If you rely on search engine marketing for calls, you are putting your company at risk because you are relying on the unreliable. Here are eight steps to wean your company off big tech dependency.

The big tech big risk

Search engine marketing for calls works great until it doesn’t. A competitor, flush with private equity money might bury you. You can unknowingly violate one of the search engine’s rules and see your results buried. To rely on search engine marketing is to rely on the unreliable. The key is to head prospects and customers off before they hit the keyboard.

The goal is to become the local plumber

The best way to keep people away from the search engines (or to limit their searches to looking for your company by name) is to embed your company in your community. Become the local plumber. This means getting involved. It means volunteering, joining, spending time with community centers of influence.

No. 1: Get listed in every local directory

Make sure your company is listed everywhere. Sometimes this will require advertising. Other times it will require joining an organization. For example, if you want to be listed in the Chamber of Commerce’s directory, you will probably need to cough up the money required to join the chamber.

No. 2: Join a service club

Service clubs, such as Rotary, Lion’s, Kiwanis, Optimist and Civitan are populated by community centers of influence. These are the people other people call when looking for a plumber. If you are the plumber in their club, you will get their referrals.

Membership in a service club takes less time than most plumbers imagine. Most clubs meet over lunch or breakfast. If you eat lunch or breakfast anyway, you might as well eat with community centers of influence.

Moreover, the clubs are plugged in. When you join one, you will be on top of the things going on in your community.  You will not only know what is happening, you will also know what is going to happen.

Join a service club. Consider joining more than one. Pay for your employees to join a service club.

3. Use the mail

Before search engine marketing came along, growth-oriented plumbers would use direct mail to reach prospects and customers. Then, search engine marketing and email marketing came along and everyone seemed to forget about direct mail. Yet, snail mail still works. As more companies shift their spending to digital, direct mail gets less crowded and can even be more effective.

The trick when using direct mail is to target it. Identify where you want business and mail to those addresses. Do it regularly. “One and done” will not work. You need a campaign.

For existing customers, do not overlook a company newsletter. Make sure the newsletter is customer-centric, not company-centric. Fill it with information interesting to the customer, but always include a special offer and call to action.

No. 4: Leave reminders in the home

As simple as they seem, do not underestimate the effectiveness of magnets, valve tags, water heater stickers, disposal stickers and other leave-behinds in generating repeat business. These are things easy to do. Unfortunately, it is easier not to do them.

The best way to keep people away from the search engines (or to limit their searches to looking for your company by name) is to embed your company in your community. Become the local plumber. This means getting involved. It means volunteering, joining, spending time with community centers of influence.

No. 5: Use yard signs

Offer customers a discount to let you put a disposable yard sign in their yard. Some contractors say they want to “rent” the yard for a month. Yard signs are social proof to neighbors that the company is a safe choice.

No. 6: Wrap your trucks

If your trucks are big white trucks, they blend in. They do not stand out. The single, best thing you can do to build your brand is to wrap your trucks. It seems incredible, but each truck generates more than 30- thousand impressions a day!

No. 7: Exhibit at every home show

Have a presence at every home show, every community carnival and every local festival that allows small businesses to exhibit. Even if you cannot directly attribute sales to a show, you are showing the flag and building your brand as the local plumbing company.

No. 8: Advertise

One problem with broadcast advertising on television or radio is you are advertising outside of your service territory. Cable TV, on the other hand, can be precisely targeted and is surprisingly affordable. With cable TV, you can build your local brand so that people think of your brand first.

Remember, people without a relationship with a plumbing company prefer to use a company recommended by friends or neighbors first, followed by a company well-known and established in the community. The Internet is the choice of last resort. Head prospects off before they use a search engine and the big tech algorithm will never have a chance.