At Blue Corona, we know a lot about growing plumbing businesses. In the past decade we’ve meticulously tracked every single advertising strategy we’ve tried for our customers—a great deal of which are plumbing companies—which has allowed us continuously to uncover insights about what works and what doesn’t.

And because we’re so passionate about seeing small to medium businesses grow, we’re sharing those insights with you. Benefit from our years of study and keep reading to learn about the best ways to grow your plumbing company this year.

Directory and Pay Per Lead Sites for Plumbers

Are Directory Sites and Pay Per Lead Services Worth It?

At some point in the quest for more leads—like yesterday—you may find yourself tempted by directory sites like Angie’s List or pay per lead services such as HomeAdvisor, Thumbtack, etc. There’s nothing wrong with testing listings in directory sites or trying a pay per lead service; however, if you go this route, you want to do so with caution.

There are a lot of different ways to generate leads for your business—some more effective than others. In this article, I’ll walk you through a few lead generation options and explain why you should approach some of them with a fair bit of caution.

Angie’s List

Is Angie’s List a Good Investment for Plumbers?

If you’ve ever searched for “plumbers + [your city]” (the way many of your potential customers do) in Google, and you’ve likely noticed directory sites like Angie’s List dominating the first page of organic search results. No longer are Angie’s List commercials just taking up TV and radio ads, but they’re ranking—and ranking well—online where your website could be ranked. So…if you can’t beat them, should you join them? Find the answer in this post.

Can I Get Leads for My Plumbing Company Through Directory Listings?

If you’re wondering “Should I be investing in directory site listings?” unfortunately, the best answer isn’t so straightforward. The short answer is “yes,” but there’s a huge qualifier that addresses the hidden cost of investing in directory sites. In this blog we’ll detail the best practices for listing your plumbing company in an online directory, and then we’ll show you what you need to consider before making the plunge into that investment.

Yelp

Is Yelp Worth it for Plumbing Companies?

When looking for a local home service company, you probably look for reviews. And your customers do the same thing! Yelp is one of the most popular directory sites due to its easy-to-use mobile app and its focus on reviews. So how can you leverage it for your plumbing business? We detail the smartest way to use the platform here. 

HomeAdvisor

Tips on HomeAdvisor for Plumbers

HomeAdvisor is designed to automatically connect homeowners with prescreened plumbers who offer the specific service they’re looking for. Follow our tips for using the site to put your best foot forward and stand out from the competition.

Search Engine Marketing for Plumbing Companies

How to Get Your Plumbing Company on Page 1 of Google

At Blue Corona, we service all industries, but we specialize in SEO and PPC for plumbing companies. We have a proven pay per click setup and management system specifically designed for the plumbing industry, and our SEO specialists have extensive experience helping plumbers like you get more qualified traffic. Get some insight into our strategy in this post. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

How to Rank in Cities Where You’re Not Located

As the owner of a plumbing company, you want to see your business grow. You know that you can do this by expanding your web real estate—but have you noticed that your pages aren’t showing up for Google searches in the areas that you provide service to? You will need to put in some extra effort to spread capture rankings over multiple cities or states. Here’s how you do it.

3 Things You Can Do Right Now to Improve Your Local SEO

If you’d prefer for people in your service area to find your business when searching for your services—what plumber wouldn’t?—there’s a whole long list of ways to make that happen. But let’s start with three of the easiest ways that you can boost your company’s local SEO right now.

Does My Website Need a Blog?

Keep in mind that Google ranks webpages, not whole websites—so as part of maximizing your online real estate, you need to have pages for all your lines of business and more specific pages related to those services (i.e., emergency plumbing service, drain cleaning, camera pipe inspection, etc.). But your service offerings end at some point. So what do you do? We’ll explain here.

Pay Per Click (PPC)

Is PPC Worth It For Small Companies?

In order to determine whether PPC advertising (or any other Marketing strategy) is worth it, you have to know your numbers. If you own a plumbing company and you’re willing to pay $200 per sale and your lead-to-sale conversion rate is 50 percent, you should be willing to pay $100 for a lead. If you then find out (through accurate tracking) that your website converts 10 percent of pay per click visits into leads, you’d know that you could afford to pay up to $10 per click. Click here for more practical tips on how to evaluate your need for PPC marketing.

Do People Actually Click on Paid Ads?

