. Monitor Your Plumbing Company’s Health
Only a few KPIs are required to measure the health of your company. Plumbers who monitor metrics in categories such as employees, customers, processes, and revenue find it very easy to remain on track while keeping their income high.
2. Measure Processes
KPIs are typically applied to show if your company is attaining its strategic goals set by the top management. Numerous KPIs are utilized to measure processes, such as productivity indicators, profitability indicators, and quality indicators amongst others.
3. Client Metrics
Besides employees and processes, client metrics are also of utmost importance. They can help your company know the number of customers, the revenue generated, and even the cost of acquiring those clients.
4. Operational Metrics
Operations metrics are a good way to help your operations department enhance its day-to-day operations. You can use such metrics to make sure staffing, finances, and marketing are on the right track.
5. Measure Progress Over Time
A good strategy for measuring your business progress is to set targets at the beginning of the year, such as revenue, gross margin, number of locations, and even number of employees. Then, you can use weekly, quarterly and monthly reports to remain on track with the KPIs and progress towards set goals at the start of the year.
In a plumbing marketing campaign, tracking your KPIs is the only way to understand what is working or not. For instance, if you make good money from a specific marketing campaign, but you cannot show what generated that revenue or profit, then you will never know what you need to improve and where you need to invest more. Your site traffic, for example, could be the one driving all your qualified leads and your marketing crew or department is busy investing a lot of dollars on unnecessary channels.
Top 10 Plumbing Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking in Your Business
1. Cost Per Lead (CPL)
CPL is a plumbing KPI used in lead generation to know how much each lead costs your company. In simple terms, it shows you the cost of bringing in a lead from your advertising or marketing campaigns. Leads help you understand which contact or user is a potential client. It is normally the initial step into knowing how your internet marketing is performing beyond simple reach from metrics like unique visitors to your plumbing website.
Cost per lead helps you understand where your brand awareness efforts in marketing are most crucial. They tell you whether your campaigns are generating desired results at an affordable cost or not. They assist you to understand the amount of money you need to get a particular set of leads for your plumbing company. Because leads are the starting point of your sales processes, improving and benchmarking your cost per lead is an important metric for your plumbing marketing efforts or campaigns.
2. Conversion Rate (CR)
In plumbing marketing, a conversion happens when a prospect or client completes a particular activity, such as booking a job or subscribing to your newsletter. It can also be any action that helps meet your plumbing company’s objectives. On the other hand, conversion rate measures how regularly a client completes a particular set goal,
Conversion rate is a crucial metric that shows you if your marketing campaigns are on track. They tell you how effective your strategies are in terms of attaining a set goal. A higher conversion rate implies more likelihood of prospects or clients converting after coming across your piece of content. This also means low costs in terms of acquiring customers, which saves you money in the long run.
Consequently, the more conversions, the better your plumbing gets in Google rankings. Thus, if you want to skyrocket your bottom line, make minor but worthy tweaks to your plumbing website. Use Google Optimize together with Google Analytics to test various elements of your website to increase your revenue without necessarily increasing your ad spend.
3. Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI denotes the amount of profit your plumbing company will earn from the money spent on a particular activity or investment like a marketing campaign. As an online marketing metric, ROI helps you know whether your company is profitable or not. It shows the expenditures as well as activities connected with them that are creating revenue and those that are not.
So, it is an important tool for planning your marketing or advertising budgets. While it is not possible to capture the total money spent on marketing activity, say a Google Ad campaign, it is crucial to make sure that your ROI is comparable to other internet marketing activities.
4. Bounce Rate
Simply put, bounce rate refers to the number of clients or prospects who visit your plumbing website and leave right away without completing any meaningful action. If your site has a high bounce rate, this is a good indication that there are flaws in your online marketing strategies, and some of them could be irrelevant traffic sources, weak landing pages, or poor targeting, amongst others.
A prospect visiting and clicking off your website also implies they didn’t find what they were searching for and the only way to make sure that they spend time on it is by auditing your content and identifying what they are looking for. This way, you will craft relevant content that will attract them.
5. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
CPA revolves around revenue after a lead becomes a paying client. It gives you a rough idea of how much you will spend to get a client to open his or her wallet. CPA is a deal for paid search marketing campaigns like Pay-Per-Click campaigns.
5. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is another internet marketing metric that quantifies the number of clicks on a specific content over the number of impressions it achieves. It is the percentage of prospects that click on a campaign after coming across it.
CTR is the simple form of engagement rate because the only engagement counted is the one that matters the most and clicks on a link. This metric shows whether your site content is interesting to grab people’s attention and lead them to click on the link and be redirected to the plumbing website.
In Google ads, CTR boosts your quality score each time a user clicks on an ad, and when this occurs, your ads are ranked on top of SERPs, which has other advantages, such as increased traffic and more conversions.
6. Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value refers to a KPI used to measure the amount of revenue you can expect from a specific client for the entire period of doing business with your company.
A higher customer lifetime value indicates that your plumbing business is doing well and often signals a profit. It helps you understand how valuable different customers are and thus allocate more resources to them.
7. Business Growth
Another important KPI for plumbers is the business growth metric. This can be calculated in numerous ways, but estimating your annual gross profit margins is the most effective is the most effective. This is where you bring things like cost of operation like salaries, and cost of equipment into the equation. To find your gross profit margin, calculate your total sales revenue and subtract your total cost of operation, divide the figure you obtain with sales revenue again.
8. Customer Satisfaction
Lastly, client satisfaction. Do you know that it is much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to try to get a new one? This is why customer satisfaction is an important KPI for plumbers; since client satisfaction leads to retention.
You can assess your customer satisfaction levels by developing a questionnaire form and asking clients to fill it out. Keeping your eye on online reviews is also crucial. You can improve customer satisfaction by responding to all reviews (whether negative or positive) promptly and professionally.
Top Channels for Local Plumbing Contractors to Generate Qualified Leads
By analyzing your overall plumbing marketing strategy and how every lead source generates qualified sales for your company.
Then you can begin to work on the different marketing efforts with every channel to obtain more qualified leads, increase sales growth and reduce client acquisition costs.
While monitoring plumbing marketing KPIs your sales crew should come in to see how your collective advertising or marketing efforts generate results across the following channels.
Organic Search
Homeowners and property managers use search engines such as Google or Bing to find information about a local service business and click on the organic results shown to them. No advertisements. Organic site traffic will be one of the cheapest in terms of acquiring leads but will take the longest time to develop and achieve realistic results.
Paid Advertising
There are multiple ways paid advertising is showcased to your potential clients to boost website traffic, and here are some examples. But, if you want to increase your chances of increasing traffic to lead ratio, landing pages are a perfect way to achieve this.
Google Local Service Ads
Text ads from Google Ads
Display advertising on other sites
Paid ads on social media websites
Click to call ads from Google
Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of those platforms that can help you in various ways. Not all resulting to direct sales, but offering you an opportunity to build and get:
Brand awareness
Potential client referrals
Client support channel
As you can see, a lot goes into each plumbing marketing KPI, and together they show a clear picture of how your company is performing online. Every monthly report combines it all and makes sure we continually drive revenue in the best ways possible. At Blackstorm Design +Marketing, we are in the business to create lifelong partnerships, and such plumbing business marketing KPIs hold our team accountable.
Let’s work together to create a strong online presence for your plumbing company so you can book more jobs on the web.
Get more plumbing customers without breaking your bank account with these actionable tips
Acquiring new customers is the bane of many plumbing contractors. While sometimes it may be simple as finding a homeowner searching for a specific plumbing service, other times it can be more challenging. The standard method to get more plumbing customers is from marketing to the right people down to closing the sale. For many plumbers, this may be a daunting task, particularly when their efforts don’t achieve the desired results.
Clients are the lifeline of your plumbing company. If your phone is not ringing, then your plumbing expertise will be of no use. You won’t generate any revenue and thus your company will close its doors. So, it is crucial to maintain a consistent flow of customers to your plumbing business.
The amazing thing about running your plumbing company is understanding that there is a huge demand for your services at all times. Wherever people reside, pipes are very crucial to their everyday life. Sometimes, something goes wrong with their piping system and they have to repair it urgently. That, said, as there might be a higher demand for plumbers, there is always a need to get more plumbing customers by using the appropriate marketing strategies.
If you are wondering how to get more customers to your plumbing business, we got you covered. This post will share in-depth strategies that will hands down – assist you to get more clients for your growing plumbing business. Want to be booked several months in advance? Here are our inexpensive ways to do it.
1. Get More Plumbing Customers by Marketing Your Services
Marketing is essential in any plumbing company. You cannot generate revenue in your plumbing business without money and time in marketing your plumbing services. This aspect is no different in the plumbing industry. You will never secure any new customers if you don’t invest in plumbing marketing. Target customers must know that you are a plumber and the services you are providing.
If you want to expand your customer base, you need to boost your marketing efforts. Homeowners should know that you are a plumbing contractor. Only through this strategy can you obtain clients to work for. So, consider implementing a marketing strategy that will boost your plumbing brand in your area.
A successful plumbing marketing strategy will attract various kinds of clients – whether they are panicking from a pipe that has just busted or are performing research online to find a reliable plumber for their new bathroom installation.
2. Get More Plumbing Customers by Building a Professional Website
Having a plumbing website not only increases your visibility among plumbing clients but also makes you more trustworthy and reliable. In the modern digital world, online presence is crucial. Search engines like Google or Bing are the first stopover when it comes to searching for a service or product.
A homeowner will turn to Google to find a plumber before looking for one in their backyard. If your company doesn’t have a website, you will miss the opportunity to secure a job. For this reason, you should hire a reputable plumbing web design agency to get your site built especially if you are not familiar with web development and design.
Put information about your plumbing company, where you are situated, the number of years you have been in the plumbing industry, your working style, and what makes your business stand out from the competitors. Consider having a plumbing company blog to help you establish a connection with your clients.
Even if your plumbing company is small, there is a high likelihood that you have a website. If you don’t, we highly recommend that you solve that problem ASAP. If you don’t have a plumbing website, then you are missing out on major opportunities of getting found by homeowners searching for plumbers online.
In the infant stages of the Internet, a plumbing website alone was enough to help a business, secure new clients. But things are different nowadays. Now there is stiff and cutthroat competition online. If you want to grab the attention of your potential clients online, you will require more than a website to achieve that. You will require an actual plan.
That’s where search engine optimization for plumbers comes into play.
Search engine optimization sounds complicated and very technical. And in actual sense, it can be. But at the most fundamental level, SEO is the process of creating a plumbing website that directly and clearly addresses the problems your clients have when they conduct searches on the internet.
Generally speaking, you can handle the SEO of your plumbing website alone, making this an inexpensive option for generating qualified leads. In fact, it is possible to take a DIY approach to plumbing SEO and see great results.
But you must be willing to commit time to learn the ins and outs of the process. Poorly executed SEO can adversely affect your business, so you will want to perform some serious research to make sure that your plan is solid before implementing it.
Or you can partner with a plumbing SEO agency to help you throughout the process. If you have the budget to afford this kind of service, we highly recommend it.
4. Carefully Manage Your Online Reputation to Get More Plumbing Customers
Another way to get more plumbing clients/leads is to manage your online reviews carefully and consistently. Most prospects search for reliable nearby plumbing businesses with great online reviews, and always try to avoid low-average star ratings or negative reviews before scheduling a service appointment.
Positive client feedback on review platforms such as Facebook, Google, and other business review and social media websites can make a noticeable difference when clients decide which plumbing contractor to hire. According to a Consumer Survey, more than 90% of clients cited positive reviews as a factor that makes them more likely to hire a particular business.
Real clients who give your business positive reviews help to establish trust in your plumbing company. Your prospects read an average of 10 reviews before trusting a plumbing business, and more than 80% of those people – trust online reviews as much as recommendations from their family or friends, according to the survey. If you don’t have the time to manage what customers say about your plumbing business on the Internet, hire a plumbing online reputation management agency to help you out.
5. Get More Plumbing Customers Via Paid Advertising
Pay-per-click advertising gives your plumbing business a chance to bid on famous keywords that homeowners use to search for a plumbing company like yours online. Your plumbing SEO plan is what drives the organic (or FREE) web traffic. That’s people who find your plumbing company website through a simple search on Google. But there is another (typically faster) option for grabbing the attention of your potential customers: paid advertising otherwise known as pay-per-click advertising (PPC).
