Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

How to Make the Most out of Google Ads for Plumbers on a Limited Budget

Let us face it. Most homeowners don’t think plumbing is a big deal unless their water systems have a serious problem. So to speak, they don’t require a plumber unless their water system breaks down, which doesn’t happen daily.

As a plumbing contractor, it can be overwhelming to market your plumbing services on your own. Obtaining new business or leads might be daunting unless you seek the help of a professional marketing agency.

There are tons of plumbing marketing options out there from Facebook ads to Yelp reviews and more. Google Ads for plumbers is a great option for many companies because of its targeting options, flexibility, and reach. Currently, plumbing Google Ads has increasingly become crucial to booking more jobs and increasing sales.

When a homeowner has a plumbing problem within your target market, your company has a chance to show up as the #1 result in their search engine results pages for “plumber near me!”. Google operates on a pay-per-click model that offers the ability to select the keywords that you want to rank for within Google – these are search terms that prospects are utilizing to find you. You can bid on these keywords and display ads for them.

For instance, “Emergency plumber near me,” “local plumber” and “plumber in Y city” are all keywords your prospects are using to look for your plumbing business. With Google Ads, your clients can find your plumbing business with just a simple search on Google, whenever they are.

Google ads for plumbers can be overwhelming to first create and manage. Luckily, this post will guide everything you require to know, from developing a stellar Google Ads strategy to optimizing your campaigns to increase your chances of booking new jobs and skyrocketing your sales online.

Without further ado, let us dive into our post!

5 Reasons Why Google Ads for Plumbers Is Important

The plumbing marketing world has changed dramatically recently; Google Ads is one of the platforms that are in charge of this major transformation. Indeed, Google Ads for plumbers is one of the best and most effective tactics of internet marketing.

Here are some reasons why you should consider using Google Ads for plumbers in your business:

1. Google Ads Increase Customers and Leads

Female homeowner shaking hands with plumber

When your prospects or clients notice that your plumbing ad consistently ranks at the top of the search engine results page, they will start to associate your brand with dependability and excellence.

This means that you will be the first business people think of when they need a reliable plumber to offer quality plumbing services. You can monitor this using Google Analytics and Google Business Profile.

2. You Obtain High Results on Investment

ROI gif

Unlike other plumber marketing strategies, Google Ads helps you to only pay for ads prospects or clients click on. After optimizing your Google Ads campaign, you can get a higher return on investment, which may not be possible with other advertising strategies.

However, this takes effort and time, you have to find the approach that suits your plumbing business. To get an overview of what campaigns will generate the best results, you have to monitor and test your campaigns regularly. Google Ads for plumbers is perfect for this since it’s transparent and the details you require are available.

When you pinpoint areas of your campaign that offer a good return on investment, you concentrate your budget and efforts on such areas. If there are some parts of your campaign that are costing you money, discard them. Invest that money into successful campaigns, and such campaigns will test you in the future.

3. Google Ads Help Build Your Reputation Online

Online reputation

Your plumbing company’s online reputation is important in the modern digital world. Prospects or clients look at more than just a professional portfolio or quality work.

Google search ads can assist in establishing your online reputation as a reliable plumbing service company.

Essentially, Google Ads is more effective than promoting your plumbing services on social media (for instance, Facebook ads for plumbers) because Google has more credibility for getting legit local plumbing services in an area.

4. Google Ads for Plumbers Give Transparent, Fast Results

It is easy to monitor the progress of your Google Ads

Google ads have a reputation for delivering quick, transparent results and reports of your digital marketing campaigns. It is easy to monitor the progress of your Google Ads since the dashboard offers you all of the details related to every campaign, like the ads clicked, the search terms (keywords) that prospects or clients entered, and the cost of clicks.

These features make Google Ads for plumbers an extremely intuitive and transparent system.

5. Unique Targeting Capabilities

Target market

As a plumber, you know the essence of quality plumbing leads. At the end of the day, your Google Ad campaign should attain the goals of your plumbing brand. With Google enhancing its algorithms on a daily basis, you can be guaranteed of reaching your target market.

You can opt to bid for particular long-tail keywords or even short ones. While the former allows you to target prospects with high search intent, the latter may help you obtain higher traction with fewer plumbing leads.

Types of Google Ads for Plumbers

No two Google Ads campaigns are created equal, though they are distinct types of ads that you can leverage:

  • Search Network Campaign: Through a Search Network Campaign, your ad will show up on not just Google Maps and Search but also hundreds of other Google partners, including Google Shopping and YouTube. On any of these websites, when prospects or clients look for a keyword for your Google Ad campaign, they will come across your ad.

Google Search Network Campaign

  • Google Display Network Campaign: This kind of ad helps you to showcase your visual ad in front of prospects using Google Display Network products, including YouTube and Gmail.

Google Display Network

  • Video Campaign: Here, your plumbing service company will be displayed on YouTube and other Google Display Network properties.

YouTube gif

Pro tip: No matter what type of Google Ad campaign you select; it will incorporate more than one ad group. Every ad group may represent a different service you may want to market to the same target audience, and each ad group might have a unique plumbing keyword set.

Winning Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Google Ads for Plumbers Campaign Account

If you are a plumber just getting started with Google Ads, all the options and functionality can seem a little challenging.

There are a lot of features to explore and settings to fix or adjust, which can be both frustrating and time-consuming. You may even come to know that you are spending a lot of time looking for information on Google Ads help forums.

If this sounds like you, you are not alone. We all want as many controls and tools as possible, but not at the expense of losing control over your Google Ads campaign.

So here are our winning tips for obtaining more of your Google ads account for your plumbing business:

Create a Google Ads for Your Plumbing Company

Google Ads website

Setting up a Google Ads account is easy and simple. For this post, we will utilize a fictitious plumbing business as the main example. Click on “Start Now” at the upper right-hand corner or on the left side of the main page. You will be then being requested to sign in with your Gmail account.

Google will then request you what your main advertising objective is, and you can click on any of these three options offered. For instance, I select to “Get more sign-ups or site sales.”

Before you continue to the next page, it is crucial to scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “Switch to Expert Mode.”

You will then be directed to another website requesting you to set your goals relevant to your campaign. Google Ads campaign is comprised of ad groups that focus on attaining goals like increasing client conversions for the business. Every campaign has its targeted location, set budget, and targeted audiences. A Google Ads account typically consists of multiple campaigns which target different objectives for the business in its internet marketing.

For the purpose of this page, go ahead and click “create an Ads campaign without an objective’s guidance.” This will help you have more control over your Google Ads campaign tactics, thus limiting Google’s input.

Next, you should choose “Search” as your type of campaign. It will then request you to select which results you want to see from the digital campaign. Proceed and click “phone calls” and “website visits.”

Configure General Settings

campaign settings

After clicking “Continue” from the previous page, the type of campaign will be taken to the general settings for your campaign. Here you will be requested to give the name of your campaign, and so we put “Plumbing.” Next, you want to unselect “Display Network” while you may keep or not keep “Search Network” selected based on your budget.

Take Time to Understand and Set Your Google Ads Campaign Goals

Set up your Google Ads campaign account

When you initially set up your Google Ads campaign account, you will instantly begin operating some ads. You may even think, “this is not too bad,” and decide to leave your account alone to generate desired results.

However, you will begin seeing less and less organic traffic, and your return on advertising spend and conversion rates will drop!

This occurs because we normally skip the most crucial step of setting your Google Ads account: understanding our plumbing business goals. If you don’t set clear objectives, you won’t understand how to tweak your ad settings. And even if you identify your goal, without understanding the right level of traffic to focus on, you may end up spending more money than necessary.

Choose the Right Keywords

Google Ads operates on keywords.

One of the most crucial resources available to any digital plumbing marketing strategy is Google Ads. This is because they put your ad directly in front of your target client as they search precisely for what you provide. However, choosing the right Google Ads is not always easy. Numerous factors have to be considered, and if you don’t know the best practices for Google Ads, it may be a significant waste of money and time.

Google Ads operates on keywords. These keywords trigger your ad to show up on the search engine result pages. This needs you to perform keyword research. You can use multiple research tools to assist know the search terms to use in your campaign. As you look for various keywords, you need to focus more on long-tail plumbing keywords.

Related: The Ultimate Plumbing SEO Guide: Best Practices and Tips to Get Clients Online

These are search terms that contain three or more words. Long-tail plumbing keywords are more specific and targeted to one business. A generic plumbing keyword like “plumber” will be hard to rank for in the search engine result pages.

Instead, try something with your neighborhood, city, or even your postal or zip code. For example, “plumber in Murfreesboro TN” or “Murfreesboro plumbing contractor.” Long-tail plumbing keywords generate quality traffic for your advertising campaign because they are more specific and will drive qualified leads who want to get the most accurate and relevant results. By researching long-tail plumber keywords, you will attract leads that are more qualified and more likely to book a job.

This will assist you to get more conversions for your plumbing business.

So, how can you select Google Ads keywords that will support your company’s growth without breaking your bank account? Here are some pointers:

  • Understand your target audience
  • Develop their personas
  • Figure out what they are searching for
  • Make a list of common keywords that people use
  • Use long-tail keywords to increase your ad visibility online
  • Use keyword research tools like Ahrefs and Google Keyword Planner to identify search terms relevant to your plumbing business.

Check The Quality of Google Ads and Ensure They Appear, Professional

Man fixing leaking tap in kitchen

There is nothing so frustrating than seeing Google Ads for plumbers that don’t appear professional. When you utilize Google Ads, you will need to create effective professional ads. This may seem like a common thing, but it is an important part of your advertising campaign. You should create Google Ads that will get your target audience to click on them.

First, you will want to include your keywords in your ad copy. This will make sure that your Google Ad is relevant to their organic search. After that, you will need to create a compelling headline.

You need to create an eye-catching and interesting headline that will make your target audience click on your plumbing Google Ads. Lastly, show your audience what you need them to do after coming across your ad. Include a compelling call to action in your Google ad to help them to take the desired action and convert them into a paying client.

Add all these elements to create an effective ad for your marketing campaign. You will get more clicks on your ads by creating better ads that grab the attention of your leads.

Use Negative Keywords to Avoid Wasting Your Advertising Dollars

Negative keywords

Google ad for plumbers also provides the option to include negative keywords; words that you don’t want to be associated with.

For example, if you offer emergency plumbing services but not selling dolphin keychains, you would not want to show up for the search results to the latter. To know how prospects or clients are accidentally looking for you, check your Search Terms report. Here, you will be able to pinpoint irrelevant queries that are leading people to your business and include them in your list of negative keywords.

Set Your Google Ads Budget

Google Ads Budget

For Google Ads for plumbers, you can only set your budget on a daily as opposed to a weekly or monthly basis. A good strategy to follow when allocating your budget is to be a little conservative in spending. It is fairly simple to use lots of advertising dollars quickly, so that’s why you need to optimize your ad budget spending. Kindly note, your daily ad budget should reflect the amount you are willing to pay for the campaign.

