Clarity is vital when considering how to grow your plumbing business in 2025. The ways your father’s plumbing company grew in the 1980s, such as community word-of-mouth and Yellow Pages listings, are no longer salient in today’s highly competitive and primarily digital landscape.
The modern plumber requires a mindset, approach, and resource allocation that matches the era.
I’m Nolen Walker – the founder and CEO of Plumbing Webmasters – a digital marketing agency for plumbers across the United States.
Over the past 14+ years, I’ve helped thousands of plumbers grow and expand their businesses using proven methods and cutting-edge innovations.
Note: If you are just starting out, read my article about starting a plumbing business in 2025.
I’ve seen first-hand what it takes for plumbers to transform their companies into consistent growth and expansion.
Based on my experience and expertise, I’ll list 26 ways to grow and expand your plumbing business in 2025:
1) Build a Plumbing Brand
Branding is the fuel for plumbing business growth in 2025 and the factor that determines your standing across all digital platforms.
While plumbers generally think of branding as their business logo, color scheme, and slogan, its impact expands further in modern marketing.
For example, in search results, Google prioritizes well-known brands, and customers are likelier to purchase from a brand they recognize.
Here are some modern components of plumbing branding for business growth:
Color Scheme
Your plumbing brand’s color scheme matters more than you might imagine. More than 8 of 10 consumers consider color when making a purchase.
Red, blue, yellow, and black have tested well in research evaluating the impact of color on conversions, making these colors optional for your company color scheme.
Another color scheme factor is theme integration, which varies based on location or messaging.
Business Slogan
Brainstorming a memorable plumbing business slogan can expand your existing company into greater prosperity.
Studies show that slogans can increase brand recognition by up to 15%, which aligns with the branding considerations I mentioned earlier.
In addition, slogans can be used on your website, advertising, and other promotional materials.
Digital Branding
While logos, color schemes, and slogans fit into the traditional idea of branding, the digital component of this phenomenon now has a more significant effect.
For example, Google prioritizes brands in Google rankings, which are defined based on the company’s reviews, citations, backlinks, and E-E-A-T signals.
Furthermore, AI language models like OpenAi’s GPT use internet brand mentions to train their applications on which plumbing companies offer reputable services in specific areas.
2) Establish a Success Pattern
Don’t attempt to expand your plumbing company until you establish a consistent pattern of success with your existing model.
For example, do you serve the same range of clients per week for 90 consecutive days? Does your monthly revenue fall within a consistent range for six straight months?
Once you can establish patterns, you have the foundation for expansion and growth, which can be measured against these pivotal benchmarks.
If you attempt to grow your company before establishing such patterns, you won’t be able to measure growth correctly.
3) Strengthen Your Company Culture
Expanding your plumbing business is like going from the minor to the major leagues; your culture must reflect that.
If you have technicians showing up late, secretaries who couldn’t care less about your success, and ownership who lacks vision, you must change the culture.
Your culture should be rooted in accountability and vision, as any person within your organization who is content with the status quo can only hold you back.
Great team members want to be held accountable and want to succeed not just for themselves but for the entire company.
4) Define Customer Pain Points
Business growth requires an intimate grasp of your customer’s pain points so you can empathize with their needs and provide tailored solutions.
Pain points are the emotionally charged challenges your standard plumbing customer faces, such as sudden cold water, low water pressure, and issues that disrupt their daily routines.
Depending on your location and areas of expertise, your average customer pain points may vary from other plumbers.
The key is appropriately defining your customer pain points so you can tailor solutions and integrate them into your messaging.
5) Find Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP)
Expanding as Bob, the ordinary plumber, presents a litany of challenges and obstacles that stifle growth and conversion.
You need a unique value proposition or a UVP to differentiate your plumbing service from competitors.
You may specialize in plumbing disciplines like water heater repair or drain cleaning, allowing you to zero in on the unique problems within that sub-industry.
Alternatively, your owners may have a unique background story that helps them relate to customers in a specific location.
6) Mobilize Promotion With Truck Wraps
Much is made of paid advertising on Google, Facebook, and other platforms, but the truck wrap is a unique promotional tool that allows plumbers to expand their businesses.
Since truck wraps promote your business when you drive and park, they always reach the consumers you are targeting (people in your service area).
The evolution of truck wraps has made integrating them into your broader digital marketing strategy easier, with many now including QR codes that allow onlookers to access your website or landing page quickly.
At the bare minimum, plumbing truck wraps expand brand awareness, increasing conversion rates.