Based on various factors like a maximum bid for every keyword, landing page score, or your ad copy, then your ad is shown to prospects or clients looking for plumbers in your area. Pay-per-click advertising comes in multiple different forms, which may include but is not restricted to;
Search ads: Search ads are the most crucial and common type of PPC ads for plumbers. You will normally see them at the bottom and top of the search engine result page with a small logo that says “Ad” next to the results. It is a way to jump at the top of your competitors on search engines, ahead of all organic search results that took a lot of effort and time to be seen.
Display ads: This will show your plumbing ads across all the sites that partner with Google. You can select a specific target market or website where your ads will be visible.
Remarketing ads: Do you know that great feeling that a business is following no matter where you go on the Internet? That’s not by accident, it’s retargeting or remarketing. A plumber knows that you are interested in a specific service (since you had visited their website before) and re-engages you with an ad.
Social media ads for plumbers: Just like display ads, you can target a particular audience, using the vast data of the social profiles you could purchase from, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and even Instagram. The right image is crucial to conducting a great social media PPC ad.
6. Claim Your Free Google Business Profile Listing to Get More Plumbing Customers Online
Claiming your Google Business Profile will assist your plumbing company to appear on the local search results page, skyrocket your website traffic and make it easier for potential clients to find your plumbing services online.
Your Google Business Profile offers visitors a snapshot of your company and services, including your logo, contact information, service area, client reviews, and pictures of successfully completed projects.
Here is what your Google Business Profile will appear like when a new client looks for a plumber in your service area.
7. Use Social Media Marketing to Get More Plumbing Customers Online
From TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram to Facebook, just about everyone is on one social media platform at some point. Social media apps help people to stay connected, keep informed, and above all entertained.
And folks spend a lot of time on social media.
The average American spends over one hour on social media each day. This explains why social media advertising is one of the common forms of internet marketing.
Since anyone with a social media profile can utilize that profile to advertise, marketing on social media is technically free. But just like PPC ads or SEO, the most successful plumbing social media advertising efforts need a budget and specialized skill set.
Plus, social media marketing for plumbers takes time. Likely, more time than what most plumbers think.
Not only will be required to create and publish posts regularly but also remain active with your target audience or market. When they ask questions or leave comments, you should be able to respond to them promptly. That implies you have to be on your preferred social media networks a lot, yourself.
If you had already spent a good time on social media, this could be a surefire way to generate plumbing clients or leads. Otherwise, you may be required to hire a social media advertising agency for plumbers to help you out.
8. Invest in Email Marketing to Win More Plumbing Customers
Another great way to obtain plumbing clients is by using targeted email marketing campaigns.
Sending regular emails to your client list promoting your plumbing services and reminding them of your top-notch services (such as plumbing system maintenance) keeps you on top of their mind. So when the client requires plumbing services, you are the first plumber they remember.
Targeted plumbing email marketing tends to be cheaper than conventional advertising and keeps your business top–of–mind for clients. To make email marketing work for your plumbing company, figure out the particular topics that will resonate with your target audience.
For instance:
Share informative and helpful tips to establish brand loyalty (e.g., signs that your water heater is failing)
Remind clients of recommended maintenance
Provide seasonal reminders to help clients keep their plumbing systems running optimally and smoothly.
9. Build a Plumbing Brand Your Clients Will Recognize and Love
Creating a brand for your plumbing business is one of the best ways to attract and impress potential customers.
(It is also one of the effective ways of outranking the competition)
Once you have settled on the visual elements of your brand (like fonts, logo, and colors) ensure that you use them consistently throughout your plumber marketing efforts to assist new and existing clients recognize your business.
10. Get More Plumbing Customers Through Content Marketing
Content marketing involves crafting and distributing important information across multiple digital channels. Content, from blogs to videos to online reviews has profound impacts on your potential customers. They are one of the efficient ways to create a positive first impression on your target audience or market.
Quality content creation combined with great keyword research makes sure that your content is read and understood. You must set aside a section for a blog on your website where you can write quality SEO content related to the plumbing niche. If you handed over the task to a plumbing marketing agency, they will perform a competitor analysis to see what other plumbers are writing about.
But your content creation should not be restricted to blogs only; there are multiple ways to use your plumbing business’ content. For example, you can create infographics, videos, short films, and more with content strategies and promote them for appropriate channels for maximum reach. With numerous content marketing tools available, you can easily make sure that your content resonates with your target audience.
11. Get More Plumbing Customers with Local Service Ads
Local Services ads from Google are focused on small plumbing businesses that want to be rated highly and build the respect and trust of local buyers. Via the Local Services platform, plumbing contractors are able to buy advertising inventory that is best has the best search engine estate: the #1 spot of search results.
This is particularly helpful for mobile searches; which contribute to more than 60% of all online searches. That number is expected to increase over time.
Local service ads for plumbers get your business affordable customers from people actually looking for your services.
But you must apply for this service. If you are accepted, then you should set up a campaign while allocating a good budget. If you are still on the fence about what your budget should be, schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to get started.
12. Get More Customers Through Plumbing Lead Generation Websites
Another proven way to get more plumbing customers is by paying a lead generation company to do all the hard work for you.
If you have a good marketing budget that allows this option, then it makes a lot of sense to use it.
Listing your plumbing company on pay-per-call lead generation websites can put you in front of wallet-out prospects who are actively looking for your plumbing services- with minimal effort on your part.
These platforms are perfect if you provide kitchen or bathroom remodels and maintenance services. Just bid on the jobs you want and send quotes to potential clients.
You can also use them to collect client reviews and enhance your brand’s reputation (both online and offline).
13. Use Retargeting Ads to Get More Plumbing Customers Online
Have you ever noticed when you leave a specific website and then head over to Facebook, you will see an ad from the site you visited down on your feed? That’s retargeting in action.
Retargeting presents yet another way to get more plumbing customers in the form of pixels. Pixels are minor snippets of code you can put on your landing pages to record and track information about the behavior of users.
With such data, you can develop personalized service recommendations and retarget prospects with custom ads that show as previous website visitors browse other sites, like Google, Bing, and Facebook.
For example:
If a prospect visits one of your plumbing service pages and clicks off without filling out a form or calling your business, then you can retarget only those people with ads that contain client testimonials, for instance, across other websites in the Google Display Network or even social media networks such as LinkedIn or Facebook.
Remember, most people don’t purchase plumbing services on their first visit to your website, so utilizing retargeting is a free and smart marketing strategy to re-engage non-converting leads and visitors.
14. Get More Plumbing Customers Offline Using the Following Strategies
Ask for Referrals
Referrals are one of the inexpensive ways to get new plumbing customers-but if you sit down and wait for your existing customers to refer their family members and friends to your business, you could be waiting longer. Take charge by actively requesting referrals from your satisfied clients. Include a referral-generating activity in your sales process. For example, send out a follow-up email asking for a referral after you have completed a client’s plumbing project successfully. Have your sales representatives ask for referrals when they follow up to answer questions after completing a project.
Network with Other Plumbing Contractors
Networking is crucial in each field. The approach helps you connect with other stakeholders in your industry. However, many plumbers don’t want to engage with their peers or colleagues. They wrongly that having a good relationship with their rivals is a bad idea.
If you hold the same school of thought, then you are wrong. Networking is a great way of expanding your client base. It assists you to get some tact in the plumbing industry because your colleagues can refer their customers to you in case they have excess on their end. You too can have sought their help when you get a client beyond your scope or service reach.
If you are still on the fence about how to get more plumbing customers, consider contacting local small businesses in your area. Most of them will be glad to use you or team up and refer their clients who require plumbing services to you as long as you are willing to return a favor. Some of the few businesses you can contact include; home inspection companies, pest control, pool companies, real estate agents or investors, and more.
Offer Superior Services to Your Customers
There is no doubt that customers are the number one sales representative of any plumbing company. Your clients will bring their colleagues and peers to your plumbing business. But this will only happen if you offer satisfactory services.
If you want to get more plumbing customers, always provide exceptional customer experience and services. Remember, happy clients are equal to the more new business plus the introduction of more customers. So, prioritize customer services and you will experience an increase in your customer base within a very short timeframe.
Attend Trade Shows
Attending industry trade should be on top of your to-do list of plumbing advertising ideas. They not only offer tons of solutions for how to book more plumbing jobs and how to scale a plumbing company but also helps you to spy on your competitors, boost brand awareness and establish new business partnerships.
To make the most out of the trade shows, you should offer some irresistible to visitors, like a freebie or another incentive like contests, giveaways, coupons, and more.
Lastly, make sure that you are writing down the contact details of interested visitors and following up to advertise your plumbing services.
15. Get More Plumbing Customers Through Strategic Alliances
Another great way to get more plumbing clients for free is to partner with other local businesses in your service area. That could be Lowe’s Home Depot and others. Creating a strategic partnership implies they will recommend you to their clients, display your marketing materials or business cards, and offer a steady stream of exclusive plumbing leads. So, get to networking!
16. Send Direct Mailers to Get More Plumbing Leads/Customers
Here is another plumbing marketing idea that can withstand the test of time; direct mailers. Yet another ‘prehistoric’ marketing strategy, but it is not ineffective. At present, people are more excited to receive postcards and mail than to obtain promotional emails from plumbing companies.
Use postcards to stir interest and grab attention. As many plumbing companies have abandoned the mailbox, you may also find direct mail as a unique way of standing out from the competition. Make sure that you hire a graphic designer to ensure that your direct mail gets the attention of your audience while enhancing your brand’s image.
17. Use Branded Plumbing Marketing Materials
Always ensure that you have something physical to give a prospect to carry with them and remind them of your plumbing company. The bare minimum would be to print business cards with your website name and URL on display. Taking it a notch higher with swag like branded clothing and stationery is also a famous medium of getting your brand out there.
18. Wrap Your Plumbing Van to Make a Lasting Impression
Which one seems professional according to you?
A beat-up, dirty van with tools in the bed and no signage?
Or a well-maintained, clean van with a sleek logo on its side?
The one with a sleek plumbing logo, right? Adding a magnet or wrap to your work vans is an efficient way to make them appear more professional, while also leveraging the benefits of free advertising space. Your work vans are fundamentally billboards on wheels, so why not use it?
19. Get More Plumbing Customers by Canvassing the Area
Canvassing an area to get more plumbing clients for free may seem like an old-school marketing strategy, but your ideal plumbing customers are likely to book jobs with you and remember your business when they connect a face to your company. If you want to try canvassing, try it after you have completed a nearby project.
To achieve great results, remember to:
Always be courteous and polite, even if you don’t obtain the reaction you want.
Set a goal for every interaction: obtain their contact details, give them your business card
Have a script ready so you are well prepared
Follow up with prospects after getting their details-you could include them on your mailing list.
20. Use Nextdoor to Get More Plumbing Customers in Neighborhoods with Older Homes
Nextdoor is nowadays being utilized in more than 90% of American neighborhoods to find local home service providers, such as roofers or plumbers, and can be a goldmine to get new plumbing clients. What makes this app attractive is its verification process, which ensures that the people who are listed in the Neighborhood actually reside there.
You can use Nextdoor to scope out neighborhoods with older homes that are likely to require new pipes, new buildings that require plumbing installations, and neighborhoods that have a history of offering large-scale plumbing jobs.
To get started, register on the platform and get verified. Then, watch out for posts where users are asking about plumbing service contractors. 24% of all posts are homeowners requesting for home improvement service providers, so you should be able to book more plumbing jobs with this app.
Frequently Asked Questions on How to Get More Plumbing Customers
How do you get more plumbing leads?
There are several strategies that you can use to generate plumbing leads including creating a professional plumbing website, using SEO to make it easier for people to find your site, email marketing, social media advertising, online reputation management, and more.
What is plumbing lead?
A plumbing lead is a prospect expressing interest in your services by submitting their contact details via a phone call or submitting an online form.
Why hire a marketing agency to get more plumbing customers?
Plumbing marketing agencies have numerous tools and expertise that can assist you to understand your client’s preferences which informs your advertising strategies. An agency will also help you save money because you will not have to commit all your time doing keyword research, or paid ads in which you are unsure of your performance.
Let Blackstorm Design + Marketing Help You Get More Plumbing Customers (Offline and Online)
Any of the strategies discussed above can be a game-changer in getting more clients for your plumbing business.
A good plumbing lead generation campaign fuels your sales funnel and ensures that you have no shortage of new customers. If you are still unsure about how to get more plumbing customers even after reading this article, we are here to help you.
Blackstorm Design + Marketing is a premier internet marketing agency for plumbers and home service contractors. Our team specializes in running plumbing marketing campaigns that generate exclusive leads for plumbers across the country.