Make Google Ads Stand out with the Right Extensions

Google Ads Extensions example

Extensions are a great way to generate more revenue from the same ad spend.

In fact, extensions can generate up to double the revenue compared to ads without extensions. A lot of Google Ads for plumbers focus mainly on the paths, headlines, and descriptions of your primary ad.

However, Ad extensions are an important part of the client experience and can offer your ads a great performance boost.

Google Ad extensions can assist you to tell your plumbing brand story better while providing valuable details to your clients.

There are numerous ad extensions to select from, but here are the ones that are mostly used:

  • Sitelinks Extensions: These are extra links your clients may find important that direct them to unique landing pages on your plumbing website.
  • Callout Extensions: Use these to establish trust with prospects or clients by incorporating entries such as “Peace of Mind Guarantee” or “Professional Fast Service.”
  • Structured Snippets: You can include these to offer more details about the features provided. They are based on particular categories, so be sure to select an important category as you create your ad extensions.
  • Call Extensions: This will assist you to pull your company phone number into the listing.
  • Location Extensions: If you have a brick-and-mortar office, you can link your Google Business Profile to your Google Ads campaign account. Activating this extension will pull in your phone number and address to your ads for prospects to understand your location easily.

Organize Keywords into Ad Groups

Keyword organizer

Sending prospects or clients who click on your ad to a plumbing landing page that discusses the same topic as the keyword in your ad groups will result in a higher quality score.

This implies that you will be charged less for every click and your ads will be displayed more often. This is because Google wants to show ads that are relevant to their target audience, and increasing your quality score may sound like a no-brainer.

Yes, as the ad copy for plumbing services becomes more specific, you will be tempted to link the ad to pages that are already existing, instead of developing new ones.

This is where many plumbers go wrong. They fail to customize their Google ad copy to match their landing pages in an effort to minimize work on their team.

If your ads are not related to the landing pages, your prospects are unlikely to convert. Outsourcing your PPC marketing to a professional plumbing Google Ads management company implies you will obtain the insight and attention you require to optimize your campaigns to obtain the most out of your advertising dollars.

Bid on Your Competition

An ad mainly focuses on keywords of rivals is known as a competitor bid.

There is no better way to attract your rival’s clients if your niche is competitive like roofing or plumbing than putting a bid on their brand names in Google Ads. As a tried and proven strategy that generates great results.

An ad mainly focuses on keywords of rivals is known as a competitor bid. With quality links pointing back to your plumbing website, it regularly has an identical or similar appearance to the actual plumbing website.

This strategy has become famous as more and more plumbers use Google ads. Now is the time to use this strategy, leading to your plumbing company’s success.

Setup Conversion Tracking

Conversion action

The best way to enhance your ad campaign is to check the statistics and know which ads, keywords, and placements are working and which are not generating desired results. Then optimize the ones that are not working.

This way, you will stop wasting money and time on things that are not generating results and on content that is not attracting your target audience.

Without conversions tracking, running Google Ads for plumbers is essentially a waste of your advertising dollars. To know whether your Google Ads are effective, tracking conversions is important. Without it, you can only operate on speculations.

Get Specialized Help with Your Google Ads for Plumbers with Blackstorm Design + Marketing

Adjustable wrench

Google Ads requires a specialized approach from experts with relevant experience, like those at Blackstorm Design + Marketing.

When a homeowner needs a “plumber” and looks for one online, they don’t simply search for the first result. Before they make a decision, they click on a few of the initial links that show up on the search results, read some reviews online and assess rival plumbing businesses.

If you are a plumbing business owner, you understand how competitive the industry is. And you have undoubtedly thought of utilizing Google Ads as a strategy.

But have you thought of hiring a knowledgeable team to assist in getting the most out of this plumbing marketing strategy?

If used wisely and carefully, Google Ads for plumbing contractors can be a great tool for growing your business. However, many plumbers lack the knowledge or time to effectively manage their Google Ads campaign. They regularly find it daunting to compete with nearby plumbing companies with huge advertising budgets.

We can assist with that. Blackstorm Design + Marketing is a team of experts with years of experience in Google ads for plumbers.

We understand how to make Google Ads work effortlessly for your business, bringing in more customers without costing you more than your competitors do in advertising.

If you need specialized help to run Google ads for your plumbing business, schedule a free profit session with Blackstorm Design + Marketing today.

Categories
Social Media Advertising

Social Stats for the Healthcare Industry

You probably don’t need me to tell you that social media is the new strategy that has taken the marketing evolution by storm. In fact, all e-Commerce brands are now directing a major share of their investment to the digital niche. The HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY is even true, and if you want to gauge the social media impact on this sphere, here are some statistics, most mention-worthy.

According to Mediabistro, information available on social media impacts more than 40% of customers in their health regimen.

professionals

HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY professionals must deliver authentic and scholarly data on the website, which consumers can bank on. There is a gazillion of unreliable information that is plaguing the world wide interweb, and try to become the most valid and credible source of information for your potential readers.

According to Demi & Cooper Advertising and DC Interactive Group, at least 19% of smart devices have a health app installed in them.

If you are planning to rocket launch a similar app for your consumers, consider the popular health categories like diet, exercise, and obesity.

According to Mediabistro, at least 31% of medical and HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY experts rely on social media for professional networking.

doctor using social media

The professional use of social media is whopping for its advantages and popularity. Linking with experts in varied niches could add gems of advantage to your future referral business.

According to the Demi & Cooper Advertising and DC Interactive Group, more than 40% of internet browsers make health and treatment decisions influenced by social media.

In fact, social media is now a gateway to assert your mind with an array of avenues. And its the client feedback and WOMs that could decide the lifespan of your professional practice. Always make room to house the clients’ positive and negative feedback.

According to Mashable, 56% WebMD, 31% Wikipedia, 29% health magazine portals, 17% Facebook, 15% YouTube, 13% blogs, 12% patient communities, 6% Twitter, and 27% others make the most accessed online platforms for resourceful health information.

Obviously, the quality of content will vary from one online resource to the others. As a reliable HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY, it’s vital to contain only the most trustworthy data sources.

medical solutions

According to Mashable, most of today’s parents rely on medical solutions online, where 22% are from Facebook and 20% from YouTube. The non-parents community’s search ratio of healthcare-related topics is 14% on Facebook and 12% on YouTube.

According to many, things are not the same anymore when you are a parent, and the HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY is no different in terms of these statistics. In fact, parents are now looking for a medical solutions online for their kids of all ages like never before.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

6 Reasons Why Your Plumbing Business Should Use a Call Tracking System

In the modern digital world, it is crucial to strategize, implement and monitor online campaigns that your business grows. For any plumbing company to succeed, you require a professional website and great tools to monitor its success. We live in an age where such tools exist, measuring online data and traffic is only the tip of the iceberg. Call tracking is the system or tool you require to get a full understanding of your internet (or offline) marketing efforts. This post aims to offer information on the fundamentals of call tracking software and its benefits. Without further ado, let us dive in.

What is a Call Tracking System for Plumbers and How Does It Work?Call Tracking System

You can get a rough idea of a call tracking software based on its name. Simply put, it is a system or software that records details about incoming phone calls and the conversion between attendees and callers. Here are some examples of data that a recording software monitors:

  • Origin of calls
  • The geographical location of the caller
  • The number that has been called
  • Phone call recording
  • Marketing medium used
  •  Type of device

Using this data, you can compare traffic generated by every tracking number and improve your strategy as required. But how does call tracking work for plumbers?

Well, the working process of the call tracking system is quite simple. First, every marketing campaign (whether offline or online) is assigned a dedicated phone number by the software. Then, afterward, each of such tracking numbers is routed to your main business phone number.

Your customer service representatives use the main business number to address and answer each call received through tracking numbers. Ultimately, the call tracking software helps you get valuable insights into your digital marketing campaigns, in addition to responding to customer calls.

For example, it will show you which campaigns are performing exceptionally, such as Google Ads, Facebook ads, and SEO. Using this information, you can either revise your marketing plan or get rid of non-performing campaigns to avoid unnecessary marketing spending.

Furthermore, there are countless other benefits to using call tracking in your plumbing business, as discussed below.

1. Increase Conversions

skyrocket conversion rates

Among the numerous advantages of call tracking, you will find great conversions. In the normal buying process calls typically occur near the end of a client’s journey. They might be a few problems or issues that need to be resolved, such as customer support, warranty, or the service itself. People who raise such concerns are the ones ready to book a job with your plumbing company.

Integrations with plumbing CRM and analytic systems offer sales agents a clear picture of the prospective buyer. It improves your sales and marketing effectiveness, helping them transform callers into paying clients and skyrocket their conversion rates.

2. Attribute Phone Calls to Internet Marketing Efforts

measure goal completions and online conversions

Without call tracking, your business can’t measure the effectiveness of your digital marketing efforts. You can measure goal completions and online conversions with Google Ads (formerly AdWords) and Analytics. But what if someone opts to contact you instead of filling out an online form? With call tracking, phone calls will not be lost in translation. By tracking phone calls like conversions, you will be able to get a clear picture of your plumbing company.

3. Enhance Customer Service with Call Recording

Customer Service

Call recording helps you to collect important feedback about your employees and callers. First, recording conversations helps you to qualify your leads better and spend quality time with those that are likely to convert into sales. Secondly, recording calls helps you listen to conversations between your sales team or customer service and callers to offer customized feedback to your employees. With call recording, you will know what happens when clients contact your plumbing company, and you can use such information to help optimize your customer experience, marketing campaigns, and more.

4. Understand Which Keywords Are Generating Calls

keyword

Call tracking improves the power of your paid search marketing campaigns/efforts by offering you an insight into which plumbing keywords are driving conversions and calls. With prospect-level call tracking, CallRail will assign a special phone number to each visitor, helping it know who is calling your business and how they came to know you online.

After a visitor is done browsing your plumbing website, their unique phone number is freed for another person to use. This feature helps you monitor your PPC ad visitors effectively and know the keywords they use to find your plumbing business online.

When a prospect decides to contact your company, their details are fed into Google Ads and Analytics, helping you to track calls as conversions. Combine this with other information you get from Google Analytics and Ads, and you will clearly understand which keywords are beneficial for your plumbing business.

5. Call Tracking Helps in Eliminating Non-Performing Ads and Pushing Performing Ads

Eliminate Non-Performing Ads

Another benefit of the call tracking system is that it helps you push performing marketing campaigns while eliminating redundant ones. For instance, you can use call tracking software to understand which ad is performing as expected and which is not. This information will be crucial in deciding whether or not to continue with the specific campaign. You can save money by discontinuing the underperforming campaigns.

6. Offer Better Insights into Campaign Data

insight into your plumbing marketing campaign

It is essential to have an insight into your plumbing marketing campaign. This will not only help you in navigating the strategy but also assists you in outlining subsequent campaigns. Using a call tracking system, you can access various matrices and information such as the geographical location of the caller, landing page, marketing medium, and phone call recording.

