Instead of waiting for the customer to call you, why not call them?  Target some of your local businesses, walk in and introduce yourself.  Let them know how you can help them save money or solve a problem that you are an expert at solving in the neighborhood.  Offer to do free plumbing inspections as a preventative maintenance promotion.  Each business you get into will probably be happy to post your business cards or brochures so all their employees will have a great plumber too!  Contact property management companies, apartment complexes, local restaurants, etc…  If you visit 2 companies per week for 50 weeks, that would be 100 new prospects.  When you leave brochures and business cards with them, that could become 1000 new prospects.  If you get 2% response that could be another 20 customers.  It is all a numbers game.  So come on and get in the game.  Try something different and see how it works.

The brutal reality is that some companies are going out of business or they already have.  So, you can go through the yellow pages and call up your local plumbing companies and find who’s number has been disconnected.  Go to the local phone company and buy the number and have it ring at your office.  Someone is going to pick up the business, it might as well be you.

How are you getting in front of your customers?  Lets face it if they can’t find you then there is a problem.  Some companies appear to get stuck thinking that effective advertising and marketing has to be expensive.  The traditional “yellow pages or bust” thinking has got to go!  There are so many innovative ways to promote your company and some very effective strategies are very cost effective.  The one I always go back to is doorhangers.  You can get 5000 doorhangers for about $300.  If you are not busy, then hand them out yourself, it’s a numbers game.  One person could hand out 5000 doorhangers in 2 months part time.  If you got a ½% success rate that would mean 25 new customers.  Doorhangers are one of the most simple and cost effective ways to promote your business, period!

Other strategies to look at are Free on line advertisement like Craigs List.  You need to update these on a daily or weekly basis, but its Free and it works!  Sponsor a soccer team, baseball team, footrace, etc…  Buy space on the local baseball field backstop.  Movie theater advertising, shopping carts, small local newspapers and the list goes on.  Try something new that you have not tried before.  But whatever you do, make sure it will get your company in front of new customers over and over and over.  It takes repeated impressions to develop “top of mind awareness”

Why is it I ask myself that even in this “challenging economy” some companies continue to prosper and grow and others are struggling to stay above water?  I believe that there are many factors that contribute to the success or failure of a company.  First of all when conditions in the economy change a successful business learns to adapt and change with the conditions.  If you make changes in your marketing, advertising, services and products to better fit the economy you may just find a strategy that helps you grow your company even in this economy.

Lets start with services.  Have you looked into getting on board with a home warranty company?
I have spoken with some plumbers that do this and they say it is a great way to grow and expand their business.  The other thing you can do is offer your own priority service program that customers pay you to get top priority service, discounts, etc.

If you can show your customers products and services that help them save money, and/or be more “Green” you are providing a valuable education and your customers will appreciate it.  Find a green product that you can promote.  Offer a special to your customers and get some testimonials.  You could showcase a new product every quarter and mail a postcard, email to your customer list, or use it as a promotional piece to attract new customers.  There are all kinds of new devices like tankless water heaters, water savers, automatic shutoffs, leak detectors, re-circulators etc…  If you go out there as the expert in your neighborhood and you do it with honesty and integrity, this will help you build customer loyalty and create income from innovative products and services that most plumbers I have used did not even mention.  If the customer doesn’t know a product exists, they probably won’t buy it!

SEO is a long term process. You aren’t going to see results quickly, but within six months to a year of an SEO campaign you should start to see some improvement in your search ranking. What if you’ve been working at it for a year and don’t see any significant change? What if you just can’t seem to compete in your industry or niche, no matter how hard you try? When it comes to a stagnant SEO campaign, here are a few common culprits that can hinder success:

Your Content Isn’t Great
Content is the foundation of an SEO campaign. If your content is poorly written, too thin, or includes too many keywords or not enough keywords it won’t be trusted by the search engines (or your target audience). While content quality is most important, quantity matters too. In order to be successful, you need to publish content online in places other than your website on a regular basis.

Your Code Is Sloppy
To the search engines, sloppy code equals a sloppy website. Sometimes website owners aren’t even aware that their code is messy, since the website itself still looks OK. When in doubt, hire an expert to do an analysis.

You Aren’t Getting the Right Links
You know that links are important so you’ve been working on building them religiously. But are you building the right links? All links are not created equal. A link from a high authority industry related publication is worth much more than a link from a little known directory. Spend your link building time doing research and concentrate your efforts on sites that actually matter.

You Don’t Have a Blog
Any search engine optimization specialist will tell you that a great way to improve your SEO efforts is to blog on a regular basis. Blog posts rank in the search engines and provide additional opportunities to target keywords. Each new post ensures that the search engine spiders will be making their way back to your site frequently.

They Are Older
This is one that you really don’t have much control over. Your competition may be outranking you not because they have better content or a better link building strategy, but simply because they have an older site. Trust is huge in the search engines, and domain age is a big contributing factor to ranking.

While search engine ranking is important, you don’t want to be too focused on where you stand compared to where your competition stands. Instead, focus on improving your own traffic and conversions through online marketing.

Thanks again to Brick Marketing for this blog entry!