How to Advertise a Plumbing Business Tips from Gail - Plumbing Marketing Tips, Ideas & Strategies for Plumbers

This is an excerpt from a post by Gail Cohen that was featured on eHow.

When water starts rising, your phone starts ringing, making you the only community member who hopes for more rain. Sewer backups. Toys down the toilet. Septic tank backup just before relatives arrive for a holiday meal. These frequent real-world scenarios occur so often, you might think plumbers have no need to advertise. Fact is, competition gets rough in some areas, so if you haven't found clever ways to advertise your business, you could be left holding the plunger while another plumber sweeps in armed with his power drain snake.

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Think beyond the Yellow Pages. Sure, phone book sales reps swear theirs is the only show in town, but you can refute their sales pitch by grabbing your phone book and turning to the plumbers section. Can you afford to compete with the big boys with the huge ads? If your answer is yes, jump in, but you may prefer to spread your ad budget over more terrain by finding other ways to become the plumbing firm that immediately comes to mind when a crisis presents itself
Develop a unique selling position (USP) by figuring out what you do that the other plumbers in your area don't, then build your advertising strategies around that dynamic. For example, are you and your staff certified by an industry authority? Are you union-sanctioned? Do you offer a money-back guarantee if a plumbing situation isn't resolved? Think about how you can separate your business from the herd, and make that the foundation of your advertising message.
Clean up your existing logo or get a new one. Does yours shout "plumber" the minute someone looks at it? Logos do more than just identify your business; they're graphic clues that stick in people's minds after repeated exposure. If your design is devoid of imagery that must supported by copy on billboards, broadcasts and Internet pages, you may wish to rethink it---particularly in today's multilingual society.
Consider adopting a cartoon character. Cute animals (think Geico's gecko and Camel cigarette's dromedary) resonate with consumers better and longer than logos, so come up with an endearing character and you'll have a base from which to build an ad campaign for your plumbing business. Here's the cheap way to get your own spokescharacter: Call a college art department and hire a student illustrator. Everyone wins: you get a distinct character and the student gets cash and a portfolio piece.
Develop a tag line that encapsulates the components listed in steps 2, 3 and 4. For example, your USP is "Get your money back if our plumbing service isn't all it's quacked up to be." Your tag line accompanies a drawing of your spokesfowl wearing a plumber's uniform with your logo embellished on the jumpsuit and your story is told.
Use this combination of message/image and logo to develop a street-smart advertising plan. Turn your cartoon character into an animated spot (hire students to write and produce it) and run it on cable channels where rates are cheap and you can take advantage of run-of-station contracts that offer more spots if you let the channel pick the time slots. Be the only plumber on a certain cable channel and see how that works for you. Run print ads for your plumbing business where others don't: newsletters, church bulletins, neighborhood guides and pamphlets produced by civic organizations that reach out to folks in your target areas.
Support your broadcast and print ad efforts with promotional items. Sure, you can hand out refrigerator magnets, but a rubber ducky with your logo and contact information stands a better chance of reminding a consumer that your plumbing business is open 24/7 if it winds up on a desk or a tub rather than amid 40 other magnets.
Think of grass-roots advertising as your way to thank customers for their business by creating a loyalty program. Your Frequent Plunger Club, offering future discounts based upon jobs booked by referral, will spread the word as fast as sewers rise during a flood. And don't forget to carry a supply of ducks with you when you travel. You never know when you might pick up a customer.
Explore direct-advertising avenues for inexpensive ways to reach existing and future customers. A cheap way to stay on the radar is to send attention-getting postcards listing your plumbing services on one side and reserving the other for timely announcements like a "plumbing special of the month" or to commemorate customers' birthdays. Postcards are economical ways to get out the word and communicate all kinds of deals.
Launch a website. Use it to advertise success stories, give surfers plumbing tips on how to keep their systems trouble-free and, with their permission, post great reviews you've received following harrowing jobs. To keep the site fresh and current, pack a digital camera in with your plumbing tools so you can take a photo of your satisfied customer for the site. If you can talk her into it, make sure that customer is holding your promotional duck when you snap the shot.

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By Plumbing Marketing Profits