Last updated on December 30th, 2023
The good news? Plumbers are in high demand.
The less good news? Marketing for plumbers can seem like a juggling act.
You have to deal with:
- New tech
- Online reputation
- Competitors
- Industry trends
- Budget constraints
- Lead quality
- Just flat out not knowing much about marketing (no worries if this is you)
Sound like a lot? This guide breaks down everything a plumbing business needs to know about marketing.
And how you can start generating new customers — even if you’re not a marketing expert.
Reading this could save you thousands on wasted marketing expenses. We’ll even go over the “less attractive” part of marketing, starting with the basics you can’t afford to skip.
You’ll learn:
- Follow These 11 Steps Before You Begin Marketing
- 11 Key Marketing Tactics For Plumbers
- How to Capture, Qualify, Nurture, And Manage Leads
- Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing For Plumbers
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Follow These 11 Steps Before You Begin Marketing
Ready to start generating more customers for your plumbing business? Not so fast.
You can’t forget these foundational steps to ensure your marketing actually generates the type of customers you’re looking for.
1. Conduct Market Research
If you don’t know the persona of the leads that you’re trying to target, your marketing campaigns will be way more inefficient than they have to be.
Start by identifying your goals. Are you trying to enter a new market? Are you serving a new area?
Determine your target audience. Think about who your ideal customers are. What do they have in common (age, behaviors, problems, income, location, etc.)?
Analyze competitors. What other plumbing companies are in your market? What do they do well, and what can they improve on? What services do they offer? What are they currently doing for marketing? What are their pricing strategies?
Use internet resources. Read your competitors’ online reviews and stalk their websites. Search for data on your market’s size, trends, and growth.
Survey your past customers. What do your customers care about? What are their pains?
Identify gaps in your services. What are your strengths to focus on and weaknesses that you could avoid or improve?
2. Clearly Define Your Services
Based on your research, which services should you focus on?
Do you want to focus on 24/7 emergency plumbing repairs because your market lacks this?
Do you serve a more rural area where there are a lot of potential customers that need well pump repair services?
These are just examples, but consider what you’re good at and what your market needs so you can serve a “starving” market and focus your marketing campaigns on those needs and services.
3. Define Your Brand
It can be easy to forget about your brand when you’re thinking of getting your next customer.
However, how leads perceive your brand will play a major role in them deciding to choose your business.
In fact, consistent branding can contribute up to a 20% lift in revenue.
It’s good to have a professional logo and brand identity that’s consistent across your company and online presence.
But you also want to think:
Why should customers choose you?
Think of how you can have a unique selling proposition that sets you apart from the competition. This could be 24/7 availability, serving a specific area, specializing in a specific service, or a no-brainer guarantee.
Don’t be afraid to get creative.
(You don’t want to copy your competitors completely!)
4. Define Your Marketing Objectives
Based on your goals, what should your marketing objectives be?
These could be things like:
Do you want to build brand awareness in your town so everyone thinks of you when they have a plumbing problem?
Do you need to get new customers ASAP with lead generation?
Do you need to nurture relationships with your best customers so they always choose you?
Are you struggling to manage the leads that you already have coming in?
5. Plan Your Budget
How much money you have to set aside for marketing will determine the type of campaigns you should focus on.
For example, do you have a small budget? Maybe you should focus on organic marketing strategies that you can do yourself.
Or do you have thousands of dollars you can spend on monthly ads?
6. Setup Your Digital Presence
Most plumbers get their customers from word of mouth and referrals. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But if you want to attract more new customers in the modern age, you need a digital presence that’s consistent, easy to find, and clearly communicates what you do, who you serve, and where.
At the bare minimum, you should aim to have your Google Business Profile and website set up so people searching for your business or services can find you.
But if you already have that squared away, you should consider also setting up profiles on social media platforms like Facebook if you focus on residential or maybe LinkedIn if you do commercial plumbing for big businesses.
