Email marketing can be an extremely effective way for plumbers to grow their business. With the right email strategy and execution, plumbers have the potential to triple their revenue.
In this article, we provide 13 email marketing tips tailored specifically for the plumbing industry to help plumbers maximize the impact of their email campaigns.
Whether you’re just getting started with emails or looking to improve an existing program, these best practices around list building, email design, promotions, and more will help you engage customers, upsell services, and substantially expand your reach. Using email marketing tools also helps a lot by saving time and optimizing the entire email marketing process.
Read on to transform your email approach and accelerate your plumbing business growth.
Benefits of Email Marketing for Plumbers
Email marketing provides invaluable benefits that can greatly impact a plumbing business’s bottom line. Studies show that email converts at a rate 3x higher than social media and generates $42 for every $1 spent. Beyond impressive returns, an effective email program offers plumbers both quantitative and qualitative advantages.
On the quantitative side, email marketing helps plumbers generate more leads and customers by expanding their reach to attract new business. It increases job size and revenue per client through ongoing communication that nurtures relationships and provides opportunities to upsell services.
Email also improves retention and repeat business by touching current customers to encourage loyalty and future sales.
Additionally, email reporting provides plumbers with marketplace intelligence through data around engagement, preferences, and behaviors to inform operational decisions.
On the qualitative side, email enables plumbers to enhance their brand image with consistent and professional communications. It allows them to streamline communications for a better customer experience.
Email also establishes thought leadership by sharing plumbing expertise and advice. Finally, it deepens customer relationships through personalized, targeted outreach.
Given email’s proven high returns and multifaceted benefits, dedicating resources to email marketing is one of the smartest investments a plumbing business can make. The effort pays dividends in revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and competitive advantage.
1. Offer Discount for Subscribing to Email List
Offering an incentive for customers to join your email list is one of the most effective ways to rapidly grow your list and maximize the reach of your marketing. The great news is that a discount or coupon is highly motivating for most consumers. Even a small discount like 10% off or $20 off their next service call creates immense value that spurs subscribers.
Structuring this discount as an exclusive reserved only for email subscribers increases its desirability. Promote it prominently on your website, invoices, and other materials to capture attention. Require an email address to access the coupon code so you seamlessly build your list. Offer an additional discount if existing customers refer others to join the email community.
As your subscriber base expands thanks to the discount, ensure you continue providing value and special perks only available to members. Send exclusive promotions, industry tips and tricks, priority access to new appointment slots, and other subscriber-only assets.
Surprise and delight to spur loyalty, engagement, and repeat business. Just be sure the discount that hooked new contacts pays off long-term through boosted transaction frequency and size.
2. Share DIY Tips and Plumbing Knowledge
Run seasonal specials like pre-winter furnace inspections or pipe insulation. Offer discounts to seniors or healthcare workers to generate community goodwill. Share DIY maintenance tips demonstrating your expertise like covering outdoor faucets before a deep freeze or pouring baking soda and vinegar down drains monthly.
Make sure to include helpful infographics visualizing when to replace water heaters or signs of leaky toilet flappers. You can also offer subscribers an e-book on preparing plumbing for a remodel project.
Email is also ideal for upselling recent customers on new services. If you just installed a tankless water heater, follow up on marketing duct cleaning or HVAC maintenance plans. With smart segmentation, you can customize offers based on client history and needs.
Implementing a professional email campaign allows plumbers to continually engage both new and existing customers.
3. Promote Seasonal Maintenance Services
Timing your marketing campaigns and service promotions around seasonal home maintenance needs is a savvy strategy to boost revenue. Homeowners tend to prioritize certain projects during specific times of year. Align your outreach with these natural cycles for greater relevance and response.
For example, fall is an opportune time to promote chimney cleaning and inspection services to homeowners. Send an email reminding customers to schedule this annual maintenance before heavy winter usage. Include quick facts on the benefits and explain how your techs perform the service. Offer a discounted rate to incentivize appointments.
Similarly, early spring is the motivating season to encourage water heater flushouts and tune-ups. As homeowners prepare for swimming pool openings and spring cleaning, a maintenance email call-to-action can resonate. Sweeten the deal with a freebie like pipe insulation or a coupon off their next service call.
Getting ahead of predictable annual and seasonal maintenance needs with targeted email campaigns allows you to boost revenue while providing a helpful reminder to customers. Tie professional advice, compelling offers, and calls to action to specific windows of opportunity throughout the year. The strategy aligns with surges in homeowner demand.
4. Send Appointment Reminders and Follow-Ups
Sending appointment reminders and follow-ups via email allows plumbing companies to provide excellent customer service while reducing no-shows.
Emails confirming upcoming appointments give customers time to reschedule if needed so you avoid wasted truck rolls. Then friendly email reminders that reiterate the date, time, location, and any special instructions help customers remember the commitment.
