Creating customer engagement and nurturing repeat customers is important for every business. For plumbers, it’s essential. You have plenty of competition. If you want to grow your business, you need to stand out.
That’s why email marketing is an absolute must. It’s one of the most affordable and effective forms of online marketing. Plus, you can get started with email marketing all on your own.
66% of businesses surveyed say they use email marketing to promote their businesses or communicate with leads and/or customers. If you are not among them, it’s time (past time, actually) to incorporate email into your marketing strategy.
In this article, we will discuss what email marketing is and why it’s important to use in your plumbing business. Follow these easy-to-implement tips, and you’ll be part of that 66% in no time.
Why Email Marketing Matters
The purpose of email marketing is to make customers aware of new products, discounts, and other services you may be offering.
Email marketing should be about educating your audience on your brand and services. Every message you create should bring value to your customers. This could be tips on fixing a clogged sink or information on how customers can reach you when they have a plumbing emergency.
Do you think email marketing is the boost your plumbing business needs to close sales and grow your customer base? Here are 7 of the best email marketing tips for plumbers.
Email Marketing Tips You Can Use Right Now
Everything starts with a plan, and so should your email strategy. You’ve decided that you want to use email for marketing and gathering leads—great!
Now you have to plan how exactly you will execute that. Follow these tips to get started, and you’ll be ahead of the game.
1. Plan Everything Out
In any aspect of marketing, planning things out can make or break your efforts. Laying out your goals and how you will achieve them should be the first step. The next step is to ask yourself the following questions:
- How often do you want to send an email?
- What type of messaging do you want to include?
- Who will be sending the emails?
The answers to these questions will help you outline your goals for email marketing. This will allow you to plan out your messaging and how many emails you will send.
It will also give you the ability to measure your results. For example, you may have a goal of sending one email per week. Then, at the end of the quarter, you can go back and measure if your results reflect your goals.
2. Share Valuable Content
Good content is key to building trust and establishing yourself as an authority. Plus, there are plenty of ways to provide quality content that isn’t expensive or time-consuming.
As you think about content, think about what will be most helpful for your potential customers. That might include things like easy-to-follow how-to videos, DIY tips about home plumbing, or even guides homeowners can use to determine how often they should have plumbing maintenance work done.
While it might seem counterintuitive to give out free help, it sets you up to build your business in two ways. First, you’ll be building trust. Second, a lot of folks will quickly see how much goes into plumbing tasks. If they’re already paying attention to your content, they’ll be more likely to ask you for professional help.
3. Personalize Your Emails
People want to receive emails that they feel were written for them. That’s why emails with personalized subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened. An easy way to personalize is to include a customer’s first name in the subject line.
You can also send a happy birthday message to your customers if you have that information. Most email tools (even free ones) allow you to gather this information and personalize your emails.
74% of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content (e.g., offers, ads, and promotions) appears to have nothing to do with their interests. Be sure to send content to people that want to see it. This will make them feel like the message was written just for them.
4. Consider Automation
Automation is all about sending the right information at the right time, which is ultimately another form of personalization. Emails that are triggered to send after a subscriber takes action show that your brand is paying close attention to every customer.
Automation can also make scheduling out your messaging easy. You’re able to upload multiple messages and select when they should be delivered. This allows you to do all the planning at one time, saving you valuable time in your day-to-day.
Companies like MailChimp and Constant Contact offer free plans to get started with email marketing. Their easy-to-use platforms guide you through the process and help you automate each step.
The bottom line: With automation, more gets done—and the added productivity is of higher value.
5. Track Important Metrics
One of the benefits of using an automation service is tracking.
Email marketing is all about results. If you don’t track your email marketing performance, there’s no way to know if you’re getting the results you want. That’s where some key metrics come into play.
You’ll want to keep an eye on important stats, like your click-through rates and your open rates. Those two metrics alone will tell you a lot about how much your potential customers value your emails.
While this isn’t a necessary step, it’s important. Your email marketing won’t ever be truly strategic without it.
6. Always Proofread
Always proofread your emails! Emails that have multiple spelling or grammar mistakes can make your business appear unprofessional.
Once you’ve finished writing, be sure to read your email out loud to listen for jumbled language. Reading the email as a recipient will also help you catch any missing words or errors. If you have a second set of eyes around, have them take a look as well.
You can also run your content through something like Grammarly that catches mistakes and offers suggestions to improve your writing.
7. Length Matters
In emails, the shorter they are, the better. People don’t want to read a novel in their inboxes. Get to your point quickly and only include the information that matters.
Your subject line should grab the readers’ attention without being too long. The ideal subject line is 6 to 10 words.
The body of your email should contain short, easy-to-read sentences. Avoid long paragraphs and run-on sentences. The sweet spot for email length is 50 to 125 words.
Wrapping Up
Email marketing can seem overwhelming from a distance, but once you break it down, it’s easy to see it’s well worth the time and effort. Several of these tips are easy to implement immediately, and best of all, they’re free.
80% of professionals say email marketing drives their customer acquisition and retention. That means more customers are coming to you for their needs and staying with you when needs arise again. Now is the time to begin your email marketing so you can see results like those.
These are just a few of the best email marketing tips for plumbers. Just showing you care about engaging with your customers and putting out useful content is a great place to start.
KEEP READING: Why Marketing to Existing Customers Boosts Revenue for Plumbing, HVAC, and Electrical Companies