7) Focus on Customer Service
Customer service impacts the perception of your plumbing company regardless of your service quality.
Homeowners will hold grudges against plumbers and their staff who treat them with “perceived indifference” even if the plumbing services are objectively excellent.
Considering this, investing in customer service is part of expanding your company in 2025.
Hire friendly and personable people to onboard new customers and ensure your technicians provide the best possible customer experience during service calls.
8) Network With Local Businesses
Whether you went to JimBob’s hardware store as a tike or not, associating yourself with local mom-and-pop shops is a great way to earn more customers.
Consumers trust the community, which means your association with the locals’ favorite car mechanic and bakery is equally beneficial to your growth.
While local word-of-mouth remains beneficial for plumbing companies, expanding your network online through link-building and social media collaborations is even more salient today.
The best way to form these connections is to wear branded company shirts while shopping in your local service area.
9) Network With Real Estate Agents
In addition to networking with local businesses, try to build relationships with respected local realtors.
Real estate agents have access to a broad scope of properties throughout your area, which means many will require plumbing services.
Tapping into a realtor’s database of new homeowners is one of the most effective ways to earn consistent business quickly.
You can leverage these realtor associations to grow and expand the plumbing business in 2025.
10) Immerse Your Business in The Local Community
Aside from networking with businesses and realtors, immersing yourself in the local community is essential.
This can manifest as local sponsorship of Little League teams and the hosting of community events.
It can also be as simple as talking with the people at your local church and offering to help neighbors with laborious tasks.
When you become known as the go-to local plumbing contractor, your business can grow much faster.
11) Monitor and Enhance Reputation
As a plumbing company, your reputation precedes you when dealing with customers.
For example, a homeowner searches for your brand name on Google and finds 200 reviews for an aggregate rating of 4.7, increasing their confidence in your services.
Alternatively, the homeowner cannot find any reviews about your business and moves on to a more reputable competitor.
Using a reputation management tool like DataPins, plumbers can monitor and enhance their reputation while expanding their business.
12) Systemtize Business Processes
An overlooked factor in business expansion is the systematization of specific business processes.
For example, creating standard operating producers for invoice creation, job reporting, and inventory management ensures that your employees follow a defined protocol to deliver consistent results.
Some systems can be generated through software tools like digital scheduling apps that prevent issues such as the double booking of plumbing technicians.
While not every plumbing business task can be systemized, the ones that can help scale your business.
13) Invest in Technician Training
While homeowners may lack the expertise to differentiate qualified technicians from novices, investing in technician training will ultimately help your business grow.
Hosting plumbing workshops that introduce modern techniques and certifications helps keep your staff updated on best practices.
In addition, training should include soft skills, such as customer interactions and software adoption.
Your revenue and brand expansion will follow suit when your service quality improves at scale.
14) Prioritize Modern Plumbing Tools
Investing in new plumbing tools fosters more efficient services, which are, in turn, more appealing to consumers.
One example is hydrojetting, which requires expensive equipment but minimizes the disruption to your customer’s property.
Not only will customers appreciate your new plumbing tools, but so will your staff as it streamlines historically laborious plumbing tasks.
As a business owner, monitoring the latest plumbing tools and equipment helps you stay ahead of the curve.
15) Integrate Email Marketing
Email marketing effectively engages and informs consumers about your plumbing services as your company grows.
You might send monthly newsletters with up-to-date plumbing tips, seasonal maintenance reminders, and special discount codes.
Another way to leverage email in business expansion is to request customer reviews, enhancing your reputation and SEO.
If nothing else, email is a consistent reminder of your brand to your existing customers and anyone who subscribes to your list.
16) Launch a Referral Program
A plumber referral program can leverage existing customers into business advocates, which can help expand your business.
Of course, these customers will expect something in return for their referrals, such as service discounts and other rewards.
One example to consider is long-time plumbing customers getting a $50 discount on their next plumbing service per successful referral.
In addition to booking more new customers, referral programs also help your company build long-term brand loyalty.
17) Run Themed Promotions
Plumbing promotions with specific themes perform best when targeting new customers.
Consider winter, summer, holidays, and location-related themes, which will vary by your service area.
Build marketing materials such as social media posts and emails that leverage these themes to appeal to your audience.
In the increased social media usage age, themed promotions help your plumbing business stand out from competitors.
18) Strategically Run Paid Ads
Digital advertising should be part of your plumbing marketing strategy but only within the confines of a sustainable campaign.