Post-appointment surveys and follow-up emails also strengthen the customer relationship. Asking for feedback on the service experience, quality of work, and technician professionalism shows you care while helping identify opportunities for improvement. Providing links to leave online reviews and refer friends for discounts also nurtures positive word-of-mouth.
Ultimately, leveraging email to facilitate smoother bookings and stay top-of-mind after service boosts long-term revenue in several ways. Appointment reminders reduce costly no-shows.
Follow-up emails encourage repeat business and referrals while helping convert one-time customers into lifelong loyal clients. Keep communication flowing via helpful emails before and after service appointments.
5. Segment Lists by Service and Project Type
One of the most effective ways to boost email marketing performance is to divide your master contact list into targeted segments based on service expertise or project type. This allows you to tailor your message specifics and offers to each group’s unique interests and needs.
Segmented outreach drives higher open, click, and conversion rates compared to general email blasts.
According to the graphic below, some email types get higher engagement than others:
Start by creating custom segments for common plumbing services you provide, like drain cleaning, water heater installation, pipe leak repair, etc. When you send a pipe repair special offer, only contacts who have used or shown interest in that service receive the email. Hyper-personalized content resonates more with each recipient.
You can also segment by various project types, like remodeling, new construction, rental property maintenance, etc. If you launch a new whole-home plumbing package for new constructions, targeting that offer only to customers building new properties streamlines relevance.
Getting strategic with list segmentation elevates engagement because subscribers feel like they are receiving insider tips and deals tailored specifically for them versus generalized content. Build segmented lists around service categories, project types, locations, or other attributes that indicate shared interests.
6. Cross-Sell Additional Plumbing Services
One of the easiest yet most effective ways to increase sales is by cross-selling additional services to current customers. Since acquiring new customers costs five times more than getting repeat business, focus on nurturing more value from your existing email subscriber base.
Segment your list by past service usage and customer lifecycle stage. Identify complementary services to pitch to each group based on their project history and propensity to purchase more. For example, target homeowners who just completed a bathroom repipe project with a special discount on installing new water-efficient shower heads.
You can also cross-sell higher-profit add-ons to maintenance visits. When confirming a yearly sump pump inspection via email, mention options like adding on battery backup installation or upgrading to a higher horsepower model for improved performance.
Cross-selling through targeted email campaigns provides a prime mechanism to influence customers to spend more per transaction. Zero in on their past project data and typical service bundles to uncover logical additional offerings personalized to their situation.
The approach maximizes customer lifetime value while requiring fewer resources than securing brand-new accounts.
7. Automate Lead Nurturing Workflows
Setting up automated email workflows to nurture leads over time is a best practice for converting more sales-ready prospects. The process involves pre-writing helpful, relevant emails and configuring them to deploy on a timed drip sequence once a prospect provides their contact information.
For example, someone who downloads your “10 Most Common Plumbing Problems and Solutions” guide from your website would automatically enroll in a 5-email nurturing track over two weeks.
- Email #1 thanks them for downloading the guide and offers a discount on their next service call.
- Email #2 provides useful tips on maintaining drains.
- Email #3 introduces your service areas and expertise.
- Emails #4 and #5 encourage booking an appointment while positioning your team as trusted experts, as in the example below:
Nurturing sequences enhance trust and prime leads for conversion by providing value over time rather than demanding an immediate sale.
Setting up a diverse library of email track topics allows you to automatically guide contacts down tailored pathways based on their demonstrated interests and needs. Automated email flows do the heavy lifting of building relationships at scale.
8. Email Articles on Plumbing Best Practices
Establishing your expertise through informative articles and email newsletters represents a subtle, effective promotional technique. Helpful self-published resources position your team as trusted advisors known for sharing practical guidance versus overly sales-y pitches.
For example, an article explaining the top causes of basement flooding during rainstorms demonstrates your empathy while providing actionable prevention advice.
A newsletter detailing how to interpret water pressure issues empowers readers with the knowledge to evaluate problems. Tactical DIY tips help build affinity while introductory paragraphs subtly reference your offerings as certified solutions providers.
Think through common customer pain points and create an editorial calendar of idea themes that provide solutions. Drafting a few paragraphs on each problem for bi-weekly email distribution enables consistent, helpful touchpoints. Vary advice based on seasonality, such as winterizing pipes or clearing late summer drainage hazards.
Publishing your expertise establishes authority while nurturing loyalty in existing contacts who may share resources with others needing plumbing assistance. Over time, you build brand equity and preference through reliability – not pushiness.
9. Promote Warranty and Loyalty Programs
Implementing specialty warranty offers and loyalty programs provides excellent email fodder to increase customer lifetime value. Most homeowners greatly appreciate the peace of mind that comes with product guarantees and repair safeguards long after the job ends.
Promote enrollment in loyalty programs through email by highlighting member-only perks like priority emergency service, annual tune-up discounts, waived trip fees, and more. Make signing up through links easy and create referral bonuses when existing members refer new customers who join.
