Top 10 Plumbing Marketing Ideas to Grow your Business

The plumbing business is one of the most competitive industries in the country. As of 2021, there are over 126,000 plumbing companies in the U.S., placing about 2,500 in each state. If you own a plumbing business, you probably compete with several other companies in your city to bring in new customers and remain profitable.

One way to stay competitive with the other plumbers in your area is to implement effective marketing strategies to promote your business and grow your customer base. Digital and traditional marketing tactics can increase brand awareness, improve customer loyalty, expand your business’s reach, and bring in new customers—all of which can contribute to your success.

If you do not currently have a marketing strategy in place, today is an excellent day to begin planning marketing techniques to grow your plumbing business. Read on as our Weave team discusses ten plumbing marketing ideas that you can use to remain successful in the competitive plumbing industry.

1. Social Media

In this day and age, social media is one of the most popular, widespread platforms you can use to advertise your business for free. There are currently over 3.78 billion social media users globally, and this number continues to grow each month. While you don’t need to advertise your business to all of these people, you can use social media to reach your local customer base.

Creating social media accounts on popular platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok is an effective way to market your business for free. When your followers view your social media posts, they probably will not perceive them as blatant advertisements as they would a paid ad. As a result, they may be more likely to engage with the information you post.

To see the most success from your social media platforms, be sure to post at least once a week on each platform. We recommend creating posts that center around why people should hire your plumbing business. Your posts can include content such as:

●      Tips about when to hire a plumber

●      The types of services you offer

●      Information about giveaways and discounts

●      News in the plumbing industry

You can also add in more casual posts to make your social media pages seem less promotional. Check out popular trends on each platform and participate in them through your posts to increase your follower engagement.

2. Online Advertising

Paid advertisements are also effective tools to promote your plumbing business. Today, the most popular forms of paid ads are pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, which you pay for every time a user clicks on them.

Google and Facebook each offer their own PPC advertising options, and we recommend taking advantage of both of these ad types. They each provide different benefits for your marketing campaign.

First, Google ads can help you target users who are already searching for a plumbing company. Paying for Google PPC ads can promote your company when users in your area search for “plumber near me.” Your company can also show up in related Google searches, such as “when to hire a plumber” or “how to fix a leaky faucet.”

Meanwhile, Facebook ads will appear on users’ Facebook news feeds. These ads can seamlessly blend into the photos and text posts users are already viewing, making people more likely to engage with your ad.

If you decide to pay for PPC ads, you should make sure that the ads you create are engaging and effective to make them worth the money. They should not only entice viewers to click on the advertisements but also lead them to complete a further step, such as filling out a contact form on your site or scheduling a plumbing service appointment.

3. SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is another strategy your business can use to expand your customer base. This strategy involves making your plumbing business website more visible in search engine results, leading more people to visit your site, discover your business, and hire you for plumbing services.

One of the main components of search engine optimization is keywords. When people in your city search for specific keywords, such as “plumber” or “plumbing company near me,” you want those keywords to match terms in your website content. If they do, Google will show your website as one of the first few search results.

Search engine optimization also involves several other more advanced processes. All of the following factors can contribute to your rankings in search engines:

●      Your website’s domain name

●      Your website’s flow and user-friendliness

●      The number of backlinks your website has

●      Your headings and meta descriptions

●      Your internal pages

Search engine optimization can seem a little overwhelming at first. However, an effective initial step you can take is to search for a few relevant keywords in Google and see where your website ranks. This information will give you a starting point to know how much your website needs to improve.

Also Read: Plumbing Business Profitability: 5 Tips To Grow A 7-Figure Plumbing Business

4. Email Marketing

Sending emails to existing and potential customers is another effective way to market your company. These emails can remind existing customers about your services and create a communication outlet with potential customers, making both groups more likely to schedule with you.

Weave is an automation platform that makes sending email marketing campaigns simple. With Weave, you can craft high-quality, professional emails without any marketing knowledge or expertise. Weave includes numerous email templates, stock photos, and pre-written messages that you can use in your emails.

We recommend collecting potential customers’ emails through a contact form on your website. Offering an incentive for filling out the form, such as $5 off your first plumbing service, can persuade people to give you their contact information and get on your email list.

You can also collect existing customers’ email addresses when they schedule appointments. You should create a habit of asking for each customer’s email address along with their other contact information when they schedule with you.

5. Text Message Marketing

You probably already collect customers’ phone numbers when they schedule appointments, but you likely only use these numbers for calling, not texting. However, implementing a text messaging system with your plumbing business is another way to promote your brand to existing and potential customers.

Most people are more likely to read text messages than to answer a phone call from an unknown number. Additionally, many people find it easier to send a text than make a phone call. Adding text messaging to your communication methods can allow you to take advantage of both of these ideas to advertise your plumbing business.

However, you may be wondering how you and your staff can text with customers without using your personal cell phones. Thankfully, Weave presents the perfect solution.