Get the best plumbing marketing strategies that will help you generate more qualified leads, booked jobs, revenue, and more from industry experts.
Did you know that the plumbing industry is expected to grow by 15% between 2020 and 2030 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics? This presents a great opportunity for your plumbing company to optimize its marketing and generate more qualified leads.
Why should a homeowner hire you to repair or replace their clogged drain? That’s the major question if you want to create a successful plumbing business. And the answer lies in plumbing marketing. But where do you start marketing your plumbing business?
The way a plumbing company works to market its services has changed entirely in the past few years. A few decades ago, people normally used to go to their local directories or phone books to find a local plumber, but nowadays, prospects depend on Google search results to hire a nearby plumber.
Why should plumbers be on top of marketing?
As the industry continues growing, your company needs to remain competitive and relevant to generate more plumbing leads. Developing comprehensive plumbing marketing ideas can help you achieve just that.
This guide is designed to remove the guesswork and give you successful plumber marketing strategies that will help you get a higher return on investment (ROI). Without further ado, let us dive into our post.
The Benefits of Marketing your Plumbing Business You Need to Know
Most plumbing contractors are always busy servicing clients and operating their businesses to think about marketing. Marketing is one of those things that you don’t know you require until your phone stops ringing. But here are some reasons why you need to market your plumbing business even when your calendar is fully booked:
Solidify Your Brand
An effective plumber marketing plan strengthens and solidifies your brand’s voice. Suppose you develop a marketing strategy that includes elements of social proof (for instance, online reviews and client testimonials). This is how your company communicates its trustworthiness and authenticity to homeowners. With such an excellent brand and voice, it will be difficult for existing and new clients to turn away.
Reach More Clients and Grow Your Company
Marketing provides an excellent way for plumbers to increase their exposure in their target market and generate more leads. More prospects will become aware of your plumbing services, which can help to generate more qualified leads into your sales funnel.
Obtain Data and Insight Into Your Company Operations and Its Clients
Plumbing marketing is not just an effective way to create your database of client contact details, but it can also offer important client insights that help you enhance your business operations and client retention tactics. For instance, if your company targets homeowners, you can obtain relevant data on the type of promotions they love, their ever-changing demands, and a lot more.
Understand the Plumbing Industry Trends
To stay ahead of the curve, you should always remain updated on the latest plumbing industry trends. Through plumber marketing, you can understand more about current plumbing demand trends, what your rivals are doing, and clients’ needs. By learning more about the industry, you stand a good chance of building a sustainable plumbing company.
Boost Sales
Your plumbing business stands to gain a lot by creating innovative plumbing marketing ideas and implementing them. The return on investment for effective plumber marketing can be significant.
What is the Target Market for Plumbers?
Identifying your ideal customer helps you to focus your advertising or marketing efforts on a specific segment of the market that needs your plumbing services. Otherwise, you may spend thousands of your hard-earned dollars marketing to a large group of prospects that rarely require your services when you could have spent far less and target property owners you know need new plumbing systems.
A target market for your plumbing company refers to a group of people labeled as clients of your business. The target market normally shares similar demographic traits including but not restricted to:
Gender
Age
Education
Socioeconomic status
Location
Determining your target market can assist you to define your ideal clients and develop effective plumbing marketing strategies.
Instead of spending thousands of dollars trying to reach every prospect, knowing your plumbing target market helps you to develop a more intentional and personal outreach, particularly to those who are ready to book your plumbing services.
“When you combine the Buyer Persona/ Profile with Buying Insights, you will have clear guidance for the decisions you need to make to win their business.” -Adele Revella
Here are the different kinds of clients you are likely to encounter in your plumbing company:
1. Homeowners
One of the apparent plumbing company personas is the homeowner. However, it is important to note that this persona varies based on geographical areas. Some homeowners may be too sensitive to cost and prefer to repair their plumbing systems themselves. For other homeowners, their priority is to get the repair done right for the first time.
Homeowners have beliefs and mentality that are contrary to the suggestions of professional plumbers. For example, repairing plumbing problems themselves becomes their major priority. As a consequence, they opt to do DIY plumbing instead.
2. Real Estate Agents
Realtors typically perceive plumbers as their partners. Why? It is because the goal of a real estate agent is to help clients in selling/buying properties or houses. Generally, many homes require plumbing repairs before they are put on sale.
Such repairs need to be done faster, more efficiently, and within your budget. If they find a professional plumber like you, they can rest assured that their problems will be resolved promptly. Plumbers utilize specialized tools that assist them in monitoring tasks, projects, and even the plumbing services they offer to customers.
3. Small Business Owners
Like restaurant entrepreneurs, small company owners need plumbing services that are responsive and quick. They care more about elements such as the capability and actual size of your plumbing company since they wanted to look for a reliable partner with whom they can have a business relationship in the long term.
4. Facility and Property Managers
This buyer persona wants your plumbing services to be available round the clock. Property managers are always on the lookout for affordable rates. They work in the commercial sector. They may need services such as bathroom and kitchen repairs, flood restoration, and pump truck services, based on the situation.
Digital Marketing for Plumbers-Where to Start?
The internet provides numerous opportunities for your plumbing business to reach potential clients or leads. How do you get valuable plumbing leads, though, and increase your return on investment (ROI) from plumbing marketing?
By learning about internet marketing for plumbers and using digital marketing services.
Keep reading to know about marketing for plumbing companies, from the tactics that provide the most value to the online marketing services available for plumbers.
Without further ado, here are different types of digital marketing strategies you can use to grow your plumbing business.
First things first.
1. Set, Adjust and Manage Your Plumbing Marketing Budget
Allocating a plumbing marketing budget implies committing a specific percentage of your revenue to advertise your services in whatever combination works best for your business to reach more clients.
Plumbing industry experts recommend that you allocate at least 10 percent of sales towards marketing your service if you want to grow your business. Set your plumber marketing budget, then look at your plumbing marketing expenses and where you should spend those advertising dollars to obtain maximum return on investment. Options may include conventional advertising on newspapers, billboards, TV or sending and printing direct mail fliers.
Mastering digital plumbing advertising strategies – from Google local service ads, paid social media posts to targeted email marketing campaigns-boosts your brand awareness for your plumbing business and helps to improve your online reputation.
Test a combination of digital and traditional plumbing marketing ideas for optimal results or concentrate on one before going to another. Once you have allocated your marketing budget, adjust and manage it regularly by monitoring results for every campaign.
2. Make Your Plumbing Website Your 24/7 Sales Representative
Many home service contractors, especially plumbers, wrongly think a cell phone is all that is required to connect with people in their neighborhood. But nowadays, people turn to Google to find information about plumbing services near them. To stay ahead of the curve, your plumbing company needs its website.
Your plumbing website should be your 24/7 sales representative and should generate massive amounts of new leads. If you want your plumbing website to work while you sleep, it should have these features:
It needs to load fast: The average client expects your plumber website to load in less than three seconds.
It Should be optimized for mobile devices:More than 50% of all online traffic comes from tablets and smartphones.
It should be secure: Over 40% of the plumbing websites on the first page of Google are HTTPS, which should not be a surprise because Google has already confirmed that they favor HTTPS sites.
Frictionless: Clients should be able to obtain what they require from your plumbing website within one or two seconds. That implies helpful shortcuts, seamless navigation, and quality content that resolves their issues.
Quality, helpful content: A major ranking factor in Google or Bing search results is the quality of your plumbing content.
Functional: Your plumbing website should be coded properly for SEO, which implies adding structure to your website with metadata like optimized images, meta, and title tags.
If your plumbing website is missing any of these features, you need to redesign it ASAP or else lose new leads to the competition.
3. Optimize Your Plumbing Website for Local SEO to Get Found by Prospects Online
Think about a modern busy homeowner as your brainstorm about plumbing advertising ideas to enhance your business’s search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. SEO is a plumbing marketing term used to describe the steps required to make sure that Google and other search engines find your business website when people search for your plumbing services.
Here are some tips you can use to optimize your plumbing company website for search engines:
Select location-specific keywords: For instance, plumbing contractors Manchester, TN or Murfreesboro plumbers.
Use a consistent name, address, and phone number.
Create and optimize your plumbing Google business profile.
Add your plumbing company to local online business directories.
Create high-quality plumbing SEO content.
Integrate plumbing keywords throughout your website.
Get backlinks from authorities in the plumbing industry.
If you are a plumbing business in Nashville, for example, make sure that you use “Nashville toilet repair” as one of your primary keywords. Use variations of the plumbing keywords on your landing pages, subheads, blog contents, meta descriptions, and meta tags to enhance the SEO health of your plumbing website.
Implementing good SEO strategies into your plumbing marketing plan ensures your site can be found on Google for phrases and words your prospect is actively looking for.
If you boost your plumbing website’s visibility, that can drive more visitors to your website, which converts your site into a lead generation machine that can work for your business 24/7/365.
4. Claim Your Free Google Business Profile
Your plumbing business must have an online presence to reach the right prospects or clients. The initial step for so doing starts with claiming and verifying a Google Business Profile listing. It is a part of local SEO and helps prospects discover your plumbing business easily online.
Google Business Profile is a free service by Google that helps you to create a listing on the web. Here, you can include all the important information related to your plumbing business, such as contact information, address, and hours of operation.
You can also add posts and images related to your business on GBP. Customers can also leave reviews about your plumbing business and share videos/images on this profile. With an updated Google Business Profile, there is a high chance of your company appearing for Google’s 3-pack and local searches too.
5. Use Pay-Per-Click Advertising to Reach People Looking for Plumbers
If you are searching for paid plumbing marketing solutions, Pay-per-click advertising is a perfect option. PPC ads are paid ads that show up in search engine results above organic listings.
PPC ads are one of the tested and proven ways to get valuable leads for your plumbing company. You only pay when prospects click on your ad. Because PPC ad targets prospects who are already looking for plumbing businesses like yours, it will assist you to get more qualified leads.
Like plumbing SEO, you will perform keyword research to identify the appropriate keywords for your campaign. Once you have picked your keywords, you will be required to bid for the placement of your ad.
You will also require to set your maximum bid, which is the amount of money you are willing to spend every time a prospect clicks on your ad. This amount should be flexible and can be altered at any time. Keyword research will assist you to know the value of plumbing keywords so that you can set the right bid.
Your quality score and the maximum bid will affect your ad’s placement. Once your ad is placed, you will launch your PPC ad.
This technique helps you to set a budget that works for your plumbing company. Whether you invest $100 or $1000, you are the one to choose. However, you need to know that the amount of money you invest will affect your plumbing marketing campaign’s success.
PPC also gives you total control over your Google or Bing ad campaign. This means that you not only choose your budget but also select the time to run your ad and for how long. This helps you to build a campaign that works for your target audience and your plumbing company.
6. Social Media Marketing for Plumbers
Among the cost-effective plumbing marketing ideas, developing a social media presence to maximize your reach is actually near the top. It is low-cost (free if don’t use paid ads), and there is no question that plumbing contractors that don’t have a social media presence in the modern market lose their marketing potential. A social media platform provides you with better credibility, accessibility, and visibility to find your plumbing services. Plus, you can use posts to show off previously completed projects and satisfied clients.
When posting on social media, it is crucial to have a variety of content, like videos. Uploading videos can be helpful for prompt DIY plumbing problems, and the viewer may then call you for other plumbing service needs. For an unsought service such as plumbing, the visibility and shareability of posts can help your company to be more present in local clients’ minds.
Marketing experts for plumbers typically recommend that you focus on one of these social media platforms including:
From here, you will be required to access most of the online social media users. Another social media marketing tool for plumbers you may consider leveraging is Facebook ads.
We highly recommend that you choose the social media platforms that your prospects or clients are utilizing instead of using a single one.
7. Manage Your Online Reputation
It’s frustrating when a client goes online and writes a bad review about your plumbing business, particularly when you have done your best to offer the best service possible. But prospects care about online reviews, and that’s why it is crucial for plumbing business owners to manage their online reputation.
To achieve this, you should claim your plumbing business on online directories like Google Business Profile and Yelp. This will allow you to reply to online reviews and confirm that all the business details listed are accurate.
Homeowners want excellent client service and constant communication with their plumbing contractor, and you can show your service by promptly and professionally responding to each review:
Appreciate customers who leave stellar reviews.
Respond professionally to negative and neutral reviews. Acknowledge the reviewer’s concerns and if possible, request them to contact you and offer you a second chance to make things right.
Once you have completed your work, ask clients to leave a review on your online profiles. Here are some strategies that can help you to leverage the power of online reviews in plumbing marketing:
Engage with clients whenever they leave online reviews- this helps people to know that you are a serious plumber who values clients.
