14 Creative Ways to Generate New Leads for Your Plumbing Business
A digital marketing agency can take the pain out of getting new leads for your plumbing business. Did you know that lead generation was the biggest struggle for companies in 2021? Could this be because small businesses haven’t figured out that traditional advertising like print, billboard, radio, and television don’t have a high ROI? Even traditional SEO isn’t off the hook, and can often take years before seeing the fruits of a great ROI because of how competitive the plumbing business locale is.
It’s only going to get harder no thanks to Google’s search page results. In case you haven’t noticed, the top of the results contain promotional ads that look like legitimate content.
Major competitors that have LOTS of money in your industry are paying to be on top. They’re finding new and unique ways to get eyeballs on them first. Customers are catching onto these schemes and don’t find the information they’re looking for.
Content is King. The best plumbing businesses are consistently creating content because they know it produces the best ROI on marketing dollars. What if a small business owner could get a years’ worth of content marketing AND distribution of that content set up without lifting a finger? Could that change how many leads and customers a plumbing company gets in a given year?
I want you to take a moment and reread that last sentence question.
That’s where you come in. You need to produce high-quality content to stand out. This requires you to think outside of the box and experiment with different methods.
Here are 14 creative ways to generate local plumbing leads for your business. Use this list as inspiration or write down the ones you like the most. Keep it as a reference guide the next time you want to try something new.
#1 – Lead With Passion
You should already have a passion for your business. Hopefully. Most fail at this though, and lead with a sales mindset. Know the burning “why” behind your business.
Lead with that passion in everything you do. Figure out how you can positively contribute to your business. When your actions stem from your passion, it comes across as authentic.
You’re seen as genuine rather than aggressive or pushy. This helps build the know, like, and trust factor among your customers. This Ted Talk with Simon Sinek is great on this subject:
#2 – Focus on Delivering Value
The most important goal to focus on is delivering value. Achievers get more done and succeed while they’re ahead. The best leads are the ones generated from your current customer base. And it’s cheaper to “up-sell” current customers, or harvest referrals from those existing customers, than it is to spend money acquiring new ones.
Focus on your existing customers. Make sure they receive value from everything you do – from blogs to social media posts. Delivering content value in many forms is the key to generating local plumbing leads effectively and affordably.
Digital Marketer.com does a wonderful job of explaining the Customer Value Journey in 800 words or less.
#3 – Position Yourself as a Thought Leader
This hearkens back to the original point. You should see yourself as a thought leader in your industry. You can easily do this by delivering high-quality content on social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, news sites, blogs, podcasts, video sites, Slide-share websites, and info-graphic PDF sites.
Focus on the biggest challenges of prospective clients. What are their biggest struggles? What problems do they want solved?
With this relevant content in mind, clients will seek you out and want to work with you. A great book on this is called Go-Giver: A Little Story About A Powerful Business Idea by Bob Burg and John David Mann.
#4 – Share Stories From Other Thought Leaders
If you don’t see yourself as a thought leader, what you can do is share stories from others. This gives your content value. Reach out to a thought leader in your industry or within your company. Someone who is on the front lines. A technician perhaps. Or successful sales person.
Schedule an interview with that expert. Ask for advice, get some industry secrets, or gain knowledge that potential customers won’t get anywhere else. Create a list of relevant questions to ask so your readers can learn something from this. Or poll your followers on social media and ask them what questions they want answered from a particular expert.
You can share these interviews on your blog. Or you can record a video and upload it on YouTube. Start or add to an existing podcast! This is our Lead Generation Strategies Podcast as an example.
Interviewing other thought leaders will improve your reputation among your followers.
#5 – Create an Interactive Quiz
This is a good way to keep your clients on their toes. Online quizzes can be fun to do. Most businesses don’t realize they’re beneficial for lead generation.
Your visitors can take the quiz and receive the results all in one sitting. Maybe it’s something fun like, “Which faucet matches your personality?” Services like Survey Monkey can help you create a quiz in seconds.
You can also hire a copywriter on Fiverr.com who specializes in creating online quizzes for lead generation. The secret to a successful quiz engages with your visitors. You want to keep them on your website, so they purchase your products and services.
Give them the results right away so they can learn about their unique situation.
#6 – Leverage the Power of Customer Reviews
Instead of having customer reviews on your website, place them on review platforms such as Yelp or Google Business. It’s a great way to expand your online presence and get recognized by potential customers. With review platforms, you’ll rank high in SEO and generate organic search results.
