At every given moment, a competitor is trying to steal your customers’ attention via advertising and marketing. It is only logical you devise a strategy to retain your loyal customers and convert a large chunk of the customer pool in your service area.
A study shows that marketing influences 90% of consumers to buy the product or service a giving business sells. This shows the importance of marketing, especially in this day and age where thousands of competitor businesses in your line of work have enough marketing budget to push their services to the target market.
The same study also states that consumers are influenced across multiple marketing channels, i.e., online and offline. That is why we have curated a list of online and offline plumbing marketing plans you can use in your business to attract leads and increase sales. But first, let’s establish the benefits of plumber marketing.
How Can Marketing Help Your Plumbing Business?
Marketing is a combination of activities aimed at pushing your services in front of suitable potential customers. It could involve online or offline activities or a combination of both. That being said, here are four ways marketing can help grow your plumbing business.
1.) Marketing Boosts Sales: In simple terms, marketing attracts prospects, prospects become buyers, and buyers provide profit. The more buyers you have, the higher your income. To get more buyers, you need to reach a large percentage of the target market, which is what marketing does for you.
2.) Marketing Creates Awareness About Your Services: In addition to boosting sales, marketing helps create awareness about your services. If you are the best plumber in your service area, there is no way anybody, except your family and a few friends, will know about you unless you put yourself out there. Marketing helps you do just that.
3.) Marketing Helps You Communicate To Customers: Marketing is also an avenue to communicate with your customers. If you have exciting offers and discounts to share with your customers, they would only know if you inform them; usually, you can achieve this through advertising.
4.) Marketing Helps You Stay Relevant: At every given moment, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of plumbing businesses fighting to get the same customers you are trying to convert from an often limited customer pool. Marketing is one of the ways that can help you stay relevant and on top of the competition.
Top 12 Plumber Marketing Plans You Can Try Today!
As stated earlier, the best marketing plan utilizes online and offline advertising mediums. That is why we put together the following plumber marketing ideas, which combine online and offline plumbing marketing tips to help you reach out to your target audience and grow your sales.
1. Claim Your Google My Business Profile
One of the most effective ways for a local business like plumbing to improve its online presence and reach is by claiming and optimizing its Google My Business (GMB) profile.
Google’s search algorithm prioritizes local businesses when users in a particular area search for services. The “map pack” is a section that showcases local businesses on a map with relevant details. By having a robust GMB profile, your plumbing services have a chance to feature prominently in these search results, increasing your chances of being noticed and contacted.
Moreover, customer reviews on GMB can enhance credibility, while updated business details ensure clients can quickly reach out for services.
You can also use GMB to share offers and showcase high-quality work photos, boosting your business’s appeal. Additionally, a well-maintained GMB profile can improve your site’s search engine rankings, driving consistent traffic.
Pro Tip: Regularly update your GMB profile with fresh content and encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews. This active engagement not only keeps your business relevant but also helps in building a trustworthy online reputation.
2. Invest In Paid Digital Advertising
There are different kinds of paid digital advertising. Including Google local service ads, pay-per-click ads, search engine optimization (SEO), and even SMS marketing. These marketing strategies target impulse and need-based customers that are looking for answers quickly.
Usually, these customers use their mobile phones to search for your services, and Google uses the algorithm to show results in their location. If your PPC or Google local service ad is well-optimized, you will be amongst the first services to show up.
You can always set up these lead generation campaigns or pay experienced plumbing marketing experts to help you with it. We recommend you try the latter as it will free up more time to focus on other aspects of your business.
Pro tip: If you want to set up your plumber marketing ads, it is best to set up call-only ads in this situation. As a plumbing business, you want impulsive customers to immediately call you when they see your service rather than be redirected to your website. It is always a better strategy to convert over the phone because these customers are most likely in desperate need of your service.
3. Use Social Media Advertising
Social media is still one of the best ways to reach your target audience. According to statistics, 4.4 billion people use social media, with Facebook leading the pack. These social media platforms present a unique opportunity to deploy your plumber marketing plans with their ad features.
Basically, for social media, you will be targeting wandering customers. These customers are scrolling on their phones with no particular intent other than the entertainment these platforms bring.
The good thing about this plumbing marketing strategy is that social media platforms have improved at suggesting ads based on the customer’s search history and geography. So it is sure to reach your target population.
Interestingly, you can set up your social media advertising to target a particular demography, which further increases the precision of your plumbing marketing campaign.
Besides running social media ad campaigns, you can also post regular content on your social media pages, especially during seasonal surges. Target a few weeks to the beginning of winter or summer and post catchy graphics with exciting offers.
