As a professional plumber running your own plumbing business, one of the lessons you must learn is that “being a good plumber is not enough.” In addition to being a good plumber, Peak Property Management notes that you must become a good businessperson. This means learning skills beyond your plumbing know-how.
Your ability to identify and master these key business competencies (administrative skills, business planning, financial management, communication, branding, and, most importantly, marketing) plays a bigger role in the success of your plumbing company than your core plumbing know-how.
Marketing, especially, transforms your hopes for the business into real success. It is what allows you to constantly put yourself in the sight and minds of your potential customers whenever they need a professional plumber. There are right and wrong ways to market your plumbing service company.
In this blog post, we discuss time-tested marketing ideas for plumbers.
4 marketing strategies for your plumbing business
Build a brand that customers will recognize
Branding your business is the easiest way to differentiate it from the crowd. Branding allows you to reflect excellence and professionalism. Customers recognize the effort that goes into crafting a unique identity for your business, and they will take this as evidence that you take your work seriously. How do you create a strong brand identity for your plumbing service company?
What do you do? What do you want your business to be known for? Are you a residential, commercial, or emergency plumbing service? Or do you want to be known as the drain maintenance experts?
What is your story? What are the values you seek to uphold? What are the principles that will guide your relationship with your customers? What unique promises are you making to those customers?
What do you want to look like? Create compelling visuals that begin with an outstanding logo, a slogan that is easily recognizable, branded trucks and vehicles, as well as a dress code for your technicians and staff.
Build a strong local presence
Claim your free Google Business Profile Listing, and Google will show your business to people in your locality when they type “plumbers near me” into the search bar. Your Google Business Profile provides important details about the business, such as your logo, contact information, opening & closing hours, service area, pictures, and customer reviews.
- Use Google’s Local Service Ads: Google offers a guarantee of visibility to local clients when a business signs up for this service. This is an affordable but effective marketing tool, especially when paired with an SEO-optimized Google Business Profile.
- Be active in the community: Word of mouth is the most effective marketing strategy for plumbers. Build relationships with local hardware stores, real estate investors, and other tradespeople. Be visible at community events and connect with people genuinely.
- Create a referral program: Incentivize your customers by rewarding them when they refer new clients to your business. To make this work, those customers must be happy with your services. The rewards must be fairly and consistently awarded.
Build a robust online presence
Your business needs vast tracts of digital real estate to serve as your online office and the first point of contact between you and most of your potential customers.
- Create a professional website: Visitors to your website should be able to get the full gist of what your business does within one minute of landing on the front page. It should not be hard to find important details like your contact information, services offered, and areas covered. Within seconds, visitors should be able to book a service on the website.
- Set up your Facebook page: Facebook is great for building communities of people who are in proximity to one another in real life. Creating a Facebook page with useful information and promotions makes it easier for those people to find your business. Optimize the page with information about your team, completed jobs, and customer reviews.
Define your online strategy
Don’t go to sleep after setting up your website, Google Business Profile, Facebook page, and other social media accounts. You need strategies that will help you stay visible.
- Create and share valuable content: A plumbing blog and vlog allow you to share content that is easy for your audience to find. On your YouTube page and dedicated plumbing blog post videos, write about how to fix a range of plumbing issues. Build trust and become an authority through content creation.
- Build an email list: Unlike Facebook and YouTube, your email list gives you direct access to past, present, and future customers. Use all available online opportunities to grow your email list. Send offers, exclusive deals, reminders, and other important information through your email list.
- Utilize search ads and optimize for SEO: Local SEO enhances the likelihood that your business will be displayed to people in your area when they conduct a Google search. Search ads allow your business to appear at the top of the search results page. You should deploy these two strategies.
To conclude, when crafting the marketing strategy for your business, it is always a good idea to work with experts. An expert ensures that instead of wasting time and money on ineffective ideas, your marketing strategy will hit the mark from the beginning.