Weave allows you to send text messages from your plumbing business’s phone number using any mobile or desktop device. You can even automate text messages with the Weave app, ensuring that you send certain message types to specific customers. For example, you can send follow-up texts one week after every plumbing appointment to check in.

Weave can even personalize your automatic text messages to make them sound like they are coming from your staff. For example, Weave can send an auto text that reads:

“Hi, Sue. This is John from Boston Plumbing. I just wanted to follow up about your new faucet installation. Do you have any questions or concerns?”

Weave can insert the customer’s name and appointment type to make automatic texts sound natural and realistic. Your staff can then reply to the customers’ responses with their own messages.

6. Appointment Reminders

Reminding customers about upcoming appointments is an important step in the customer retention process. When customers fail to remember their appointment times, your plumbing business loses money.

However, if your business is still performing manual call reminders, you are wasting time that you could be devoting to marketing and promotion strategies. Instead, we recommend utilizing automatic appointment reminders to remind customers about upcoming services and increase engagement with your customers.

Weave allows you to send automatic appointment reminders through text and email a specific amount of time before each customer’s appointment. For example, you can automatically send reminders two days before and two hours before each customer’s scheduled appointment time.

These automatic texts take no effort on your part but go a long way in ensuring that customers remember their appointments. Even better, if a customer needs to change their appointment time, they can respond to the Weave text directly to let you know.

Automatic texts also allow you to create a personal connection with each customer before you go to their house or business to perform a plumbing service. For example, your appointment reminder can read something like:

“Hi Amy, just wanted to remind you about your upcoming plumbing appointment. Does Tuesday at 4:00 PM still work for you?”

Including the customer’s name and using casual language can help personalize your business and even increase your customers’ loyalty to your brand.

7. Gather & Promote Reviews

When potential customers determine whether to hire your business, they tend to read your customer reviews to learn about past customers’ experiences. If you do not have many customer reviews on platforms like Google and Facebook, potential customers may think that you have not been in business long or do not have much experience.

Thankfully, Weave can help you invite customers to leave reviews of your business and allow you to manage all incoming reviews as soon as you receive them. First, the Weave automation platform can automatically send review requests to customers when you leave their appointments.

Weave can also help you monitor reviews by sending you a notification every time someone leaves a review of your business. These fast notifications can allow you to respond to your reviews quickly and rectify any negative reviews you receive.

8. Free Swag

Everyone likes free stuff, and most of the time, people do not care if their free stuff has a business logo on it. Giving away “swag” items that feature your plumbing business’s branding is an excellent way to get people to advertise your business for you.

You can order “swag” from an online manufacturer or local company and pay a small fee to place your business’s logo on each item. A few examples of free items you can give away include:

●      Fridge magnets

●      Pens

●      Water bottles

●      T-shirts

Any time people wear their t-shirts or use their pens with your logo on them, they will think about your business. Owning these items may even increase their loyalty to your plumbing company, even if they have never hired you in the past.

Additionally, promotional swag can advertise your company to other people. For example, when someone sees someone else wearing your company’s t-shirt, they will think about your brand. Down the line, when they consider what plumbing company to hire, they may remember your name.

9. Local TV & Radio Advertising

Your plumbing business can also use local TV and radio advertising to market your services within your local community. These advertising methods can provide the following benefits for your marketing strategy:

●      Increase engagement: TV and radio ads are more engaging than text posts and images.

●      Expand your local reach: These advertisements may allow you to reach a broader local audience than you could with Facebook or Google ads.

●      Improve brand awareness: When customers see your ads on TV or hear them on the radio, they may remember your name the next time they need to hire a plumber.

●      Boost customer loyalty: When existing or potential customers see your TV commercials, they may feel connected to your company and view you as a local small business they should support.

TV and radio advertisements present an effective, reliable solution to promote your business. Even choosing one radio station or TV network to advertise on can expand your reach considerably and bring more customers to your doors.

10. Develop Referral Sources

Finally, word-of-mouth is an effective marketing strategy to bring in new customers. Identifying potential referral sources and capitalizing on these sources can help you successfully spread the word about your business.

Referral sources are people who promote your brand through word-of-mouth. While customers can act as referral sources, you can also invite the following groups to promote your brand:

●      Property managers

●      Other tradespeople

●      Homeowners associations

These entities are excellent referral sources because they regularly work with and connect with people who may require your plumbing services. For instance, property managers can refer their tenants to your plumbing business when they need a repair.

You can encourage referrals through programs that provide customers with discounts when they refer you to their friends. However, providing quality services can also motivate people to refer your business on their own.

Find Out More About Weave

Employing these effective marketing strategies can help you stay competitive in the booming plumbing industry. However, if you don’t have time to implement all of these strategies, we recommend starting with Weave. Weave can automate several of the techniques above to save you time and market your plumbing business for you.

Contact Weave today to request a free demo and see for yourself how Weave can fulfill your plumbing marketing ideas.