It’s sometimes a struggle for plumbers to market and advertise their services. Like so many other service-based businesses, you probably started your own plumbing business because you’re exceptionally good at what you do, and what you do has nothing to do with marketing. However, the fact of the matter is, even if you’re an incredible plumber, you will still need to market your business at some point. So how do you start to create your plumber marketing strategy? We give you a basic outline in this article, but to really dive into how to market your plumbing company, contact us today! Plumbing companies have a variety of digital marketing options to choose from. Knowing which ones will work, and implementing them, can have a significant effect on your business. You don’t have to immediately go all out when it comes to marketing. There are small action items you can do that will start you off on the right foot, and when you have some experience under your belt, you can narrow in on what’s working best. To help you get started, here’s a list of 8 plumber marketing strategies you can do to help your business grow in the next 12 months. The buyer’s journey is no longer as simple as it once was. The funnel used to be linear and driven by the sales team. Consumers would start at the top of the funnel and follow a predictable path to the bottom. However, the digital age has transformed what used to be a linear funnel into a journey filled with twists and turns. Götz Thümecke puts it this way: “In short, customers do what they want, when they want and how they want. They don’t gather information in predictable patterns anymore.” But, he says, you can still make this work for you by shifting from the obsolete sales funnel view, to the customer life cycle view. Focus on developing a deeper relationship with your customer along their journey. Provide easy access to opinion-influencers, such as ratings and testimonials. Engage them via social media and solicit feedback. Be available for communication. Look at all the points in the buyer’s journey and determine where your future clients might possibly interact with you. Do you need to improve your presence at any of these points? Are you not available at some of them? SEO, social media, third party websites – all of these contribute to the customer relationship that’s key to turning a prospect into a lead. Google is the go-to search engine whenever people are looking for solutions to their problems. If you want customers to find your business, you need to get it listed on Google. A typical business receives 59 actions from their Google My Business listing each month. – Bright Local Go to Google My Business and set up your business account for free. Fill in the necessary information, like your plumbing business’ name, address, and most importantly, your contact information. Once you’re listed, take the opportunity to ask former customers to review you on Google. There’s nothing like a a dozen or so 5-star reviews to remove any doubt about you from potential customers’ minds! Establishing an online presence is of the utmost importance for a successful plumber marketing strategy. Aside from having your business listed on Google, you need to have a website that people can visit. Your website essentially acts like your office or physical store in the digital world. It’s where clients are able to learn more about you and have a direct channel to contact you. Just like a physical office, your website needs to look professional in order for people to trust your services. A professional-looking website will increase your visibility, and credibility. In fact, a study by Stanford claims that 75% of consumers judge a business’s credibility by the design of their website. An easy way to do this is to keep your website clean and simple. Get rid of the unnecessary details that will distract users. Make it easy for people who are in a rush to find the essential information, but also allow users to dive deeper if they want to learn more about your business. Some important elements are: Your website must also: Video marketing has quickly become a staple for digital marketing campaigns. It’s everywhere, from social media ads on Facebook and Instagram, to phone-recorded video testimonials on websites. There’s a reason more and more people are leaning towards videos, and internet users are consuming more video content than ever. It’s engaging, easy to consume, and it can be very powerful for marketing purposes. All of the top plumbing businesses in the U.S. have already incorporated video marketing into their strategy, so if you haven’t yet, you’re way behind your competition. Video marketing is no longer out of reach, thanks to the improvements of phone cameras. You can easily create video content that will do well on social media, and depending on the content, would benefit your website as well. Advertising your video won’t require a hefty amount of money either. You can run an advertising campaign on YouTube for much cheaper than Facebook or Google. Adding videos to your plumber marketing strategy can help boost your SEO, increase website engagement, add to your brand personality, and give you an edge against your competition. Social media is another great way to boost your online presence and engage with your audience. You can create buzz around your plumbing business by creating profiles on all major social media platforms: Many plumbing companies start their social media campaign with Facebook for good reason. Facebook has about 2.41 billion users to date. Imagine how many locals in need of your services, you could reach if you played your cards right. Many plumbing businesses are opting for Facebook paid ads to help them reach their target audience, get more website traffic from people near their service area, and grow awareness about their business. If you want to learn more about Facebook ads, you can check out our previous blog post about Facebook Ads for small businesses. Most people wouldn’t think of leveraging Instagram for their plumber marketing strategy, but believe it or not, Instagram is one of the best social media platforms for spreading brand awareness and creating a loyal following. So if you’ve been having doubts, it’s time to get rid of them and set up your IG profile! Check out @nickdaplumber’s successful Instagram account for some inspiration! Other social media platforms you can try are: All of these platforms are free to use and are great for generating potential plumbing client leads for your business. If you’d rather spend your time focusing on your business, instead of social media marketing, you can try using social media managing tools like Sprout or Hootsuite to help you save time and publish content consistently. Customer service should always be your number one priority. Especially since it’s the most effective and cost-efficient long-term growth strategy. It’s the key to your plumbing business’ success. Not only will good word spread about your great service, but you’ll also gain a list of loyal clients. Customer service can help you: Answering queries and sending simple reminders and ‘thank you’ messages can go a long way, and leave your clients feeling valued. Once you’ve done your job, send a follow up message asking how your service was and if they need any more help. That’s also a good time to ask for reviews and testimonials, which you can add to your website. If you want to see a boost in leads for your business, you need to optimize your website’s performance. If you think about it, having a website is of no use if it isn’t visible online. Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is crucial for showing up when people search “plumber near me.” SEO should play a large part in your marketing strategy. With 75% of internet users never scrolling past the first page of results, getting to the top could be a game changer for your business. However, that’s a lot easier said than done. There are all sorts of techniques for improving your SEO, like creating consistent content, choosing relevant keywords, and using alt tags. Rather than diving into it here, check out our blog on Tips to Improve Your Website’s SEO Ranking. Plumber marketing is most effective when you combine organic traffic from SEO with paid ads. Organic traffic is a long game that will help you get discovered for free, and it usually gets better with time. In the meantime, paid ads can be like a faucet that you instantly turn on and up when you need more leads. Also like a faucet, when you turn it off (i.e. stop paying for ads), the leads stop flowing in. There should be a balance between these two in order to create a successful plumber marketing campaign. Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a form of digital advertising that only requires you to pay when your ad is clicked on. The image below is an example of what a Google PPC ad looks like. PPC ads require you to bid on specific keywords and phrases. These keywords will help your ad show up to people who are actively searching for businesses that offer services like yours. You can see some of the top plumbing keywords for both SEO and PPC below: Incorporating these tips into your marketing strategy will have an incredible impact on both organic and paid traffic to your site. You’ll easily be able to generate more leads and increase conversion rates. If all of this seems like too much work for you, don’t worry – you don’t have to do everything by yourself. Your friends here at Just Digital Inc. can help you with all of your plumber marketing and advertising needs. Contact us today, and we can work together to put your plumbing business on top!Plumber Marketing Strategy #1: Know and Understand Your Clients
#2: Claim Your Google My Business Listing
#3: Set Up Your Plumbing Website
#4: Try Video Marketing
#5: Invest in Social Media Marketing
Facebook
Instagram
Other Plumber Marketing Social Media Platform Options
#6: Prioritize Customer Service
#7: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Plumbers
#8: Pay-Per-Click Ads for Plumber Marketing
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