When it comes to plumber marketing, there’s no magic wand to wave, no silver bullet to fire, no easy button to push. It’s complex, involves lots of moving parts, requires an investment of time and money, and can be exceedingly, infuriatingly slow to work. And by “work,” I mean simply this: Make you more money.

Some of that can’t be helped. Improving your Google rank through organic SEO doesn’t happen overnight. Creating backlink-worthy content just takes time. It’s frustrating to wait for a return on your investment, and you really just want your phone to start ringing more—now. Email marketing for plumbing & HVAC contractors can help.

The Most Neglected Phase of the Plumbing Marketing Sales Funnel

Before I get to the how of email marketing, let’s talk about the why. In The Book on Digital Marketing for Plumbers & HVAC Contractors, I talk quite a bit about the conversation funnel—your customer’s path to purchase. It’s how your potential plumbing customers go from:

Knowing nothing about your shop
Knowing you exist
Deciding you’re the right people for the job
Telling everyone they know how terrific you are.

The better you get at matching specific marketing methods to specific points on the funnel, the more effective your efforts will be.

There’s another phase of the customer path to purchase that most home service businesses tend to neglect: encouraging current customers to come back to step 3—deciding you’re the right shop for the job—every single time they have a problem you can solve.

Repeat customers are more profitable than new ones.

At the most basic level, the success or failure of your marketing strategy comes down to two factors:

Your reputation
Your relationships

It’s important to understand that those two aren’t mutually exclusive: the better your relationships with current customers, the better your reputation will be—through online reviews, for example.

If you’re thinking, “What do you mean, ‘relationships’ with current customers?” you’re not alone. Most plumbers walk away from a job and never look back. They might send a follow-up asking for a review if they’re really good… but most plumbers are so busy trying to get new customers that they don’t stop to think about how much easier and how much less expensive it is to keep the customers you have.

Let’s quantify “how much,” shall we?

Customer acquisition can cost you up to five times more than customer retention.
Profits can increase as much as 95% if you improve your customer retention by just 5%.
Repeat customers are seven times more likely to try something new you’re offering, and they’re four times as likely to refer people to you.

Convinced? Great. So exactly how do you stay “in a relationship” with a plumbing or HVAC customer? Let me ask you this:

How do you stay in any relationship? You nurture it, right? You pay attention to the person, remind them you care, respond to their needs, and surprise them with little gifts.

Nurturing Plumbing Customers through Email Marketing

Obviously, you’re not going to show up at your customers’ homes with flowers and chocolates. But you can nurture them just as effectively through email marketing .

You may have heard that email is dead. That’s simply not true:

For every $1 you spend on email marketing, you can earn as much as $44. (That is not a typo.)
90% of Americans use email and open it up to 20 times a day.
Email has a much higher engagement rate than social media: around 23% to .6%, respectively.

Here’s how to get started with email marketing for HVAC or plumbing customers:

Invite customers to opt-in to your list. To say the Federal Trade Commission doesn’t like spam email is an understatement. Businesses that violate the CAN-SPAM Act can get in hot water with their email provider and incur significant fees. The law is nuanced, but the best way to avoid getting flagged as a spammer is to get your customers’ permission to email them. How? Easy: Add an e-newsletter sign-up form to your website, and add a checkbox to your invoices:

I’d love to receive occasional DIY plumbing tips and promotional offers. (We promise not to spam you or sell your information.)

Then, at the bottom of every email you send, include this reminder:

You’re receiving this message because you signed up during a service call or on our website.

Also include an obvious opt-out link. Don’t hide a blue button on a blue background. If people decide they’d rather not receive your emails, that’s OK! Let them go.

2. Deliver meaningful content. Your emails are not the place to go all high-pressure sales. Remember, you’re nurturing your customers to come back to you again and again. If every email focuses only on selling something, you’ll turn people off.

Instead, simply add value . The purpose of your emails is to remind your customers you’re there and to make sure they know all the problems you solve. So give DIY tips, offer product reviews, do interviews with your techs, provide money-saving advice, and so on. Occasionally, run a discount offer or limited-time deal.

Also, if you have different audiences, create different emails for them. Segment your list into homeowners and commercial customers, for example.

Proofread your emails. Every email you send communicates something about your plumbing company—and poorly written messages full of lousy grammar and typos do not make a good impression. If writing isn’t your thing, hire someone to do it. At the very least, use a tool like Grammarly to avoid big mistakes.
Watch the numbers. All the major email marketing platforms provide key data like open rates and click-through rates. You may need to experiment a bit before you see your metrics improve: subject lines, lengths, layout, and even color schemes can impact how much engagement you get.

Need Help With Your Plumber Email Strategy?

Email marketing is great for nurturing prospective customers, too. As with all things digital marketing, doing it well (effectively, affordably) can be tricky. With everything from best practices to actual laws to consider, it’s important to set it all up the right way from the get-go. We can help! Schedule a free assessment with KickCharge today .