By doing so, you are nurturing and engaging your potential customers. We suggest you join social media groups in your niche market to reach an even wider audience. Here are some examples:
Example #1:
Example #2:
Example #3:
4. Market Your Services Through Shorts (Videos)
Using short videos, or shorts as they are usually called is another digital plumber marketing strategy you can utilize. Platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok all have this feature. This plumbing marketing idea also targets wandering customers, and these platforms’ algorithm is smart enough to suggest videos based on customer location and activity.
Ideally, your shorts (or short videos) should be about 60 seconds or less. If you must go above this, it should be a maximum of a minute and thirty seconds because you have a limited time to market your service before the customer loses interest.
You also want to make sure you are getting your content right. Instead of making the video about you, make it about your customers. An excellent way to go about your content is to ask yourself what they struggle with and give helpful tips to solve their problems.
You could, for example, make a video on how to stop a leaky pipe. Or tips on how to unclog a drain. These are educative and useful content that appeals to your audience.
At the end of the video, you can also tell them how you can help them with their plumbing if they do not necessarily want to take the DIY route or if the issue is too big for a temporary fix.
5. Take Advantage of Virality
In mid-2022, there was a viral TikTok trend called “product overload.” In this trend, users will film themselves pouring large quantities of astringent cleaning chemicals into sinks, baths, and toilet bowls. This TikTok trend had over 700 million views and lasted for about a month — that is the power of virality.
In this scenario, you could, for example, post a video as an experienced plumber to educate individuals on how dangerous it is to pour huge loads of cleaning chemicals down their drains.
By utilizing a few of TikTok’s content creation elements, like hashtags and popular sounds, you can hop on the challenge and get a few of these 700 million views yourself, even if it is a few hundred thousand.
The good thing about TikTok is that it is geotargeted, i.e., your post will reach users in and around your service area. Several of these trends pop up from time to time, and it is best to keep track of them so you can harness virality to promote your business.
Between managing your business and responding to calls, it might be stressful to keep up with trends. We suggest you outsource your plumber digital marketing to marketing companies.
We have a detailed piece here on how to choose a reliable one. These plumbing contractor marketing agencies will monitor popular trends for you and, sometimes, help you create your content.
6. Offer Coupons And Loyalty Programs
Coca-cola introduced coupons in the 1880s to grow its customer base, and it worked like magic. Just as it was effective over a century ago, so is it practical today. The good thing about coupons is that they target two kinds of customers — potential and loyal customers.
Coupons entice potential customers to try your service out. With exemplary customer service, they then become loyal customers. For loyal customers, on the other hand, coupons improve their perception of your business in their minds.
Dishing coupons once in a while is a way of saying, “thank you for trusting us with your plumbing. Here is a gift to show our appreciation”.
Before you create your coupon, try to do in-depth market research about your customers to give relevant coupons that will attract them. Study your target market’s pains, problems, and frustrations and how your business is uniquely positioned to solve their problem.
To better understand how to create your coupons, ask yourself why they should buy from you instead of your competitors. What can you provide them that is useful? These questions should guide you. Here are some coupon examples to inspire you:
Example #1
Example #2
Note that you can not only give coupons physically. You can also create and share digital coupons and vouchers with some online software. One such software is Coupontools. When you make your coupons, you can share them on your social media accounts.
Pro Tip: You can give discounts on your coupon for every specific amount of spend. For example, you can give 25% off every $100 worth of plumbing service.
7. Partner With Local Businesses
Another plumbing strategy to grow your business is utilizing local business connections. This plumber marketing plan is beneficial for newly established plumbing businesses because it rapidly shows your presence in the area. It doesn’t only work for new companies; any plumbing business can also try it.
Some places you want to target are grocery stores, auto shops, and barbershops. You can, for example, partner with a local mechanic such that when customers visit the mechanic workshop to get their cars fixed, they can qualify for a discount on your service. You can also ask that these businesses put up your flyers, and in return, you put theirs up in your place of business.
One other thing you can try is to partner with the homeowners association (HOA) in your area. It is one surefire way of bagging new clients, especially those who recently moved in.
You can always find the local HOA in your service area, get in touch with them and tell them about your plumbing business. So whenever a local homeowner needs to get some plumbing work done, they can refer you.
Regarding home management, you can also partner with real estate agents in your service area. Like the homeowners association, they have first-hand knowledge of most of the properties in the area, and usually, homeowners reach out to them to ask for good local services in the area. If you are already partnered with a real estate agent, your name will be the first one they will mention.
8. Send Out Seasonal Cards And Gifts
This plumbing marketing plan is also tied up with the coupon strategy. It involves you sending cards and small gifts to your loyal customers. These gifts need to be personalized and well-thought-out so that they will leave a positive mark. The good thing about this plumber marketing idea is that it sets word-of-mouth advertising in motion.
