Local Marketing for Plumbers: Without Any Buzzwords

If you run a plumbing business, you already know how important word of mouth and social proof are. But these days, people don’t just ask their neighbors for recommendations; they Google it.

That’s why getting your business to show up when someone searches “plumber near me” can make all the difference.

Let’s look at some simple ways to improve your local marketing and search visibility, plus how a tool like Trustmary can help you turn happy customers into more jobs.

At Trustmary, we have an extensive background in the home improvement space, as many of us have either worked in the industry as a tradie or done digital marketing for construction companies for a decade.

In addition, we have an extensive customer base within the home improvement and construction segment:

• Oivatek: 127 reviews in six months
• Balkonser: Turning NPS Data to Better Decisions and Growth
• Customer Insight at the Heart of Growth

How to Start Doing Digital Marketing for Plumbers?

You're good at plumbing, but marketing plumbing services and building a strong online presence requires other skills.

Before you create a digital marketing strategy, you need to know what your business has already done. Only then can you figure out what you need to invest in.

Different Areas of Digital Marketing

• Google My Business profile
• Profiles in other local directories
• Having a website
• Search engine optimisation for your own website
• Collecting and managing online reviews
• Email marketing
• Traditional paid advertising in local printed media
• Paid advertising online
• Social media marketing
• Organizing or sponsoring local events
• Paid social media marketing

Are you doing some or all of these? Not every business needs to do all of these to get more customers, but that was just to give an overview of the different marketing channels out there.

What Is the Best Way for You to Get New Customers?

To create the best plumbing marketing strategy you need to know your current best way of getting new customers.

Ask yourself to following questions:

1. Do you have a website where people fill out a contact form?
2. Do they call the phone number you've added to your local directories and website?
3. Do you use flyers to market in different neighborhoods?
4. Do you get a flood of new customers from an area you're currently working in?
5. How often do people mention that you were recommended to them by a former customer?
6. Do people contact you on social media and ask for a quote?

Once you've mapped out which of the above-mentioned tactics you're currently doing, and which are currently bringing in customers, it's time to move on to business goals.

Define Business Goals

Before you spend time (or money) on digital marketing, it’s smart to stop for a moment and decide what you actually want to achieve.

If you don’t have a goal, you’ll end up trying a bit of everything, Facebook, Google Ads, website updates, but you won’t know what’s working.

1. Think About What “Success” Means for You

Every plumbing business is different. Ask yourself:

• Do I want more local customers calling me every week?
• Do I want to focus on emergency jobs or bigger renovation projects?
• Do I want to grow my team or keep it small but steady?

Your answers guide your marketing.
For example:

• If you want more emergency jobs, focus on Google search visibility and fast contact options.
• If you want bigger renovation projects, invest in a nice website that shows photos, reviews, and your expertise.

2. Set Simple, Measurable Goals

Make your goals easy to understand and track. Here are some examples:

• “Get 10 new Google reviews this month.”
• “Receive 5 quote requests per week.”
• “Increase website visits by 30% in 3 months.”

You don’t need fancy tools. Just keep track with a spreadsheet or notebook.

3. Align Your Plumbing Marketing With Your Goals

Once you know what you’re aiming for, it’s easier to decide what to do next:

• Need more local visibility? → Focus on your Google Business Profile and reviews.
• Want to look more professional? → Add reviews and trust elements to your website with Trustmary.
• Want more repeat customers? → Send follow-up messages asking for feedback and offering help for future maintenance.

Now that you know your goals, it's time to create a strategy to reach them.

Local Marketing for Plumbing Businesses: Simple Ways to Get More Local Customers

Digital marketing isn't a one size fits all, as some companies have a huge ad spend, others have plenty of relevant website traffic, and others get more leads from social media.

Here are a few ways to get a steady stream of real leads in your local area.

1. Show Up Where People Are Searching

Think about the last time you needed a service fast, maybe a pizza place or a new tool delivered on-site. You probably opened Google and picked one of the first results with good reviews, right?

That’s exactly how your potential customers choose a plumber.

Plumbing companies are local businesses because you have a set area where you operate.

Therefore, you need to show up in local searches when your target market is looking for local plumbers.

Online visibility, or online presence, means you appear on search engines, like Google, when people search for

• "plumbers in [insert location]"
• "emergency plumber near me"
• or "best plumber in [enter location]"

To get more plumbing leads, you need to figure out if people can even find you online.

To make matters worse, some people have started to use AI search tools like ChatGPT to find services, but luckily, local searches are still mostly done within traditional search engines, like Google.

How to Know if You're Good at Local SEO?

This is the easy part.

Go to Google and try to think what your potential customers would type when they're trying to find a plumber in their area.

Use both your phone and your desktop, as people use both, and the search results may vary between the devices you use.

Try, for example, the following searches on Google:

• Plumbers in [area]
• Quote for plumbing services in [x]
• Best plumbers in [area]
• Plumbers near me

Now repeat the process in AI-based search engines like ChatGPT or Perplexity.

