These great marketing tips come directly from Pete The Plumber out of Calgary, AB.
Recommended Marketing Techniques
1. Website
Today a website is an absolute must for any plumbing business. There are more than 34,000 Google searches per second, so having on online store front for your business is absolutely vital.
There are a few main areas that are important to a website's success: The design & functionality, The content, and The Call-To-Action.
The Design and Functionality
Today many websites are built using a system called a Content Management System (CMS). A CMS is an online interface that connects to a website that allows the average Joe to manage his website in its entirety without having to know anything about web scripting languages. Infact, it's very similar to writing an email, except instead of sending the email to a recipient you send it to your website. The CMS we use is called WordPress, and it's great. We can upload pictures, videos, sound clips, build pages, blog, and much more.
The Content
On the web content is king so you want to ensure that the content you write will convert your visitors into customers. It's true that on the web many of the people who visit a website are "tire kickers" so providing detailed content allows them to compare apples to apples.
Call To Action
The last piece is a call to action. A call to action is the messaging on your website that will entice your visitors to contact you. On our website we use the call to action "Request An Appointment", however, it could be a variation of just about any type of offer.
- Call today for a free quote
- Apply online and receive 10% off
- Contact us for a no hassle consultation
This is a very brief overview of a website, however, the web is the new medium for effectively marketing and growing your business so it's important not to get left in your competitor's dust.
2. Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of increasing your website's ranking within major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Optimizing your website for search engines ensures that your website appears on the first page of the Google search results for plumbing related keywords instead of on the 10th page.
The SEO Process.
SEO is based on two main factors, relevancy and importance. Relevance related to how relevant the content and code on your website is to a specific keyword. So if you are targeting Atlanta Plumber, you want to ensure that you website has multiple references to Atlanta Plumber.
Importance is the second and most important aspect of SEO. On the web importance is evaluated based on the amount of backlinks a website has pointing to it. A backlink is a link from another website to your website. So much like a democratic vote, the website with the most links (votes) wins. The one wrench in the engine is that not all links are valued equally. If you have a link from the CNN to your website, it is going to carry much more value than a link from your local family owned grocery store.
After investing in an SEO campaign we have seen the traffic to our website increase by about 150%! And on average we convert about 20% of our total traffic into leads.
There are many people in the SEO industry that claim to be professionals but be very weary. We interviewed several companies prior to going with our current online marketing firm. Investing in "cheap" SEO can be a complete waste of money, and even worse result in your website being banned by Google if unethical techniques are used.
3. Pay-Per-Click
Pay-Per-Click advertising is an online marketing model that only charges your account when a user actively clicks an ad and visits your website. This is a stark contrast to traditional marketing that charges based on impressions.
There are several forms of Pay-Per-Click available online. The most popular is Adwords, Google's advertising platform, however, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo, and Bing all have their own form of PPC advertising.
Aside from paying for clicks instead of impressions, PPC advertising also has many other benefits. You can customize a campaign to display only for selected keywords, you can choose a daily budget, you can select geographic locations, and best of all, you can track your data within Google Analytics. No more guess work, you have hard figures that you can work with to evaluate the effectiveness or shortcomings of your campaigns.
4. Email Marketing
Email Marketing is another online marketing technique which utilizes Email Distribution Systems to distribute large volumes of customized email message. There are many popular email marketing systems including Mail Chimp, and Constant Contact, however, our favorite is Campaign Monitor.
Using Campaign Monitor we can design, create, and send newsletters to our massive client list. The cost of sending the newsletters is also very inexpensive. The typical rates are 5$ + 1 cent per contact. So a newsletter to 100 people would cost a grand total of $6.
Email Marketing like all other forms of online marketing, has excellent tracking tools. You can track who opened the message, when they opened it, if they clicked links, if they unsubscribed, if the email address bounced, and so on.
5. Direct Mail
Direct Mail is advertising that is delivered via your national postal service. Moving from digital to physical advertising instantly increases the price, so that's why I have it at #6. Direct Mail can be an effective way to market to potential customers because as the name implies it is direct. If you specialize in air conditioning or furnace replacement a simple direct mail reminder, or promotion may be the motivation a customer needs to pick-up the phone.
My recommendations for a direct mail piece are to keep them clean and simple. The standard sizes in Canada that allow you to get the most bang for you buck are 6 inches x 4 inches or 7 inches x 5 inches. Printing fees can be quite extreme so make sure you shop around before signing on the dotted line.
The distribution of a direct mail piece is another factor to keep in mind. For unaddressed Ad Mail (mail delivered via postal code, not address) typically run between 14-16 cents per piece, depending on the company. Addressed Ad Mail (mail delivered to an exact address) is significantly more expensive ranging from 42-50 cents per piece. There are also associated fees such as mail drop fees, and bundling which can cost around an extra $100.
Just to hammer this point home, my recommendation is to keep a direct mail piece clean and simple. You have roughly 2-3 seconds before your piece ends up in the trash, so you need to connect with your potential customers quickly or else your opportunity is lost.
6. Vehicle Wraps
Cruising down the highway with a toilet on your brand new truck has never looked so great. Seriously though vehicle wraps for your service vehicles is an excellent way to build your brand and get noticed by thousands of potential customers.
With that being said vehicle wraps can be very expensive. In Canada they range between $2,000 - $6,000 for quality work. Typically the wrap lasts between 3-5 years so just make sure that you get insurance on the wrap incase is starts to peel or if you get into an accident and need to have the graphics replaced.
Not So Recommended Techniques
1. Yellow Pages
We have entirely dropped out of the Yellow Pages in the last 4 months and it was the best decision we've ever made. The Yellow Pages used to be an extremely effective means for marketing a plumbing business but now they have almost entirely lost their effectiveness.
The main argument I hear when discussing the Yellow Pages is that 1. "Old People" still use it 2. My competitors are in it.
1. Old People will be dead soon! I know that's harsh but it's the reality. The next wave of "Old People" may be wrinkled but they are going to be texting their friends and surfing the internet, not playing cribbage and reminiscing about the time they churned butter.
2. If your competitors jumped off a bridge would you. Well for starters of course not because you'd have one less competitor. However, that's not the point, the point is that just because everyone does it, it doesn't make it a good idea. To be an innovator in any industry you need to take risks, plus the money you save on annual Yellow Pages fees could go towards a much more effective form of advertising (reference the mentioned above).
Conclusion:
That is some great feedback from Pete The Plumber - http://www.petetheplumber.com.
We would love to get your Feedback! What do you think about these ideas for marketing your plumbing business? Do you agree / disagree with any of the items listed? Anything that you think should be added based on your experience?
Post your comments below:
Joel
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