Everyone, be they homeowners or businesses, may need the help from a plumber from time to time – but have you thought about what you need?
Just like any other tradie, in order for your plumbing business to succeed, it’s crucial that you build yourself an effective lead generation system to keep the jobs flowing in and help build your tradie business up to the next level.
“Lead generation system… sounds complicated. Do I really need that?”
A lot of tradies – plumbers included – seem to think this way, assuming that it’s some super complicated system that only big businesses have.
However, the truth is much simpler: lead generation is all about building customer interest and obtaining jobs.
Most of your marketing activities as a tradie will be geared towards lead generation – that having been said, there are some parts of your tradie marketing that can be a lot more effective at lead generation than others.
Case in point: digital marketing for plumbers. Not only is it way more effective than many other methods, but tradie marketing techniques like search engine optimisation, PPC advertising and remarketing are also techniques that many of your competing plumbers are sleeping on!
Leads, leads leads
No doubt you know how leads work – one thing that many businesses overlook (tradies included) is the fact that not all leads are made equal.
Some leads are much less likely to lead to a conversion. For example, say your plumbing service is based around Melbourne’s south-east suburbs – leads coming from people from the western side of the CBD are much less likely to result in a conversion.
Not only that, but it’s also worth remembering that leads might be at different stages of what we call the purchase funnel – that’s to say, they might just be doing early research into plumbing work, or they could have made their mind up and be committed to a plumbing renovation.
It isn’t enough to just bring the leads in – it’s important that your plumbing business is also accommodating what point of the process each lead is at.
For example, leads that haven’t warmed up (that’s to say, not committed to choosing you for plumbing work) might need some “massaging”.
At the same time, warmer leads are closer to making a final decision, meaning that you can afford to be more direct.
The first step in building any lead generation system is understanding this, and incorporating it into your plans. If you overlook these crucial parts of the equation, can you really say that your lead generation system is working properly?
How do I promote my plumbing business? Turning your website into a lead-generating machine
Having a website is a good start – you’d be surprised by how many plumbers don’t even have a site at all, instead relying on a Facebook page for their entire web presence.
And among the ones that do, many still use simple, bare-bones websites that are more info-dumps than lead generators.
When it comes to generating leads, online marketing efforts have the potential to pay off hugely in the end, with the potential for:
- More leads
- Lower ongoing costs
- The ability to target specific leads
It’s that last one in particular that makes tradie digital marketing particularly effective at generating leads – and thus, an effective method of marketing for plumbers.
But to do that, you need to start with a good website.
Creating a conversion-based tradie website
Like we mentioned above, it’s crucial that you have a website to promote your plumbing business.
More importantly, said site needs to be geared towards making conversions.
We’ll talk later about how this factors into the lead-generation picture – for now, let’s focus on the site itself. What do we mean when we say that websites for plumbers need to be geared towards conversion?
Simple: your website needs to be about the sell. That doesn’t just mean talking about your skills – it means understanding what stage of the purchase decision your visitors are at and building your site to match.
For example, let’s compare two services: leak repairs and hot water installation. The first one is likely something that people don’t think too much about – just call the person who can respond the quickest. Your focus here might be on low quotes, or a fast response time.
The second on the other hand is a much bigger decision, which involves a lot more research and careful thought. Any webpages for this service need to accommodate this – perhaps talk about some of the water heater brands you work with, as well as unique considerations homeowners might not have thought about.
Basically, each page should be geared towards converting the most likely visitor into a caller through good web design and content!
Bring the leads in with SEO
A conversion-optimised site is crucial – however, you need to bring people into your site in the first place!
And that’s what SEO – search engine optimisation if you want to be proper – is for.
Most people are finding tradies through search engines. These search engines aren’t powered by a man in a control room like an old-fashioned telephone operator – Google uses computer algorithms to determine what web pages are the most relevant and useful.
What SEO focuses on is updating, tweaking and optimising your website using an understanding of these computer algorithms in order to ensure that your website is the one that pops up when somebody types in, say, “emergency plumber in Dandenong”.
The higher you rank and the more searches you rank for, the more people will end up visiting your website – and that means more leads and by extension, more conversions.
While it’s possible to do this on your own, for the vast majority of plumbers it just isn’t feasible.
Not only are the algorithms and principles ever-changing, but there’s also the matter of time – SEO is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and tweaking. Do you really have time for all of that between all the jobs you get called to?
Instead, leave your SEO in the hands of a professional – one that offers SEO guaranteed results for tradies just like you!
Build an email list
Converting a lead is great – converting a lead into a returning customer is even better!
Not all plumbing jobs are one-offs. Many plumbers perform a lot of ongoing work, be it working closely with construction companies, providing ongoing services for property managers and real estate agents or performing ongoing commercial plumbing maintenance.
For these plumbers, staying in a customer’s mind is essential.
Building an email list and sending out periodic emails ensures that any leads you pick up stay “warm” – even if they don’t need you right now, they’ve used you in the past and will remember you the next time they need plumbing. All you’re doing is reminding them that you exist, and that you worked for them in the past!
What should you send out to your mailing list? It depends on what sorts of return customers you have, and what you did for them. That said, there are a couple of ideas:
- Changes to building codes that affect plumbing
- Deals and special promos
- New services you’ve expanded into
- Plumbing industry news
- Updates on their maintenance schedules
Just to be clear, this doesn’t apply to all plumbers – for the ones who take a lot of jobs from repeat customers however, this is a crucial part of bringing ongoing business into your plumbing business once you’ve converted that initial lead.
Ask for referrals
Okay, so this isn’t technically digital in nature – that having been said, it’s still a crucial part of generating leads and a key part of marketing for tradies (yes, it counts!)
If the goal is to bring in and convert leads, you’re going to need to work overtime to bring those leads in. SEO is great at this. However, you’ve got another source to use as well: your existing and previous customers.
Don’t be afraid to ask your customers to refer you on to other potential customers. It may sound tacky, but it can help you generate many leads.
What’s more, these leads can often be more valuable than other leads – after all, people are much more likely to pay attention to a personal recommendation!
Seek help from a digital marketing agency
How do you make all these things happen? Sure, you can do this on your own – between all of the jobs you take on however, it may be best to seek help from a digital marketing agency!
Generating leads can be a lot of work. Luckily, a good lead generation system can help with that – however, that takes a lot of effort to set up. And what if you don’t set it up properly, or miss out on some valuable part?
Digital marketing agencies like iformat help you build an effective lead-generation system. Not only can we help increase how many leads you get, but we can also ensure the leads you do get are of a higher-quality.
Get quality leads today: focus on growing your business, and leave the rest to us!
Effective digital marketing means focusing on leads. And that means getting in touch with a tradie marketing team that can get you the leads that you want for your tradie business.
That means partnering with an agency that specialises in generating leads, raising awareness, and bringing in more jobs that will help take your plumbing business to the next level.
Call iformat today at 1300 88 64 50, and we’ll help you create the right digital marketing solutions for your plumbing business.