If your business appears in these searches as the top or one of the top results, it means your local search engine optimisation is at a good level.

If your brand never comes up with any relevant searches, it might be the right time to invest in local SEO.

2. Ask for Reviews After Every Job

You’ve just fixed someone’s leak or installed a new water heater. They’re happy, grateful, and relieved. That’s the perfect time to ask for a review.

Instead of doing it manually, you can automate it with Trustmary.

Trustmary helps you:

• Send simple review requests right after the job is done.
• Collect both feedback and Google reviews with one easy survey.
• Automatically publish your best reviews on your website (even as a pop-up or widget).

So, the next time someone searches “plumber in [your city]”, they’ll see your real customer reviews right on Google and your website, building instant trust.

Potential customers need to trust you before they contact you.

3. Keep Your Website Simple and Local

You don’t need a fancy website. Just one that works and tells people three key things:

1. What services do you offer (e.g., emergency plumbing, drain cleaning, bathroom installations).
2. Where you work (name nearby towns or areas).
3. How to contact you: phone number, form, or WhatsApp.

Tip: Add reviews from all sources directly to your key pages with Trustmary. It’s one of the easiest ways to boost credibility without writing a single word of copy.

It's also valuable content that makes people stay on the page instead of leaving your site to find reviews from external sources.

4. Use Local Social Media Wisely

You don’t have to post every day. Just share real moments:

• A short clip of your team fixing a common plumbing problem.
• A “before and after” from a renovation.
• A photo of a satisfied customer (with their permission, of course!).

Tag your city or area, people love supporting local businesses. And if your followers comment, reply! It builds trust and shows you’re approachable.

5. Track What’s Working

Marketing doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Trustmary makes it easy to see which reviews, surveys, or website widgets bring in more leads.

Over time, you’ll know what kind of jobs and customers are most profitable.

Build Trust First

Plumbing is a people business. The more trust you can build online, the more calls you’ll get. And tools like Trustmary help you do that automatically.

It's all about having relevant trust signals on your website to make potential customers trust you.

How to Automate Testimonial and Review Collection

If you’ve ever tried asking customers for reviews one by one, you know it takes time, and most people forget to actually leave one.

That’s why automation is your best friend. With Trustmary, you can collect feedback, testimonials, and Google reviews automatically after every plumbing job without lifting a finger.

Here’s what the process looks like for a plumber:

1. Connect Trustmary to your email or existing flow.
2. Set up automatic review requests after each job.
3. Collect both internal feedback and Google reviews.
4. Publish the best testimonials on your website.
5. Watch your online trust and customer calls grow.

With this system in place, you’ll keep getting fresh, genuine reviews even while you’re busy fixing leaks.

1. Connect Trustmary to Your Workflow

Start by signing up for Trustmary and connecting it to the tools you already use, like your email, CRM, or ERP system (for example, where you keep track of customers and jobs).

When a job is marked as “done,” Trustmary can automatically send a feedback request to that customer. This automation can be done even if you use Google Sheets or Excel to keep tabs of your business actions.

Example:
You fix a leaking pipe for a customer. Once the invoice is marked “paid” in your system, Trustmary sends a friendly review request by email or text. No extra steps from you, but you'll start getting more feedback and more reviews.

2. Use a Ready-Made Review Template

Trustmary includes templates that make it super easy for your customers to leave a review.
You can customize the message, but here’s a simple example:

“Hi [Name], thanks for choosing [Your Plumbing Business]!
We’d love to hear how we did. Could you leave a quick review? It only takes 30 seconds.”

The customer clicks one link, rates your service, and writes a short comment. Easy.

3. Collect Both Feedback and Google Reviews

Here’s the magic:
Trustmary can collect internal feedback (so you know how the job went) and help the customer leave a Google review with one simple survey.

That means you get:

• Private feedback to improve your service.
• Public reviews that boost your visibility on Google.

No need to choose. You get both in one go.

4. Publish the Best Testimonials Automatically

Once you’ve collected a few great reviews, Trustmary helps you show them off on your website, landing pages, or even social media automatically.

You can display them as:

• Floating pop-ups (“John from Edinborough just left a 5-star review”)
• Review carousels on your homepage
• Widgets that match your brand colors

It all updates automatically when new reviews come in so your website always looks active and trustworthy.

5. Track Your Results

Trustmary shows how many review requests you’ve sent, how many people responded, and how many leads your reviews have generated.
You can literally see your reputation grow over time, and identify what’s working best.

How to Get More Leads without Ads

Set the feedback and review process up once, and let Trustmary handle the review requests while you handle the pipes.
It’s the easiest way to grow your reputation and attract more local customers automatically.

If you want to grow your plumbing business locally, start with these three steps:

1. Make sure people can find you on Google.
2. Collect real reviews after every job.
3. Show those reviews on your website to build instant credibility.

With that setup, you’ll stand out from the competition, and your phone will start ringing more often.

Take a look at our overview of the best plumbing computer software that can help you automate processes to free up time for fixing pipes.

FAQ about Marketing for Plumbing Businesses