You’re running a successful plumbing business. You likely have a large database full of email addresses that you can use to promote your business.
But how do you go about doing this?
What tactics do you use? Does your audience even care about receiving marketing campaigns from you?
In this article, we will talk you through 5 email marketing tips to help increase conversions and grow your list.
5 Email Marketing Tips to Grow Your Plumbing Business
Email marketing is one of the effective yet simple strategies to get more leads and customers. If you haven’t yet explored this option for your plumbing business, it’s high time you do!
Here are five cost-effective email marketing tips for plumbers that you can use to grow your business.
1. Segment Your Email Subscribers
It’s never a good idea to blanket-email your entire list. You’ll lose customers who don’t want all that information and you won’t gain any new ones either.
Instead, segment your list and target it according to customer interest. You need to break down your contacts into smaller segments based on common interests and behaviors so that you can send them more relevant emails and offers. And craft individual messages for each type of customer you want to reach.
There are several ways of segmenting your subscribers.
- You can segment residential customers and corporate customers separately.
- You can segment customers based on the age of the plumbing they have and customize every email with helpful information.
- You can also segment based on the services they need, like gas lines, water treatment, drainage, mechanical services, etc.
- Or, you can segment based on their level in the sales funnel. For example, new subscribers who haven’t become your customers can be in one segment. People who have enquired about your services but haven’t yet availed can be in the next segment. And the last would be your customers.
You can segment your customers based on these factors and customize every email you send out. That way, they have the useful info when they need it and you’ll be at the top of their minds when something goes wrong with their plumbing.
2. Subject Lines
When you send out an email to a list of leads or customers, the first thing they’ll see is the subject line. That’s why it’s so important to create subject lines that capture their attention and arouse curiosity.
So make your subject lines relevant, intriguing and compelling. And you need to test different subject lines to see which works the best and the least.
Don’t assume that a subject line that works well for one customer segment will work well for another — test different words, phrases, and subject lines to decide which are most suited for each customer segment.
3. Make Every Email Relevant & Helpful
The best way to get customers engaged with your business is to offer them valuable information. Use your knowledge of plumbing to create an experience for your subscribers.
It can be anything from the best time of year to replace a faucet to a conversation you had with a customer about their latest repair. Or, it can even be a link to an article on your website.
Customers like getting free information on how they can keep their homes safe and running smoothly. And they will start looking forward to seeing what’s next.
- Email them with tips on how they can protect themselves against costly repairs in the future, such as how to get rid of mold in their home.
- If you have any upcoming events — like informative online seminars — let them know in advance to sign up early.
- Tie your emails into seasonal activities. If it’s cold outside, talk about the importance of keeping vents and registers clean, so the heat doesn’t escape.
- You can also offer digital coupons for discounts on common plumbing services like drain cleaning or water heater repair.
4. Create an Email Sequence
When you’re working on an email marketing strategy for your plumbing business, you most often want the subscribers to become repeat customers or, at the least, generate leads.
So, in the beginning, you can create an email sequence for your subscribers as well as customers. An email sequence is nothing but a series of emails that’ll be automatically sent to your subscribers.
You can create an email sequence for new subscribers that starts with a welcome email, a few emails over the next week giving useful information, and probably a discount.
Similarly, you can create an email sequence for your new customers. This can start with an email thanking them for hiring you and a few follow-up emails getting feedback and additional useful information personalized to the services they received.
These are just a few ideas for email sequences. You can create more automated email sequences to stay in touch with your leads and customers.
5. A/B Test, Measure & Tweak Emails
Think about what makes people tick. Remember that we’re all different and that specific words will resonate with some people while others will literally cause eyes to glaze over. The same goes for email marketing.
What works with one group won’t necessarily work with another group. So A/B test different email formats, themes, and calls-to-actions to see what resonates best with each customer segment.
For every email you send, make sure to measure the open rates and click rates of your CTAs. This will give you a good idea of what works with a customer segment and what doesn’t.
Start clubbing the emails with high open rates and high click rates together and those with low rates together. Analyze them to understand what your audience likes and personalize future emails based on that.
Final Thoughts
While not all businesses have an innate advantage in email marketing, plumbers tend to generate many leads from their websites, making them a perfect candidate for email marketing. You can leverage this lead generation idea and turn it into conversions by ensuring your emails are relevant and enticing enough to get the job done.