With current tracking capabilities, if companies weren’t seeing positive ROI, they wouldn’t be running ads, and pretty much every major brand runs AdWords ads with Google. But while the above data points that in general, paid ads are effective for getting clicks through to websites, we understand that marketing strategies and budgets are not one-size-fits-all. Click here for a more in-depth discussion.

Plumbing Websites

Tips for Building a Better Plumbing Website

If you’re running a small-medium sized plumbing company and you want to grow your business, you can learn a lot from watching industry trends and monitoring the top sites. But we know you’re probably already wearing too many hats, so we’ve put together the Cliff Notes version. Check out these tips based on common mistakes we see plumbing companies make.

Social Media for Plumbers

Facebook

Facebook Tips for Plumbing Companies

Facebook isn’t just a way to pass the time and keep in touch with friends. This form of social media is used every day by plumbing businesses like yours to generate qualified leads. But it takes a combination of data-driven strategy and consistent effort to do it right. In this post, we’ll show you where to focus your efforts.

Best Facebook Ads for Plumbers

Facebook paid ads do work for plumbing companies—and we can show you how to make them work for yours. We’ve hundreds of social media campaigns for plumbers, and can show you how to successfully get more:

• Visits to your website from people in your service area
• Website conversions
• Facebook business page likes
• Likes on your posts

Instagram

How Plumbing Companies Can Leverage Instagram

Want to spread brand awareness and create loyal fans of your plumbing business? You should! Instagram is a surprisingly effective way to do that. In this post, we’ll show you nine effective, proven strategies for leveraging the platform.

Email Marketing for Plumbing Companies

How to Stand Out in an Email Inbox

Email marketing campaigns offer a highly effective way to promote your products and services on a consistent basis. Your audience has already opted-in to receive your content. They’ve shown interest in your company, so give them what they want! Sending a regular email newsletter is a cost-effective way to ensure your company is constantly in the minds of your customers—which is right where you want to be.

So how can you get your email newsletter to stand out amidst the hundreds of other emails your customers are receiving weekly? Let’s find out.

How to Nurture Customer Relationships Through Email

At the end of the day, the most important thing for any business owner is that you’re making money. But to grow your plumbing business, you need to increase the number of leads you are getting. The more leads you get, the more sales you’ll make. And this this where email marketing can really make an impact. Your goal should be to figure out what your customers’ needs and wants are, and use your email newsletter to fill the void. In this post, we’ll show you how.

Recruitment Marketing for Plumbers

Using LinkedIn to Hire Great Talent for Your Small Business

According to a Pew Research Study of Americans who have looked for a new job in the last two years, 90% have used the Internet to research jobs and companies. This study did not just include millennials either like you might be thinking—job seekers ages 30 – 49 (and even some 50 – 64) engaged in online research before applying.

However, in a recent study that Blue Corona completed of more than 500 small to medium sized businesses that analyzed their digital footprint, 20% didn’t even have a LinkedIn company page. That’s the first solution to this problem—companies need to have a visible profile that is complete and informative to job seekers.

How to Use Glassdoor to Grow Your Company

Many business owners cite hiring and retaining employees as a major struggle—in fact,  48% of small businesses report there are few or no qualified applications for the positions they are trying to fill (according to NFIB). However, Glassdoor brings the talent pool to you—if you have a company profile, that is.

Customer Service As a Marketing Strategy for Plumbers

Great Customer Service Is a Marketing Strategy

Too many companies treat customer service as an afterthought, and they’re making a terrible mistake. The #1 most effective long-term growth strategy any plumbing company can employ isn’t content marketing or SEO, it’s top-notch customer service. Learn how to make the most of it here. 

How Should My Plumbing Company Handle Price Shoppers?

Have you ever been in the office and overheard your customer service representatives’ (CSRs) calls, only to realize that many of the conversations revolve around the price of a toilet installation or tankless water heater repair? If you’ve felt disheartened as these price shoppers waste your CSRs’ time and don’t convert into paying customers, we’re here to encourage you to take heart—price shoppers don’t have to be frustrating time wasters. If your CSRs have the skills to properly handle them, you can turn these leads into customers. 

How to Execute Your Plumbing Marketing Strategy in 2017

If managing all of these options seems like a lot of work, that’s because it is! Fortunately, you don’t have to do it all yourself. Do what you do best—manage your plumbing company—and let Blue Corona handle every aspect of digital marketing on your behalf as your virtual online marketing manager!