Plumbing is considered one of the most profitable businesses. In fact, industry revenue has grown to a total of $107 billion from 2015 to 2020. Because of this, a substantial number of plumbing services have sprung up, eager to get a slice of the profits.
However, this also means that the competition to gain new clients has gotten much more intense. Moreover, traditional ways of marketing aren’t enough as more and more people spend most of their daily lives logged on to the internet. This means that whenever local residents have clogged drains and require services from Winnipeg drain cleaning professionals, they don’t want to look for TV ads or posters, they want companies that can be found online.
It is apparent that plumbing companies must up their game if they want to gain new clients. The solution to the dilemma? Look no further than online marketing.
What Is Online Marketing?
Online marketing, also known as digital marketing, is the method of using web-based platforms to promote a company’s brand, products, and services to potential customers. Unlike traditional marketing, promotions are solely done online through internet-capable devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.
What Are the Advantages of Online Marketing?
Photo by Dominika Roseclay
Digital marketing offers small and medium-sized businesses several advantages to enhance their marketability. Moreover, if executed well, it can even allow them to compete with large businesses in terms of online visibility.
Here are the benefits that online marketing can give your plumbing company:
- More affordable than traditional marketing
- 24/7 Marketing
- Reach a wider audience.
- Ease of Customization
- Trackable and measurable results
- Allows focus on target client demographics
- Can be shared across multiple internet platforms
A Guide to Online Marketing
Starting an online marketing campaign for your plumbing business will require proper planning, knowledge, and strategy. While it is easier to hire professionals such as the best web design company in Vancouver to do the heavy lifting, it would be to your advantage if you have a better understanding of how the process works.
Here’s a comprehensive guide to online marketing:
1. Know Yourself And Your Clients
Before you start your online marketing campaign, you need to do some self-reflection first. If you have been in the plumbing industry for a while and have a steady client base, then there must be a reason why your business receives continued patronage.
Determining what clients like about your business is the first step in online marketing. By gathering customer input and opinion, you will have a better understanding of your company’s current reputation and performance.
You can start by asking your clients the following questions:
- What are the plumbing services that your company does best?
- What are the areas of the business that you need to improve on?
- What made them choose your business over others?
- Are they satisfied with the level of service you provide?
Furthermore, the answers your clients give can help you fine-tune the aspects of your marketing strategy and help you determine the following:
- The positioning of your plumbing services
- Marketing style and presentation
- Website content
- Ideas for offering possible plumbing services in the future
- Methods of attracting potential clients
- Target client demographic
- Fill Your Website With Well-Written and Informative Content
Your own website is a crucial part of digital marketing, so you must make sure that can give users a reason to stay and look around. To achieve this, fill your website with well-written and informative content such as plumbing-related blogs.
Furthermore, having good content on your website isn’t only limited to incentivizing users to visit, but it also has other important benefits that help boost your online presence:
- Good content drives more organic traffic to your website
- Having a substantial number of informative content on your website establishes your company’s authority when it comes to plumbing expertise.
- Visitors who find your content useful will share your blogs on forums and social media sites.
- Great content generally leads to more sales.
- Websites with evergreen content will stay relevant for years to come.
- Well-written content enhances local SEO.
3. Optimize Your Content for Local SEO
Having your plumbing website rank higher on the Google results page is really important in digital marketing. To do this, you must optimize your content for local search engine optimization (SEO), especially if you aim to gain clients in the town or city your company is currently operating.
Unlike standard SEO, local search engine optimization enables websites to be easily found whenever a user inputs specific geographical keywords in the search bar, such as “plumbing services in Calgary”. If the content is optimized for Calgary SEO, then it will rank higher in local Google searches and as a result, bring more people into your page.
Furthermore, with a guide from the No. 1 SEO Agency in Canada, it will encourage more people to contact your business or visit your physical office.
4. Create a Social Media Account for Your Plumbing Services
Social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are among the most visited places on the internet with millions of active users per day. So, it is highly recommended that you create a social media account for your plumbing services.
Moreover, social media platforms do not only help boost your company’s online presence but they offer other benefits such as:
- Makes it easier for you to post and share content from your website.
- Provide old and new clients with a more convenient way to contact you.
- Allows you to post business updates and promotions quickly.
- Easier to attract potential clients in need of plumbing services.
- Gives instant access to your website.
5. Register in Google My Business
One of the most effective online marketing tactics that can greatly benefit your company is to register in Google My Business (GMB). This free internet-based service is designed to help promote local businesses online by giving you the ability to list your business location on Google Maps and local search results, similar to an online directory.
Furthermore, GMB has other great features that help enhance your plumbing website’s online marketing efforts:
- Allows you to display consistent and accurate information about your business all across the internet.
- Increases the legitimacy of your business’ online profile
- Allows customers to review your business.
- Enhances local SEO
- Helps create a good first impression by customizing your business profile with videos and pictures.
Understanding how online marketing works can greatly benefit your plumbing business in the long run. While the results may not be immediate, with enough hard work, dedication, experience, and the tips given in this guide, you will be able to improve your digital marketing skills.
