Biggest Plumber Marketing Fails

I don’t know many plumbers who enjoy spending money on marketing. They know it’s necessary. They may even allocate a decent amount of their budget for it. But they definitely don’t like it. It’s tough putting your hard-earned dollars out into the universe without a guarantee of more leads, more customers, and more profits. I get it.

The truth is, there are no real guarantees in marketing-land. There are simply too many variables and too much that’s out of your control. However, there are some plumber marketing best practices, along with some definite no-nos. Today, let’s talk about that last bit.

Here are 10 easy ways to waste a whole bunch of money on marketing:

1. Focus too much on advertising. Yes, there’s a difference between advertising and marketing. In a nutshell, advertising is just one part of your marketing strategy, and its purpose is to get attention. Marketing, however, is a broad approach designed to develop interest in your plumbing shop and your services. If all you’re doing is advertising—spending money on print ads, radio spots, billboards, and even digital campaigns—and not engaging in marketing—building relationships, gaining trust, adding value, offering unmatched customer service—you might as well pile up your marketing dollars and set a match to them.
   
   
2. Put all your eggs in one basket. You have potential customers at multiple stages of the sales funnel and hanging out in all sorts of spaces—at home where they might get your door hanger, scrolling through Facebook, doing research using Google, and out in the community talking with their friends and family. Spend too much of your marketing budget on one channel, and you’ll miss the significant percentage of people who are looking for you elsewhere. A marketing strategy designed to bring you more leads, and therefore more customers, will be purposefully diversified.
   
   
3. Ignore your current customers. It costs far less money to keep a current customer than it does to get a new one. Research agrees: Prospective customers are only 5-20% likely to buy your services, while current customers are 60-70% likely to. Sure, you want more customers, and I want that for you, too. But I also want you to be profitable, and the fastest way to improve profitability is to keep the customers you already have.
   
   
4. Be dazzled by pretty packaging. Don’t be wooed by expensive advertising “partners” that promise slick brochures and gorgeous websites. The coolest plumber website and the nicest tri-fold won’t add one penny to your bottom line if no one sees them. Yes, attractive advertising pieces are helpful, but they have to rest on a solid marketing strategy that includes things like search engine optimization and reputation management.
   
   Another word about websites: If your website isn’t mobile responsive, you might as well not have one. So far in 2018, 52% of all internet traffic has occurred on mobile phones, and Google is now taking a mobile-first approach to indexing. That means if your website isn’t mobile, your potential customers will probably never know it exists.
   
   
5. Letting leads die. I’ve seen it far too often: Contractors invest in marketing plans that bring them leads—but they have no formalized process to convert those leads into customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software—and someone who is a wizard at using it—are a must for plumbing shops.
   
   
6. Don’t have a marketing plan. To grow your business, you should allocate 9-15% of your annual revenue toward marketing. That’s quite a lot of money, and to avoid wasting it you’ll need a plan to spend it wisely. Be sure to incorporate your marketing planning into your annual sales forecasting. Those two pieces have to work together for you to be successful.
   
   
7. Be anti-social. Your potential customers are on social media. When they type, “Anyone have a recommendation for a plumber?” as their next Facebook status, it would be fantastic if people mentioned you. It would be even more fantastic if they could tag your Facebook page so someone could go check you out, learn what kind of company you are, and see what other customers have said about you. But if your Facebook page is dead or dying, that sends the exact wrong message. Do not underestimate the importance of Facebook in your marketing plan.
   
   
8. Ignore keyword research. If you’re investing in pay-per-click (PPC) Google Ads for your shop , please be certain you’re targeting the best keywords. If you’re guessing, you’re very likely wasting money or, at the very least, missing opportunities to leverage your ads for even more leads.
   
   
9. Show your ads to everyone, everywhere. Be sure to configure your social and Google Ads to display only in your actual service area. If you’re in Pennsylvania, what good does it do to have someone in Alabama click on your ad? That mistake literally just takes money right out of your pocket and puts it straight into Google’s. Don’t do that.
   
   
10. Set it and forget it. You might set your marketing budget annually, but don’t sit at your computer on January 1, set up all your ads, and then wait 12 months to check in. The digital space is in constant flux, and your marketing strategy must move along with it. Check in on your ads every three or four weeks and make adjustments as necessary. Stay in-the-know on marketing trends and add and delete channels when it makes sense to do so. If you want to avoid wasting your plumber marketing budget, you’ll need to be a little obsessed with your analytics.

And here’s one more, sure-fire way to waste money on your marketing: Be a lousy plumber. The best way to grow your plumbing business is to be an amazing plumbing shop. If your techs do shoddy work, have terrible attitudes, and embody the stereotypical plumber narrative, your competitors will, sooner than later, eat you alive. Be the best, and you’ll have customers knocking down your door.

Developing a comprehensive, results-minded marketing plan can be overwhelming—you’re a plumber, after all, not a marketing guru. Let us help! Shoot us a message today.