Plumbing Marketing: 11 Effective Tips to Become the Go-to Plumber

If you started your business, have the right plumbing tools, and have had a few gigs but haven’t grown your customer base as much as you’d like—this article is for you. Below, we go through 11 effective strategies and steps you can take to help expand your reach. 

Whether it’s taking a good look at your website’s user experience or starting a referral program, these marketing ideas are proven to generate leads and brand loyalty. For more insider tips and resources like these delivered straight to your inbox, subscribe to The Blog.

1. Establish a Marketing Budget

First, you want to establish how much you can spend on your marketing efforts. When conducting a break-even analysis, be sure to include your ideal marketing spend to help determine how much business you’ll need to stay afloat. 

Once you have a set budget, jot down a list of marketing strategies you’d like to leverage and allocate a monthly spend for each. Set yourself monthly or quarterly reminders to check in on the success of each strategy to help you make changes if needed. 

2. Invest in a User-Friendly Website

The most important marketing tool is your  website. Your website serves as your business’ resume, helps build credibility, and can help generate leads without any heavy lifting on your end. 

However, for your website to do this, it needs to be user-friendly, self-serving, and have a good design. In fact, 88% of customers say they wouldn’t return to a website with a bad user experience. Have an employee, family member, or friend go through your website and give you feedback on usability and design. 

If you don’t have a website or feel like your current website needs a redesign, look for a site builder that understands the needs for a service-based business website and easily integrates with your top platforms.

3. Optimize Your Site for SEO and Mobile

Over 73% of web traffic came from mobile devices, so needless to say, another website feature you should prioritize is a mobile-first design. Your website visitors should be able to learn about your business and contact, book, pay for, and review your services from their phone.

In addition to a mobile-friendly experience, make sure your website is optimized for SEO. 

A few ways to enhance your SEO include: 

• Use keywords most related to your services and location. 
• Use title tags that directly describe the content on your page. 
• Use succinct and clear headers. 
• Write clear meta descriptions. 
• Write alt tags for your images. 
• Get links from sites that frequently post content related to your services.

4. Get Listed on Business Directories

Another free marketing tool to help boost your online presence and chances of appearing in local search includes listing your company on online business directories—most importantly, Google. 

You’ll want to create and verify your Google My Business account to appear on Google search results. Be sure to keep your website, hours, address, and contact information current on your account at all times. Post frequently with updates, offers, promotions, and photos of your plumbing services to let Google know that you’re active on your account. 

Look for other online directories and gig sites to list your business like Facebook, Yahoo, Bing, and Thumbtack, and others.

5. Give Referral and Loyalty Incentives

Satisfied customers are a powerful marketing tool. Give your happy customers an incentive to advocate for and promote your business with friends and family through discounts, promotions, or gifts. You can also create digital loyalty cards to reward your customers for repeat business. 

6. Automate Your Review Request Process

Generate reviews on Google to help convince potential customers to book you over the competition and boost your rankings on local search. 

Since generating and managing reviews can be a time-consuming task for busy business owners, we recommend automating this process. Whether you create a few review request templates to keep handy or you integrate a get reviews, having a solid process to gather 5-star testimonials will be a key marketing strategy for your business.

7. Build a Content Library

In today’s highly digitized world, photos and videos are an essential component of building a recognizable brand and reputation. Before heading out to any job site, set a reminder to take before and after photos of your work. 

Whether you fixed a broken pipe or installed brand new appliances for a customer’s kitchen, quality photos showing top-notch work can be the push a lead needs to book your services. 

8. Brand Your Company Vehicle

Although having a fully-equipped company vehicle is ideal, it may be out of your budget for now. However, a custom decal for your car is an affordable and effective way to capture the eyes of a few drivers in your area. 

Include your company logo, name, website or phone number, and a catchy phrase if possible. 

9. Invest in Local Ads

Using Google Local Service ads can help get your business seen by leads searching for your services in your area. We also recommend purchasing ads on platforms where you’re most likely to find homeowners like Facebook and Twitter. 

Lastly, local classified ads are still a good option for plumbing and other home service businesses. 

10. Consider Lead Generation Software

We don’t consider this an essential part of a marketing strategy but listing your business on a lead generation platform can be a great way to get customers—especially at the beginning stages of your business. 

Platforms like Thumbtack and HousecallPro are good options to start. 

11. Send Direct Mailers 

Although a bit old school, direct mailers can still be an effective strategy for service-based businesses. Do some research to determine the demographics for the area codes you work in to help determine which population sets might be the most interested or in need of your services. Then, print and send direct mailers with a catchy promotion or offer. 

If you’re ready to automate most of the processes mentioned above like, building a mobile-friendly website, generating reviews, and placing your business on local listings, sign up for a free, 14-day trial with GoSite today.