Use testimonials in content marketing campaigns to attract similar clients.
Make sure that your contact details are visible readily on all profiles.
Ask for reviews and referrals from clients when a project is completed.
Help people to leave reviews on your Facebook business page.
Engage and monitor authentically!
8. Email Marketing for Plumbers
If you are a plumbing business owner, you understand that idle trucks and silent phones mean a high overhead cost and upset crews. If you want to attract new clients while retaining existing ones (and keep your calendar filled with booked jobs), then consider incorporating email marketing into your advertising strategy.
There are several factors that you need to consider when creating a plumbing email marketing plan, like making sure that your email is responsive and also looks great on both mobile phones and computers, ensuring it is CAN-SPAM compliant, and writing persuasive calls to action to generate more plumbing leads online.
Here are some tips that can help you get started with email marketing for plumbers:
Set your plumber email marketing goals to help you evaluate the effectiveness of your plumbing marketing campaigns so that you can refine future email advertising campaigns.
Build your email list.
Create high-quality email marketing content.
Test, track, and optimize.
9. Invest in Video Plumbing Marketing
Businesses and homeowners want to know precisely the benefits they are likely once they hire you as their plumber.
Specifically, they want to know what projects each plumber has completed previously and how they were done. You can write about these amazing projects on your plumbing website, but videos and photos are much more convincing.
Include videos or photos of previous projects throughout your website, and think of dedicating one page or two to a gallery portfolio. You can also create unique videos to show prospects how you have completed particular projects, specifically ones that presented issues or were complex along the way.
As part of your plumbing marketing strategy, you might also opt to include interactive tools on your estimate or contact page. This makes your website more compelling and also helps customers visualize your work, which might be the final motivation they require to contact your plumbing business.
10. Content Marketing
One of the goals of digital marketing for plumbers is to generate more qualified leads. However, you can obtain those leads without providing information. Your prospects or clients turn to Google to research their options, as well as general details about hiring plumbers, and your plumbing website should offer everything they require.
The best content type for a plumbing business may be blog posts in form of answers and questions. Create a blog post title with questions that most people ask you as a plumbing business owner, and write a blog by answering the question as comprehensively as possible.
Create pages that answer particular questions and address common problems. These pages should mention your specialties, services, and any other details that may attract a customer. Be sure to do plumbing SEO so that your posts can be found in search engines like Google or Bing. Then, add a compelling call to action requesting readers to submit a contact form. It should help visitors to leave their name, email, and address, along with other important information.
By offering valuable information, you show site browsers that your plumbing business is a reputable resource for resolving their questions. And as you establish that trust, they are likely to contact your plumbing company.
Let’s face it. Growing a plumbing business is hard. It takes more than being skilled in your trade. In the beginning, it implies that you will have to wear multiple hats. It means you will have to deal with everything on your own from marketing, sales, and corporate compliance to filing taxes. You will also be interacting with your clients daily. Successfully growing a plumbing business is all about doing the fundamentals and having the energy to see it through.
If you are struggling to grow your plumbing business, we have good news for you. Sure, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all business growth strategy for plumbers. But with the right marketing strategy, obtaining qualified plumbing leads doesn’t have to be daunting. The growth of your plumbing business depends on the efforts you put to increase revenue or profits by utilizing various methods. From hiring the right employees to plumbing services marketing, every area of your business requires attention.
There is no surefire formula for instantly scaling your plumbing company, but you can improve your business’s growth with these secrets from successful plumbers. From getting five-star reviews and establishing a vibrant online presence to diversifying the range of plumbing services you provide, here we give our proven tips that can help plumbers grow their business.
How Can I Grow My Plumbing Company?
If you want to grow a plumbing company, you need to know what kind of clients you want to service.
Every plumbing business has two kinds of customers:
Maximizers refer to prospects who want quality content to compare their options and make informed buying decisions.
Satisfiers refers to potential clients who don’t have time and prefer to find the best plumber available to resolve their problems urgently.
Satisfiers require help almost immediately, ASAP.
They have leaky faucets, clogged toilets, and flooded basements. These are the kind of leads who turn to Google to find solutions to their problems and hire one of the plumbers they see. They are not interested in reading your blogs or understanding more about the service. All they want is a) can this plumber help me and b) is the plumber within my price range.
On the other hand, maximizers are the opposite.
They need to stop and think about their options, and they cannot decide on the spot. They also need to compare plumbing contractors, read online reviews, and know more about you before they hand over their money.
Most of the resources you will find on the internet are written to help plumbing contractors obtain more satisfaction. They offer tips to persuade people on the spot, but your plumbing company is different. Your client won’t select you on a whim or rankings or based on your price point.
Plumbing clients care about their home-and they want to choose a reliable, trustworthy, and proven plumber.
Let’s face it, every client has a horrible story about a dodgy plumbing contractor. Maybe they lost hundreds of dollars while trying to repair a leaky faucet, maybe they hired a plumber without having the right insurance, or maybe they hired a friend and achieved a shoddy job.
The idea is that your client isn’t going to choose you without learning about your plumbing business first.
The following 13 secrets are designed to assist you to attract more qualified leads whether your plumbing company was recently launched or has been in existence for 3 decades now.
Easy Tricks on How to Grow Your Plumbing Company without Door Knocking
There are a few key strategies in growing a plumbing company, which may vary according to the current status and size of your business. Without further ado, let us dive into the tips to help grow your plumbing company from zero to hero.
Start with Launching a Professional Plumbing Website
If you aren’t using internet marketing and haven’t launched a website to promote your plumbing services, then you are losing lots of new leads or business to your competition.
30% of prospects will not hire a plumbing business without a professional website. Simply put, customers expect you to have a professional website, even if the site only lists your services and contact information. The internet is the heart of everything your clients do, from online shopping to online banking, ordering movies to ordering food.
And your clients want to learn and research possible plumbing businesses online too. It doesn’t matter how great your plumbing company is – a poorly designed website will set you back. 38% of people will click off your website if the content is not pleasing or does not meet their needs. But you don’t have to spend a fortune, just ensure that your site reflects a few features of modern plumbing website design including but not restricted to:
Add clear and compelling call-to-action buttons so that it’s simple for clients to navigate.
Include testimonials on each page
Simple & attractive design
Boosts your search engine visibility with SEO
Establish The Brand Identity That Sets You Apart from the Competition
Whether you are just launching a plumbing company or you have an established plumbing company for some time, this step is vital. A strong plumbing brand differentiates you from rivals, establishes trust, and helps you to charge a premium for your good plumbing service.
You will require to create a strong brand identity if you don’t have one. This includes choosing your business name, your values, your logo, and your tone to mention just a few. It is simply the personality of your plumbing company, describing what you have to provide to your clients.
Establishing a strong brand doesn’t have a fancy plumber marketing exercise. Figure out what you would expect from a customer from a plumbing contractor. More likely, it is a trustworthy, reliable, quality, and friendly service, so allow these values and qualities to shine through your plumbing brand.
To help you stay aligned with your branding, it can be helpful to create a plumbing brand book. This book includes everything you need to understand about your plumbing brand, and it’s a helpful book to refer back to and includes:
A blurb explaining your company’s values admission.
Color palette with secondary and primary colors
Typography
Relevant images
The tone and voice of the business
Logos, icons, secondary logos
With your plumber brand book, you can use them to roll out your brand across your business, for instance, on your business cards and van to mention just a few.
Submit Your Plumbing Website to Local Online Directories
After creating a professional website for your plumbing company, then you should submit your business to the local online directories. We highly recommend that you contact a reliable plumbing marketing agency to list your plumber services on several business listings.
Some of the famous local listing online directories that you can utilize for serving your purpose are:
Yelp
Google
LinkedIn
Angie’s List
Bing
Listing your plumbing business on these online local business directories will help you identify relevant clients for your business, saving you from the time-consuming of screening relevant clients from the whole incoming traffic.
So, the many times people come across your plumbing company conducting online research, the more they will be persuaded to hire your plumbing services.
Optimize Your Plumbing Website for Local SEO Services
You always want local plumbing clients since they are easy to reach out to, and they are more likely to spread word-of-mouth buzz in your community. If you want to grow a plumbing business, then focus on your local plumbing SEO. And to focus on your local SEO efforts, you should optimize your Google Business Profile (GBP) and your plumbing website.
If you have ever searched for plumbing service in your area on Google, for instance, “Florida clogged drain experts” or ‘Sydney toilet repair,’ you will have seen local SEO results on a map with the plumber listed below. Clients love these organic local results since they can see how far your plumbing business is, and identify the closest one to contact.
Include location pages to your plumbing website so Google and your clients understand what service areas are in.
Encourage your clients to leave online reviews on your Google Business Profile and website.
Update your business information so it is correct and incorporates your full business name, address, and Phone number (NAP).
Ensure your plumbing business operating hours are accurate (especially since they have changed during the Covid-19).
Know Your Ideal Clients
Getting your plumbing company off the ground is daunting, and continuing to grow a plumbing business once it’s launched is just as challenging. Knowing who your clients are and what they require is crucial. You went through a process of identifying a target market when creating your business plan. But now you have an active client base that you need to engage and improve your plumbing business.
Whether it is via user reviews, direct customer service, or a quarterly survey, you need to ask for honest feedback. Note the consistent grievances amongst your clients and use them to launch new features, make internal adjustments, or any number of fixes.
And while client reviews may be invaluable, you should also focus on your competitors and market. Conducting regular market analysis makes sure that you are aware of competitive moves and how various economic moves may impact your clients. Combined with insightful reviews from your clients, it offers a full picture of potential plumbing business growth avenues.
Grow a Plumbing Business with Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is an excellent way for plumbing businesses to reach clients and prospects. People discover, follow, learn about, and book jobs from plumbing brands on social media, so if you are not on platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook, you are missing out on lots of qualified plumbing leads! Great plumbing service marketing on social media can bring success to your plumbing business, create devoted brand ambassadors and even drive plumbing sales and leads.
Social media marketing is a type of internet marketing that leverages the benefits of famous social media platforms to attain your plumbing marketing and branding goals. With widespread versatility and usage, social media is one of the free avenues for growing a plumbing business today.
By thoroughly investing money and time into social media marketing, you can increase brand awareness, drive traffic, establish trust and relationships with your clients, build a vibrant online presence and generate more clients or leads online.
Plus, you will have better insights and the capacity to attract more leads and convert them into loyal, paying clients for your plumbing business.
Use Google Ads to Grow Your Plumbing Business Online
Sometimes you will be required to use the money to make more money as a plumber. If you are determined to grow a plumbing business right now, you will want to invest your money and time into some paid search marketing campaigns.
Google Ads can be very effective for small local plumbing businesses, particularly those targeting online conversions or traffic. Local keywords such as “plumbers near me” or “plumber in Murfreesboro” are generally less competitive than non-geographic, broader terms like “plumber.”
Any client or prospect who requires help with their drainage is going to turn to Google. They will look for reviews, comparisons, articles-pretty much any resource that assists them to see where to get the best deal and which plumber offers quality services.
You can use plumbing SEO to ensure your articles are on top of Google, but SEO takes time before you see any noticeable results. Instead, use plumbing Google Ads to put your plumbing business at the top of Google search results instantly. You can bid on specific keywords that will trigger your ads, for instance, words like ‘drainage repair,’ ‘plumbing repair,’ and ‘plumbing installation.’
When clients search for these plumbing keywords, your Google Ads pop up, and you can tap into the kind of client who is out there searching for help with their plumbing systems-which makes it easier to get a free quote or call back.
Manage Your Online Reputation to Grow Your Plumbing Company
Research shows that more than 80%of clients research a company online before making a purchasing decision. When prospects research your plumbing business, this will include your social media presence (if you have any), as well as online reviews that pop up when they type in your plumbing business name on Google. Part of managing your online reputation is knowing how your clients are using the internet or web, and your plumbing website may be the last place they turn to find out more about your services.
Nowadays, people are savvier about marketing and sales from plumbing businesses. Customers are beginning to value the opinions of other clients and online reviews higher than anything they may say about your brand. Clients not only value online reviews but are willing to pay more for a service from a plumber with higher ratings and reviews.
Here are some tips that can help you build a positive reputation online:
Solicit for more positive reviews from sites like Google, Yelp, and Thumbtack
Respond promptly and professionally to negative criticism from your customers.