The more information you have, the more effectively you can strategize your digital marketing campaigns. Besides having a clear understanding of campaign performance, you can comfortably accommodate the needs of your clients as well as the employee training requirements.

Invest in a Phone Call Tracking System in Your Plumbing Business Today

Phone Call Tracking System

Now that you have come this far, you now know about the major advantages of call tracking. Regardless of how well you satisfy or please your clients, you should invest in call tracking to learn about them. Whether you have a large or small plumbing business, you will experience an increase in sales soon after investing in call tracking.

When it comes to plumbing & HVAC, you and your staff must know how to talk with clients. Call tracking is the only way to enhance your communication skills since you can analyze how you and your sales team speak.

Schedule a free discovery call with BlackStorm Design + Marketing to learn how you can improve your plumbing company with call tracking.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

“Plumber Near Me” Searches: How to Rank Your Plumbing Business Higher on Google

Get Your Plumbing Website Rank Higher In Google, Increase Your Exposure To “plumber near me searches” And Maximize Your Potential To Get Qualified Leads Online.

If you manage or own a local plumbing business, you want to reach homeowners and property managers in the surrounding area. But it goes without saying that your company is always fighting for clients with several competitors online. The plumbing industry is crowded with several plumbers competing for the same number of limited clients.

However, there are strategies that you can use to make your company stand out from the curve and get a competitive advantage when looking to get more qualified leads that could convert into paying clients.

rank higher in Google

One strategy you can use is optimizing your plumbing website for local search. This is crucial for various reasons, the most essential of which is ensuring that search engines like Bing or Google can find your website easily and rank it higher in their relevant searches.

This may include “near me” searches that users may type in Google. Many times, when looking for a plumbing company on Google, clients won’t have a glimpse of who they are searching for, and that’s why they just type in “plumber near me” on Google and locate what is geographically closest to them.

If your plumbing company website is not optimized for local search (or near me searches), you could be missing a significant portion of your target market. Ranking higher in the “plumber near me” searches can make your company a focal point of that particular geographical area, which can make your business appeal more to those local clients.

But how do you rank higher in those “plumber near me searches”on Google? Here are our expert tips:

1. Make Sure Your Google Business Profile is Properly Updated

Google Business Profile

There are various tools your plumbing company can use to help rank higher on “near me” searches. One of such tools is creating a Google Business Profile. Your details would be shown if a user were to look for a plumbing business. This information includes your address, company name, contact details, reviews, and opening or closing hours. When verifying your plumbing business on Google, you are given a chance to edit such information and add to it so as to fill in as many details about your company as possible.

As a plumber, you should also ensure that the information provided in the Google Business Profile is regularly updated and accurate. If your plumbing company wants to rank higher in near me searches, you should also ensure that it is listed in major business directories like Angie’s List, Yelp and HomeAdvisor.

2. Geo-Target Your Web Content/Pages Around Specific Locations

geotargeting

As a plumber, you want your ideal customers to find your website on Google or Bing, right?

One of the few things you can do is map out the particular areas where your company serves. It goes without saying that geotargeted plumbing keywords are easier to rank (e.g., plumber in Murfreesboro) in Google since they are typically less competitive. They also have high conversion rates.

Therefore instead of creating content around “plumbing contractors in Tennessee,” you can scale down to the area you want to get local clients from. Best of all, you can use the Google Keyword Planner to identify those geotargeted keywords.

3. Make Your Online Customer Reviews Visible

Customer Reviews

Client reviews have nowadays become one of the most crucial aspects for plumbers getting new leads or businesses. Simply because a huge portion of people look for online reviews before hiring a local service business like roofers or plumbers. Prospects tend to trust such reviews as they do with recommendations from their friends or family members, feeling as though it offers them a level of trust in a business that may not have been there previously.

Google Makes it simple for their clients to review a plumbing business. All a client has to do is open Google Maps, search for that business, and choose to write a review, which is that easy.

Online reviews play a major role not only in the trustworthiness and authority of your plumbing company but also in your overall organic search ranking. Google puts a lot of emphasis on the number of online reviews as well as the overall score when ranking your plumbing business website.

If your plumbing company has a lot of negative online reviews, don’t conceal them, work on enhancing them. Even when you are obtaining positive reviews, you should prioritize responding to every review left. Show your clients that you care about the quality of the plumbing service that they get by responding professionally to the complaint and working to make sure that they are satisfied with the overall experience.

Ultimately, you need to make sure that your plumbing company is obtaining a lot of positive reviews since Google’s SERP utilizes this as a factor when determining overall search rankings. When you have lots of positive online reviews, though, you want to show them off as much possible as you can. This makes it easy for prospects or clients to see that your plumbing business is trustworthy and offers quality service.

4. Display Your Business Name, Address, and Phone Number

Business Name, Address, and Phone Number

Showing an accurate company name, phone number, and address clearly is crucial when optimizing your plumbing website for “near me” searches.

Ensure that you display your address, phone number(s), and business name typically throughout your plumbing website, most likely at the bottom of your page.

5. Make Sure that Your Business Information is Consistent Across All Platforms

Consistent Business Information

Be consistent with the business information that you share with prospects or clients. Consistency helps Google show the most updated and accurate information for your clients and anyone searching for a “plumbing contractor near me.”

If you portray an inconsistent address on a local business directory, you may end up confusing Google. This common problem can be cleaned up manually or using paid services.

6. Use Schema to Show Events in the SERPS

Schema

Another way of featuring in the local search results is by planning events and showing this information in schema markup.

Updating your schema markup increases credibility and boosts your market share by directly featuring events with the SERP for your plumbing company.

Schema markup is an excellent way for your plumbing company to reach clients via local search. Schema data helps search engines like Bing or Google collect the right information about your company and present it via rich-featured snippets. You can utilize it to show your hours of operation, contact information, and business address.

7. Optimize Your Photos for Location-Based Searches

Location-Based Searches

Photos impact location-based searches. Think strategically when optimizing your images. If you want to rank higher for a particular location, that location should be one of your keywords not only in the content you use on your plumbing website but also in the tags and file names of every photo.

8. Obtain Backlinks with Location Anchor Text

anchor text

Backlinks will typically be part of an effective plumbing SEO strategy. But, when it comes to local SEO for plumbers, you want to concentrate on high-quality/relevant backlinks with the local geographical anchor text. If you want your business to rank for near me searches in Murfreesboro for the emergency services category, you wouldn’t target the keywords “near me” but rather “Emergency plumbing Murfreesboro.”

9. Make Sure Your Plumbing Website is Mobile-Friendly

Mobile-Friendly website

Google has put a lot of importance on the user experience, implying you should too. Because most “near me” searches occur on mobile devices, ensure your site is mobile-friendly. This implies that it should be fast and work seamlessly across any mobile or desktop device.

10. Create and Optimize Pages for every Business Location

GMB

Does your plumbing business have more than one service area? If so, you need to build different web pages and Google Business Profiles for each location. In addition, your plumbing company will want to optimize such properties for “near me” searches. Particularly, your webpages should contain:

  • A user-friendly URL that shows your location, such as www.mysite.com/Seattle-plumber/
  • Meta tags and title tags are optimized for location and target keywords.
  • A brief description of the location that shows the hours, services offered, and address.
  • Proper alt and title tags for photos used on the website

Finally, Rank for “Plumber near me” searches with SEO services from BlackStorm Design + Marketing

higher organic ranking

You can do many things to optimize your plumbing business for those important “near me” searches. Most customers end their search on the first page of the search engine result page, and they will most likely contact the top three plumbers on the first page of search results. If your plumbing company is not close to the top of the list, it doesn’t matter how much experience you have you are not likely to obtain any calls.

Of course, you can solve the issue by using our plumber SEO services to ramp up your rankings where it requires you to be on Google. Using the right SEO plumbing keywords will increase traffic to your website result in more qualified leads, and ultimately book more jobs.

Your higher organic ranking means obtaining more calls every month. Our SEO experts can help drive traffic to your plumbing website and high ranking on Google.

Getting the leads that you require to increase your plumbing jobs from online traffic is not easy without the right support. If you want to rank higher in “near me” searches for your service area, reach out to plumbing SEO experts at BlackStorm Design + Marketing today. We have the insight and expertise you require to reach the people you want to book jobs with most. We can help you with optimizing your current social media and website, streamlining your accounts, and coming up with new ways to spread the word about your plumbing business out in your local community.

Schedule a free discovery call with BlackStorm Design + Marketing to learn how our plumber SEO services can help grow your plumbing business online today.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

How to Get More Yelp Reviews for Your Plumbing Business

Yelp is one of the most famous directories for people to research and review companies. Many property owners utilize it as one of their initial tools when searching for a plumbing contractor. If you have not optimized your Yelp listing, that should be on your to-do list right now. After widespread storm damage, many property owners’ initial reaction is to instantly go online and research professional plumbers to evaluate their property. They find that the plumbing company is based on recommendations from a trusted service-related review directory like Google My Business or Yelp. Such directories give a first-time glance at your plumbing company to customers.

Yelp is a review tool that has increasingly become powerful in recent years. This post will discuss how plumbers can get more Yelp reviews and make the most of word-of-mouth advertising. Keep reading to find the expert-approved tips you have been searching for.

Create a Quality Yelp Profile

Yelp Profile

The first step you need to take is to create a quality Yelp profile for your plumbing company. After all, this is a tool for helping prospects discover your company as easy as possible.

Simply put, your Yelp profile is your brand’s face when property owners search for plumbing products or services. Note that this process does not have to be expensive or tedious. You only need to use high-quality images and a clear description that promotes your services.

Learn about Yelp’s Advanced Features

new Yelp business features

Yelp has lots of features that can assist your business in attracting potential customers. Thus the more you educate yourself about how to navigate and use them, the more chances you will have of driving relevant traffic to your plumbing business. For instance, you can provide Yelp deals, collect payments, or create prepaid vouchers.

Provide the Best Plumbing Service or Product Possible

plumber in uniform and female customer

This one may sound obvious because it is vital to operating a successful plumbing company and taking your profitability a notch higher.

In other words, the best approach to increase positive Yelp reviews is to provide the best service or products possible.

After all, it is no secret that word of mouth is the most effective form of marketing. Prospects get excited when they learn about something they love and spread the word to their family and friends. 

When clients have an excellent or poor experience, they want to inform others about it. Yelp has developed an ideal tool for clients to share this type of detail so prospects can know which plumber to support or avoid.

Encourage Your Clients to Leave Yelp Review

Yelp Review

When interacting with your clients, never hesitate to request them to leave a review on Yelp. This is particularly crucial when they tell you how much they loved your service or product. You don’t have to be pushy, but a polite request to rate your plumbing company online is generally acceptable.

Engage with Clients Online

engage with your customers

Yelp also helps your business engage with customers online. Thus, you can build friendships and relationships with faithful clients and know those who are yet to visit in the future. Online interaction is a useful tool that should not be taken for granted. Besides, it is fun listening to positive experiences from your previous clients.

