Plumbing businesses and other service-oriented local businesses have a lot of competition to deal with, so getting the word out into the community is essential; what many plumbers may not know is exactly how to do that.
Marketing is a term that everyone knows and it tends to be understood as a catch-all phrase concerning everything related to advertising; however, what plumbers actually need is branding.
Though they do work together, branding must come first so that marketing will be successful.
To fully understand this concept it is critical to understand what branding and marketing are, and how they act on each other.
What is Branding?
Branding is the foundation of business marketing, the important element that gets a plumbing service noticed in the crowd.
A company’s brand is more than just its name; branding is the message that business sends with its name.
It is the idea that comes with the name, recognition that includes reputation, authority, and the public image that the brand holds.
Because branding is what people think of when they see or hear a plumbing company’s name, it is essential to first create that branding so the name does not get lost in a sea of others like it.
Whether it is done using a catch phrase, a logo, some other message, or even all of these, branding is what happens when a service consistently uses the same message to create that recognition.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is what allows plumbing services to reach more people and actually connect with them by spreading their brand.
It is the effort made to put a brand name in front of the audiences who are most likely to need that service as a way to draw in more customers.
While marketing by itself can work to an extent, it is much more successful when marketing supports branding.
Getting a name in front of more people does much more when those people recognize the branding.
Putting It All Together
Though the concepts of branding and marketing are very similar and one cannot exist very well without the other, plumbing services must first focus on their branding to generate familiarity, build their reputation in the community, and be viewed as a local authority in the plumbing field.
Once that starts to happen, plumbers can then invest more into actual advertising in the key areas targeted by brand building efforts.
An effective overall marketing campaign should include both, starting with a branding strategy and then continuing on to the marketing part.