Customer satisfaction is your top priority. The quality of your work? Five stars, no question.
So where are all the phone calls? Why isn’t your schedule packed? Why isn’t your email inbox overflowing?
You’re at a loss, but we have the solution. It’s time to learn how to market a plumbing business.
With a solid strategy and action plan, you can attract new leads. You can convert them into paying customers. You can even turn one-time buyers into loyal brand advocates who tell anyone who’ll listen how great you are.
In this guide, we’ll show you how.
We’ll explain why marketing is so critical to growth and the top channels to focus on.
We’ll share 10 tactics you can use to stand out. We’ll also touch on how technology can be a huge helper in driving exceptional marketing results.
Finally, we’ll wrap up with a couple of easy tips to try. The next chapter of your growth journey starts today.
Let’s get right into it.
Why Plumbing Marketing Is Critical to Business Growth
Marketing drives business growth in a few different ways:
- First, it raises awareness. More people know your business exists.
- Then, it converts onlookers into paying customers. It tells them why they should choose you.
- Finally, it helps you retain customers. In other words, when a customer needs a plumbing service again in the future, they call you straight away.
These three stages work together to deliver a continuous stream of customers.
You have the revenue needed to invest in your business’s expansion. This might mean hiring new employees to take on more jobs or buying the latest tools.
When you learn how to market a plumbing business, you can expect these outcomes:
- Reach more people looking for plumbing service your community members and recognition so people in your community remember you when they need your services.
- Cultivate trust and credibility by showcasing your work and expertise.
- Stay competitive by standing out among other local plumbers.
- Increase customer loyalty by keeping existing customers engaged.
- Lift your bottom line—more leads mean more jobs and more profit.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to Get More Leads for Your Plumbing Business
Top Marketing Channels for Plumbers
Those outcomes sound great to you. The first step in making them a reality is zeroing in on the right marketing channels.
A marketing channel is the platform where your marketing will take place. It’s the tool or asset you’ll use to publish content, reach your audience, and convince them to take action.
Here are four channels worthy of your time and effort:
Your Website
Your website is your home online. It’s your 24/7 salesperson. It’s where all your other marketing channels will point to.
It’s an important part of digital marketing, so optimize it for results. Make sure the user experience (UX) is excellent. Visitors should be able to find the information they need easily.
Add in calls to action (CTAs). These tell visitors what to do, like “Request a Quote” or “Call Us Now.”
FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: A Crash Course in Digital Marketing for Plumbers
Social Media
A notable 68% of US adults use Facebook. Almost half use Instagram, and one-third use TikTok.
The takeaway? Social media is where your prospects hang out, so why not join them?
Use social media to connect directly with your audience. Humanize your business by introducing your team or sharing behind-the-scenes content. Answer questions, showcase your knowledge, and reply to questions.
You can also run targeted ads that reach people in your local area.
Email Marketing
When you spend $1 on email marketing, you get about $36 back. When done right, the return on investment (ROI) is that good.
Send regular emails that add value. Share promotions, offer tips, and remind customers when they’re due for a service.
You stay top-of-mind with prospects and existing customers. When they decide they need plumbing services, they think of you first.
Paid Ads
Google Ads or Meta ads can instantly boost your business’s online visibility.
Use powerful filters to target your audience. You can get really specific, too. For example, you could run ads for emergency plumbing services targeting people within a 10-mile radius of your business.
RELATED ARTICLE: Plumbing Advertising Ideas to Create More Profit
10 Ways to Market a Plumbing Business
Ready to market your plumbing business? Be creative and be consistent. Keep an eye on your results, optimize, and reap the rewards.
Get started today with these 10 methods:
1. Claim Your Google Business Profile
You’re a plumber, which means your business is local. You want more people in your area to know about your business.
Your Google Business Profile is a must. It helps your business show up in local searches (e.g., when someone searches for a keyword with a location in it, like “plumber in Orange County”) and on Google Maps.
Make sure all your details—name, address, phone number, hours, and services—are accurate. Add high-quality photos—prompt happy customers to leave positive reviews.
Get started. Claim your Google Business Profile if you haven’t already.
2. Optimize Your Website with Local SEO
Local search engine optimization (SEO) is about making sure your website shows up in results for location-specific keywords.
As we mentioned above, these are phrases like “plumber near me” or “plumbing emergency Fayetteville.”
Why is this important? Because you don’t just want more traffic. If someone from Australia visits your website, what good is that? They can’t hire you.
You want people who can actually use your service to find you—that’s how local SEO helps.
Get started. Add your city or town to the titles and meta descriptions on your website’s key pages.
3. Post Regularly on Social Media
Good business is about forming relationships. Relationships are founded on trust. You can win that trust by posting regularly on social media.
Imagine the opposite. You want to get your car serviced. You search on Google and find a local mechanic. However, when you click through their Facebook page, you see that their last post was from 2018.
You’re probably not going to call them, right? It looks like they’re out of business.