Monitor anywhere your plumbing brand is mentioned online
Create a Blog and Deliver High-Value Content
Creating quality content is crucial whether it is a business blog or a plumbing service description. It’s all about engaging the target audience and offering them what they require: information. This information should be provided in a way that keeps readers hooked.
Every plumbing business, no matter the size should have a blog section on its website. A blog is an effective way to obtain followers for your plumbing business, and these followers can then be utilized to market your plumbing content. Since blogs are typically specified in the category and type of content they publish, they are bound to attract new clients and grow your plumbing company online.
Remember that, for your plumbing blog to be successful, you should optimize it to rank higher on search engines like Google or Bing. Also, ensure that the topics are solving your target audience’s doubts.
Invest in Video Marketing to Grow your Plumbing Company
One of the most efficient ways to grow a plumbing business successfully is through video marketing. Clients tend to respond much faster after watching a plumber video than any other type of advertisement.
Videos are one of the fastest consumed content online today, and people nowadays search for anything to everything on YouTube. For example, a homeowner having a flooded tap in the middle of the night will turn to YouTube to get a solution ASAP.
In fact, more than 60% of clients are more likely to respond after watching a well-branded plumbing video. Video marketing is an efficient and effective internet marketing strategy mostly conducted via platforms such as webinars and YouTube.
Use Email Marketing to Scale Your Plumbing Business
When it comes to promoting your plumbing service company to a target market, email marketing is one good way to connect with the current and gain more new clients.
Furthermore, email marketing can help your plumbing target homeowners looking to hire professional plumbing contractors. However, when creating an email marketing campaign, you must consider several factors, it begins with what is the right client base for your target audience.
Are they ready to hire services provided by your plumbing company? Do they find your plumbing service rates reasonable?
You got to make sure that you are not sending irrelevant content that doesn’t make sense since you will end up losing your potential clients.
In reality, never send emails just for the sake of doing it, if you don’t have to connect with your target market, you can contact a credible plumbing marketing agency like Blackstorm Design + Marketing to handle your email marketing campaign.
Offline Marketing Strategies to Grow a Plumbing Business
The best plumbing marketing strategy is the one that combines both offline and online ideas to skyrocket your brand exposure to your target market. If you are searching for innovative and proven conventional plumbing marketing strategies, here are some tips that can help you get started:
Increase Client Retention to Expand Your Plumbing Business
It is not sufficient to just sign in new customers for your plumbing company. You also make efforts to keep your existing clients coming back for more services. When you increase client retention, you are increasing client loyalty, which in turn, increases sales.
Understanding that it costs five times as much to obtain a new client than it does to maintain an existing one, focusing on retaining clients implies that your plumbing business won’t spend money on something that is not a guaranteed investment.
You can increase client retention by:
Prioritizing customer service: If you fail to treat your clients right, they will not be in a position to support your plumbing company. Ensuring that your address their issues and offer them the best possible experience shows that you value them as a client.
Keeping your promises: If you tell a client that you will follow them up with more details or reach out to them at a future date, do it. If you don’t, it can give your clients a poor impression of your plumbing company.
Hire the Right People
Before you can figure out your plumbing business growth trajectory, you will require a solid crew to assist you to attain your objectives or goals. Hiring the best and most qualified team is a good way to make sure that you achieve the growth of your plumbing business fast.
With experienced and hardworking employees dedicated to your plumbing company’s success, your business will be well equipped for continued growth. Besides, delegating plumbing tasks to focus on crucial work will free up your energy and time, helping you to do your best and develop collaborative work culture.
Invest in Systems to Grow a Plumbing Business
You are a jack of all trades at this plumbing business ownership thing. We understand that. But if you are trying to micromanage everything on your own, you may be limiting yourself for potential growth. A plumbing company powered by systems can deal with multi-layered demands for growth or expansion.
Investing in robust systems like a solid plumbing CRM in place can help you concentrate on crucial parts of expansion and growth. Review your existing operations to know what aspects are monotonous or repetitive, and aim to outsource or automate as much as possible so that you can put your efforts into growing your plumbing business.
Grow your Plumbing Company by Focusing on Branding
If you want to be more visible in your local community as a plumber, branding is one of the few ways that can help prospects begin to recognize your plumbing brand. There are great paid ways of getting exposure to your plumbing brand online. But there is a free way too, here are some of them:
Wearing branded staff uniforms: Staff uniforms offer consistent visual branding that is affordable to promote your services out in the public domain.
Vehicle signage: Including your company name, logo, and service details is a great way of branding your plumbing company. This is a cost-effective way of getting your brand out there, particularly if your van is on the road for a larger part of the day.
Consider Franchising Your Small Plumbing Business
Business franchising is one of the best growth strategies for small plumbing businesses. This implies that you sell the rights of your business to an independent owner. They later open and run their franchise of your plumbing company. When such happens, it increases the number of locations of your plumbing business, which helps to generate more revenue.
Form Strategic Partnerships with Other Plumbers
Strategic partnerships with the right plumbing companies can be a game changer if properly done. It can help you reach a wide range of clients quickly. However, identifying such partnerships may be a tall order for your plumbing company. But, search for plumbing companies that can complement yours. Reach out to them and propose opportunities for collaboration.
Attend Workshops and Networking Events
Increasing your brand visibility can help to attract new clients and grow your plumbing business. An effective way to attain this is by attending networking events. Check local plumbing professional organizations, and don’t be afraid to attend a few networking events to spread the word about your plumbing business.
You can play a role in these events by:
Meeting other plumbing business owners
Setting up a booth to promote your plumbing business
Talking as an industry expert.
Focus on Customer Experience
Client perceptions can break or make your plumbing business growth. Deliver quality plumbing services and experiences, and they will instantly praise your business on social media, mess it up, and they will let the world know in real-time. Fast plumbing company growth depends on making your potential and current clients happy with their experience.
While engaging with your target market is important, personalizing your experience can strengthen and boost that relationship. Small plumbing companies can instantly respond and adapt to their client’s needs, and this agility offers them a unique advantage over large plumbing businesses.
Measure What Strategy Works and Refine as you Go
While there are multiple strategies you can utilize to grow your plumbing company, it is essential that you measure what is working or not working. For instance, if you develop a client loyalty program and find it’s not enhancing customer retention, you may require to revise your strategy. Maybe it is obtaining a plumbing CRM and engaging with your clients on a regular basis or engaging with them via an email campaign or on social media.
Frequently Asked Questions on How to Grow a Plumbing Business
How do I get more clients for my plumbing company?
Here are our best and proven ways for plumbing contractors to begin marketing in ways you have never thought about before including; Google Ads, managing your online reputation, investing in plumbing SEO and issuing local business cards, and establishing a vibrant online presence.
What is the best platform to promote your plumbing services online?
There are multiple platforms that you can use to advertise your plumbing business online including your professional website, Facebook, Instagram, Linked, and other online business directories including Google, Yelp, and Thumbtack.
Why should people select you over your competitors?
When you know your competitive advantage, it assists you to promote your plumbing service in a way that particularly appeals to a client’s needs and also shows why your service offering is unique to your competitors. This leads to the most effective plumbing marketing and more new business or leads for you!
Why should your customers choose you?
You offer superior customer service. Plumbers who are knowledgeable, friendly, and respond to clients will develop a reputation for their plumbing service. If you are focused on your clients, they will feel well taken care of and that you are assisting them to solve their issues or fulfill their needs.
Who is your ideal target client?
A target client is an individual that’s most likely to book jobs with your plumbing business. And it is a subset of your broader target market.
All the above-discussed ideas are hard or easy to implement when you want to grow your plumbing business in the virtual online world.
But, you don’t have to try all of the above strategies, you can choose one that is best suited to your plumbing company’s model. You must choose the marketing strategy that your plumbing business use to drive sales and leads without putting a huge burden on your bank account.
Above everything else, you need to know that the internet nowadays plays a crucial role in the growth of a business, which is also true for your plumbing company. So, you need to use digital marketing to promote your plumbing services business and get more new clients.
Let Blackstorm Design + Marketing Help You Grow Your Plumbing Business
Do you want to boost your revenue and grow your plumbing company? No matter whether that implies more clients, more leads, or improved brand awareness, our team can assist you to get it. As a leading plumbing marketing agency, we have a proven track record and can deal with all aspects of your internet marketing. From social media marketing campaigns and search engine optimization to website design, we can help you get more.
Your success is important to us. We know that success doesn’t occur by accident, it is repeatable and deliberate. At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we leverage the latest in technology and design combined with a true and tried process that focuses on and consequently delivers desired results.
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.
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.
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.
Plumbing companies like yours want to eliminate unwise, wasteful spending. I don’t know how many plumbing contractors enjoy spending dollars on marketing. They understand it’s important, and they might even allocate some advertising budget to it. But they don’t enjoy it. It’s challenging to put your hard-earned dollars out into the world without a guarantee of more clients, leads, and revenue. We get it.
The sad reality, though, is that are no real warranties in plumber marketing land. There are tons of variables, and too much that’s out of your reach. If you want to maximize your revenue or profits, then your marketing budget should be tightly reviewed and monitored. There are numerous ways you can waste their plumbing marketing dollars which we will discuss in this post. No plumber wants to see their hard-earned money going down the drain, and each plumbing contractor wants to tirelessly ensure their advertising budget is correctly utilized.
Biggest Plumber Marketing Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
Here are a few common blunders we see plumbers make when promoting or marketing their businesses. Get rid of those strategies, and you will generate consistent leads or revenue for your company every month.
1. Putting all their eggs in one basket
You have potential customers at various stages of your sales funnel and hanging out in all kinds of the spaces-at-home where they might come across your door hanger, performing research using Google, scrolling through Facebook, and out in the neighborhood talking with their family and friends. By spending too much of your advertising or marketing budget on one channel, you will risk missing a huge percentage of prospects searching for your plumbing services elsewhere online. A plumbing marketing plan crafted to drive more leads and therefore, more clients needs to be purposely diversified.
2. Improper Ad Spending
Not all ads should be focused on improving brand awareness, and a good advertising strategy should strike a good balance of non-lead generation vs lead generation spending. Yes, brand awareness is crucial, but further steps are required to get conversions.
Your ads must have a compelling call to action. Such CTAs like contact us form or link, phone number, or special offers will assist to skyrocket conversions. Brand awareness can’t be the only focus. If all you are doing is advertising-spending money on radio spots, print ads, and even internet marketing campaigns and not engaging in marketing- establishing relationship-adding value, gaining trust, and providing unmatched/superior customer service, you may as well as spend your plumbing marketing dollars and create a match for them.
3. No Tracking or Monitoring System in Place
Do you know where your plumbing leads are coming from? Do you know which ads or even which platform generates most of the best plumber leads?
You will never understand how your campaigns perform without proper measuring and analytics.
At a minimum, you need to have analytics connected to your advertising platform for proper attribution. As you scale the complexity of your internet marketing advertising, you might want to use phone call tracking, a customer relationship management tool, and marketing automation.
4. Targeting the Wrong Plumbing Keywords
If you are investing in Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Google Ads for plumbers, make sure you are targeting the best keywords. If you are guessing, you are likely to waste money or at the very least, missing chances to leverage your ads for more leads.
Plumbing keywords work best when they are based on intent. Digital advertising is useless without targeting the right keywords, and these keywords are what prospects use when utilizing and researching search engines.
One good example is targeting the wrong geographical area. This could include focusing on an area where your target audience/clients don’t live. Don’t make the blunder of mistakenly targeting Murfreesboro, TN when your audience lives in Miami, Florida.
5. Lack of Consistency
Plumber marketing works best when you have a consistent message and strategy. Inconsistency can cause confusion. Ensure the key business information, such as name, phone number, and address, are all consistent wherever your plumbing company is mentioned online.
Likewise, dividing resources thinly or abandoning them too fast can lead to wasteful ad spending. Make sure your marketing campaigns, such as a newly launched Google Local Service ad for plumbers, have enough time to generate sufficient time.
6. Being Anti-Social
Your potential clients are on social media. When they type “anyone who can recommend a plumber?” as their Facebook status, it would be great if people mentioned you, and it would even be more awesome if people mentioned you. It would be helpful if they would tag your Facebook page so a prospect could so check out, learn what kind of business you are, and see what other clients are saying about your plumbing company. But if your Facebook business page is dying or dead, that sends the exact wrong signals. Don’t underestimate the importance of social media advertising in your plumbing marketing plan.
7. Not Understanding Customer Behavior and User Intent
Knowing who your clients are and how they behave is the initial step to successful plumbing marketing campaigns. If you don’t know your clients, the campaigns that you run are bound to fail since you are targeting an audience that is in no way interested in your plumbing services.