Similarly, crafting a compelling limited-time warranty offer like “no repair bills for 3 years” can powerfully sweeten any installation or replacement project quoted over email. Even if it erodes some margin, boosted close rates offset that expense long-term via secured future business.
Email enables plumbers to strategically feature unique guarantee and loyalty offers as key differentiators that provide ongoing value versus transactional experiences customers obtain elsewhere. It pays dividends to invest in programs supported by email promotion driving enrollment and showcasing helpful features in action.
10. Send Customer Satisfaction Surveys
Email surveying represents a simple yet effective tactic to gather key customer insights while building stronger relationships. Short post-transaction polls give plumbers fast feedback to continually refine service delivery and expectations.
Craft 5-question surveys covering satisfaction metrics like quality of work, technician professionalism, overall experience, and likelihood to recommend. Email blasts following service calls invite quick anonymous input. To encourage participation, offer modest incentives like 5% off their next invoice.
Survey results help uncover broad improvement areas, while granular drill-downs provide technician-specific coaching opportunities. Direct open-ended commentary fuels ideas for new offerings. Response trends may dictate changes, like adding shut-off valve servicing to routine maintenance checklists.
Most importantly, customers feel valued knowing their perspective helped influence better practices. Sending occasional experience surveys demonstrates a commitment toward a personalized, collaborative dynamic between plumbers and clients. Mining insights ultimately heighten loyalty, retention, and referrals over the long haul.
11. Announce Sales, Bundled Services, and Deals
One of the best ways to generate an immediate revenue lift is by announcing limited-time sales, bundled solutions, and unbeatable deal offers through email. Whether you’re aiming to boost slow periods or hit quarterly goals, promoting pricing incentives drives action.
Sweeten the core offer put forth with urgency and extra enticements. For example, announce a flash sale of 50% off labor on water heater installations booked in the next 48 hours and throw in complementary pipe wrap insulation.
Or, bundling offers together adds perceived extra value, like packaging high-efficiency toilet upgrades and installing luxury bidets at 20% off combined jobs.
Creating excitement and scarcity via email call-to-actions that push customers to act fast works remarkably well. Countdown the time and availability to encourage instant conversions. Use starbursts, bolded fonts, and contrasting colors to accentuate the deal.
If structured right, you land more jobs immediately and expand market share, stealing customers from the competition. Also, make sure you send marketing emails at the right time to boost your conversions.
12. Create Referral and Rewards Programs
Referral programs represent lucrative email marketing tools for plumbers to activate customers as brand ambassadors who organically attract new business. Typically rewarding existing clients with discounts or cash back for connecting your team with new customers they know yields excellent word-of-mouth marketing.
Promote your referral program by email, text and even mailed postcards to your customer database. Communicate the compelling offer at checkout and in follow-up emails. For example, outline a $100 credit for every new customer referral and $50 for secondary referrals from those new customers. Track links, codes, and metrics to attribute and reward accordingly.
Expanding this concept with a full-fledged customer rewards program keeps motivation and enthusiasm high by gamifying ongoing participation. Configure an app where completed jobs earn points to redeem quarterly for sweet prizes like high-end power tools, luxury sporting event tickets, vacation packages, and more.
Activating peer-to-peer promotion backed by enticing rewards results in windfalling new business with very little actual marketing overhead. This allows plumbers to gain market share while focusing resources directly on fulfilling demand.
13. Track Campaign Analytics to Continuously Optimize
The fastest way to amplify email marketing results is by analyzing data to determine what messages and offers best resonate with your subscribers. Study engagement metrics like open, click-through, and conversion rates to guide decisions on optimizing future campaigns.
For example, if an email coupon offer receiving below-average open rates had a subject line that seemed boring compared to top performers, tweak your approach for the next deployment. Or if your service area expansion announcement sees high opens (compared to the average open rate) but nearly zero click-throughs, revise content by highlighting special deals exclusive to new territories.
Compare subscriber segments too and customize approaches accordingly. Families may respond better to $50 off drain cleaning offers tied to avoiding future plumbing disasters versus single homeowners preferring straight 20% off coupons. Sync subject lines to match the offer style each group finds most appealing based on metrics.
Essentially, letting data – not guesses – dictate ongoing email best practices enables continually better performance. Use built-in reporting to track open and engagement rates, identify trends, sharpen messaging, and determine which segments, messages, and designs optimize responses. Refine over time for unmatched returns.
Implementing even a few of these email marketing tips can significantly impact a plumbing business’s trajectory. Focus on growing your list, fine-tuning segmentation, automating workflows, and crafting targeted promotions suited to customers’ needs.
Most importantly, continuously track email analytics to double down on what works best. With a strategic email approach, plumbers can establish customer relationships that drive growth and loyalty over the long haul. Put these tips into play to transform email into your most powerful marketing channel.