Never Pay for Reviews

don't pay for positive reviews

As a plumber, you might be tempted to pay some of your clients to leave a positive review on Yelp. It might seem a quick and easy way to get glowing reviews for your business, but that’s a bad idea as readers can tell when something does not smell right so this tactic will produce unfavorable results.

How to Optimize Your Yelp Listings

Optimize Your Yelp Listings

Here are some things that you can do to make your Yelp Listing better:

  • Check All Your Business Details on Yelp:  There might be missing or incorrect business details on your listing; therefore, ensuring that all the information is accurate and cleaning it up should be your initial step. This means that you check the phone numbers, business names, hours of operation, addresses, and websites.
  • Add a Relevant Project Image or Your Logo as Your Profile Photo: If you don’t brand your company correctly on Yelp, it will be easier for prospects to forget you. Include a logo so that people can have something that they can associate you with.
  • Add Photos: People respond well to visuals than texts. Upload quality photos of your completed projects, team photos, pictures of your office, or something people would like to see.

Handling Negative Yelp Reviews

negative reviews

If you are like most plumbing contractors, the mere thought of getting a 1-star review can be worrisome and intimidating, but if you understand how to handle negative reviews on Yelp, you can somewhat turn them into something positive.

While you cannot control clients who leave a bad reviews, you can reduce them by exercising precautions and professionally responding to them. Such precautionary measures include maintaining positive interactions with clients and generating as many reviews as possible. Responses should be solution-based and should paint your company in a positive light. It would be best if you did not use an argumentative tone or profane language when responding to a Yelp review.

Final Verdict

We cannot overstate the importance of online reviews to your plumbing company, which separates successful plumbers from the average ones. As a plumber, you should focus on getting reviews from the three significant directories like Yelp, Google, and Facebook.

If you need any help managing your plumbing business’s online reputation, kindly schedule a free strategy session with our growth experts today.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

How To Make Plumbing SEO and PPC Work Together?

In today’s world, the internet is the biggest marketplace under the sky. Literally, everything can be found and purchased online. Some companies do their business strictly on the internet, but no company in the world doesn’t present their business on the internet. Both sellers and users of products and services search for what they need online – users to find what they need and sellers to find buyers for what they offer. Websites are created as the best marketing tool there is. But advertising products on your website is not enough. Some tools can help both groups find what they are looking for much faster and more efficiently. The most successful tools are SEO and PPC.

How do search engines work?

search engines

Search engines are the most helpful tools for internet users. If you are looking for something on the internet, you will use search engines to find that. You will type words that explain the product or service or information you are looking for the best. A search engine will use your words to find content on the web related to your search. Words you use are called keywords, and search engines use those to detect all sites that have content relevant to your search. Since there are many websites to browse, search engines look for those sites that match the best keywords. The sites that have such content are shown on top of search results, and they attract most customers.

What is SEO, and how does it work?

SEO optimization

SEO is a tool that helps a website gain better rankings on major search engines. A website can be looked upon as commercial. A good commercial does not just say: this is the product, it is used for that, buy it. Good commercial tries to attract potential buyers by using the best tools to explain how the product is different from similar products, why you need that particular product, what you will gain by getting it, and how it works. At the end of the commercial, the buyer has a feeling that he or she knows everything relevant to the product and is aware of why it is worth spending money on. SEO acts as a director of a great commercial. Search engine optimization helps the website become interesting for a group of customers it appeals to. This means that the site can be optimized to be shown in top search results for that product or service. This is done by changing content to look more reliable, more available, and more trustworthy. 

There must be a good strategy of how the content of a site will look – with plenty of information, relevant links, good web design, frequent adding of new content, making the search of the site easy and clear, making traffic and loading of content faster, and so much more. A good SEO will help a site become more visible and top-ranked on free or organic search results.

What is PPC, and how does it work?

Pay-per-click

PPC means Pay Per Click. Pay-per-click has the same role as SEO: to attract customers to your site, except PPC is not free. PPC means that there are paid advertisements on search engines that will lead customers to sites advertised by them. They are displayed on a search engine and also use keywords as guidance for search engines. But the advertiser only pays for these advertisements when a customer clicks on them (and is directed to a site in question). Pay-per-click ads usually cost very little and have an enormous impact on website traffic. They are displayed when keywords are entered. PPC can provide good attendance to the website and help a product or a service be more visible. Still, the price you pay for PPC can vary from very cheap to more expensive, depending on which keywords you use. Competition on the internet is enormous, and some keywords are more frequently used. Those keywords cost more if you want your website to appear in the top search results. 

How do SEO and PPC work together?

SEO + PPC

Even though it sounds that SEO and PPC do the same work but in different ways, and one is free while the other is paid for, they don’t cancel each other. They can do wonders when paired with a job to boost website visits. You may be asking yourself, “why pay for something you can get for free?” the answer is – you don’t. Even if SEO and PPC do the same thing, they are separate marketing tools, and each has a unique purpose. But when put together, they can help each other do the best job for your needs. Both SEO and PPC use keywords. If you use different SEO and PPC keywords, people who are seeing your SEO search results don’t see your PPC, as keywords do not point in the same direction. SEO is free, but SEO does need time to start doing its magic. You must earn your spot in the top search results. If you use PPC as well, it will begin to attract visitors to your site right away. PPC can help you work out SEO strategy the best way. PPC can show which keywords are most searched for, so you can optimize the content of your website to match that. Using SEO and PPC simultaneously helps better visibility of the search engine’s results. The top three spots on search engine results are usually PPC. If SEO brings your site to top visibility for organic searches, that means the site dominates both free and paid search results. Remember, organic search results and paid ads are not the same. Most search engines display paid ads in different fields than organic ones, which is why search engine optimization and pay-per-click work so well together.

Today’s business is not the same as it was only ten years ago. New technologies and shifting the focus of marketing to the internet demand new ways of attracting customers. 

SEO and PPC are modern business tools; using them together can give the best possible results.

Categories
Plumbing Public Relations

Tips That Can Make or Break Your Plumbing Business’ Online Reputation

Do you know what prospects or clients say or think about your plumbing business?

Whether you have been in the plumbing industry for a while or a new brand just launching your services, it is important to listen to what people say about your business (either offline or online). Every plumbing company should have an online reputation management strategy to carefully monitor how other people perceive your brand. However, you cannot develop a strong plumbing brand overnight.

Creating a good plumbing reputation requires time and effort, sometimes taking several months or even years to build. On the flip side, even if you offer the best plumbing service in town, one negative review can demolish your good reputation instantly. Negative reviews or comments can spread fast like wildfire, and it is crucial to create a plan to react quickly to solve your client’s problem.

This post will help you know how to manage your plumbing brand’s reputation so you understand what people are saying about your business, including the bad, ugly and good. We will also discuss how to set your brand management crisis strategy for your company so you can react quickly to address any problem.

A good online reputation means clients trust you and the services you provide. Thus, they feel more comfortable booking jobs with your plumbing company, even though they have other plumbers around. Without further ado, let us dive into our post.

What is  Online Reputation Management for plumbers?

Reputation Management

Simply put, plumbing reputation management is the process of improving and controlling how your business is perceived by the public online or offline. It is increasingly becoming hard for plumbers to safeguard their own image online. Social media allows every Tom, Dick, and Harry to say anything about your brand, and it feels like there is nothing you can do about it.

But there is!

There are even experienced plumbing reputation management agencies, like Blackstorm Design +Marketing, whom you can pay to handle this for you.

In broader terms, online reputation management for plumbers comprises three core principles:

  • Maintaining and creating a consistent, public personal of your business or brand.
  • Analyzing and responding to client’s feedback
  • Subduing negative plumbing brand crises.

How does Online Reputation Management for Plumbers Work?

Plumbing company reputation management

Two keys to any online reputation management strategy for plumbers. Plumbing company reputation management typically consists of the following tactics including the two main ones:

  • Monitor: Know what influencers, customers, and competitors say about your plumbing brand.
  • Respond: Take proactive measures to build a positive brand identity, and improve what prospects or clients say about your plumbing business.

Are you already doing this in your plumbing company? There is a likelihood you are not. We are going to discuss every aspect of managing the online reputation management of your plumbing company.

Here we go!

Tip #1: Monitor Your Online Reputation

managing your online reputation

The first step toward managing your online reputation is the most important. Without this, you cannot attain the rest. The idea here is based on the premise that you first hear what people say about you and then respond.

So, you first need to listen carefully.

What you monitor depends on where your plumbing business is present online. Do people talk about your plumbing brand on social media, on forums, or on review websites like Yelp or HomeAdvisor?

By researching the perception of your plumbing business on social media platforms, you will be able to identify the problematic aspects of your brand and improve them accordingly.

Tip #2: Develop a Response Plan

Reputation Management for Plumbers

It is all good to understand what is being said about your plumbing brand online. In fact, it’s important. But how you are going to enhance your online reputation will be courtesy of the action you are going to take and the steps you take.

Nowadays, prospects or clients look at your online presence before they decide if they want to book a job with you. And among the most important parts of your online presence are user-generated reviews and your responses to those reviews.

Follow these crucial tips for creating a response plan:

  1. Engage: Deciding to focus on your online presence is the initial step in making your online presence work for your plumbing company. Claim all of your plumbing company pages and turn notifications on so you are aware when clients are talking about your brand or sharing their experiences.
  2. Be Prepared to Respond: Regardless of whether you agree with an online review or not, having a response plan implies you will respond to every review no matter what. Responding to a review doesn’t have to be a back and forth conversation between your plumbing business and the reviewer, but rather show off your best customer service practices to all future clients. Keep your response short, thank them for their feedback, and then take your conversation offline.
  3. Be open to feedback: Having a strategy in place for responding to online reviews implies that you need to be open to gleaning learnings or insights from your clients who share their experiences online, negative or positive.
  4. Usually, Take the High Road: Your response is a reflection of your plumbing company. The only worse problem than getting a bad review is pairing it with a heated or aggressive response. Use your feedback as a plumbing business owner to remain professional and respectful.

Tip #3: Handle Negative Reviews Delicately

Negative Reviews

What do you normally do when you get that one-star review rating? You can be tempted to brush it off or assume that it never happened and wish that it gets buried in the sea of happy clients.

But you can’t just ignore negative reviews. They are public and remain online probably forever.

Responding to online reviews allows you to clear the air. A recent study found out that over 80% of unhappy clients were worn out with the right response.

So what is the right strategy?

Respond in a friendly, polite, and professional manner.

Tip#4: Build on the Positives

Positive reviews

Just as you should not ignore negative reviews, it pays to respond to positive reviews or comments. These are the reviews that actually improve your online reputation. Not only will you reward clients for saying nice things, but you will also motivate others to do the same.

So that’s simple. You appreciate clients for their kind reviews and hope they share your feedback with their network. But how can your plumbing business even generate more positive reviews?