You should also look into setting up profiles for your plumbing business on directories like Yelp, Angi, and HomeAdvisor.
7. Gather Testimonials And Reviews
You’ll need to be able to build trust with leads before they think about spending hundreds or thousands of dollars of their hard-earned money on your services.
Which is where customer reviews and testimonials come in.
You should be actively asking happy customers to write testimonials and reviews for you to use in your marketing materials.
And if you haven’t already, it’s never too late to reach out to past customers to ask them.
If you can, you can even offer them something in return, such as a discount, the next time they need you.
9. Check Your Licensing And Regulations
Make sure you’re aware of and compliant with any local regulations or advertising standards for the plumbing industry.
For example, you’ll want to ensure all licenses and certifications are current.
You can highlight these in marketing materials to help build trust.
10. Set Up Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
There’s a lot of sales and marketing software you don’t need to have success getting new customers.
But your CRM software is not one of them.
CRM software is a platform that helps you collect, track, and manage your leads and customers.
This also helps you improve your sales and marketing because your CRM will become your single source of truth for all of your customer data.
And when it comes to marketing and sales, your data is like gold that helps you be efficient with your time and effective with generating leads that turn into your ideal customers.
After we discuss the different marketing tactics you can employ, we’ll show you ways you can use CRM to make your marketing more efficient and effective.
11. Train And Prepare To Handle Leads
When your marketing starts to work, you’ll experience an influx of inquiries and bookings.
Ensure your team is trained and prepared to handle increased demand.
If you’re a small team that doesn’t have anyone to manage leads coming in, you’ll need to be ready to answer the phone and emails so you don’t miss out on new customers.
11 Marketing Tactics For Plumbers
There are a lot more marketing tactics for plumbing companies than just 11.
But the following 11 are going to be the bread and butter of your marketing.
We’ve roughly sorted these tactics based on how fast they could generate leads for you.
1. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising:
Pap-per-click advertising is a form of digital advertising where you pay for each click on your advertising.
Most commonly, PPC for plumbing companies is done on Google and Facebook.
For example, using Google Ads, you can bid on keywords like “emergency plumber [your location].”
You’re essentially paying to be at the front of the line when someone needs a plumber, and if your ads are well-crafted and targeted, you can start seeing results within hours or days.
2. Google Local Service Ads (LSA):
Local Service Ads are similar to PPC ads, except instead of paying per click, you pay per lead.
This means although LSA might seem like it costs more, you’re actually paying for a higher-value action, which is someone contacting your business (so they probably are ready to convert into a customer).
Local service ads appear at the top of Google results for local searches.
So, the people who take action on your ad are only people who are local to your business.
And since you’re getting in front of the people searching for your service IN YOUR AREA — this can be a fast way to generate new customers.
3. Retargeting Ads
Retargeting ads are ads that target people that visited your website or other social profile.
So, if someone checks out your website but doesn’t convert because they’re still considering other plumbers, you can get back in front of them to hit them with an offer!
This means you can target people who’ve already shown interest, which results in higher conversion rates!
The catch? They have to visit your website or social profile first, which means this is not a stand-alone marketing tactic but a complimentary one.
4. Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising could include a lot of different tactics, but to keep things simple, we’re just going to tell you about it in general.
Your customers are definitely on social media in today’s age. 72.3% of Americans use social media.
There are a handful of social media platforms that your ideal customers are on, but possibly the most important one is Facebook — if you’re focused on residential plumbing.
Why?
Unlike other social media platforms, Facebook has an older demographic that’s more likely to own a house that would need plumbing services!
Meta (Facebook’s parent company) allows you to get super targeted with your ads, so you can get your offers in front of the right people at a relatively low cost compared to other ad platforms.
5. SMS & Email Marketing
Email and texting can be one of your top ways to communicate with current and past customers.
And when you use any of these strategies, you can get more repeat customers and increase the value of your current customers:
- Send a promotional offer to a list of previous customers, offering a discount on their next service.
