Definitive guide to plumbing marketing

Attracting and retaining plumbing customers is essential to long-term business success within the plumbing industry. If you’re ready to develop or enhance your plumbing marketing plan, you’ve come to the right place. In this guide, you will learn about:

• The top marketing strategies and marketing methods for plumbers
• Which channels to use for marketing plumbing services
• How to leverage your overall marketing strategy to drive your plumbing business’s growth

Importance of creating an online presence for your plumbing company

The very fact that you’re seeking out marketing strategies for your plumbing company indicates that you understand the power of digital marketing channels, such as social media marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) ads, content marketing, online directories and online reviews.

Having a presence on today’s top online marketing channels is a must for plumbers looking to:

• Raise brand awareness
• Generate new plumbing leads
• Convert plumbing leads into new customers

After all, most consumers search for local businesses online once a week or more often — yet only 64% of small businesses have a website for their company. Similarly, according to the leading search engine Google, four in five consumers use search engines to find local information. Yet, Search Engine Journal reports that up to 57% of small businesses lack a strategy for search engine optimization (SEO).

There’s no time like the present to start building or optimizing your plumbing company’s online presence.

Top plumbing marketing channels and tactics

Here are the most effective digital marketing channels for driving brand awareness, educating your target audience about your plumbing services, reaching potential customers, generating referrals and converting them into new customers.

Keep in mind that you don’t have to do everything at once. Take things step by step and measure the results of your marketing efforts over time. Focus your energy on the marketing channels and marketing strategies that create more business for your plumbing company.

1. A mobile-friendly plumbing website

Building out a mobile-optimized plumbing website is the foundation of a successful plumbing marketing plan.

• • Invest in a high-quality, modern website design that has a great user experience for plumbing leads across devices, including smartphones and desktops
  • List the home services your plumbing company offers and include a map of your service area
  • Embed lead generation forms across your website to gather contact information for plumbing leads who visit your website landing pages
  • Add links to your social media profiles in the footer of your website so potential customers can check out your online presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Yelp and other channels
  • Publish team bios on your website so homeowners can get to know you, the business owner, your employees and plumbing contractors
  • Share your contact information, including your phone number and email address, so your customer base can quickly get in touch

• Post testimonials that demonstrate positive word-of-mouth about your business

2. Blogging, video marketing and other content marketing to elevate your company’s local search engine optimization (SEO)

As part of your web design, build a section of your company website to support your content marketing efforts, such as blogging and video marketing. Publish articles and videos relevant to your target audience, covering topics about plumbing services that homeowners regularly look for in Google Search.

Investing in content marketing to improve your company website’s SEO is a powerful driver of traffic to your website. Especially because organic search engine traffic makes up more than 50% of the website traffic local businesses receive.

As you develop content on your website to strengthen your plumbing SEO, pay attention to your search rankings. You want the blogs and videos you post to earn one of the very top spots in Google Search and other search engines. That’s because more than 25% of users click on the very first result, and up to 50% of people click on the top three search engine results.

3. Social media marketing

Your online presence is so much more than just your company website. Homeowners use other channels, like social media, to look for plumbing companies, learn about their services, see their service area and read client testimonials. Facebook is a popular platform for small business owners looking to get discovered by potential customers.

According to the world’s largest social network, Facebook, 66% of users visit the business pages of local companies weekly or more often. Check out Broadly’s guides “How to make a business Facebook Page” and “How to promote your business on Facebook” for marketing tips to set up your Facebook business listing and leverage it to generate new leads.

4. Online reviews

Nearly all consumers (93%) say that the online reviews they read influence their purchasing decisions.

That’s why business owners need to pay attention to what customers are saying on review websites such as Facebook, Yelp, online directories and Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business), the reviews that show up on Google Maps and Google Search.