As an example, we took an ad campaign for a plumbing contractor that had already spent hundreds or thousands of dollars on the keyword “Car AC repair.”
What a waste!
We fixed it by adding the term car as a negative keyword so our ads wouldn’t compete and display with the local mechanic. Actually, qualified clients use multiple keywords when they try to find plumbing services.
8. Poorly Targeted or Written Ad Copy
One of the most common blunders plumbers make is copying ad content from other advertisers. This can be an efficient strategy to save time, but if you are not keen on the ads shown, it may do more harm than good since they have the same keywords as yours, and their ads may not fit your business image at all.
Also, if you are not keen on the ad content you use, it may be too unclear or vague about what your company offers, so prospects will have a rough time understanding how your plumbing services actually assist them. The result? They are most likely to click through to learn more about your company.
Create a compelling ad copy by:
Using a unique selling proposition
Use special characters and numbers to stand out
Use keywords
Use a headline and question
Keep it reader-friendly and simple
Next, you will require to ensure your ads to the appropriate landing pages. If you have ads around plumbing services and point them to your homepage that begins off talking about who you are and the number of years you have been in business, you are likely to convert clients that you will be sending that traffic to a particular landing page about 24/7 plumber services.
9. Not Targeting Paid Search Ads
Online advertising is an excellent way to improve conventional advertising (such as billboards, radio, print, and more) you may be doing (and internet marketing is often more targeted and cheaper).
Demographic and geographic targeting in paid search advertising should be more specific. Leads will not come if your targeting is left untouched or unclear. Know where your clients reside and what resonates with them. Target your ideal potential clients with purpose.
10. Broken Plumbing Website Pages
Broken site pages cause frustration to your prospects. If a customer lands on a site page (also known as a 404 page), they will normally click off your website. If a paid ad leads a client to a broken site page, that is even worse since you have just paid for the ad click.
If you are planning to run advertisements, ensure to send them to a working landing page. This page should have helpful and useful information, as well as a clear call to action so the customer can take a meaningful next step (like completing a form or calling).
Fix These Plumber Marketing Mistakes: Find Your Perfect Clients with Better Internet Marketing Strategies with Blackstorm Design + Marketing
Promoting business within a particular industry calls for a specialized marketing plan for it to be effective. This is why investing in a plumbing internet marketing agency, like Blackstorm Design + Marketing, is crucial for plumbing businesses to attain successful advertising initiatives.
Blackstorm Design + Marketing‘s internet marketing professionals can assist assess your online assets and developing a custom marketing strategy to improve your online presence and get more service calls and more clients.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The initial step to ranking your plumbing website in search optimization. Blackstorm Design + Marketing can help improve your plumbing SEO strategy, so you boost your online visibility. Our search engine optimization professionals will audit your plumbing website and recommend key SEO activities to help particular content and pages rank higher in search results.
Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Pay-Per-Click or PPC ads assist you to obtain targeted traffic that is likely to convert. Blackstorm Design + Marketing’s online marketing for plumbers has exceptional PPC professionals to help you in managing effective PPC campaigns for your company. With the assistance of plumber internet marketing experts, you can obtain more plumbing leads with pay-per-click advertising.
Website Design and Development
We provide web development and design as the main feature of plumbing internet marketing services. Whether you want to create a new plumbing website from scratch or revamp an existing one, our talented web designers can help. We ensure that your plumbing website is easy to navigate, fast, and has calls to action that skyrocket conversions.
Social Media Marketing
Clients are now expressing their perceptions about local businesses like yours on social media, so your plumbing business shouldn’t be left. Blackstorm Design + Marketing’s social media experts will assist you on how to have a great following and generate more sales.
Online Reputation Management
Customers are nowadays looking at online reviews before making a hiring decision. For service-based businesses like roofing or plumbing, online reviews are vital for your plumbing company’s online reputation. With positive review ratings, your business has a higher chance of generating sales and leads.
SEO Content Writing
Whether you require copy for your email marketing campaign, web pages, or blog. At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we have experienced writers, copywriters, and editors who can help you with your content writing requirements. Publishing relevant SEO content for your company improves brand awareness, which is just as important as generating leads.
Developing a result-oriented, comprehensive plumbing marketing plan can be overwhelming as a plumbing contractor, after all, you are not a marketing expert.
If you are a plumbing company owner, you understand that marketing is an important part of your business. No matter how good your plumbing service is, you will not have a consistent stream of customers if nobody knows about it. Many plumbers begin by taking care of their marketing on their own, but what if you want to level up your plumbing company?
You should and could hire a plumbing marketing agency for several reasons. Perhaps doing marketing on your takes too much of your time, your advertising campaigns are underperforming, you want to enhance the quality of your communication and marketing, or you just don’t like the creative process.
Like any other profession, you require continuous practice, learning, and exposure to master plumber marketing and understanding of demographics. Whether it is SEO, social media coordinating, articles, e-books, or copywriting will make you an instant authority on the subject; this is where plumbing marketing agencies come into play. Without further ado, let us dive into our post.
Definition of a Plumbing Marketing Agency
A plumbing marketing agency is a B2B service that provides a wide range of internet marketing services. Some agencies specialize in two areas of marketing, and other agencies are large to handle any marketing task you could give them. Some of the internet marketing services could include:
Plumbers contract internet marketing agencies since they may not have the in-house experience to perform all these tasks to meet their client acquisition targets. Or they may have limited in-house experience and require help scaling up their efforts. Whatever the reason might be, an internet marketing agency can assist a plumbing company to attain goals such as:
Increasing sales
Building brand awareness
Driving traffic to a plumbing website
Establishing client loyalty
Engaging clients
Still not sure if outsourcing a plumber marketing agency is worth your money or how exactly it will benefit your plumbing company? Here are the 10 main reasons a marketing agency can assist you and why you require to partner with one.
10 Crucial Benefits of Hiring a Full-Service Plumbing Marketing Agency
1. Expert Guidance for Making Marketing Decisions Based on Scientific Data
Digital marketing for plumbers is all about numbers. Any reputable plumbing marketing agency understands that. So the agency you partner with should utilize analytics for the advertising or marketing campaigns they run. At BlackStorm Design + Marketing, we give you reports that are driven by proven, factual data. We also offer resources to plumbing contractors with tips to improve their online reputation.
2. Leverage Specialized Expertise and Skills
When you hire an internet marketing agency for plumbers, like BlackStorm Design + Marketing, you obtain access to a team of professionals. Marketing is a wide term and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach. To help your business operate at its best, you should plan and utilize an integrated strategy to target your audience/market.
While working with a specialized plumbing marketing agency, you can tap into the knowledge and expertise of specialists. You can use the skills of SEO specialists, PPC experts, dedicated website designers, project managers, content creators and writers, and many more.
3. Helps you focus on revenue-generating campaigns based on your target audience
As an experienced plumbing marketing agency, BlackStorm Design + Marketing understands the essence of generating revenue for companies like yours and the right tactics to deliver successful company outcomes.
Acquiring experience partnering with plumbers of many sizes, a plumbing marketing agency will no doubt enhance the decision-making process concerning your budget-resulting in more efficient ad spending and a higher return on investment.
4. Benefit from the full skillset
A specialized marketing agency is equipped to deal with all aspects that come with an advertising campaign, including tasks that both indirectly and directly affect the success of your online marketing campaigns. A marketing agency generally consists of a team of experts in various fields of expertise including SEO, graphic design, social media marketing, website design, copywriting, and more.
It would come at a higher cost if you had to outsource these different services or profiles. Additionally, you may not require all these skills on a daily basis. A plumbing marketing agency can thus offer a great solution for the problem since you would obtain what you desire without the complexity of “people planning.”
Further to alleviating the complexity of managing people, a plumber marketing agency typically has an excellent understanding of plumbing industry trends. For that reason, agencies handle projects and campaigns in a more strategic and structured way providing a more streamlined approach with less trial and error.
5. Get Unbiased Perspectives on Your Marketing Campaigns
Home service marketing agencies work with various businesses across multiple sectors. This offers them a deep level of insights concerning the best practices for every kind of business, depending on your company’s size, objectives, and budget.
Hiring a plumbing marketing agency will provide you access to the vast expertise and knowledge possessed by the agency’s professionals, who as your trusted experts, will assist you identify the best platforms to grow your company.
In addition, a plumber marketing agency would offer you an independent, unbiased perspective.
6. Focus on Running Your Plumbing Business
In most cases, internet marketing implies hiring new talents outright to run the campaigns. Plus, it will require some of your attention because you will be working with an in-house team. Remember, setting up the campaign and team will take time and resources.
This can be a tedious and time-consuming process, and an agency comes in handy to lighten this burden off your shoulder. You don’t spend months training your digital marketing team, and that time can otherwise be utilized for growing your plumbing company from the inside.
With a specialized plumber marketing agency, like BlackStorm Design + Marketing, you just need to share your objectives/ goals and their timeframe.
There is no onboarding, training, or managing of another team. All the aspects of your digital marketing are dealt with internally by the agency’s team, and this frees up your time to operate your business better.
7. Custom Cost-Effective Solutions
When deliberating over hiring an online marketing agency, many plumbers typically compare the cost of outsourcing an agency to that of an in-house operation. You will be amazed to learn that a plumbing marketing agency is less expensive over time.
Agencies work as independent contractors, so you reduce the need for payroll taxes. You also eliminate the recurring expenses of having full-time employees, such as salaries, benefits, and health care costs.
Some of the tools you require to manage campaigns also come at a hefty upfront payment or subscriptions. Most reputable plumber marketing agencies already have the crucial internet marketing tools, so you won’t require a dime to obtain one.
8. Boost Scalability
One thing that makes a plumbing marketing agency your best bet for promoting your services online is their scalability.
In an ordinary setting, you will require to increase the size of your team whenever your plumbing company requires growth or want to start something new. This implies that your plumbing company will require extra resources to support and fuel its growth.
With a digital marketing agency for plumbers, that’s not the case. There will be no constraints on your team and no need to expand your team.
A good plumbing company should typically accommodate your requirements as your business grows. They provide several packages and plans that suit your business size.
Ideally, having a flexible and scalable agency is crucial, particularly when you are targeting new markets.
9. Always Have Access to the Latest Tools and Technologies
Let’s face it. Internet marketing requires the use of different technologies and tools to streamline every campaign. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all tool when it comes to digital plumber marketing.
Most of these tools are premium tier services, and the expenses increase with the addition of specific features or an upgrade. You will require keyword research, competitor analysis, paid search management, analytics, and automation tools.
The cumulative cost of utilizing these digital marketing tools can be expensive for small and medium-size plumbing contractors. Internet marketing services already have such tools in place to help you make the most out of your campaigns. You don’t have to fret about the recurring expenses that may come along with their use.
10. Niche Specialization
As a plumber, you must know that research is crucial to starting any campaign. You must learn your plumbing industry well, the latest marketing practices, and your competitors in the segment.
The onus of plumbing-industry-relevant advertising strategies is on the agency. They will research your target market and identify your competition. Plus, they follow the latest developments in the internet marketing space to guarantee quantifiable results.
11. Brand Development and Public Relations
Online branding is important for plumbing contractors to send the desired message of your company’s image to potential customers via positioning with visual identity services (logo or official printed materials) in addition to taglines and slogans and branding events to create a positive image about what your plumbing company represents in prospect’s mind. A full-service marketing agency for plumbers acts as a branding agency offering custom solutions to represent your company professionally to achieve desired brand positioning.
BlackStorm Design + Marketing Is Invested in Your Success
At BlackStorm Design + Marketing, we believe a plumbing marketing agency should be more than an online marketing vendor. That’s why we regularly invest in our technology, tools, and experts. When you partner with our digital marketing agency, you will have access to our team of professionals and benefit from our success within the plumbing industry, plus a dedicated success manager dedicated to your success.
Isn’t it time you partnered with a marketing team that specializes in your plumbing industry and wants your company to be a success?
Every day, 70% of Americans use social media to identify local service businesses that serve their household requirements, including roofing or plumbing. If you are a plumber, developing a social media presence can assist you to attract new clients, developing a vibrant online presence, and building your brand.
With multiple social media platforms in the market and numerous ways of creating posts for them, thinking of how to get started can be overwhelming. The challenging part is where to start, but once you understand the fundamental steps involved and best posting practices, you will enjoy numerous benefits and the process. This post will discuss 10 social media tips for plumbers, including tips, advantages, and tricks to success, as well as crucial tools to assist you to get started. Without further ado, let us dive into our post.