- Send appointment reminders and confirmations to customers. This helps reduce customers flaking and keeps your schedule organized.
- After completing a service, send follow-up emails requesting customer reviews and feedback.
- Offer customers to sign up for emergency alerts. Send notifications about severe weather, plumbing emergencies, or important updates that may affect their plumbing systems.
- Follow up with cross-selling and upselling opportunities (for example, if you’ve fixed a leaky faucet, you can recommend a water heater maintenance check).
Some of these SMS and email strategies can help you increase your revenue quickly, while others might help you maintain brand awareness with your customers while they go on with life until they have their next plumbing need.
However, email is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies, with an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent.
6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization is just a fancy way of saying “ranking on Google to get leads.”
You can pay your way to the top of Google with ads. However, you’ll always have to pay to get those leads.
On the other hand, with SEO, you can get the same type of ready-to-buy leads organically by setting up your Google Business Profile and website to target local searches.
For example, there’s a good chance you’d want to rank for a search like “plumber near [your area].”
You’ll want to rank for all of the searches related to your service + location.
But the catch is, you want to rank with your Google Business Profile in Google Maps and the Snack Pack, which looks like this:
And you’ll want to rank on normal search results like this:
Ideally, you want to rank for both types of search results so you can increase your odds of getting more ready-to-buy leads.
How much work you put into your website and Google Business Profile will determine how fast you generate plumbing leads from SEO.
But generally, SEO is more of an effective long-term play that can compound over time. And the best part? Once you start getting leads from SEO, you don’t have to keep paying for each lead like you would with advertising.
7. Organic Social Media
Another organic marketing you can do as a plumber is using social media.
You should set up your business to be easily found on the platforms your customers spend their time on.
For most plumbers, this will be on Facebook, but as the social media landscape evolves, it might become more worthwhile to be on other platforms.
Like your Google Business Profile, your Facebook business page should also be easy to search and find, so you’ll want to optimize your page around the keywords that your customers would be searching for.
But your Facebook can also play a role in your branding:
- You should collect customer reviews on Facebook
- You can post special deals and discounts
- You can post tips on how homeowners can take care of their plumbing during season changes.
Investing in any form of organic social media marketing likely won’t have an immediate ROI, but you can use it to grow a loyal customer base that remembers to keep you in mind next time they have a plumbing issue.
8. Content Marketing (Blogs, Videos, etc.)
The content you create for your company plays a big role in how leads perceive your brand.
And content marketing could be many things:
- Educational videos (like “11 Common Plumbing Issues Every Homeowner Should Know”)
- Social media posts about deals or educating your audience on plumbing maintenance
- Blog posts on your website that rank on Google and attract more leads from SEO
- Customer stories about how you’ve exceeded your past customers’ expectations with your honest customer service
Unless you promote this content with ads, it’s unlikely you’ll generate new leads within a few weeks from this (unless you’ve already built up your audience).
However, if you want to become the go-to plumbing company in your area, you’ll need to build up your brand in the long term with content that would help your ideal customers.
9. Local Sponsorships Or Community Involvement
Your plumbing company is a local business, so it’s important you increase your status and community’s perception of your business.
For example, could you sponsor a local sports team that your town loves?
Can you attend and maybe get a booth at a local community event, fair, or festival?
Can you host plumbing workshops for your local community to help educate people on plumbing tips?
Can you network with other types of businesses that could help you create a referral network (maybe realtors, property managers, HVAC companies, electricians, etc.)?
When you partake in local networking, you could be surprised to get new business from it immediately, but you should keep in mind that this is also a good long-term play to stay in the goodwill of your community.
10. Referral Programs
You probably get most of your customers from referrals.
So, you should aim to figure out ways to get more referrals.
One way is to do what we talked about in the previous section, but you can also take it a step further and do things like offering discounts to customers who refer your services to friends and family.
