If you own and operate your own plumbing business, you probably don’t spend a substantial amount of time considering plumbing marketing ideas, social media strategies, or other business plans. Instead, you likely focus on the tasks that help your business grow each day: solving plumbing problems, satisfying your customers, and growing your market share through plumbing leads, referrals, and word-of-mouth marketing.
Even so, exploring new plumbing business ideas can make or break your business’s success. Despite the growing need for qualified plumbers and experienced plumbing business owners, the industry has become increasingly competitive. Without comprehensive plumbing marketing ideas and social media strategies, you may find that your new leads begin to dwindle while your competitors’ plumbing service companies continue to grow.
You can jumpstart your business in 2022 by incorporating eight tried-and-true plumbing company marketing and growth strategies. Whether you’ve begun to market your plumbing company on social media or have never bothered creating a website for your plumbing business, you’ll find everything you need to know about launching, managing, and evolving a plumbing service growth plan for your business, thanks to our staff at Weave.
Read on for everything you need to know about plumbing marketing ideas for your plumbing company, plus how you can convert more plumbing leads and expand your plumbing service’s market share.
1. Invest in Plumbing Business Cards
A plumber business card may seem like an obvious addition to your marketing toolkit, but countless master plumbers and home service contractors forget to invest in the inexpensive marketing tool. Even so, a plumbing business card featuring your logo, contact information, website, office address, and other pertinent information can benefit your business in many ways.
After meeting a new lead or finishing a service call, you can share your plumbing cards with your customers. They can then contact your plumbing company for future appointments, installations, and repairs.
Alternatively, you can share your plumbing business card at local networking events and partner companies. While you may not be able to leave your business card at a competitor’s office, nearby bank branches, real estate offices, or locally-owned hardware companies may welcome the addition to their card share stations.
Keep in mind that your business card should have more than your contact information, though. Modern plumber business cards must feature professional designs, striking color combinations, and recognizable branding to stand out from the competition and catch your potential customers’ eyes.
You don’t have to master business card design to create a high-quality, aesthetically pleasing business card, either. Instead, you can consider easy business card design options, such as:
Hiring a Local Designer
Partnering with a local business card designer can streamline the creation, printing, and distribution process. Designers can often create a simple logo and personalized business card design in less than one day. As a result, you can have custom business cards in no time.
Purchasing Personalized Business Cards on Etsy
Etsy’s user-friendly, easy-to-browse online marketplace allows you to compare different designs, prices, and shipping options to find the perfect personalized business card. After choosing a design, you can reach out to the seller to provide your business’s information. You may even qualify for free shipping, though each shop’s policies vary.
Using an Online Print Service
Finally, an online print service makes it easy to design, print, and ship your cards without the hassle of finding a graphic designer or creating a template yourself. Typically, online print services allow you to input your information, adjust a basic design, and complete your order with a few clicks of the mouse.
2. Use Plumber Advertising to Grow Your Business
More than likely, you’ve trusted word-of-mouth marketing and referrals for the majority of your business. Did you know that online plumber marketing techniques, like search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, Google Local services ads, and Google Ad campaigns can help your business grow even more?
Believe it or not, your business needs online plumber advertising. Simply put, if you’re not advertising, you can bet that your competitors are using social media, SEO, and other plumbing company marketing techniques to qualify more potential customers than you are.
Plumber advertising may seem complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead, you can focus on basic plumber marketing ideas like developing a social media presence through regular posting, boosting your website’s SEO through relevant keywords, and driving potential customers to your website using email marketing and blogs.
What Types of Digital Advertising Works for Plumbing Businesses?
When it comes to plumber marketing, you can significantly improve your market share by focusing on three key components:
- Website SEO
- Suitable social media platforms
- Google Local Services ads
Potential customers often begin their search for a plumbing company by typing “Plumber near me” into a Google search. If you haven’t prioritized SEO while building and maintaining your website, you could miss out on hundreds of new leads.