When you treat your loyal customers right, they will happily tell their friends and family about your plumbing business. Essentially, with this plumber marketing idea, you are killing two birds with one stone.
As we stated earlier, the gifts need to be well-thought-out. It does not have to be anything elaborate. Just a simple gift card or coupon will do the trick. Then add a well-written holiday card to personalize the experience.
There are eleven annual federal holidays in the United States. You can take advantage of any of these holidays to deploy this plumber marketing plan.
Besides holidays, you can send out a card and a gift during your business anniversary. This strategy is beneficial for plumbing businesses with years in the industry.
It not only shows you care enough about them to include them in your celebrations, but it also informs your customers on the longevity of your business and the experience you must have in plumbing. Making them more inclined to trust your services over other competitors.
9. Engage Your Community
Our recommendation is to always first market in your local area before you increase your marketing perimeter. There’s no better way to do this than to engage in community work.
Community work includes sponsoring charity events, donations, volunteer work, and community service. By doing so, you are marketing your plumbing business and building positive sentiments around your company’s image.
Depending on your budget, you can also go above and beyond sponsoring events to develop service projects. If you use this plumbing marketing strategy, you want to ensure your brand stands out too, so people know exactly the company sponsoring the community service and events.
A great way to showcase your brand is to have a unique outfit attributed to your plumbing business. Have your employees wear your company outfit during these volunteering events; it creates a brand image in the minds of prospective customers.
10. Offer Free Trainings And Workshops
Offering free workshops is another way to engage your community positively. You can always host local physical training over a weekend where you teach the basics, beneficial DIY basics that customers can do on their own to quickly relieve plumbing situations.
You can also go on local radio stations, TV stations, and podcasts to reach a wider audience.
These training and workshops also serve as a way to connect with your customers. It builds trust, and customers will be more inclined to consider your service than anyone else.
11. Invest In Low-Cost Newspaper Ads
Even with the technology around, newspapers remain an essential source of news and information, and there is sufficient data to back this up. According to research, about 2.5 billion people still read print newspapers worldwide.
This presents an opportunity for you as a plumbing company to reach a broad audience. Interestingly, the demography that reads newspapers is most likely to call for a plumbing service.
Make sure you research the best local newspaper to contact that will reach the maximum audience. While setting up your newspaper ad, you want to include a catchy headline that immediately draws attention to your service.
You should also add an incentive like an offer or a discount. These incentives are there to help you convert wandering customers who are just looking through the newspaper. People hardly turn down freebies and discounts.
You should also pick the right day to air your newspaper advertising. Most people read newspapers on Sundays so you can target that day. However, advertising fees are usually high for Sunday Ads because people are trying to reach an audience just as you want to.
Pro Tip: If the cost is too high for a Sunday ad, you can consider Mondays and Saturdays. Monday papers usually include a summary report of weekend sports that people would like to read. Saturday is also good because there are often fewer advertisers and less competition.
12.) Creative Stickers
Another plumbing marketing strategy you can use is to print out bumper stickers and give them to your customers.
Bumper stickers are an effective way to advertise to a wide-road audience without paying for an expensive billboard. This is not to say you shouldn’t use a billboard if you have the budget, but if you don’t, stickers are an alternative.
You need to use bright colors for your bumper stickers because you have minimal time to capture the attention of your on-road audience. Here are some examples:
Example #1
Example #2
You also want to ensure your logo and phone numbers are visible enough for anybody to see from at least 3 feet away.
Pro Tip: One way to successfully deploy this plumbing marketing plan is to give your customers the bumper sticker and add a little incentive so they are encouraged to put the sticker on their cars. You can throw in a discount for anyone who has the sticker for a certain period.
How Much Should I Budget For Online Plumbing Marketing?
The amount of our plumbing marketing budget depends on the revenue you generate. You should always set aside 10% of your gross income for marketing. The question remains, “How much should go to online and offline marketing?”
Offline marketing is usually more expensive than online marketing. However, online marketing is more effective. We recommend you strike a 50:50 balance between the two.
How Do I Start Plumbing Internet Marketing?
There are two ways to start plumbing internet marketing: either you do it yourself or you employ a plumbing contractor marketing agency.
If you want to go the DIY route, one of the best plumbing marketing ideas you can start with is Google local service ads or pay-per-click ads. These online marketing strategies are very quick to turn up results, and you can set them up on your own. Begin your Google local service campaign ad creation here and your PPC ad campaign here.
Even though it is possible to set up some of these campaigns yourself, we suggest you outsource your plumbing marketing to a reputable agency. They have the tools, experience, and expertise to run and manage your ad campaigns.
In addition, they will also track your ads to see if they are doing well. This is to ensure you save money on an effective ad. Besides, you should be worried about managing your plumbing business and maintaining good customer relationships rather than dividing your attention with marketing.