11. Improve Your Online Reputation
You can improve your online reputation using any of our previous 10 plumber marketing tactics.
However, you need to think of your entire online presence and reputation as a whole.
For example:
- Is your business info consistent across the internet?
- Are you actively trying to get more 5-star reviews on as many platforms as possible?
- When you get unhappy customers, are you doing your best to resolve their problems so they can change their minds about your business?
In other words, you need to make sure that when potential customers look up your business online, they can tell your company is:
- Great at customer service
- Honest & transparent
- Reputable & trustworthy
How To Capture, Qualify, Nurture, And Manage Leads
As we mentioned earlier in this article, you need a CRM to properly capture and manage the plumbing leads you get from your marketing.
Don’t have one yet? You can sign up for a free VipeCloud trial (you can also request a demo for help getting started).
Here’s a step-by-step approach (with actionable tips) on how plumbers should use CRM:
1. Capture leads:
- Set up forms on your website that leads can fill out for you to contact. The information they add can be automatically filled out as a contact in your CRM.
- For leads coming from offline sources (phone calls, walk-ins, etc.), details can be manually entered into the CRM.
- You can use the data you gather from your forms for more targeted advertising.
2. Categorize your leads:
- Categorize leads based on the type of service they’re interested in, such as pipe repairs, installations, or emergency services.
- Tag leads based on where they came from, such as social media, PPC ads, organic search, or referrals. This helps in measuring the ROI of different marketing channels.
- If your plumbing company serves multiple areas, segment your leads by location for targeted follow-ups.
3. Nurture your leads:
- Set up automated email sequences in the CRM for new leads. For instance, someone requesting a quote might receive an introductory email and a few emails highlighting your company’s expertise, customer testimonials, and special offers.
- Set reminders for personal follow-ups, either through calls or emails. Personal touch points can significantly boost conversions.
- Share helpful content with potential clients, like blog posts about plumbing maintenance or videos demonstrating your team’s expertise.
4. Manage your leads:
- Score leads based on their interaction with your emails, website, or other content. Higher-scored leads may be closer to conversion and can be prioritized.
- Update the status of each lead as they move through your sales funnel, such as “new,” “contacted,” “quote sent,” “in negotiation,” or “converted”. You can use pipelines for this.
- Send your leads a scheduling link to set up appointments without any back-and-forth. You can schedule site visits or service appointments, and send automatic reminders to both your plumber on duty and your client.
5. Manage feedback & customer relationships:
- After a job is done, set your CRM to send follow-up emails asking for reviews or feedback.
- Encourage satisfied customers to refer others by providing them with referral links or codes through the CRM.
- Send special offers or discounts to past customers periodically to encourage repeat business.
6. Track your marketing efforts with reporting:
- With leads tagged by source, your CRM can help measure the ROI of different marketing efforts to show you which channels are most effective.
- Track how many leads get converted into customers and identify potential bottlenecks or areas for improvement in the marketing and sales process.
And these are just ways you can use CRM for your marketing.
You can also use it to manage your plumbers out in the field.
Frequently Asked Questions About Marketing For Plumbers
Why Is Marketing Essential For Plumbers?
Marketing ensures that plumbers remain visible in a competitive market. It’s crucial for attracting new clients, building trust with the community, and maintaining loyalty among existing customers.
Which Marketing Strategies Work Best For Plumbers?
Different strategies can work depending on the target audience. However, SEO, local listings, PPC advertising, and social media often yield good results. Email marketing can also be effective for maintaining relationships with existing clients.
How Can A Plumbing Company Stand Out From The Competition?
Highlighting unique selling propositions, such as specialized services, guarantees, or fast response times, can help. Consistent online and offline branding also establishes a recognizable and trustworthy presence.
Are There Marketing Strategies Plumbers Should Avoid?
Avoid strategies with a low ROI or those that could be seen as spammy. Also, always ensure that advertising claims are truthful to avoid damaging your reputation.
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