Alternatively, if you have a blank social media profile, potential customers may not feel that you’re a legitimate company. You don’t have to post every day, but sharing a few photos, videos, or informational graphics can help build trust between you and your clients while marketing your brand to new leads.
Finally, Google Local Services ads help new leads find your website. The ads show up when a potential customer searches for a plumber in your area. The ads aren’t free, but you’ll only pay if a lead clicks the ad and contacts you through the Local Services ad platform for a quote, service appointment, installation, or repair.
3. Amp Up Your Digital Marketing Efforts
Digital marketing and plumber advertising may seem similar, but the two tactics differ in one major way: advertising focuses on sales, while digital marketing focuses on building an audience. Many plumbing companies confuse the two or prioritize sales over nurturing a relationship with their audience through content marketing, inbound marketing, and social media marketing.
Even so, the benefits of digital marketing services for plumbers far outweigh the time and effort required to create a digital marketing campaign. As a result of a consistent, comprehensive digital marketing strategy, you’ll enjoy more referrals, stay in touch with your customers, and scale your business without the cost of traditional marketing.
That said, developing a digital marketing strategy isn’t easy. Many plumbing companies turn to a contracted digital marketer or digital marketing agency for assistance, especially as they begin to identify their target demographic, outline a content marketing calendar, and enhance their social media marketing strategy.
You don’t always have to hire a digital marketing specialist, though. Instead, you can begin to incorporate some of the top digital marketing strategy tips for plumbers, such as:
- Creating a professional, well-designed website
- Setting up your Google My Business listings
- Developing a functional Facebook page for easy social media marketing
- Creating plumbing content that engages new and existing customers
- Managing your online reputation by monitoring reviews
- Using call-only ads in your digital marketing campaign to connect with warm leads immediately
4. Understand the Finances for Your Plumbing Business
You already know that managing your plumbing business relies on far more than showing up to service calls. You need streamlined marketing efforts to grow your plumbing business, expert customer service, and the knowledge and experience required to solve even the most challenging plumbing problems. Most importantly, you need a firm grasp on your plumbing business finances.
Understanding the ins and outs of your plumbing business’s finances requires regular bookkeeping, ongoing maintenance, and long-term management to achieve your goals. Alongside keeping track of invoices and contractor salaries, you’ll need to consider:
- One-time expenses, such as investing in a new piece of equipment
- Ongoing expenses, such as payments for plumbing business loans, interest on a personal loan, general liability insurance or commercial auto insurance premiums, and marketing budgets
- Market conditions and relevant opportunities, such as grants or merchant cash advances
To scale your plumbing business, you may also need to consider plumbing financing options like small business loans. Many plumbers don’t want to go into debt. However, additional financing from a business loan or working capital loan makes it easier to purchase a company vehicle or hire a few extra workers to scale your business and take on more clients.
5. Take the Time for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Goal Setting
Have you ever considered setting a goal for your plumbing business? Sure, you know that you want to get more customers, generate more revenue, and expand your market share, but you’re not exactly sure how to make it happen. Luckily, setting daily, weekly, and monthly goals can help you develop actionable steps and achieve those objectives.
You may prefer to begin goal setting the old-fashioned way, using a whiteboard or a piece of paper to write down your goals. You can also turn to tools like a daily goal setting planner, goal tracking apps, or a yearly goals journal to organize and prioritize objectives, including:
- Revenue goals
- Conversion goals
- Growth goals
- Marketing goals
- Customer satisfaction goals
- Referral goals
For example, you may set a monthly goal to convert five new clients or increase revenue by 10%. You can also set weekly goals to generate more five-star reviews or referrals. Finally, you can involve your staff in goal-setting discussions to create more weekly goal ideas, then monitor progress using a shared goal tracker platform.
6. Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Branding and Design
Branding is often the last thing on a master plumber’s mind. Even so, the strength of your brand identity can impact how potential customers connect with and respond to your service offerings.
