Three Clever Ways to Get Plumbing Leads Online

It’s true. Plumbers need online marketing to reach customers

Telephone books and the Yellow Pages are fast becoming a forgotten relic in a digital age where online connectivity rules.

What does this mean for the tradie or plumber who is still trying to drum up business through traditional print media and has noticed the phone isn’t ringing as much as it used to?

It means they need to find ways to reach their leads online.

Fortunately, learning the ways of digital advertising isn’t that difficult, and in many cases, it can work out to be quite a bit cheaper than an advertisement in the local paper.

Here are three of the best ways to get started.

1.    Plumbers, optimise your website now

The only people still turning to print media to find a local business are baby boomers, and that will only last until the grandkids teach them about the glories of the smartphone.

Having a website is a good start, but if you haven’t optimised your site for the search engines, then you needed to get on it yesterday.

As most searches for businesses are on mobile devices these days, you need to ensure your site is optimised to look good on a mobile screen.

If it isn’t, Google can tell, and the Google bot will boot your site from the search results to replace it with one that is.

You also need to ensure you have your site optimised with the keywords for which you want your business to be found.

In simple terms, a keyword is a phrase you sprinkle throughout the text on your site which tells Google about the services your company provides.

Once Google knows your keywords, your site has a higher chance of appearing on the front page of the search results when someone types in something like “blocked toilet, plumber, Sydney.”

2. Start a Facebook page for your plumbing business

Facebook has been getting a lot of bad publicity lately, but it hasn’t damaged the effectiveness of the platform for advertising to any degree.

Despite a handful of celebrities leaving the platform, Facebook is going strong, and still serving advertisements to its billions of happy customers (2 point something billion at last count) who enjoy keeping tabs on the lives of friends, relatives, and the person who serves them coffee every morning.

With so many daily visitors to Facebook, and many of them living in and around your neighbourhood, your business shouldn’t be missing out on one of the most lucrative social media marketing strategies the world has ever witnessed – the Facebook page.

Facebook is an efficient way to develop a relationship with potential clients before they even pick up the phone. If you don’t hire a graphic artist to design your page’s banner, then starting a Facebook page costs precisely zero.

By using Facebook ads, you will have the ability to target your ads to only those living in your service area, and just to those who are most likely to engage with your business.

The only other ad platform that even comes close to rivalling Facebook’s is Google, and even then, it’s a neck-and-neck race.

3. Join a trusted local directory in your area, but not just any!

Local directories have been popping up all over the internet lately, and are proving to be an effective marketing strategy for reaching new leads.

There are many benefits to joining a local trade or business directory.

Firstly,  directories are working at showing up in the search engines for thousands of different keywords. This means a local directory is more likely to show up in the search results for a given phrase.

If you don’t have a listing with them then you won’t get as many leads; it’s as simple as that.

Secondly, while there are quite a few dodgy trade and local directories, I say BE CAREFUL.  Many promote price-competition and price shopping, meaning you’ll probably find yourself wasting most of your time quoting or dealing with difficult customers than winning jobs.

Go for a trustworthy directory that has an established reputation with the type of clientele you want to service.

Good directories know their customers only want to deal with trusted, reliable plumbers and other local service providers and so list those who have achieved a solid standing within their community.

Tradebustersconnect.com.au is a Top 3 Local Business Pick Directory with a reputation for listing only quality businesses. Their visitors rely on that fact, so if as a plumber you want to reach high-quality customers then check out their many benefits today.

Need Help In Growing Your Trade Business?

Contact us at Tradebusters for a FREE Tradie Help Consultation. We have specialist solutions for trades including Website Design, Local Area Lead Generation Strategies, Social Media and Marketing Support, Business Coaching and more. Contact us today.