Digital marketing for plumbers may not seem like a priority. However, just like the need to take care of a leak right away before it gets out of control, the sooner you tackle your digital marketing strategy as a plumber, the sooner the leads will come in. Most importantly, your competition likely has an online presence, which means your potential customers are finding them before they find your service.
At the same time, plumbing companies don’t want to spend money that’s not going to generate actual leads. Paid marketing campaigns may be one component of the process of reaching your clients, but with a comprehensive digital marketing strategy, your marketing dollar goes further and continues to work for you for years to come.
But How? What Really Works?
Instead of a single task to complete, create a digital marketing strategy for your plumbing business that incorporates the most effective methods of marketing to reach your target customers: people who need plumbing services, often right away. With a custom-designed digital marketing strategy, you can see consistent leads. To do that, consider these key components that are some of the most important drivers of digital marketing leads for plumbing companies.
SEO for Plumbers
The first step for most plumbing companies is to create a website with solid search engine optimization (SEO) in place. Because most of your leads will be local businesses and homeowners who need service, you’ll want to attract Google search results from people who are looking for help close to their homes. SEO allows you to do this by utilizing geo keywords (those with your service area locations mentioned) in them. These are the words people are typing into Google to get the plumber they need.
SEO is more than just keywords, though. It is about creating a comprehensive strategy that targets people who are:
- Most likely to become a paying customer for you
- Those customers’ specific pain points or needs
- Your local service area
Start with an SEO audit of your website. Find out what keywords you are ranking for, should be ranking for, and not going to be able to compete against within your target area. Then, develop a strategy that incorporates those keywords into the blog, website pages, meta tags, and other components of your site.
SEO and web design go hand-in-hand. If your plumbing business does not have a reliable, fast-loading website that’s easy to navigate, that’s already limiting your success. Work with a web design company to make sure your audience is able to easily find your business.
Social Media for Plumbing Companies
Another component of your digital marketing strategy for plumbers is social media. Consider all of those Facebook groups you belong to, for example. How often does someone end up in one of those groups looking for a plumber from their neighbors? If you do not have a social media page for your business on those platforms, especially Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you could be missing out on key leads. Social media does not have to be overwhelming. Consider these components of the process:
- Create social media pages for your plumbing business. They should reflect your brand image and message clearly.
- Create posts that can help people solve problems. While you can use your page to discuss promotions, make sure that it is not a sales-driven page. Instead, answer common plumbing questions your clients have. Talk about what they need to keep their plumbing at its best.
- Integrate posts and status updates from your blog into your social media. It’s always a good idea to drive traffic from social media to your website, and incorporating a blog makes this easy.
- Engage with your audience. To do that, you’ll need to answer their questions and interact on your posts.
- Be consistent. To build a strong brand, interact with your community, followers, and others on a consistent basis. Give them something valuable to talk about and share.
Social media allows your brand to come to life. It enables you to help people get to know your service and the people behind it, which ultimately builds trust in your brand.
Claim Your Google Business Profile
Perhaps one of the most important digital marketing strategies for plumbers is to use their Google Business Profile. This is a free service that Google offers to any business. All you need to do is tell Google about your business and complete your profile. Once they verify your business, it starts working as a marketing tool for your company.
Your Google Business Profile is likely to pop up on the search results pages whenever someone located near your geographic location looks for the services you provide. For example, if Mary needs to find an emergency plumber in Austin, she is likely to go to Google and search “emergency plumber in Austin.” When she does, and your business is noted as serving that community, your profile will display, allowing your customers to immediately contact you from that page.
There’s much more to get from your Google Business profile as well:
- Include your hours of service, a description of the services you offer, and any detailed information you want customers to know, such as offering emergency services or 24-hour help.
- Include photos of your business and your team. You want people to start to recognize your marketing including your logo and the message you send out.
- Allow customers to leave reviews of your searchers on your profile. Ask your current customers to drop a review for you. When they do, that helps build trust in your organization for new customers.
- Answer questions when people ask them. That helps to build your reputation as a resource for the community.
- Keep your profile up to date with your company’s services, promotions, and other details.
You may get a few bad reviews, but the way you interact with them can actually help you win over other customers. What’s most important is to use this free digital marketing tool to allow Google to send leads directly to your phone number.
Creating a Cohesive Digital Marketing Plan for Your Plumbing Business
These three steps are just the very first components of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for your plumbing business. Often, a lot of work goes into the process. Once you have it established and continue to work on it, you’ll see reliable lead generation from people who need and want to use your services. The investment you make in any of these strategies continues to pay off for years to come.
It is important to think about the use of paid marketing methods. Pay per click (PPC) marketing is still a component of the process of building leads, and your digital marketing service company can help you to navigate them. Yet, every dollar you put into digital market optimization is likely to come back to you in build your brand, growing your business, and producing steady leaves for years.
The Good News Is You Do Not Have to Do This Yourself or Alone
At Renaissance Digital Market, we help plumbing businesses grow their digital marketing presence and pull in consistent leads through the most innovative and up to date strategies available today. Allow our team to create a custom digital marketing strategy for plumbers that helps your business to thrive.Digital marketing for plumbers is one of the most effective ways to grow your business. Let us help you today.