Avoid this scenario by being consistent. Use a social media calendar and scheduling tool to plan your posts in advance. Ideas include plumbing tips, customer testimonials, answers to FAQs, and photos of recent projects.
Get your team involved in creating content, too!
Get started. Choose one or two social media platforms to focus on. Create an account on each and set up your business profile. Create your first post.
4. Send Valuable Emails
Email marketing has so much potential. But if you’re like most people, you send a whole lot of promotional emails directly to your trashcan.
To make sure this doesn’t happen to your emails, focus on these things:
- Write click-worthy subject lines.
- Always add value, whether that be a tip or a promotion.
- Personalize your emails by segmenting your audience.
Get started. Research email marketing tools and decide which would work best for your business. Import your customers’ email addresses and add a sign-up form to your site.
5. Create a Google Ads Campaign
With Google Ads, you can target specific keywords and locations. You pay to show these ads in search results or on other websites.
The first step is choosing your campaign type. You’ll select a goal, like website traffic or phone calls. Then, you can choose a target location.
You’ll be prompted to write an ad. This includes a short headline and description. Include the service you’re promoting here.
Finally, set a daily budget. Start small, watch your results, and make improvements. When you start to learn what works best, you can increase your budget.
Get started. Set a goal that you’d like to achieve. Create a Google Ads account and click “New Campaign.”
6. Partner with Local Businesses
Mutually beneficial partnerships are a cost-effective way to attract new customers. Here’s how it might work:
- Partner with a complementary business in your area, like a real estate agent.
- When their clients need a plumber, they send business your way.
- They might get a cut of your profit in exchange for the referral.
It’s a smart way to leverage another business’s local customer base.
Get started. Think about the types of businesses that complement yours. Research those in your area and choose one or two to approach.
7. Offer Referral Incentives
In local communities, word of mouth can be one of the most powerful marketing tools.
You can encourage happy customers to spread the word through a referral program. This rewards them for recommending your business.
For example, you might offer them a gift card or discount when their referral becomes a paying customer. It’s a win-win.
Get started. Decide on a reward. It should be valuable enough to catch your customers’ attention. But it shouldn’t be so costly that it compromises your profit.
8. Create Informative Videos
Many of the plumbers in your area are on Google Business. Most have a website and use social media. But how many create videos?
You can really stand out in a crowded local market with short, engaging video content. You can publish this on YouTube, your website, Facebook, or even TikTok.
Not sure what to film? Pull out your phone and:
- Explain common plumbing problems.
- Answer frequently asked questions.
- Show a before and after.
- Share your business story.
Get started. Choose a basic plumbing problem. Create a short video explaining it. Post it to your social media channels.
9. Attend Local Events
Marketing isn’t all digital. Sometimes, getting out in the real world can boost your visibility and win over potential leads.
Remember, while a large portion of your audience might be online, some aren’t. Some people don’t use social media, for example. Attending local events is a great way to reach them.
Why not sponsor a local sports team? Or take part in a community fair? These are opportunities to get your business name and logo out there. They also build trust and strengthen relationships.
Get started. Look for upcoming events in your area where you can set up a booth or offer a service demonstration.
10. Launch a Blog
You want to optimize your website with a whole list of local keywords. At the same time, you want to avoid keyword stuffing. The solution? A blog!
You can publish SEO content to your blog regularly. You might address local plumbing issues, seasonal concerns, and home maintenance.
This helps you rank for more keywords. It also demonstrates that you know your stuff.
Get started. Brainstorm three blog post ideas that your customers might be interested in—schedule time to write them. Use a tool like Grammarly to check for spelling and grammar before you hit publish.
FROM ONE OF OUR PARTNERS: How to Market a Plumbing Business
How Technology Can Help You Effectively Manage New Customers
Your marketing will bring in new leads. Hurray! But now, you have a new challenge—managing them all.
Technology like Service Fusion can make this easier. You can delight all those new customers and maintain the high standard of service you want to be known for.
Here’s how:
Streamline Your Operations
Service Fusion simplifies scheduling, dispatching, and customer management. With everything in one platform, you can create estimates, assign jobs, and track real-time progress.
This means less time on mounting administrative tasks and more time delivering quality service.
Enhance the Customer Experience
Your customers can track their plumber’s arrival, which means no being left waiting around. They can even communicate directly with the technician.
Get Paid Faster
Service Fusion helps you get paid faster with online payments. It even syncs automatically with QuickBooks.
Customers appreciate easy and secure ways to pay. This leads to on-time payments. You don’t have to chase up unpaid invoices and have awkward conversations.
First Steps to Marketing Your Plumbing Business
Here are some easy steps you can take today to start marketing your plumbing business:
- Claim your Google Business Profile. Go to Google Business, claim your profile, and fill out all your business details.
- Add local keywords to your website. Update your homepage title to include your city and main service.
- Post one photo on social media. Share a recent project photo on Facebook or Instagram with a short description. Don’t forget hashtags!
- Start collecting email addresses. Add an email sign-up form to your website. You can do this through your email marketing platform.
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