The plumbing market is competitive. Customers expect fast service, clear communication, and consistent results. To grow, you need more than technical skill—you need a plan, a clear market position, and systems that keep operations tight
In this guide, you’ll learn how to set goals, specialize, build a reliable lead engine, retain customers, and scale the work that pays. All without turning your day into chaos.
*While this guide focuses on landing large commercial contracts, many of these same strategies can be applied to grow your residential business.
Before you jump into growth tactics, take a step back and review where your business currently stands. Look at your historical data:
Once you know your numbers, set realistic goals. Maybe that’s increasing job size by 30%, adding 50 commercial clients, or expanding into a new market. From there, plan the marketing, staffing, and operational steps needed to support growth.
Marketing is often where businesses get stuck. Here are proven strategies that attract the right clients.
Run ads and campaigns in the areas you actually serve. Geo-targeting ensures your name is more likely to come up during a quick search on the Internet by potential customers. Customers in your area will find your business before other plumbing businesses. Geo-targeting can also work offline, through traditional mailing campaigns to advertise specials for people in your selected mailing code.
27% of US small businesses still don't have a website. This makes it difficult for them to attract new clients online and prevents them from maximizing the business opportunities in their area. A strong website doesn’t need to be fancy—it needs to be fast, mobile-friendly, and clear. Prospects should understand your services and find your contact info in seconds.
Consider hiring a web developer through platforms like Upwork or Fiverr to build a professional site, or use DIY website builders like Squarespace or Wix. If you already have a website, use free tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site's performance. Always make sure your content is clear and easy to access on all devices. Site visitors are unlikely to remain on your page if they can't find what they're looking for within a few seconds.
Search engine optimization helps clients find you online. It aims to improve a website's search engine ranking. It's extremely useful because a high ranking attracts hundreds or even thousands of visitors daily. Begin with the basics, such as a simple and efficient site structure and fast load times.
Once you've done this, you can focus on the details. Add strategically placed keywords to all your pages and blog posts to enhance their search engine visibility. Regularly update your website so that search engine algorithms recognize that your content remains relevant and up-to-date. Ask other businesses in your area to link to your pages, which will help increase your trust score. This process may seem tedious, but it ensures you can consistently generate new leads.
It takes months or even years for SEO-optimized websites to start producing meaningful results. In the meantime, you can get customers through social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Pinterest. Research these platforms to determine which ones may be suitable for your company. It's better to choose just one or two and dedicate a lot of time to them than to sign up for all of them and fail to update your profiles regularly.
Most social media platforms work best when you post 3-7 times per week, depending on the platform. Facebook and LinkedIn perform well with 3-5 posts weekly, while Instagram can handle daily posting. Although this sounds like a lot, it doesn't have to be time-consuming because you can schedule your posts ahead of time.
Utilize free tools like Meta Business Suite (formerly Facebook Creator Studio) for Facebook and Instagram, or Buffer for scheduling. Buffer's free plan allows you to connect up to 3 social accounts and schedule up to 10 posts per channel. Spend 30 minutes on Sunday planning your week's content, then let the tools automatically post for you throughout the week.
Google My Business is an important tool for businesses because it increases their visibility and makes it easier for potential clients to learn more about them. Your profile may display information about your services, opening hours, contact details, a link to your website, reviews, customer questions and answers, and photos.
To make sure the profile works in your favor, you need to manage it every few weeks. Check for any reviews, respond to customer questions, and update your photos.
Check out these steps specifically for plumbing pros!
Around 88% of consumers are more likely to buy a product or service after they've read positive reviews. They want to know that others have had a good experience with a business before making a financial commitment. That's why you must make sure that satisfied clients post about their experiences on Google, Yelp, or similar sites where others might be looking for your services.
After completing a job, make it a habit to personally ask satisfied customers to leave reviews. You can send a simple follow-up text or email thanking them for their business and politely requesting they share their experience online. This systematic approach to review requests increases your visibility and trust score, so you're more likely to pick up new clients from external sites.
Check out our recent Capterra reviews.
Paid ads can help fill short-term gaps, but they’re not always necessary. A strong digital presence and referrals often provide more sustainable results.
Building a comprehensive digital marketing presence for a plumbing business can feel overwhelming, but it’s the key to growing your brand. This is where field service management software like ServiceBox becomes your most valuable tool. This software streamlines your entire operation—from managing job schedules to organizing client information—giving you the time-saving foundation needed to grow a strong online brand.
This operational efficiency directly fuels your most vital marketing asset: your online reputation. This is critical because 92% of consumers will seek out and consider online reviews before hiring a local home service business. Every seamless service call, on-time arrival, and accurate estimate leads to a satisfied customer who is more likely to leave a glowing 5-star review, building authentic social proof that creates trust with potential clients.
If your digital marketing strategy is solid, you can get new clients from various sources. Although these strategies can provide you with new leads every month, they are time-consuming. Obtaining personal referrals from your existing clients is a cost-effective and efficient way to attract new business.