  • Manage your online profiles actively: By managing your online review platforms like Yelp, Thumbtack, and HomeAdvisor you send signals to prospects or clients that you are responsible and trustworthy.
  • Simply ask for reviews: More than 70% of clients will leave a review if requested. Besides, most people will have a positive impression of a business that cares about the quality of the plumbing services they offer. So simply requesting reviews can enhance the customer’s sentiment toward a plumbing contractor.

Tip# 5: Monitor Your Results

Monitoring online reputation management

The last step is actually to implement changes you have committed yourself to. Did you provide a client with a discount as an apology for poor service? You are investing in online reputation management because you want to safeguard it. More likely, you want to enhance it. So you need to monitor whether it’s working. If it’s not generating desired results, then you need to partner with an experienced reputation management agency like Blackstorm Design + Marketing.

Get Started with Plumbing Reputation Management Services from Blackstorm Design + Marketing Today

Online Reputation Management Services

When it comes to finding innovative and new ways to install plumbing systems, prospects or clients only go to reliable plumbers they can trust. At Blackstorm Design + Marketing, we amplify the success stories of your former customers by sharing that with the internet, thus improving your credibility and trust to the top of the search engine results pages.

Leverage Blackstorm Design + Marketing plumbing marketing strategies to expand your client base. Regarding online reputation, we work to:

Get Your plumbing company noticed

Secure Online Reputation

With all the cutthroat competition out there, it is crucial to stand out from other plumbers online. Blackstorm Design + Marketing reputation management professionals dig in and identify what makes your plumbing company superior to others by displaying board certifications, success stories, and credentials-then doing what it takes to obtain those 5-star reviews to the top of the search engine results.

Emphasize Testimonials

Testimonials

Homeowners want to find a plumber that is going to fix their pipes efficiently and quickly, so they regularly refer to friends, family, and online reviews for recommendations to identify which plumber is appropriate for them. So, we ensure that the highest number of positive reviews are boosted to the top of the search engine results so that your prospects can make an informed choice about who they will probably connect with and trust.

Showcase Your Attributes

keep your brand message consistent across all platforms

Through content generation, PPC, social media, and web design, we promote what makes your plumbing company stand out and keep your brand message consistent across all platforms so that your customers can be assured that they might have an educated decision in getting the assistance they require.

Establish Trust

Businessmen shaking hands

Along with finding the right online review websites to promote your plumbing brand and creating regular messaging for your website and search engines, Blackstorm Design + Marketing reputation management professionals look at your social media platforms to see where we can prove to your followers that you an authority in your industry.

Put Trustworthy Sources at the top

After finding your glowing reviews, success stories, and reputable colleagues, our reputation management experts work tirelessly to get that information to the first page of the search engine results page by utilizing it in advertising, SEO content, and website creation efforts.

SEO services

Schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing to learn how our experts can help your plumbing company improve its reputation online today.

Categories
Google Advertising Plumbing

An Effective Way To Rank #1 For Plumbing Keywords On Google Maps And Get More Clients

Plumbing GMB SEO Tips That Will Connect Your Business To Wallet Out Customers Looking For Your  Services Online

The plumbing industry is extremely competitive, particularly when it comes to getting your services in front of clients when they need them. Nowadays, it is common for homeowners who need a plumber instantly to turn to the top listing on Google and work their way from there.

Setup Google My Business

Google has shifted the way that customers search online by making it hassle-free for plumbing contractors to get discovered. Your plumbing website is still the main element of your marketing but Google has made it simpler to find your services from Google search results.

While having a conversion-focused plumbing website, using Local Service Ads, and investing in online advertising are all crucial components of an internet marketing strategy, many plumbers tend to overlook Google My Business, a free tool given by Google.

Google My Business is all about making your plumbing services visible to prospects/clients online. To that end, we will provide a definitive guide for plumbing contractors who want to make the most out of their Google My Business profile. Keep reading to learn more about Google My Business marketing for plumbers.

What is Google My Business for Plumbers?

Google My Business

Previously known as Google Places, Google My Business is a free tool for plumbing companies and other businesses that promotes your website and company listing on Google Maps and Search results. More importantly, Google My Business is a way for new clients to find your company when searching for plumbing services online and can offer an effective way for you to obtain new clients. It helps you to display important information for your plumbing business like address, hours of operation, website, reviews, frequently asked questions, phone numbers, and more.

4 Reasons Why Every Plumbing Business Needs a Google My Business Profile

Google My Business Profile

First things first: why should plumbers even bother with Google My Business in the first place? The simple answer is Google is visited almost 62 billion times annually-more than any other website on the planet.

Google My Business is the go-to platform when you want to ensure your plumbing business performs well online. It is a tool offered by Google Search Engine to help plumbing company owners reach a wider audience in their local service area. Homeowners type in a search for a plumber near them, and Google offers a local plumbing company name, phone number, hours they open, and an URL link to the website. You want to be the very first plumbing business clients see when searching for a local plumber help, so you must make use of the Google My Business Profile.

There are plenty of reasons why Google My Business is crucial for plumbing contractors. Consider the following reasons for including Google My Business SEO in their plumbing marketing strategy:

1. Local SEO Control

Local SEO

The organic result following a local search for a plumbing company is at least three of the nearest plumbing contractors to a customer. If you want to outrank your competitors, then you need to be one of the prominent three results that show up. Google My Business will assist you to control what customers see when they use search engines, and the amount of information offered is up to you. The more prospects know, the more they are likely to trust your plumbing business, and the higher chance they will hire your company for their plumbing needs.

2. Obtaining Reviews

5 star customer review

One of the most crucial aspects of obtaining a Google My Business Profile is the online reviews that will you will get. Homeowners will start talking about the quality of the plumbing services you offer will have a huge impact on how people perceive your company. There is a huge amount of trust pegged on online reviews, and a prospect is more likely to go with a business with customers talking online than one without any third-party opinions. But you need to be careful when responding to negative reviews.

When handling negative reviews, make sure to respond thoroughly and with much respect to the reviewer’s opinion. You want to offer a satisfactory response that addresses the pain points and shows your willingness to make things right. Once you obtain the hang of handling both negative and positive reviews, the entire Google My Business profile journey becomes much easier. You will be able to attract new customers while satisfying the existing ones.

3. Google Analysis

Analysis concept

When you create a Google My Business profile, the process is free, and you can include as many locations as you want. Remember that every location needs that you include all the information and verify each one at a time. Every location will have its online reviews, and if you register sufficient locations, then that might entitle you to a discount. Google is always looking for spam, so you will be required to register your home address instead of putting a P.O. Box. This is for companies that offer services at client locations, and this address will not be availed to the public as you mark you don’t get clients at that address.

When a homeowner is frantically looking for an emergency plumber online while their basement gets flooded, they are less likely to scroll down to the bottom of a search page. That’s why having a Google My Business Profile is so crucial to your plumbing company.

4. Build Local Authority

You can count yourself as a local authority with your plumbing services, but an optimized Google My Business can alter the way people view your company.

This is particularly true if you craft consistent content that helps homeowners understand your plumbing services. Most people will search for local plumbers on Google by asking questions.

There is no denying the power of Google My Business for plumbers. It is one of the effective ways of growing your plumbing business, creating brand awareness, and generating plumbing leads online.

Interested in hooking new plumbing clients with GMB SEO services?

Schedule a free discovery Call with Blackstom Design + Marketing to learn more.

Understanding the Google My Business Plumbing Customer Journey

Customer Journey Maps

Google My Business for plumbing contractors and all the optimizations that go with starts with James.

James is new in town. He recently bought a new house last month. But James has a toilet clog problem. James has no idea what’s wrong with his toilet. And why should he? He’s not a licensed, professional, certified plumber like you are. So what does James do? He is going to do what every other James does across the nation. He conducts a local search for toilet repair on Google.

Up until now, James doesn’t know your plumbing company from a specific hole in the wall. He understands what his problem is- his toilet will be flooded because of a clogged sink- but he doesn’t know which plumber to call to repair it.

Eventually, James gets a couple of options. He sees a few local plumbing contractors and their Google My Business profiles. After scrolling below the fake plumbing GMBs, James comes across legit-looking companies and is now singing the Ghostbusters song: “Who are you gonna call?

At this stage, James could end up selecting a plumber who is going to rip him off or fail to complete the job. And James needs to report to work tomorrow early in the morning! He needs a qualified plumber, and he requires a plumber right now!

In 2022, your plumbing Google My Business listing is more crucial than that if it assists decide whether the client should or shouldn’t work with your plumbing business.

Now let’s discuss the plumbing customer buying journey and your role in helping clients make an informed decision:

Customer journey map

They Don’t Know: A plumbing client conducts a quick search on Google. They don’t personally know you or the service you offer, and they are clueless about you or your competitors. Not only that, they don’t understand what makes your plumbing services stand out.

Pain Points: Your potential client has a problem but doesn’t have a clue on how to address it. They are definitely not calling you at this stage in the buying journey. But the more your Google My Business is visible online, the more your prospects will consider your plumbing company as she or he moves on to the next stage.

Solution: The plumbing client now understands the exact service they require, but they don’t know if your plumbing business offers it. How you optimize your plumbing GMB listing at this point is important. Do you have all your plumbing services filed out on your GMB?   Make sure that you optimize everything to respond to any questions the clients might have.

Service: At this stage, the plumbing client understands what plumbing services you provide but isn’t sure what she or he needs. This is the decision-making time! Do they know what plumbing services you provide but aren’t fully convinced? This is where online reviews, Google questions, and responses are so crucial. Most clients will read your recent reviews online, and they will look at the answers and examine your content. If you aren’t analyzing your online reviews, replying to them, and learning from them, then you are leaving a bunch of dollars on the table.

Ready: Now the customer is ready to schedule a service with your company and wants an answer to this old age question: How much? Pricing is a topic we will handle another day. But at this point, your client is at the bottom of the sales funnel. And your plumbing company is ready to close the lead!

Tips to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing for Plumbers: Our Proven Bag of Tricks

Google My Business Listing

Simply claiming your plumber GMB profile won’t cut it- to ensure that your listing pops us for relevant keywords in top rankings while converting browsers into paying customers, you require to optimize your plumbing business listing. Here are some steps you can take to optimize your plumbing GMB listing:

1. Use Your Operating/Legal Business Name

Your plumbing company name is one of the most crucial components of your Google My Business profile. It is essential that you follow Google’s best practices when it comes to the company name you use in your plumbing GMB listing.

You can use several blackhat tricks to game the system to achieve great rankings. Don’t do them. One thing plumbers try and do is place the location of their GMB profile. For instance, Dan owns a plumbing business, and the legal name of his company is Dan’s plumbing. Dan services Murfreesboro, TN area. The name he utilizes in his GMB listing should be Dan’s plumbing, not Dan’s plumbing in Murfreesboro.

If the name of the region or city you serve is part of your legal company name, then you need to incorporate it by all means. But if your registered name doesn’t include the name of the city or area you service, don’t add it to the name in your GMB profile. This strategy may get you short-term results, but it can get your listing suspended by Google.

