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If you’re in the plumbing industry, you might think you already know your customer. After all, anyone who needs plumbing work done could become your client.
But it’s not always that simple, plumbing marketing is complicated. Depending on your company and the services you offer, you could attract different kinds of people. What appeals to one customer won’t appeal to another.
Knowing your customer is what shapes your marketing strategy. It’s also a key step to creating a personalized marketing strategy — one that engages the exact kind of person you’re looking for.
Let’s look at some of the ways you can learn to understand your customer, as well as how that can affect your marketing strategy.
How To Know Your Customer in the Plumbing Business
If you don’t know why potential customers should be considering your services in the first place, it’s hard to know what steps to take next in your marketing strategy. Without a basic understanding of their needs, desires, and behavior, your plumbing marketing efforts could be going to waste.
Like all home services industries, you need to target your personalized marketing efforts toward the ideal plumbing customer. Let’s explore how you can better understand your customer.
Search Intent
For many home services industries, Google is the first place your customers will turn. Plumbing is no exception. When someone needs a service — like fixing a burst pipe or maintaining sewer lines — they usually turn to their search engine to find plumbers in the area.
This is something plumbing companies should be taking advantage of. When customers turn to Google, they're likely going to book with someone in the near future. So if you’re able to catch their eye on the search results page, you have a better chance of turning them into customers with brand loyalty.
To make the most of this opportunity, marketers should consider search intent. Search intent, also known as “user intent,” is the main goal a user has when searching for something on Google. For plumbing, you can expect most customers to fall into two search intent categories.
The first category is hiring intent. This covers users who need to take action immediately. They may have a plumbing emergency or otherwise need something fixed as soon as possible.
Here are a few examples of keywords that could capture this kind of customer:
- Plumbing emergency near me
- Emergency plumbing services
- Plumbing companies in (location)
- Sewer repair near me
- Blocked drain repair near me
- Plumbing services in my city
The other category is gathering intent. These potential customers are using Google to learn something or gather information about their plumbing needs. They may not need plumbing help right away, but they’re seeking relevant information that could lead them to your services down the line.
Here are a few examples of what they might be searching for:
- How to choose the best plumber
- Tips for finding best plumbing service
- How much plumbing services cost
- What to look for in a plumber
- How to choose plumbers in (location)
- How to stop a plumbing leak
- How to unclog a bathtub drain
The right keyword strategy should reach customers wherever they are in the process, whether they need to book right away or are just seeking information. Hiring intent keywords can funnel customers toward action-ready pages, like your landing page or contact page. Gathering intent keywords, however, might lead customers to content like blog articles or social media posts — which can eventually lead them to a booking.
Competitive Research
It’s always worth analyzing what your competitors are doing. But this can be even more important when it comes to understanding your customer. Simply put, how can you know your customer better than your competition?
Try a few local searches with user intent in mind. For example, “plumbing services near (location)” or “emergency plumbing near me.” Make a list of your top competition — about 10 competitors that show up on the first page of the Google search.
Once you have your list, it’s time to analyze them. How well do your competitors know their ideal customer? Is there anything you can learn from what they're doing well, or from things they might be missing?
Here are a few factors you should look into.
Keyword Targeting
Are there any keywords that your competitor targeted but you didn’t? Look for high-ranking keywords that are getting your competitors the most traffic. Don’t forget to look for less competitive, long-tail keywords that you could be ranking for.
Content Strategy
Another factor to explore is content strategy. What are your competitors covering in their blog posts or social media content? Most importantly, is there anything they could be missing? This is an opportunity for you to provide something your competitors don’t — filling an essential gap and drawing customers to your relevant content instead.
Request Reviews and Feedback
What better way to understand your customer than to hear from them personally? As a direct line from customers to your plumbing marketing team, reviews offer a unique opportunity to understand your clients' needs. They can tell you what worked and what didn’t, as well as what they’d like to see in the future.
Make sure to request reviews from customers after every visit. To maximize your feedback, try sending short surveys through services like Survey Monkey or Google Surveys.
Create a Buyer Persona
To understand what your customers need, you first need to know who they are. A great place to start is creating a “buyer persona,” or a description of your ideal client.
Think about demographics like age, gender, income level, and location to imagine what the average customer might look like. Once you have that down, try to dig even deeper. Consider their pain points and needs, as well as the search terms they’re most likely to use.
For example, a plumbing buyer persona might look like this: A man around 50 years of age. He’s a homeowner with an income between $75k and $120k a year. He might be sensitive to the costs of plumbing repairs — more willing to try something DIY before calling a professional. Search terms he might use could include “top-rated plumbing companies near me” or “how to repair a kitchen faucet.”
Benefits of Knowing Your Customer
It’s one of the first rules of marketing: Know your customer. But why is it so important?
Knowing your customer is the key to any digital marketing campaign. Once you know what people want and need, it’s much easier to convince them why they should choose your services.
Let's break down a few of the top benefits of knowing your plumbing customers.
It Defines Your Value Proposition
There are thousands of plumbing companies out there. Even in your local area, there’s a good chance you’re competing against at least a dozen other companies, if not more. What makes you stand out? Why would customers turn to your services over another brand’s?
When you know what draws customers in, you can better define your value proposition. This shapes countless areas of your marketing, from the call to action on your website to the content you produce for your blog or social media account.
Do you offer high-quality yet affordable services? Or do you specialize in a fast response time for plumbing emergencies? Knowing what your customers need will help you understand the unique value you bring to the table — and then emphasize it in your marketing.
It Helps Your Manage Your Reputation
Knowing your customer isn’t just about marketing. It’s also a way to better manage your reputation. When you understand your customer’s needs, you can provide a better, more personalized customer experience.
This, in turn, leads to better reviews. And that can make a big impact. 95% of people say they look at online reviews before making a purchase.
It Encourages Personalized Marketing
When you know your customer, you can put personalization first. A personalized marketing strategy means crafting your messaging to feel unique to each customer. It’s about delivering the right message to the right person, with all the marketing information that appeals to their specific pain points.
When you make your marketing strategy personalized, it makes the customer journey easier. It also transforms the customer experience, making people feel like they’re building a genuine relationship with your company.
Creating a Personalized Marketing Strategy for Plumbers
Learning about your customers isn’t something you can do overnight. It takes a deliberate effort — combing through keywords, creating detailed buyer personas, and more — to truly understand your customer’s needs.
Once you know your customer, however, it makes the rest of your marketing strategy that much more effective. With this information, you can craft a personalized marketing strategy, positioning your plumbing company as the solution to each customer’s problems.
At Scorpion, our hyper-personalized approach puts your plumbing business in front of the customers that matter most. Learn more about how we can upgrade your marketing efforts, or get started with us today.
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