Your clients might be so happy with your services that they refer their friends and family members without being asked. However, if this doesn't happen, you can increase your chances of being referred by offering your clients a reward, such as a discount. If you work for other businesses in different industries, you can set up a reciprocal referral system where you promote each other's companies.
The most successful plumbing businesses get new clients through personal referrals, social media, and their websites.
Once you have customers coming through the door, you need systems to track them and identify opportunities to grow your business. This is where ServiceBox's customer records come in handy. You can see their full service history and all past jobs, which allows you to manually identify when they might need recurring maintenance.
If you've been performing maintenance on a commercial building's plumbing for two years, you can easily review the job history to identify when their water heater is nearing the end of its lifespan or when their pipes may need upgrading.
Now, you can proactively reach out with maintenance programs or system upgrades before they encounter problems. This kind of proactive approach doesn't just grow your revenue; it positions you as the plumber who really looks out for their clients.
One of the fastest ways to grow your commercial plumbing business is to add services that your existing customers already need. Emergency repair services, for example, can significantly increase your revenue because commercial clients will pay premium rates to get their systems back up and running quickly.
Consider adding specialized services like backflow testing, grease trap maintenance, or water efficiency upgrades. These services often have less competition and command higher rates than basic plumbing repairs.
Your team is what sets you apart from the competition, so investing in their skills pays dividends. Advanced training and certifications allow you to take on more complex jobs that command higher prices. When your technicians can handle specialized commercial equipment or complex installations that other plumbers avoid, you can charge accordingly.
Don't forget about sales training either. Every time your technician is on a job site, they're in a position to spot additional work opportunities. Teaching them how to identify problems and communicate solutions professionally can significantly increase your average job values.
Good customer service training is just as important. Commercial clients expect professional communication and reliable service. When your team consistently delivers exceptional service, you get better reviews, more referrals, and clients who stick with you for years.
You can't improve what you don't measure. Setting up proper lead tracking from initial inquiry through project completion helps you understand what's working in your business and where you're losing opportunities.
Track where your best commercial leads come from. Is it your website, referrals, or Google My Business? How long does it take to convert a quote to a signed contract? What's your average commercial job value by service type?
Keeping this data on file is easy with a dedicated CRM like HubSpot. A platform like HubSpot helps you focus your efforts on the most profitable growth opportunities. When you know which marketing channels bring in the highest-value commercial clients, you can invest more heavily in those areas.
Success in business often comes down to relationships. Instead of just joining existing business groups, consider organizing your own network of commercial service providers. Connect with general contractors, facility managers, HVAC, and electrical professionals. Those who serve the same types of clients you want to reach.
When you're the one organizing the group, you position yourself as a leader in the business space. Plus, when these trusted partners recommend your plumbing services to their clients, those referrals carry a lot of weight. Business owners trust contractors who come recommended by other service providers they already use and trust.
Decide what growth looks like for you:
These long-term goals help guide your immediate decisions about everything from staffing to equipment investments to marketing strategies.
It's essential to establish long-term goals for how you intend to grow your business. If you want to grow your business large enough to franchise, your business growth strategies may differ from those if you aim to simply add more team members to your business. Long-term business growth goals can help you with your advertising and marketing strategies as well.
If you want your business to be competitive, then you will need to focus on using strategies for business growth that can help your target clients find your business more easily. Strategies such as SEO and geo-targeting are important, but so is using appropriate plumber management software to improve your customer relationships.
One of the main advantages of using software for a plumbing business is to more easily manage customer information. You can include customer information along with professional quoting and job costing features, and schedule recurring work orders for customers who require more frequent maintenance.
The best software for plumbing management gives you the tools to automatically manage your inventory, create timesheets and work orders that are synchronized with invoices, and sync all of your business data with cloud-based technology. Other important highlights of plumber software include scheduling and dispatching features, and GPS tracking to easily identify technicians who are available for emergency work.
The plumbing industry is competitive, but the path to growth is clear. Plan with data, specialize, market consistently, retain customers, and build the right networks.
Don't wait until your competitors figure this out first. The plumbing businesses using these strategies right now are the ones landing the $50K, $100K, and $500K+ commercial contracts while everyone else fights over residential service calls.
Ready to join them? A field service management software can help you implement these strategies more effectively and focus on what you do best – delivering exceptional plumbing services
Take the first step toward a bigger business. Explore how ServiceBox can support your goals and start building the business you want.
Check out these game-changing resources as well:
Fix These 6 Business-Killing Problems Before Your Competitors Do - How to avoid the operational disasters that kill plumbing businesses.
The Customer Retention Formula That Doubles Revenue - Master the retention strategies that turn one-time jobs into lifetime clients.
Stay Legal, Stay Profitable - See how a professional plumber handles legal and compliance issues.
Our customers love the affordability and flexibility of our software. ServiceBox is priced to ensure you see a return on your investment. We have pricing options that align with your needs; whether you’re a one-person service business or manage a large team in the field.
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