I’ve witnessed many a plumber blow their growth projections from irresponsible ad spend, usually at the hands of a third-party agency.
Nevertheless, paid ads are highly effective when used correctly on platforms such as Google and Facebook Ads.
The key is using paid ads to enhance your other marketing efforts, such as SEO and reputation management.
19) Use Specialized Digital Marketing
Digital marketing always seems like a great idea until plumbers join the 70% of their peers dissatisfied with their provider.
The problem with digital marketing is that it paints too broad of a brush and includes agencies not attuned to plumbing marketing specifics.
For example, did you know that at least 46% of all organic Google traffic comes from zero-volume keywords?
When you account for all SERP features, up to 95% of organic traffic comes from long-tail plumbing keywords.
You need a specialized approach that targets these keywords in your service area.
20) Invest in Software
Software, whether CRMs or Local SEO tools, is essential for plumbing business expansion.
I recommend DataPins, the software I developed for plumbers to rank on Google and Google Maps using digital brand signals like E-E-A-T.
I also advise plumbers to integrate a reputable CRM into their business operations to streamline repeatable tasks.
With software solutions, plumbing companies can stay organized and efficient while scaling.
21) Implement Automation
Like software, automation helps plumbing companies reduce menial tasks that take up your valuable time.
You can invest your time into growth and expansion by automating specific tasks such as scheduling, invoicing, and follow-ups.
The key is to outline your current workflow and look for tools to help you automate them.
Sometimes, this will include what is known as a “tech stack,” a combination of digital tools that work within an overarching business process.
22) Study Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI will impact your plumbing business in 2025, and you can decide whether that impact will be positive or negative.
Research AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and CoPilot can help you understand how to integrate artificial intelligence into your 2025 business plan.
Will you use chatbots, predictive analysis, or AI-driven marketing campaigns?
However you decide to integrate AI into your plumbing company expansion, it will pay dividends if properly executed.
23) Reinvest in Your Business
Please don’t buy an F-350 with the fruits of your plumbing business growth because it will undermine continued expansion.
Instead, reinvest your profits into aspects of your plumbing business that need improvements, such as software and AI.
Other areas to invest money are equipment upgrades, talent scouting, hiring, and providing better employee pay so you can retain top talent.
Your marketing campaigns which include SEO and Google Maps can also benefit from continued investments.
24) Avoid In-House Marketing
One investment strategy you should avoid is hiring in-house plumbing marketers, as I’ve seen this decision backfire for countless business owners.
There is a misconception that you should transition from a marketing agency to an in-house marketing staff during the expansion process.
Your resources should remain with agencies with expertise rather than attempting to manage and oversee someone within your plumbing company’s organization.
An agency focused on plumbing marketing has the checks and balances required to deliver excellent results consistently.
25) Check-in With Employees
Neglecting your employees can lead to harbored resentment that undermines your expansion goals.
That’s why regularly checking in with your plumbing employees is essential to growing your business.
Schedule monthly one-on-one meetings with each employee in which you discuss their goals and ask for input about processes and company culture.
Empowering your team to be an active part of your business rather than just a “worker” will improve their work performance and increase their investment in your success.
26) Exit The Gig Economy
Plumbers serious about growing their business must flip the mental switch from contractor to company by exiting the gig economy for good.
No more buying plumbing leads from third-party providers or relying solely on paid ads to generate new customers.
I’ve worked with thousands of the most successful plumbing companies, and every single one of them has made this mental switch. I have never looked back.
The gig economy is now in the rearview mirror as you focus on building a sustainable plumbing business in 2025.
Ready to Grow Your Plumbing Business?
Growing your plumbing business in 2025 is attainable through proven expansion methods that align with our current era of technology, consumer behavior, and customer expectations.
It starts with building a legitimate plumbing brand that will trigger growth in every aspect of your business, from marketing to customer interactions.
From there, plumbers must define their customer’s common challenges (AKA pain points) to provide unique solutions that stand out from competitors.
While some growth strategies are scientific, others are artful, such as authentically immersing yourself in your local community through church, sports, and events.
As you build up local equity, you must demonstrate online with Local SEO, customer reviews, and specialized digital marketing services (like the ones my agency, Plumbing Webmasters, provides).
It would help if you also avoided the common pitfalls of overzealous business owners who waste their profits on luxuries and fail to reinvest in their business goals.
If you’d like to speak with me about my 14+ years of experience helping plumbing companies grow and expand their business, reach out today.