2. Choose the Right Primary Category

Category

One of the most common blunders we see plumbers make with their Google My Business listing is not choosing the right primary category. This is because the categories you select for plumbing GMB profile can assist Google to connect your business to clients based on what they are looking for online. There are two kinds of categories- secondary categories and primary categories, and you choose your secondary and primary categories from a predefined list.

You must select the right primary category. In the case of a plumbing business, the primary category you choose should be “plumber.”

If you offer more than just plumbing services for instance, electrical or HVAC, you can add these as secondary categories-“Electrician” and “HVAC Contractor”. There are other categories you may want to consider depending on the services you offer.

Whatever your primary plumbing service, put it as your primary category. If HVAC is your main service and plumbing is secondary, then define those categories accordingly.

When it comes to displaying plumbing-related queries, our analysis shows a clear winner; more than 90% of businesses used plumbing or plumber as their primary category.

3. Focused Plumbing Marketing: Define Your Service Areas

Define Your Service Areas

Another crucial section to complete is the service area section of the GMB profile. Service areas are a very crucial field to fill out, and here is a good place to list all the states or cities your plumbing company is servicing. By adding a city to the service area section, you are allowing Google to understand that your business is ready to service clients in these cities, and this is where your GMB listing will be popping up. For instance, if you offer plumber services and you select Murfreesboro, TN as your service area, your profile can pop up whenever residents in Murfreesboro search for “plumbing services”.

Don’t add cities that you are planning to service later, as this will reduce the overall quality and accuracy of your plumbing GMB listing. You can include such cities in the future when you will be ready to send your crew to those areas.

4. Hours of Operation (+Special hours)

Hours of Operation

Hours of operation allow your prospects to know whether you are open for service on holidays and weekends. It is extremely crucial to list opening and closing hours as accurately as possible and typically update your special hours, letting your clients know whether you are closed or open on specific days (Mother’s Day, Christmas Eve, etc.).

The secret here is to always keep track of the upcoming public holidays and update your profile accordingly.

5. Complete your Plumbing Company Description

Company Description

The description is an area in your profile where you need to target those “money search terms” about your plumbing company. You have more than 750 characters to convince clients more about your plumbing company or services. Avoid stuffing keywords here. Always keep your potential clients in mind when filling out this section.

The primary keywords to use here are “City +yourservices” use the keywords as naturally as possible.

As a rule of thumb, always follow the Google Business description best practices when completing this section.

Let clients understand why they should hire you over other plumbers in the area, how long you have been in the business, the plumbing services you offer, and more while focusing on competitive keywords.

Don’t add any HTML codes or links in the business description area. At the end of your description, let clients know how they book a plumbing service appointment. Do they fill out a form or call your company? What hours should they expect to get their phone calls answered by your team?

6. Have a Well-Designed Plumbing Website

Plumbing Website Design

Your plumber website is important for internet marketing; it’s where prospects go to learn more about your plumbing company, meet your crew and see if you provide the plumbing services you are searching for. Best of all, your plumbing website helps your GMB rank higher for target Google searches and with your defined service area.

According to our analysis, almost 60% of plumbing contractors link to their website from the GMB listing. So having a professionally designed plumbing website will help in your GMB optimization efforts.

If you require any help with designing and developing your plumbing website, schedule a no-obligation session with one of our growth coaches for assistance.

7. Provide Your Phone Number

Your phone number is another crucial element of your plumbing Google My Business listing. It is prominently displayed on your GMB listing and helps clients contact your company directly even without visiting your site. This is particularly true if customers are accessing your GMB profile on a mobile device such as a smartphone. All they need to do is click your phone number to contact your plumbing business. It is convenient and quick for customers. The opposite is true, it can be frustrating as a homeowner if you are trying to call a plumbing contractor, but you can’t easily and quickly find their company’s phone number.

8. Get and Respond to all Online Reviews

Responding customer reviews

In the modern plumbing landscape, online reviews can break or make your business. They are like word-of-mouth recommendations from family or friends to new customers who consider your company for hire, and most homeowners are willing to use your plumbing services after seeing tons of positive reviews.

Besides such reviews assisting your company to make a great initial impression, they also assist you to rank higher on Google because of the relevant keywords used in every review. The more positive reviews your plumbing business has, the more potential clients will want to do business with your plumbing company. That said, it is important to be generating positive reviews every day to keep your plumbing business on top.

The good news is that obtaining such reviews isn’t hard. You can either request reviews from clients whom you have already worked with before or utilize follow-up calls or emails.

The reviews on your plumbing GMB profile can influence whether a homeowner will do business with your company or not. Here are some crucial facts about reviews:

  • More than 80% of customers read reviews for plumbing businesses
  • The average client reads about 10 reviews before feeling they can trust the business
  • 0% of clients said that they judge a business depending on how it responds to reviews

That’s why it is crucial to respond to each review you obtain to introduce great keywords that will help your listing rank.

9. List Your Plumbing Services

Although this section in your plumbing GMB profile is optional, you can include all the plumbing services you provide in the part of the service. You can add the price, a description, and a service name for every service.

Unlike products that are shown as part of your GMB listing, plumbing services are only visible on mobile devices. While the visibility of services is restricted, we highly recommend you include services in your GMB profile. Including services is a great way to differentiate your plumbing company from your competitors and can help to boost your local search rankings.

10. Upload More Photos

Google has previously stated that “Businesses with photos receive 35% more clicks to their website than businesses that don’t have photos. As you can see, having more photos in your GMB listing will make Google rank your site higher and gives clients more ways to know about your plumbing business and become comfortable with you as a plumbing service company.

One of the best photos on your GMB profile is those given by customers. Therefore, you should encourage your happy clients to add photos of your recently completed jobs. Client-added photos make prospects feel at ease with hiring you and become confident in your service offerings.

11. Questions and Answers

Q and A

Google My Business helps users to respond to your plumbing company. It is best to answer these questions accurately and comprehensively.

12. Add Highlights

Highlights help you tell people about your plumbing business’s specific attributes or services. Including them can assist you to stand out from other plumbers in the area.

13. Complete Every Section

The most crucial thing for you to do is to entirely fill out each section available on the profile so that search engines understand your plumbing business and understand what is right to display online. These details include:

  •       Business Name
  •       Services you offer
  •       Phone number
  •       Address
  •       Website
  •       Description
  •       Hours of Operation
  •       Question and Answers
  •       Photos
  •       Business category

It is crucial that the information shown for your plumbing business is accurate and matches the information displayed across the web. Be thorough with each detail as Google will favor listings with more details when deciding how to rank your profile amongst other plumbing contractors.

Frequently Asked Questions on Plumbing GMB Listing

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the steps to take to set up your plumbing GMB Profile?

  •       Login to Google Business Profile Manager
  •       Add your plumbing company
  •       Enter your location
  •       Complete your contact information
  •       Verify your business
  •       Customize your profile

How do you get your plumbing company to show up on the first page of Google?

If your goal is to achieve top rankings on Google, then you should do the following:

  • Use the right keywords
  • Develop a good local search engine strategy
  • Focus on creating high-quality plumbing content
  • Use social media to promote your business
  • Generate backlinks

How do you optimize your plumbing Google My Business listing?

Some of the things your plumbing company can do to get the most out of your Google My Business Profile include: selecting a specific and relevant category, uploading quality photos, using your phone number, and completing each section of your profile with accurate and correct details.

Generate More Leads with Our Plumbing GMB SEO Services

GMB SEO Services

Running a plumbing business is hard and time-consuming, even without thinking about your online strategy. You just want to become a plumber, not spend all your time creating an online presence that may be a waste of your advertising dollars.

Save time and concentrate on what matters most by putting your plumbing local SEO strategy in the hands of experienced internet marketing experts. We are a dedicated team that requires a huge, untapped market with tried and proven strategies, a results-driven mentality, and many years of experience helping home service contractors across the US.

Are you ready to dominate the local plumbing market and see incredible company growth? Schedule a no-obligation session with Blackstorm Design + Marketing today.

Categories
Plumbing Public Relations

Effectively Managing Your Company’s Reputation Online Can Establish Consumer Trust, Attract Better Talent And Increase Your Profits

Plumbing Reputation Management: What It Is And Why It Matters To Your Plumbing Business

Today, most businesses and consumers scour the internet to find a trustworthy, reliable plumber reputed for offering superior services. According to research, more than 80% of consumers believe in online reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends.

Online Reputation Management

As you know, when a kitchen pipe or a bathroom bursts, the homeowner needs to find a reliable plumbing contractor stat. And where do you think that they turn to find a plumber in their neighborhood that can come and fix it quickly? The search engines like Google or Bing.

There are over 50K searches online performed every month on Google by users typing in the keyword “plumber” into the search bars and an extra 14k consumers searching “plumber near me” (and more searches looking for “emergency plumber”) keyword. So, as a local plumbing business in the area, you must do everything possible to show up on top of the search engine result pages.

As a plumber, the internet should assist you to generate new leads easily, but if you aren’t vigilant, it can instantly ruin your business. This is why it’s so crucial for plumbers to know why online reputation management matters and how to engage with prospects or clients online.

Without further ado, let us dive in!

What is Online Reputation Management for Plumbers?

Online Reputation Management for Plumbers

Reputation management is the process of monitoring and improving what prospects or clients are saying about your plumbing business online. It is a strategy that involves molding and monitoring your plumbing business’s internet reputation.

Multiple strategies are used to improve your company’s reputation, including content development, search engine optimization, social media management, monitoring, review management and acquisition, and competitor monitoring to maintain a positive brand image.

Why is Plumbing Reputation Management Important?

Reputation Management

Maintaining a positive online reputation is necessary for your plumbing business with the increasing popularity of third-party reviews sites, social media, blogs, and other online platforms.

Your plumbing business needs to identify with what is said about it online and how they can improve clients perceive them negatively.

The importance of reputation management cannot be overemphasized for plumbing contractors. Here are some reasons that would clearly show why a plumbing company owner should take online reputation seriously.

  • Most Businesses and Homeowners Care About Online Reviews

Customer feedback

A huge percentage of business owners and homeowners are concerned about online reviews. In fact, most of them regard online reviews highly when looking for plumbers as they do with recommendations from family and friends. Most homeowners considering starting a home remodeling project go from searching ideas online to look for a plumbing contractor online. So, does a plumbing business have a way to manage online reviews that your potential customers see?

Do you have a process or strategy in place? What if you find bad reviews connected to your plumbing company unjustified? If so, you urgently need a reputation repair for your plumbing company because almost 80% of potential customers who see less-than-stellar reviews about your business will click off to another plumbing website within a blink of an eye.

  • Higher Search Engine Results Rankings

SEO

Online reviews can have a huge impact on your plumbing SEO strategy. This is because search engine algorithms know that clients place a lot of emphasis on online reviews of the plumbing company when making a hiring decision. Hence, a plumber who invests time and effort to handle their online reputation gets rewarded with higher SEO visibility.