For example, new leads may assume you lack professionalism or trustworthiness if you have a bare website without a logo or graphic design elements. On the other hand, a strong brand identity creates a positive first impression in the minds of your new clients. In addition, your brand design can help previous customers recall your company more easily.
Your brand identity doesn’t happen by accident, though. In fact, many plumbers haven’t even considered branding their plumbing business at all. As a result, you may not know where to start.
Fortunately, professionals like graphic designers or brand identity design experts can help. By working with a professional, you can develop a cohesive brand strategy that addresses both digital and traditional marketing channels. In addition, your brand design strategy will include all the elements needed to enhance your branding, including:
- A memorable logo design
- Thorough brand guidelines
- Cohesive branding across your website, social media channels, and print assets
7. Run Google Local Services Ads
If you’re thinking, “Not another advertising campaign!” think again. Google Local Services ads, or Google LSAs, help drive more than 80% of local search conversions, representing hundreds of unclaimed potential clients and thousands of dollars of unrealized revenue.
Google Local Services ads are a type of pay-per-click ad that appears at the top of a Google search results page. Google Local Services ads help the customers who need your expertise find your company as quickly and easily as possible.
Further, every business can’t use a Google Local Services ad, which makes them a goldmine for home service providers and other local companies, such as:
- Electricians
- HVAC companies
- Home improvement companies
- House cleaners
- Junk removal teams
- Lawn care services
- Movers
- Pest control companies
- Real estate companies
- And – of course – plumbers
Like any type of Google Ad campaign, you have to pay for Local Services ads. However, Local Services ads offer a major benefit: rather than paying for every click on your advertisement, you only receive a charge if a lead calls or messages your business through your Google Local Service ad.
You can also qualify for a Google Guaranteed or Google Screened badge to improve your chance of converting a new client using Local Services ads. Google Guaranteed and Google screened badges show potential leads that you have passed a background check and verified your license and liability insurance with Google. As a result of a Google Screened or Google Guaranteed badge, you’ll build trust with your customers and stay one step ahead of your competition.
8. Use Email Marketing to Promote Special Offers
Finally, use email marketing to promote special offers, connect with your clientele, and build a trusting relationship with new and existing customers. Promotional emails enable you to share exciting updates, sales, or discounts with your clients, which can increase conversions when done correctly.
Sending promotional emails doesn’t have to be complicated, either. Unlike transactional emails, you can send promotional emails to your entire subscriber base to increase your click-through rate, follow up with lukewarm leads, and enhance your email marketing campaign.
That said, it’s critical to use promotional email best practices to avoid losing loyal customers or new leads. Try incorporating some of our top tips – but remember to tailor our promotional email ideas to your audience.
1. Start with an intro: No matter how long you’ve known some of your subscribers, you should always begin each email marketing campaign with welcome emails to onboard new subscribers and update loyal customers.
2. Provide context: Context is key when launching a promotional email marketing campaign. Ensuring that your emails are relevant and contextual to your subscriber base will improve the outcome of your promotional emails, too.
3. Offer value: Value and context go hand-in-hand when it comes to promotional emails. Before sending an email, consider your audience; will they find the promotional valuable? Will it provide a solution to their problems or satisfy a desire? If not, you may need to tweak your offering.
4. Send more than transactional emails: Your customers certainly appreciate digital invoices, abandon-cart emails, and other types of transactional emails. Still, you need more than a service appointment reminder to build a relationship with your customers. Instead, consider a mix of promotional, transactional, and nurturing emails to encourage trust and keep your company in your customers’ minds.
5. Build your subscriber base: Finally, leverage your email marketing campaigns to expand your subscriber base. To do so, consider adding contests or referral links into your promotional emails. Your current customer will have the opportunity to win prizes, take a percentage off of their invoice, or achieve another desired outcome. At the same time, you’ll get new email addresses and expand your reach to a new audience segment.