These websites help people find the information they’re looking for. Keep in mind that Google tends to favor review sites over local businesses. Your company could end up at the top of search results just from this small change.
You can also beat out competitors with high-value keyword searches such as “best plumbing companies” or “top plumbing services in [your city] [your state]”.
#7 – Get Clear on Your Brand Story
What can take the guesswork out of lead generation is getting clear on your brand story.
Do you even have a story? What value do you provide? What makes you different from your competition?
How do you get the job done? How will your clients benefit from your services?
The goal behind your story is that no one else can provide a service the way you do. Anyone can do the job. What makes your business special?
#8 – Make Your Content Human Again
Human-based content should be based on your buyer’s journey. Your buyer is unique and isn’t like everyone else. Businesses make the mistake of trying to please everyone when they should focus on their target client.
Avoid making generalized content. Show how your products can solve a client’s specific problem. Add emotion and humor to it but keep it appropriate.
By adding a human-based approach to your content marketing, you’re likely to shorten the buyer cycle. These folks over at the Harmon Brothers do this well by marrying a sales pitch with humor…
#9 – Create Videos to Solve Problems (Be demonstrable)
Your videos can help solve a problem for your potential clients. But they must be educative, engaging, and entertaining. Thankfully, most videos can be shot with just an iPhone. And the audio quality is dang good on these new phones nowadays!
Gone are the days of needing fancy video equipment. Videos can also help you create value for people who may not know about your business. If your potential clients learn something from your video, they’re more likely to return and purchase your services.
And have a call to action at the end of the video:
- “Subscribe to my channel now” (assuming the video is uploaded to a video sharing website like YouTube)
- “Call us at: 555-555-5555, and mention you saw this video on YouTube for a FREE quote”
- “Email joe@joesplumbing.com and we’ll get you a 10% OFF coupon”
#10 – Create a Useful Printable
What’s great about a printable is that it’s easy to make. You can make one on Canva or Adobe Photoshop. You don’t have to make it from scratch since both offer templates you can pull from. Or you can hire someone for cheap on Fiverr.com to make something unique.
Use the free printable to get potential customers to subscribe to your email newsletter. People love to consume content at their leisure, so make it worth their while. Creating a high-value piece of content and making it easily acceptable to its audience can help you generate leads.
#11 – Lead a Webinar or Workshop
Educational webinars can be a useful marketing tool. This allows you to demonstrate your products and services, educate your potential clients, and share your expertise on a given topic. When they accept your invitation, they can watch the live event or watch the recording.
Afterward, you should follow up with them about any questions they may have. Webinar invites sent via email or social media are great for branding. You can even position yourself as an expert by sharing the recording copy a month or so later.
#12 – Compile a List of Resources or Tools
Don’t assume that your visitors have the same tools your company uses. Instead, take the time and compile a list of resources and tools they can be using. This gives you an advantage over your competition.
A resource list has the potential to boost local plumbing leads. You want to include a list of tools and other resources your readers can refer to. Don’t shy away from providing them with fair and reputable options.
For example, refer to them as a plumbing organization rather than one of your competitors.
#13 – Offer a Free Trial or Consultation
A free consultation helps your prospect move through the buyer’s journey. If it provides them value, they are more likely to purchase the full service and become a paying customer.
Another strategy is to offer a free trial or a free product. By offering some of your products or services for free, your prospects can get an idea of your company. This gives you time to build awareness and trust with your users.
If a free trial or product is a little hard to stomach, then you can always offer a common simple inspection/checkup for a much discounted get-in-the-door price. Something under $100 that you can wow the customer with.
#14 – Provide a Handy Checklist for Homeowners
Your clients fail at accomplishing their goals because plumbing is time-consuming and complicated. If you have an upcoming webinar, you can include a checklist for your clients. It could be about how to:
- Fix a leak,
- Increase water pressure,
- Connect copper pipes,
- Remove compression ring,
- Connect PVC pipes, or
- Install a toilet
They can refer to it to ensure they don’t miss any important steps. You can also use a checklist as a reference for easy DIY tasks. Maybe stuff that you don’t want to do because it’s simple and doesn’t take much time. Help them fix the $50 issues in a video, then when they call you, they’re paying you to fix the $250+ things!
As you can see, there are so many ways to generate leads. This list should give you some idea of how you can generate your own. You can offer a free ebook download, host a webinar, or share customer reviews online.
Whatever you choose, you should have high-quality content in mind. Give potential leads something that inspires, educates, engages, informs, and interests them along the way. Or you could end up with too many leads, which isn’t a bad thing.
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