To get more word-of-mouth for your business, be sure to:

• Claim your business listings across channels
• Respond to customers’ posts
• Automate the process of asking customers for reviews by sending review requests via email or SMS after every home service is complete

5. SMS marketing

SMS text message marketing is an emerging digital marketing strategy that helps brands stay top-of-mind with consumers because of the channel’s strong engagement levels. For every 100 SMS marketing campaigns sent out by brands, 98 typically get opened.

Grow your SMS marketing list by adding a lead generation form that allows customers to opt in to hearing from your brand via text message right on your home page and across other high-traffic landing pages on your website.

Use SMS marketing to keep plumbing customers in the loop about:

• Promotions
• Appointment reminders
• Post-service follow-ups

6. Email marketing

Email campaigns are one of the most cost-effective marketing channels available. For every dollar companies spend on email marketing, they see an average return on investment of $36. Plumber email marketing best practices include:

• Define your email marketing goals
• Use segmentation to tailor your email campaigns to unique target audiences, such as by customer location, plumbing services type and customer status (new customer, loyal customer, hasn’t yet booked a service, etc.)
• Personalize your email campaigns to address the customer by their first name
• Use A/B testing to see how different subject lines, designs and calls-to-action (CTAs) influence engagement
• Create beautifully designed email campaigns that are easy to read
• Drive engagement with valuable information, DIY home maintenance tips, or special offers

7. Online advertising

If you have room in your marketing budget, online advertising can help you get more plumbing service bookings and convert new customers, though at a higher cost than via organic marketing channels.

• Start with a small advertising budget to test a few different paid channels
• See which channel generates the most plumbing marketing leads and which generates the lowest cost per lead
• Determine which channels generate high-quality leads that convert to booking plumbing services

Digital marketing platforms such as Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn and Yelp offer self-service advertising channels you can set up yourself without having to work with a marketing agency.

8. Web Chat 

Live chat is a newer internet marketing channel that’s growing in popularity among businesses and consumers alike. Nearly 80% of businesses say using live chat helps boost customer loyalty, revenue and sales. Companies also report that it helps them solve customer service issues 13x faster than traditional support channels like email and help forms.

Plumbing marketing FAQ

How do I generate more plumbing leads?

By using the plumbing marketing strategies and marketing tactics presented here, you can improve your lead generation efforts and get new plumbing customers via:

• Content marketing
• SEO
• Social media
• Your company website
• Referrals, testimonials and word of mouth
• Paid ads

How do I improve my plumbing business’s reputation?

Take these four steps to strengthen your plumbing company’s online reputation management.

1. Listen to what customers have to say about your plumbing company on social media channels and online review sites
2. Analyze the customer feedback you receive via social media and online reviews
3. Respond to customer reviews (positive reviews, negative reviews and neutral reviews) about your business
4. Monitor metrics related to your online reputation, watch for changes over time and implement strategies to drive positive sentiment about your plumbing company

Where should plumbing companies advertise online?

There’s no one right online advertising channel for plumbing businesses. The right paid marketing services for your brand will depend on your overall business objectives. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads are designed to drive brand awareness, while pay-per-lead (PPL) ads help companies generate high-quality leads.

• Pay-per-click (PPC) ads: Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp and Google Ads offer PPC advertising options. As the name suggests, you only pay when customers click on your ads. PPC ads are a go-to for raising brand awareness but are not necessarily the best option for driving high-quality leads.

• Pay-per-lead (PPL) ads: As with PPC ads, many platforms offer pay-per-lead ad campaigns. Instead of paying every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay for every high-quality lead your campaign generates.

For instance, with Google Local Services Ads, plumbing companies only pay when someone calls the business, sends a message to the business listing, books a plumbing service or completes a customer inquiry form as a result of seeing the ad.

Grow your plumbing business with Broadly

Broadly offers a suite of plumber marketing solutions and marketing tools:

• Campaigns: Launch modern, powerful SMS and email marketing campaigns
• Website: Build a mobile-friendly website that converts visitors into plumbing customers
• Web Chat: Enhance the user experience for your company website visitors
• Reviews: Get more online reviews to drive more referrals

Want to see how our technology platforms help small businesses like yours deliver growth?