What Are The Advantages of Social Media Marketing for Plumbers?
Before diving into the “how” of social media, it’s advisable to get an overview of its benefits.
SEO Benefits: Search engine optimization is a huge part of any internet marketing campaign. SEO is how your plumbing company gets found by property managers or homeowners typing phrases and keywords into search engines like Bing or Google. A vibrant social media presence increases the likelihood of your plumbing company getting found online, leading to an enhanced website performance (and sales).
Helps establish relationships: Social media networks help you engage with your target audience via messages, videos, posts, and interactive content. You have an opportunity to build strong relationships, turning new clients into loyal followers of your plumbing brand.
Social media is cost-effective compared to conventional advertising: Direct mail, radio ads, newspaper ads, and TV commercials are costly and always high in client acquisition expenses. Other types of internet marketing strategies can drain your resources and budget. On the flip side, creating social media profiles is much easier, quicker, and free.
Social media is great for plumbing emergencies: Many people turn to social media and the internet to find assistance with home emergencies. Having easy access to your trustworthy plumbing business profiles shows potential clients that you are a company they can depend on.
Works well with other digital marketing methods: Lastly, social media advertising also works perfectly with email marketing. For example, you can invite email subscribers to follow your social media platforms and your social media followers to subscribe to the emailing list.
How to Pick the Right Social Media Marketing Platform For Plumbers
When selecting which social media network to use, remember that each platform reaches a different target audience. For instance, younger audiences (especially between the ages of 18 and 29- prefer to use Instagram, while more than 60% of Facebook users are between 52 and 64 years. So, it is important to determine your target audience to connect and reach them successfully.
However, owning an inactive social media page that has not been updated in months or weeks can be a bad idea. We highly recommend that you start by committing to one social media channel and optimizing it before diversifying, that way you don’t bite more than you can chew.
Facebook
Facebook is one of the most famous social media networks worldwide today. It is a great start for plumbing marketing, as the network recommends local service businesses in the area to clients seeking out plumbing services. The platform also helps you post a lot of content, from visuals and text posts to more interactive content such as polls. As most Facebook users are older in age, they are more likely to own homes and require plumbing services.
Instagram
With more than one billion active users every month, the visual nature of Instagram appeals to the masses. Besides photo-focused, timeline-style posts, the Instagram’ stories” feature has become an instant sensation, with more than 500 million active daily users.
If you wish to appeal to millennials, Instagram is the way to go. Instagram helps you to utilize visuals as part of your plumbing marketing efforts. You can post photos of your completed projects or the behind-the-scenes appearance of your business. You can leverage the Instagram Reels, and Stories feature to post video clips of your team in an action-an excellent way to improve your brand identity.
Twitter
Twitter allows tweets of 280 characters. While this implies there is limited space in what you can post, it serves as a great option to share helpful plumbing tricks and tips, offering engaging content to your target audience. Alternatively, you can share the links to your plumbing service website pages with a prompt quip on why clients should hire you.
Nextdoor
Nextdoor is a great platform for connecting with other businesses and individuals in your neighborhood. Here, users can begin discussions about local businesses, request recommendations and update them on their favorite plumbing businesses. While you claim a profile on Nextdoor, you get immersed in the community, establishing awareness of your plumbing company for those nearby.
YouTube
YouTube is another social media platform, and it’s ideal for developing trust between you and your clients. You can share informative and helpful tips that will assist you to showcase your work and prove to your target audience that you learn what you are doing.
Social Media Marketing Ideas for Plumbers
Now that you know the advantages of social media marketing, you may be searching for tricks for how precisely to utilize social media. Here are 10 strategies for social media marketing for plumbing contractors:
1. Meet Your Target Audience Where They Are At
We strongly believe that utilizing social media platforms strategically can assist plumbing businesses enhance the transparency and perception of the plumber services industry while offering helpful content. However, this will only work if you meet the audience where they frequent most. What social media platforms do they use?
Other social media networks for plumbers include Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Each of these platforms has its unique benefits and features, and our social media specialists will be more than glad to help you determine which is best for your company goals.
2. Know the Content Posting Schedule
There is no need to post everything and anything on your social media platforms without being strategic. Knowing how often to post is the first factor to consider with your social media marketing strategy. Posting too much can be daunting, while infrequent posts may cause your followers to believe your company is inactive or closed.
3. Utilize Review Websites
Another platform to leverage that we failed to state above is review websites. Not only is it crucial to have testimonials and reviews listed on your plumbing website, but to encourage your clients to review their plumbing services on review websites such as Google Local, Yelp, and Angie’s List.
There is a lot being said about word-of-mouth advertising, and very often that’s how plumbing companies are found to start with! Positive reviews and professionally thought-out responses to negative reviews through online reputation management will assist you to retain and gain loyal clients.
4. Share Informational Content
When it comes to plumbing content, visuals are important, and visual posts are likely to be shared more than all text posts. Fortunately, you have multiple options for what to post on social media profiles. Here are some famous post ideas /tips that you need to consider:
Articles and blog posts: Many potential clients will turn to Google for queries related to plumbing. Posting answers to frequent plumbing inquiries will portray you as an authority /expert, and audiences always appreciate helpful information that is given free of charge.
Promotions: Announcing any upcoming or current deals or services can help drum up your plumbing business and keep your followers updated on your pricing.
Case studies show potential clients your plumbing company process and reflect the success you brought to previous clients. They also help you gather feedback from past clients to be displayed across your platforms.
Milestones: Posting your completed or current projects gives your clients a visual insight into the quality of your work.
5. Be Social
Above everything else, the key to success in social media marketing is being social. Like and share posts by others, and create content that will help launch a conversation with your clients. Follow messages online and respond to questions for people in a plumbing bind. Join online groups and kick-start the conversation; soon enough will require your plumbing services and reach out for a paid gig.
This social mindset can help you get the most out of your social media campaigns, whether you use Twitter or Facebook, share demo videos, or invest heavily in paid advertising. A smart plumbing company that maintains its profile can enhance relationships with existing clients, create connections with new ones and improve your bottom line.
Social Media Marketing Services for Plumbers from Blackstorm Design + Marketing
While anyone can claim a free social media account and begin posting, partnering with a professional social media management agency can assist you to obtain the most out of your social media presence.
When you partner with a social media marketing company, you will obtain a professional social media audit, a custom strategy, high-quality visuals and copy, and comprehensive reporting on your results.
Working with a social media agency helps you attain your goals without the time investment required to learn how to manage your social media profiles and run campaigns on your own.
At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, some of the social media services we offer to plumbers include:
Social media marketing management
Social media advertising services
Social media design services
Online review management services.
Some plumbing contractors do a lot of what we have discussed above on their own, and they do it perfectly. But that doesn’t imply you have to feel obliged to.
Increase your clients base, and maximize profits in your company with plumbing marketing KPIs
Do you have an idea of what makes your plumbing company’s marketing or advertising campaigns a success? Clues why your business is not generating enough leads? Why is a plumbing company doing so well?
Well, suppose you are not closely monitoring your plumbing marketing efforts online. In that case, you will never understand what is working or not, and that’s where digital marketing Key Performance Indicators come in. You can measure and track metrics that matter most to your plumbing business growth using KPI.
Before internet marketing was introduced, a plumber would only establish how a specific campaign was fairing based on office visits and the number of new clients acquired. However, such results rarely displayed an accurate calculation. But with the right plumbing marketing KPIs, you can know your weak areas and conduct the much-need tweaks in your strategies for maximum results.
That said, here are a few things to understand before selecting and monitoring your digital marketing for plumbers’ KPI.
What Are Plumbing Marketing KPIs?
Key Performance Indicator is a measurable attribute showcasing how ineffectively or effectively your plumbing company reaches its desired goals. Plumbing marketing KPIs are quantifiable measures or metrics employed to assess the performance of your company’s marketing objectives. These metrics can be traced to different aspects of your plumbing business ranging from employees and leads generated to sales.
Internet marketing KPIs go hand in hand with your company’s online marketing strategies regardless of whether it’s sales growth, brand awareness, SEO strategy, and lead generation. Examples of such metrics include details on conversion rate, engagement rate, sales revenue, page conversion, marketing qualified leads, and SERP. Any measurable figure in your plumber marketing plan, one that can be acted upon, constitutes a KPI.
KPI comes from Google Analytics, lead conversion tool, Google Ads, Google Analytics, or even from your plumbing sales representatives.
5 Reasons To Track Your Plumbing Marketing’s KPIs?
When properly used, plumbing marketing KPI tracking can be an incredible tool for growing your company. Some of the key advantages of measuring metrics and acting on data include but are not restricted to:
1. Monitor Your Plumbing Company’s Health
Only a few KPIs are required to measure the health of your company. Plumbers who monitor metrics in categories such as employees, customers, processes, and revenue find it very easy to remain on track while keeping their income high.
2. Measure Processes
KPIs are typically applied to show if your company is attaining its strategic goals set by the top management. Numerous KPIs are utilized to measure processes, such as productivity indicators, profitability indicators, and quality indicators amongst others.
3. Client Metrics
Besides employees and processes, client metrics are also of utmost importance. They can help your company know the number of customers, revenue generated, and even the cost of acquiring those clients.
4. Operational Metrics
Operations metrics are a good way to help your operations department enhance its day-to-day operations. You can use such metrics to make sure staffing, finances, and marketing are on the right track.
5. Measure Progress Over Time
A good strategy for measuring your business progress is to set targets at the beginning of the year, such as revenue, gross margin, number of locations, and even number of employees. Then, you can use weekly, quarterly, and monthly reports to remain on track with the KPIs and progress towards set goals at the start of the year.
In a plumbing marketing campaign, tracking your KPIs is the only way to understand what is working or not. For instance, if you make good money from a specific marketing campaign, but you cannot show what generated that revenue or profit, that is, then you will never know what you need to improve and where you need to invest more. Your site traffic, for example, could be the one driving all your qualified leads and your marketing crew or department is busy investing a lot of dollars on unnecessary channels.
Top 10 Plumbing Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking in Your Business
Cost Per Lead (CPL)
CPL is a plumbing KPI used in lead generation to know how much each lead costs your company. In simple terms, it shows you the cost of bringing in a lead from your advertising or marketing campaigns. Leads help you understand which contact or user is a potential client. It is normally the initial step into knowing how your internet marketing is performing beyond simple reach from metrics like unique visitors to your plumbing website.
Cost per lead helps you understand where your brand awareness efforts in marketing are most crucial. They tell you whether your campaigns are generating desired results at an affordable cost or not. They assist you to understand the amount of money you need to get a particular set of leads for your plumbing company. Because leads are the starting point of your sales processes, improving and benchmarking your cost per lead is an important metric for your plumbing marketing efforts or campaigns.
Conversion Rate [CR]
In plumbing marketing, a conversion happens when a prospect or client completes a particular activity, such as booking a job or subscribing to your newsletter. It can also be any action that helps meet the objectives that your plumbing company has. On the other hand, conversion rate measures how regularly a client completes a particular set goal,
Conversion rate is a crucial metric that shows you if your marketing campaigns are on track. They tell you how effective your strategies are in terms of attaining a set goal. A higher conversion rate implies more likelihood of prospects or clients converting after coming across your piece of content. This also means low costs in terms of acquiring customers, which saves you money in the long run.
Consequently, the more conversions, the better your plumbing gets in Google rankings. Thus, if you want to skyrocket your bottom line, make minor but worthy tweaks to your plumbing website. Use Google Optimize together with Google Analytics to test various elements of your website to increase your revenue without necessarily increasing your ad spend.
Return on Investment (ROI)
ROI denotes the amount of profit your plumbing company will earn from the money spent on a particular activity or investment like a marketing campaign. As an online marketing metric, ROI helps you know whether your company is profitable or not. It shows the expenditures as well as activities connected with them that are creating revenue and those that are not.
So, it is an important tool for planning your marketing or advertising budgets. While it is not possible to capture the total money spent on marketing activity, say a Google Ad campaign, it is crucial to make sure that your ROI is comparable to other internet marketing activities.
Bounce Rate
Simply put, bounce rate refers to the number of clients or prospects who visit your plumbing website and leave right away without completing any meaningful action. If your site has a high bounce rate, this is a good indication that there are flaws in your online marketing strategies, and some of them could be irrelevant traffic sources, weak landing pages, or poor targeting, amongst others.