  • Online Reputation Management Helps to Build Trust and Credibility

Trust and Credibility

Online reviews are not all about pleasing the Google or Bing algorithm, and it revolves around the way people perceive your plumbing business. With many consumers trusting online reviews (just like they do with personal recommendations from friends and family), getting clients’ trust is essential. Every plumber understands that a company’s reputation is important to its survival. Once the trust of the clients is obtained, the existing client would speak about your plumbing company to others.

A lot of emphasis is put on online reviews for homeowners or business owners to decide whether to trust your plumbing company or not. A good plumbing reputation implies that your company is deemed more credible than other plumbers in the area.

  • Higher Revenues and Sales

Golden coins stack and green growth arrow up

Before making a decision to use your plumbing services, homeowners tend to search on Google for a reliable plumber near them. And before they hire a specific plumber, they go through online reviews to see what other people say about them and their services.

Plumbers with tons of positive reviews always attract more clients. Plumbing companies that are perceived negatively or have a lot of lousy reviews miss out on huge opportunities and profits. That’s why your plumbing business should strive to have a lot of positive reviews.

  • Plumbing Reputation Management Helps You Build a Professional Image

Build a a Professional Image

Having a successful plumbing brand image is a very essential marketing tool for a business because it will be used to convince prospects or clients to use your plumbing services.

Potential and existing clients would attempt to learn a plumbing business differentiation by searching the name on Google. Since prospects don’t have a good idea about your business, they will search for the information available online and help them make a hiring decision. Hence, if a prospect finds a negative reputation, they won’t hire you for plumbing services. So, it would be advisable for your plumbing business to eliminate negative online reputation, if any.

  • Shows Customers That You Care

Online Review Management

Monitoring what people say about your plumbing business online and responding to positive and negative reviews shows them that you care. Naturally, all plumbers would expect to get positive reviews only, which are easier to handle. However, negative reviews can prove beneficial to your plumbing company in the long term. They are a source of invaluable response-consider what people say and repair the issues. Never ignore negative reviews as they may cause a social media crisis. Responding to negative and positive reviews will help you build good relationships with clients.

What are the Key Elements of Online Reputation Management for Plumbers?

We live in a digital world where people constantly communicate through the internet, blogs, forums, wikis, and telecommunications in general.

Online Reputation Management firm

In fact, we perceive online reviews as the fundamental building blocks of your plumbing company. Many businesses and homeowners first consult with trusted online review platforms such as Google or Yelp before making a hiring decision.

Knowing, monitoring, and attempting to control how people perceive your plumbing business on the internet is referred to as Online Reputation Management (ORM).

Here are some important elements to managing the online reputation of your plumbing business:

1. Online Reviews Acquisition and Monitoring

Nowadays, online reviews have become a reliable source of information that displays your plumbing brand, authority, and integrity. Reading online reviews is now an important part that informs their hiring behavior for many homeowners. Although plumbing contractors traditionally advertised through word-of-mouth, online review management is an important (and now unavoidable) aspect of internet marketing for plumbers.

If your business isn’t getting quality reviews from your satisfied clients, you are missing a lot of opportunities. Plumbing company reviews are a great addition to your plumbing website and appeal to potential customers and search engines alike.

The Major plumbing business review sites-platforms-such as Yelp, Facebook, Angie’s List, and Google My Business Listing –are full of consumer activity. Monitoring these online review websites is an important element of maintaining and managing your plumbing business’s online reputation.

But how do you get online reviews for your plumbing company? Here are our proven strategies:

Ask for a review for your company, product or services

  • Simply request (the right way): more than 70% of satisfied clients will give a review if asked. Most people will have a great positive impression of a plumbing business that cares about the quality of plumbing services they offer. So simply requesting feedback can instantly enhance the overall sentiment toward a plumber.

Providing symbolic, small bonuses for leaving an online review

  • Offer Incentives: Providing symbolic, small bonuses for leaving an online review can go a long way. Even as crucial as client incentives are staff incentives. Offering a reward or bonus to every service crew whose client leaves a pleasant review is not only an awesome way to motivate your employees to offer excellent client service but also make sure your employees never forget to remind clients to leave reviews online.

Customer pressing on smartphone screen with five star rating feedback

  • Make it easy for clients to review your business: Unless you have offered an amazing service or worked with a great client, clients don’t always seek out ways to leave positive online reviews. To encourage them to review your business, you must make it easy for them to complete this crucial step.

2. Monitor and Respond to Online Plumbing Reviews

Customer review satisfaction feedback survey

Every plumbing contractor loves tons of positive reviews on their business website or a review platform such as Angie’s List or Yelp. But the presence of a well-written positive review still needs your action. Following up with positive reviews builds customer loyalty and improves client satisfaction rates. Any plumber who has been in the industry for long knows that occasional negative reviews are inevitable. What differentiates those plumbing businesses is how they monitor and respond to them. Your responses to online plumbing reviews should be:

  • Professional: Polite in tone, grammatically correct, and establishing a customer-first attitude.
  • Solution-Oriented: Focus on resolving the problems at hand, that doesn’t imply automatic reimbursement to please the review but can involve some offers or discounts based on the issue.
  • Transparent: if mistakes were committed on your end, take responsibility, it will assist to humanize your plumbing brand and earn other clients’ trust.

As a plumbing company owner, negative online reviews are an integral part of your reputation management process. Instead of perceiving them like a death sentence for your plumbing business, change your thinking and see them as opportunities to resolve the current problem and to establish a positive reputation online.

3. Social Media Monitoring

Social media dashboard

Social media is a great tool that you can use to manage your plumbing company’s online reputation. Social media platforms can help you establish credibility, trust and puts your business in good standing within the plumbing industry.

They provide one of the most effective ways to connect or communicate with your potential clients. If prospects comment on your post, make sure that you respond to them with helpful information. Satisfied clients will typically share your posts to a larger audience and thus boosting your reputation online.

Social media monitoring offers a look at what your target audience has to say about you, your competitors, and the plumbing market, in general, there is a lot of activity on social media nowadays.

Monitoring this activity can help you understand your clients better and gives you details to enhance your plumbing marketing strategy, stay on top of competitors, build relationships and generate plumbing leads.

4. Deleting Negative Reviews

complain concept

Sometimes you need to request your web host provider to remove a nasty review on your plumbing website. Normally, they will comply if the review is malicious.

Shout out and let your concerns be heard. Write a post to explain what happened, post it on your blog, send it to a review site, and let your concerns known publicly.

Make Your Plumbing Reputation Management Easy with Blackstorm Design +Marketing Today

Plumbing contractors who have been in the industry for long will typically have a long list of customers who have possibly reviews on various platforms, such as Yelp, Angie’s List, Google, and Facebook. Blackstorm Design + Marketing can assist you to keep track of where your plumbing reputation is by combining them all in a centralized place.

Keep business at the top with our online reputation management services

Leverage our online plumbing reputation management solutions to grow your customer base. Regarding your online reputation, our experts will work to:

Get Your Plumbing Company Noticed

With all the stiff competition in the plumbing industry out there, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the competition. Our online reputation management specialists will analyze what makes your plumbing company unique to others by showcasing your credentials, success stories, and board certifications. Then, our team will do whatever it takes to obtain those 5-star reviews and ranking #1 on the search engine result pages.

Emphasize Online Reviews

Homeowners want to find a plumber that will fix their problems efficiently and quickly, so they regularly turn to friends, family, and online reviews for recommendations and advice to identify which plumber is suitable for them. So, ensure that most of your positive reviews are boosted to the top of search engine results pages to help your prospects decide which plumber they are likely to work with and trust.

Highlight Your Unique Selling Proposition

Through content creation, PPC ad campaigns, social media advertising, and retargeting, we promote what makes your plumbing business stand out while maintaining consistent messaging across all platforms so that your clients can rest easy knowing that they have made the right choice in outsourcing your plumbing services.

Establish Trust

Along with identifying the appropriate review websites to promote your plumbing services and create consistent brand messaging for your website and search engines, our online reputation management specialists examine your social media platforms to see where we can position you as an expert in the plumbing industry.

Want to find out more about our online reputation management services for plumbers?

Contact us

As part of a comprehensive internet marketing strategy, online review management can help to improve your company’s authority and awareness. It has never been simple to take charge of your company’s online reputation, and with some assistance from Blackstorm Design + Marketing, you can instantly get the positive reputation you have always wanted.

For more information, please schedule a free discovery call with Blackstorm Design + Marketing. Our experts will be happy to offer any information you require about online reputation management services and discuss your unique needs.

Categories
Plumbing SEO

Plumber, Do You Have A Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

Give prospects or clients a reason why they should choose your plumbing company instead of other plumbers in the area.

With more than 500,000 plumbers in the US,  you must differentiate your company with a unique selling proposition to book more service appointments and get more leads. Not differentiating your plumbing services is something that can adversely affect your business, and it is a scary scenario when new plumbers fail to allocate enough energy and time to make their company stand out from the competition.

Decision making illustration

One of the most difficult but not impossible tasks for a plumber is identifying their point of uniqueness in the market. Why should a prospect or client book jobs with your plumbing business instead of tons of other plumbers advertising the same services? The solution? You need to develop a unique value proposition that represents your HVAC or plumbing business.

Without further ado, let us dive in!

What is a plumbing Unique Selling Proposition?

What is a plumbing Unique Selling Proposition?

As a plumber, you need to provide something special to be successful in your business. Your unique selling proposition is the solitary aspect of your plumbing business that will distinguish it from all other plumbers that may be providing the same service. It is a simple expression of why you are unique, better, and different than other plumbers.

Plumbing USP is one of the most important rules of effective advertising or marketing that have withstood the test of time over the decades. It is something that you should include in every piece of marketing collateral that your business uses, and you should never attempt to advertise without it.

Why Is a Unique Selling Proposition Crucial to your Plumbing Marketing Strategy?

Unique Selling Proposition

Your plumbing USP is crucial because it differentiates your business from the competition, and it is the key to retaining loyal paying clients and winning new business. That said, your USP should be concise, clear, and easy for potential clients to understand.

If you invest time and effort in crafting a compelling USP, you can utilize it across all of your internet marketing communications, business branding, and interactions. When properly paired with your mission statement, you can offer a lot of clarity to your plumbing company model, what you do and why you do it.

When revising or creating your plumbing company’s USP, consider these important factors:

  1. Your target market: who are you targeting, and what desires or needs do they have?
  2. What makes your plumbing business unique: what are your strengths, and how can you capitalize on them?
  3. The advantages customers can get by doing business with you: Consider the value you provide to clients that they can’t find with other plumbers
  4. How do you convey your plumbing USP: what slogans or materials will you utilize to get your brand message across your physical or online marketing collateral?

Focusing on your target audience, analyzing your competitors, and examining what you have to provide as a part and parcel of your unique selling proposition.

Developing a unique selling proposition isn’t easy, but it’s worth the time and effort. When done properly, it will help you attract new leads or clients, set your business from the competition, and convey the value you provide.

