As a home service contractor, you probably spent a good amount of time working on your 2025 business plan. You may have done some market research, updated your operational plans, planned to move more money into recruitment and made some financial projections. You wrote down your goals for the new year before heading out to spend some time with family before the busy winter season.

Now it’s April. Frozen pipes are likely a thing of the past until the end of the year, and you’re readying your plumbing staff for jobs that had to be put off until the ground thawed.

Think back to your plans for 2025. With three to four months into the year, have you been able to turn any of your plans into reality? Are you able to recruit new talent? Are you on track to gather the leads you need to scale your business?

If the answer to all those questions is “no,” then it may be time to look into how public relations can help you find more qualified leads, attract and retain the best plumbers in your market and make your other plans come to fruition.

Using PR to boost your business plan

For most small- to mid-sized business owners, public relations may seem unnecessary. If you’re not a very large company or you’re not trying to overcome some bad publicity, you may not have considered what PR can do for your company.

Even though marketing is not how you earn your living, you know enough to understand that you need a strong marketing and advertising budget to make the phones ring. 

However, what you may not know is that PR can help you get the most out of your business plan by boosting brand awareness and positioning you as your community’s thought leader on all things plumbing.

Sure, placing ads can get your name out into the community, but if you become the expert the news media turns to for advice, you will attract more potential customers. Studies have shown that consumers don’t trust advertising, placing far more stock in third-party media (https://bit.ly/4im7lWc).

In other words, if people see you giving plumbing advice on the local news, they will trust you more.

This can boost your lead generation plan in two ways: not only does it get your name out to a wider audience, but since your name will be top-of-mind when consumers need plumbing services, the leads are usually more qualified.

Supporting your marketing campaigns

That’s not to say marketing and advertising campaigns aren’t important. They are.

However, if you truly want to stand out from your competition, you need something extra to help you reach the goals you set forth at the beginning of the year.

For example, if homeowners see you give advice on how to prevent frozen pipe or what to look for if they suspect they have a hidden leaky pipe, they are more likely to respond positively when they see your advertisements.

Public relations is the art of building relationships through storytelling. PR professionals know how to tell your company’s story so it becomes interesting to the media and, subsequently, to the consumer. And, once the media has determined that you are trustworthy and give good advice, you begin building a relationship with them so they call on you when they need more guidance in your field of expertise.

When the media’s readers or viewers see that you are credible, they are more likely to call on your team when they need plumbing services.

Advertising is paid, one-way communication informing potential customers what products or services you have available, while PR builds your company’s positive reputation in the community. When used in support of one another, advertising and PR create a unified brand message that can be used across a variety of mediums.

This kind of consistency helps your company build a brand reputation that sparks customer recognition and loyalty.

Making it easier to recruit

In addition to attracting new customers, a positive reputation also attracts top talent. PR initiatives effectively showcase your company’s values, work environment and culture. 

As the baby boomers and even Gen X retire from plumbing, there simply aren’t as many trained professionals ready to take their places. In fact, the United States is expected to be short nearly 600,000 plumbers by 2027 (https://bloom.bg/41oXOqI). That means plumbing companies that want to grow need to consider building recruiting and retention programs to attract key personnel to replace their retiring experts.

Part of any successful recruiting program showcases your good reputation. If you are the local plumbing company that everyone wants to work for, it’s easier to get and keep talented employees.

Standing out from the crowd

Finally, PR is essential if you want to stand out in your community. 

From door hangers to radio ads to truck wraps, chances are your company is trying the same marketing tricks that other home service companies have been using for several years now. 

That’s not to say these marketing techniques aren’t useful — they wouldn’t have gotten so popular if they hadn’t worked — but it means that you’re not doing anything different to separate yourself from your competition. That’s why PR is so effective. Supplementing your marketing efforts by telling your company’s story and letting the community know about your team and your vision, you begin to separate yourself from the other plumbers in your area.

Whether you are a family-owned business that has been a part of the community for 100 years or you are a shop that likes to stay on top of the latest technology, let the public know who you are, not just what you do.

So, if you don’t feel like you’re reaching your 2025 goals by this time of year, it’s still early enough to make some changes by adding a PR partner. A public relations plan that distinguishes your company from its competitors while supporting your existing marketing campaign will give you the boost you need to reach the next level in lead generation and recruiting.