A prospect visiting and clicking off your website also implies they didn’t find what they were searching for and the only way to make sure that they spend time on it is by auditing your content and identifying what they are looking for. This way, you will craft relevant content that will attract them.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
CPA revolves around revenue after a lead becomes a paying client. It gives you a rough idea of how much you will spend to get a client to open his or her wallet. CPA is a deal for paid search marketing campaigns like Pay-Per-Click campaigns.
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
CTR is another internet marketing metric that quantifies the number of clicks on a specific content over the number of impressions it achieves. It is the percentage of prospects that click on a campaign after coming across it.
CTR is the simple form of engagement rate because the only engagement counted is the one that matters the most and clicks on a link. This metric shows whether your site content is interesting to grab people’s attention and lead them to click on the link and be redirected to the plumbing website.
In Google ads, CTR boosts your quality score each time a user clicks on an ad, and when this occurs, your ads are ranked on top of SERPs, which has other advantages such as increased traffic and more conversions.
Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value refers to a KPI used to measure the amount of revenue you can expect from a specific client for the entire period of doing business with your company.
A higher customer lifetime value indicates that your plumbing business is doing well and often signals a profit. It helps you understand how valuable different customers are and thus allocate more resources to them.
Business Growth
Another important KPI for plumbers is the business growth metric. This can be calculated in numerous ways, but estimating your annual gross profit margins is the most effective. This is where you bring in things like cost of operation, salaries, and cost of equipment into the equation. To find your gross profit margin, calculate your total sales revenue and subtract your total cost of operation, divide the figure you obtain with sales revenue again.
Customer Satisfaction
Lastly, client satisfaction. Do you know that it is much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to try to get a new one? This is why customer satisfaction is an important KPI for plumbers since client satisfaction leads to retention.
You can assess your customer satisfaction levels by developing a questionnaire form and asking clients to fill it. Keeping your eye on online reviews is also crucial. You can improve customer satisfaction by responding to all reviews (whether negative or positive) promptly and professionally.
Top Channels for Local Plumbing Contractors to Generate Qualified Leads
By analyzing your overall plumbing marketing strategy and how every lead source generates qualified sales for your company.
Then you can begin to work on the different marketing efforts with every channel to obtain more qualified leads, increase sales growth and reduce client acquisition costs.
While monitoring plumbing marketing KPIs your sales crew should come in to see how your collective advertising or marketing efforts generate results across the following channels.
Organic Search
Homeowners and property managers use search engines such as Google or Bing to find information about a local service business and click on the organic results shown to them. Not advertisements. Organic site traffic will be one of the cheapest in terms of acquiring leads but will take the longest time to develop and achieve realistic results.
Paid Advertising
There are multiple ways paid advertising is showcased to your potential clients to boost website traffic, and here are some examples. But, if you want to increase your chances of increasing traffic to lead ratio, landing pages are a perfect way to achieve this.
Google Local Service Ads
Text ads from Google Ads
Display advertising on other sites
Paid ads on social media websites
Click to call ads from Google.
Social Media Marketing
Social media is one of those platforms that can help you in various ways. Not all resulting to direct sales, but offering you an opportunity to build and get:
Brand awareness
Potential client referrals
Client support channel
As you can see, a lot goes into each plumbing marketing KPI, and together they show a clear picture of how your company is performing online. Every monthly report combines it all and makes sure we continually drive revenue in the best ways possible. At BlackStorm Design +Marketing, we are in the business to create lifelong partnerships, and such plumbing business marketing KPIs hold our team accountable.
Let’s work together to create a strong online presence for your plumbing company so you can book more jobs on the web.
If you have ever thought about building and running a successful plumbing business, you are not alone. Having a flexible schedule, being your boss, and enjoying more financial rewards that come with plumbing company ownership are excellent reasons to build your own plumbing company.
Every successful plumbing company started with a passion and drive. Even business moguls like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos began building their businesses from zero. It’s one thing to work in a profession you enjoy, but it is a whole different story turning that profession into a successful plumbing company that supports your employees, you, and your family.
Running a successful plumbing business can be daunting. And that explains why so many plumbing companies shut their doors even before they get started. Yet, running a successful plumbing company is not challenging when you can avoid and spot the pitfalls.
A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Start a Plumbing Company from Scratch.
Building a plumbing business from scratch does not have to be complicated or hard, but it requires some work and planning. Here are the most crucial ten steps to follow when building a plumbing company from scratch.
Step 1: Research Your Target Market
As a new plumber on the block, you need to research your market carefully. Try as much as possible to discover the level of demand for your plumbing services and how your rivals are trying to satisfy that demand. Knowing what your competitors already know won’t cut it. Dive into your target market and analyze it like a pro. Search for keywords that are related to the plumbing industry. Don’t fret if your target market seems flooded. You can use this as your competitive advantage. It implies that if it works for other plumbers, it can still work for you. It also means that there is money to be made here.
Step 2: Write a Plan for your Plumbing Business
I know this is not the “most fun” part of starting your business but a crucial step in building a successful plumbing company. A clear business plan is vital for success as a plumbing contractor, and it will assist you to discover the specifics of your plumbing business and unearth some unknowns. Here are some questions that you need to answer in your business plan.
What Are the Costs involved when starting a Plumbing Company?
Though you can start your plumbing business in your compound, extra space will be required as your business grows. Storage space to keep your plumbing materials must be available. Additional expenses include renting/purchasing an administrative office to paying for high-speed internet, labor, and utilities cost. Workers and liability insurance costs must also be paid. Other recurring expenses include employees’ salaries, office supplies, and internet costs.
Is the Plumbing Business Profitable?
Yes, plumbing is a lucrative venture where you can make a six-figure profit after a few years of operation. Plumbing contractors who have been in business for several years can make thousands of dollars in profit every year. Expand across states, the nation, and counties, and your plumbing business will make millions of dollars in profits each year.
How Will You Make Your Plumbing Company More Profitable?
The key to increasing your plumbing company’s profitability is to reduce the cost of material and labor while securing a stream of new leads/clients. Establish your offline/online reputation as a high-quality plumbing contractor, and you will start to charge more than your competitors for the same services. Experienced plumbing contractors have a lot of knowledge and skills that property owners are willing to pay for. If you have a dumpster that you don’t use all week long, you can consider renting it out to another plumber who does own one. If you have a storage/office space that you don’t use in full, consider renting it to another business owner.
How do you choose a Name for Your New Plumbing Company?
Naming a new plumbing business can feel as daunting as naming a newborn or a puppy. Fortunately, we have already published a guide on choosing a plumbing company name that can help you along. In the meantime, keep these tips on how to name your plumbing business in mind:
Avoid names that are too long and difficult to spell.
Make sure your preferred name is not used by other plumbers online or offline.
Think of how your name will appear on your website URL and social media platforms.
It would be best if you considered your business plan as an outline of your company. A good business plan should contain the following information:
Executive Summary: This explains your plumbing business services and the problems it solves for the consumers.
Market Evaluation: This should discuss the market you are serving.
Marketing strategies: How will you dive into the market and sell your plumbing services/products?
Operational plan: this outlines the day-to-day operations of running your plumbing business.
Step 3: Form a Legal Entity
You need to establish a legal business entity like LLC, which prevents you from being personally liable when your plumbing company is sued. You can opt to choose several plumbing business structures, including partnerships, corporations, sole proprietorships, DBAs, and LLCs. Your accountant or financial adviser will select the appropriate one for you.
Step 4: Register for Taxes
The IRS website is the best place to understand the various state and federal taxes affecting your business if you are starting a plumbing company. Start by checking with the IRS’s Small Business and Self-employment center. Furthermore, you need to check the tax obligations required by your respective state.
Step 5: Open a Separate Bank Account and Credit Card for Your Plumbing Business
Opening a separate credit card and bank account for your business is crucial for personal assets protection.
When your business and personal accounts are mixed, your valuables (such as your home or car) are at risk if your plumbing company is sued. This is what is referred to as piercing your corporate veil.
Step 6: Get the Necessary Permits and Licenses
Failure to obtain necessary licenses and permits can lead to hefty fines or the closure of your plumbing business.
Plumbing contractors must request their customers to sign a service agreement before they begin a new project. This agreement spells out customer expectations and reduces legal disputes by spelling out payment conditions and terms, intellectual property ownership, and service level expectations.
Certificate of Occupancy
You can operate your plumbing company out of a storefront, and a plumbing business that operates out of a physical location needs a certificate of occupancy. This certificate confirms that all zoning laws, government, and building regulations have been satisfied.
Step 7: Get Insurance
Just as with permits and insurance, your new plumbing business requires protection to operate safely and lawfully. There are various kinds of insurance policies created for different types of companies to cover unexpected risks. If you are not sure about the kind of risks your business may face, you need to start with general liability insurance. Another notable insurance policy associated with plumbing businesses is worker’s compensation insurance. If your plumbing company has employees, then most probably, your state will require to have workers’ compensation coverage.
Step 8: Market and Promote Your New Plumbing Business
Why should a property owner select you to install or replace their water pipe?
That’s a significant question if you want to build a successful plumbing business. And the answer lies in your plumbing marketing. But if you are just starting your plumbing business, it can be daunting to know where to start. Fortunately, this post will discuss crucial plumbing marketing strategies that will help your business nurture trust, generate referrals and earn more clients.
Create a Stunning Plumbing Website to Market Your Business 24/7.
Your plumbing website should act as your virtual sales representative 24/7/365 and generate a stream of qualified leads. How you create and use your site will influence your plumbing marketing activities-but just building one will not skyrocket your plumbing sales automatically. If you want your plumbing website to market your business online, it needs to have these four main things:
It needs to be super-fast: The average client expects your web page to load in less than three seconds.
It must be Functional: Plumbing websites should be appropriately coded for SEO, which implies adding structure to the site with metadata like optimized images, schema, Meta, and title tags.
Your plumbing website needs to be mobile-friendly: Over 50% of overall U.S. traffic comes from tablets and smartphones.
It must be secure: More than 40% of all plumbing websites that appear on the first page of Google are HTTPS, which is why Google has confirmed that it favors secure sites over unsecured ones.
It needs to provide helpful Quality Content: A significant ranking factor lies in the quality over your website’s quantity.
If your website is missing any of the above features, you need to partner with a reputable plumbing website design agency like Blackstorm Plumbing Marketing.
Boost Your Plumbing Website Conversion Rate with a Redesign
One of the best ways of increasing your plumbing website conversion rate is by requesting a website redesign from our experts. Our experienced web designers will work round the clock to ensure that your websites generate more qualified leads and skyrocket your plumbing sales.
Maximize Your Reach on Google
To get more plumbing clients/leads, your business needs to appear on top of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Here are some tips that will help you to stay off Google results:
Use keywords strategically
Incorporate featured snippets
Get quality online reviews
Make sure that your Google My Business Listing is accurate and complete
Stay on top of Google Algorithm updates
Leverage Local service ads.
Create profiles on directories like Yelp, Angie’s List, or Thumbtack.
As a plumber, we understand you are busy managing your employees and sourcing materials, making it daunting to optimize your plumbing website for search engines on your own.
Invest in Paid ads to Increase Booked Plumbing Jobs
Pay per Click advertising allows plumbing businesses anywhere to be found on the first page of the Google search results. It is digital marketing where plumbers display ads and pay the advertiser once their ads are clicked. The two significant advantages of PPC are controlled relevance and visibility.
Use Social Media Marketing and Remarketing
Once you have created your plumbing website and started getting some traffic, make sure that you remarket your plumbing services to potential clients who did not contact you. This implies that showing them ads even after they have navigated away from your site. This is important because most prospects will not contact you on their very first attempt.
Social media marketing is also a great option. With a combination of internet marketing and some local service ads, you can target a customer directly with a new client offer.
Manage Your Reputation Online and Offline
When it comes to selecting a plumbing company, reputation plays a critical role. After all, no property owner wants to work with a plumbing contractor who does a shoddy job, does not meet deadlines, or does not stand behind their promises.
Word-of-mouth recommendations are still a significant factor in how commercial and residential clients select a plumbing contractor. To take advantage of these positive recommendations, ask your happy clients to refer you to their relatives and friends.
Online reviews are critical too, and you need to make sure that you earn more Google reviews and respond to the reviews you obtain. If that sounds too hard for you to do, make sure that you partner with Blackstorm Plumbing Marketing to manage your plumbing company reputation offline and online.
The Bottom line
If the above tips seem so hard to implement on your own, don’t fret because you are just other plumbing contractors we have helped over the years. Your primary focus should be on running your plumbing business and leaving the rest to us. If you need help getting more leads and sales from your new plumbing business, kindly schedule a free strategy session with our growth experts for assistance today!