10 Brilliant Ways to Hone a Unique Value Proposition for Your Plumbing Business

USP concept

While developing a unique selling proposition can be a daunting task, it is important for your plumbing business to find ways of standing out from the competition.

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for developing a unique selling proposition, but there are some important steps you can take to create an effective USP for your plumbing business:

1. Identify Your Target Market and Conduct Comprehensive Market Research

Market Research

Before you can even begin marketing your plumbing services, you need to understand your target audience or market.

Who are you attempting to reach or serve? Are they commercial or residential? Do you want to focus on a specific geographical area? How old are your clients? What is their average household income?

These are some of the questions that will assist you to understand your target market. That implies identifying what benefits your clients are searching for.

Many plumbers don’t know that creating a USP isn’t about coming up with something new. It is about discovering what makes your plumbing business unique and concentrating on those advantages for your target market. In this crucial step, you have to remain as specific as possible.

  • Define a plumbing market you want to focus on

If you are a plumber advertising your services, targeting any homeowner who needs help with toilet repair in the universe is too vague, bland, or too broad to work optimally.

It can be daunting to pick a direction if your plumbing marketing has embraced a general approach before. Evaluate your skills, unmet needs you identified during market research, and gaps among your competitors.

Here are some examples of an ideal client that a plumbing contractor might identify:

  • Homeowner
  • Real estate agents
  • Restaurant owners
  • Property managers
  • Other home service contractors

Once you understand who your target market is, it is time to do some additional research to know which benefits they are searching for. This can include interviews, online forums, and interviews.

What are the specific issues or pain points that your target audience/market is experiencing? What are they searching for in plumbing service to meet these needs or solve these problems?

You can also do some of this research online or ask your target audience directly through interviews and surveys.

2. Identify Your Plumbing Specialty

Business trend abstract concept

Identify your research and competition what they are offering.

It’s not just enough to understand what your target audience or market wants.

You can’t promote your plumbing services without understanding what makes them unique.

And you won’t be able to develop a compelling USP. If you don’t understand who your competitors are, and how they are different from your business.

Your competitors could be indirect or direct. To find out, you need to do some research online as well as speak to people in your target audience.

Here are some factors to consider as you research your competitors:

  • Who are your major competitors?
  • What plumbing services do they provide?
  • What is their USP?
  • Is it working? How do people perceive them?

Finding answers to these questions will help you have a good understanding of what your competitors are doing and how you can differentiate your plumbing business.

3. Develop Your Brand Message and Point Your Unique Selling Proposition

Unique Selling Points

Now that you know who your target market is, what they need, and how you can offer better services than your competitors, you can begin together with your unique selling proposition.

  • Develop Your Messaging

Your brand message should be relevant and clear to your target market, and it should also be unique from what your competitors are providing.

  • Identify the key differentiator or main benefit you offer

Select one or two differentiators that can distinguish your business from the competition. You may have discovered several options, and you need to choose which value proposition appeals most and meets your target market needs best. This could be a solution to a specific plumbing problem or unbeatable service charges.

  • Convey it in a way that’s to the point and simple

During your marketing research, don’t attempt to cram in every differentiator or benefit you have identified. The ideal plumbing USP should fit in a single sentence, and it is a great tool that attracts attention and cuts above the noise.

  • Ensure that your brand message is relevant to your target market

Don’t try to appeal to every prospect- it will be impossible and can sometimes cause bland messaging. Your brand message works best when you talk your target market’s language from the onset.

  • Focus on what makes your plumbing business unique

Remember those key differentiators that distinguish you from the competition.

  • Position Your Plumbing USP to Discuss Benefits for Potential Clients

Highlight the advantages of doing business with you that appeal to your target clients.

Simply put, market positioning is a process that seeks to establish your plumbing brand image and identity in the minds of target clients.

It revolves about determining how you want clients to perceive your business and later fulfilling that promise. If done properly, this can be more effective in increasing sales or obtaining market share.

Here are some strategies to help you out:

  • Highlight the benefits of booking service appointments with you: Don’t concentrate on the features. What is in for the client?
  • Be specific: Avoid vague statements like “we are the cheapest” or “we’re the best”. You need to be more articulate about why clients should care and why your plumbing company is unique.
  • Use Powerful imagery and strong language:  You have two or three seconds to attract attention in a crowded plumbing market. Utilize emotive language to drive your brand message home.
  • Make it easy for prospects to understand your USP:  Use straightforward, simple language that holds a punch. The advantage of doing business with you should be instantly clear to potential clients. Don’t attain a concise USP depending on the abstract, idiomatic expressions.
  • Make it believable: clients aren’t going to trust you if you make far-fetched claims or ones that are impossible to achieve.
  • Support your USP with proof:  If you can support your plumbing USP with data, testimonials, or facts in the surrounding copy, you will assist clients to feel confident that you are truly unique from the competition.

4. A Strong Unique Selling Proposition is Concise & Clear

Unique Selling Point

Keep it sweet, short, and straight to the point.

A strong unique selling proposition should be concise and clear so that your target audience can understand what you are offering and how it can benefit them. Here are some tips for making your unique selling point clear:

  • Consider your USP as a memorable slogan or tagline: Taglines and USPs are different entities, but how difficult would it be to create one from your USP?
  • Use active voice: Active voice is more precise and direct, which implies it takes less thought to know. Passive voice also tends to be more complicated, making it easy to eliminate unnecessary words.
  • Use Positive language that tells your target market what they obtain from using your plumbing services rather than what they stand to lose.
  • Eliminate any qualifiers: (“better than”, “almost”, etc.) from your plumbing USP so that it is as confident and strong as possible.
  • Make it unique:  If your brand message positioning conveys your differentiators using jargon in the plumbing industry, it won’t be memorable or clear.

5. Define Your Unique Selling Point

unique selling point banner

To be successful in your plumbing business, you need to provide something special. Your USP could be in any aspect of your plumbing business. Some plumbing companies USPS are:

  • Qualified local expert
  • Reliability guarantee
  • Specialists in bathroom and kitchen fitting
  • Drainage specialist
  • No call out charge
  • Free estimate/ consultation
  • No job too small or too big

Once you have discovered your unique selling proposition, you can craft your plumber marketing around your specialty.

6. Optimize Your Plumbing Website for SEO

Search engine optimization

Your plumbing web design should be visually appealing as well as functional. Each webpage must be user-friendly with clear page links and clear headings so clients can find what they are searching for easily and quickly.

Here are a few tips to optimize your plumbing company website to add value to your plumbing website and keep those qualified leads coming in.

  • Claim your local business listings on Yelp, Google My Business, and other directories where your business may show up.
  • Use relevant keywords for your plumbing business
  • Create a public company blog

7. Manage Your Online Reviews

Online Reviews

As plumbers, online client reviews are crucial for your online reputation management. Prospects will read through many reviews before deciding to book jobs with your plumbing company. Even in emergency scenarios, homeowners will request for recommendations from their family or friends, or typically on social media. A satisfied client will pass on their narrative of exceptional customer service.

Inviting every customer to review your plumbing business after service should be a standard business practice. With most consumers depending heavily on reviews to find local home service contractors like you, having a steady volume of online reviews on platforms like Facebook, Google, and Yelp is important.

Reviews are endorsements that help your plumbing company stand out from other plumbers online. Invitations to review instantly upon completing a specific project are crucial, and you can add a link to your email to help you get an online review.

8. Community Marketing

Characters of people and their social network

There is nothing more effective for a plumbing business that participating in crucial activities for the community. Join community events, get involved in local drives and charity, sponsor a local sports team and establish social contacts with your community.

Secondly, you can utilize local targeted paid ads: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising only seen by prospects or clients in your local area drives more revenue than it costs. Social media utilize search-based advertising. Anyone in your service area using specific keywords, for instance, “leak” or “plumber” will come across your ad immediately when they require it.

Lastly, giving away some branded stuff will help prospects remember your brand name longer, especially when they need your plumbing services.

9. Promote your Plumbing USP

Ensure your plumbing website, social media, and other marketing materials highlight your USP

Spreading the word out there about what makes your plumbing business different.

Ensure your plumbing website, social media, and other marketing materials highlight your USP and inform the core for their overall message.

Discuss it in your sales conservations, and be prepared to explain why it matters to potential clients. If you can’t show what makes your company special, it will be difficult for clients to notice the value.

  • Develop an elevator pitch that explains why prospects should book jobs instead of your competitors

A plumbing USP is an integral part of your elevator pitch. If you can easily show what makes you different, you will be better placed to get more leads online.

Your elevator pitch should be candid enough that it can be communicated from memory but allows for more information about your plumbing business.

  • Create a plumbing tagline that sums up your USP in a memorable and catchy way.

A tagline is a memorable, short phrase that conveys the key advantage of your plumbing brand. A clearly-defined USP drives a great tagline. A good plumbing tagline can be the difference between a marketing campaign that falls flat and one that succeeds.

  • Create marketing materials that help to support your USP.

Every touchpoint should try to reinforce what makes your business different from your competitors, from your client support templates to your landing page. Your plumbing marketing materials should be visually appealing, seamless to navigate, and easy to understand.

There are multiple ways to promote your unique selling propositions. Be creative and think of ways of coming up with unique ways to spread the brand message out there.

10. Talk to your team about your USP

Discussion with the team

Make sure every employee on your team, from service technicians, and client service to plumbing sales, knows about your unique selling proposition. They should be able to explain it confidently and clearly to potential clients. Invest in training them so they can effectively articulate your USP and close more sales.

  • Make your USP part of your brand identity

Your plumbing USP should be an integral part of your brand identity. Thus, it should inform everything; from brand messaging, content marketing, email marketing, landing pages, and beyond.

Consistency is crucial when it comes to plumbing branding. If your USP changes with every plumbing campaign, prospects will get confused and lose trust in your business.

  • Stay Consistent

Your unique selling point should be an integral part of your plumbing marketing and branding efforts. It should be showcased in everything you do, from your marketing, customer service, and words used to interact with your customers.

Keep your brand message consistent across all channels. Have a concise, clear message that you attach throughout your content marketing, website, marketing materials, and other client-facing communications.

Remember, consistency is crucial for establishing a successful brand identity.

Frequently Asked Questions on Plumbing USP

Question marks

What do you mean by USP?

A unique selling proposition (also known as a unique selling point) is the essence of what your plumbing service is better than that of your competitors. In internet marketing, communicating your USP quickly and clearly is one of the ways of getting prospects to convert to your site.

What should be included in a plumbing USP?

A good USP for your plumbing business should define your target market, discuss the problem you solve, explain the distinctive benefits your services offer, define your promise and cut it down.

What are the benefits of having a USP in your plumbing business?

There are several advantages that your plumbing business can enjoy using a USP including higher revenue, having a clear differentiation, simpler selling, and loyal clients.

Now that you know the keys to develop a stellar plumbing unique selling proposition, it’s time to get to work. Follow the tips discussed above and ensure you stay focused on delivering a brand message that resonates with your clients. Consistency is key when it comes to branding your plumbing business, so make sure that you include the USP in all your marketing efforts.

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