When someone searches for “plumbing near me,” a myriad of results pops up right before their eyes, and instantaneously, they are presented with plumbers' locations, rates, contact information, customer reviews, and multitudes of little blue links, each of which lead to a unique plumbing operation. It is obvious that the booming growth of the plumbing industry has resulted in more competition; however, “just as the competition is heating up, so is the demand for plumbers” (Housecall Pro, 2021). This means that now, you have the perfect window of opportunity to really start differentiating yourself from your competitors. But with so many options presented to consumers, with so many of those little blue links, how do you go about standing out?
In this post, we’ll examine four crucial things you can do online to maximize your plumbing business’s traffic and convert more strangers to customers.
Define Your Brand
Are you trying to promote a silly, lighthearted tone alongside your plumbing services, such as funny toilet ads? Or are you bringing a more serious, get-down-to-business approach to your company? In whatever light you intend to portray your business to the world, it is crucial that you make a bold, intentional impression on potential customers. To do so, devote some time to establishing the tone of voice you want to use on your website, and through that voice, tell the story of your business.
The power of storytelling cannot be overestimated. As stated by Simon Sinek, a bestselling author and marketing consultant, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Did you enter the plumbing business to be able to help people? Maybe it was because you saw an opportunity to create something that was your own? Whatever the answer to “why did you enter the plumbing business?” is, make it clear to your potential customers through your photos, videos, and content on your website, and help them to understand your purpose.
Fill Your Pages with Photos and Videos
Photos and videos are a contributing factor when it comes to defining your brand, as they give people a further glimpse of what your business brings to the table. Nevertheless, not only do they help people to better “see” who you are, they also play a serious role in helping potential customers make decisions. According to a 2022 statistic:
“72% of customers said they would rather learn about a product or service by way of video. In fact, 84% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video (Optinmonster). Additionally, 79% of people say they’ve been convinced to buy or download a piece of software by watching a video” (invideo, 2022).
Some good ideas for video include educational plumbing hints and tips, employee stories and backgrounds, and even a “tour” around your office.
Beyond video, photos prove helpful when it comes to your site appearing in your potential customers’ searches. According to SmartBug, a digital marketing platform, “Pages ranking in the top ten of Google have an average of four images.”
Post pictures of happy employees, photos of your work (before and after pictures, for example), and even places and people from around your office.
Lastly, photo and video also help in aiding customers’ attention span. The more pictures you have on your website, the easier it is to follow. Think about it: would you rather run into a website with a bunch of cool, relevant, helpful images, or one with a lot of plain text?
Publicize Positive Customer Reviews
While it is important to focus on what makes your plumbing company unique, it’s also true that customers won’t always believe it coming from you. According to HubSpot, a powerful marketing platform based in Massachusetts:
“60% of consumers believed customer reviews were either trustworthy or very trustworthy—meaning that businesses that can accumulate positive reviews had a good chance of them helping a customer making a purchase decision. The same [survey] found that positive customer reviews make 73% of customers trust a business more, and 57% of customers visit a company's website after reading positive reviews” (HubSpot, 2022).
Therefore, make it a point to publicize customer reviews on the homepage of your website and on your social media site(s). This way, you establish trust with potential customers and, as a result, they will be more willing to give your company a shot. Before doing so, however, ensure that you have the customer’s permission to publicize their words. If you’re not quite sure how to go about obtaining more customer reviews, click here.
Educate Your Potential Customers
Educating your customers has two advantages: it truly helps people to better understand the plumbing in their own homes, and it also boosts your credibility. Let your potential customers see that you know what you’re talking about!
When it comes to generating educational content, think about the problems that customers call you with and the causes to those problems. Do your customers experience frozen AC pipes? Maybe their toilets won’t stop overflowing. A unique blog post can probably be generated based on every call you receive, but to give you a head start, here’s a link to 110 plumbing blog ideas. Remember: the skills it takes to perform your line of work every day are unfamiliar/unknown to a lot of people, so be creative, and remember that people can learn something from you with just about every customer you help!
Additionally, be sure that when it comes to posting data or more technical information, you put it in the form of pie charts, bar graphs, and/or scatter plots. This way, the information you present to your potential customers can be more easily digested, in stark contrast to them having to sort through a bunch of words to make sense of it.
Conclusion
The Internet's convenience and efficiency have revolutionized the way we gather information and make decisions. Therefore, knowing how to lead customers through the digital maze that is the Internet to your site is crucial, especially when you consider the severe growth that the plumbing industry is experiencing. To lead customers to your plumbing business online, remember to:
- Define your brand so that your potential customers get a clear idea of who you are and what your story is. This aids in setting you apart from other plumbing businesses.
- Fill your website with plenty of photos and videos. That way, Google will rank your website higher in search results, and prospects will have an easier time making the decision to go with your business.
- Publicize customer reviews as a means of establishing trust with future customers.
- Educate your customers with creative content to increase your credibility.
