Guerrilla Marketing for Plumbers: The Secret Weapon for Rapid Business Growth
Welcome to the Mammoth community! I’m Tyler Williams, and today we’re diving headfirst into a topic that should be in every plumber’s toolkit: Guerrilla Marketing for Plumbers.
The big question I get asked is, "Is it useful?" My quick answer: Absolutely, yes.
Let me back this up a little, though, and explain why it's so useful.
When you're first starting out, you don't have a giant revenue stream to pour into expensive advertising. That's the reality for most new plumbing businesses. Guerrilla marketing is the perfect trade-off because it takes time and energy instead of a massive budget. It's all about getting eyeballs, building familiarity, and establishing credibility in your local market without breaking the bank.
My biggest complaint about this approach is that people tend to severely underestimate the amount of energy and consistency needed to actually move the needle. You can't just do it once and expect miracles. You have to hit it hard and often!
Here's the kicker: it’s underutilized by everyone—the companies with massive revenue and the companies struggling to get started. If you’ve ever seen a company in your market suddenly explode really fast without a huge starting budget, chances are they were masters of the guerrilla marketing side. It’s almost necessary when you first start, helping jobs trickle in, which then spreads word-of-mouth.
Eventually, you'll be getting jobs with regularity and you can stair-step your way from pure guerrilla marketing into paid advertising. But here's an important lesson: You don't stop the guerrilla marketing just because you’re advertising. You need to keep going because you're training people to see you in those tangible, actionable ways.
Laying the Groundwork: Before You Go Full Rambo
Before you start executing any guerrilla marketing stunts, you need to have a solid foundation. Don’t waste your time or energy if people can’t find you after you've piqued their interest.
Here's your pre-flight checklist:
Foundational Paperwork: License, business name, and all that necessary paperwork is a must-have.
Digital Presence: You need to be findable. Get your Google Business Profile (this is huge for local search!), and at least a basic website set up.
Social Media Accounts: Grab your name on all the major channels: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok. This is where you'll drive traffic.
Once that’s done, you can start driving traffic to those findable spots. Now, let’s get into the fun stuff—the low-cost, high-impact tactics that can get your phone ringing.
Physical Door Knockers and Car Hangers: The Grassroots Tactic
One of the most immediate and effective guerrilla tactics I've seen is direct, physical placement of marketing materials. Think of it as old-school networking meets modern marketing.
The Parking Lot Prowl
I had a client who started by hitting up local parking lots—Costco is a popular one, though you'll want to be mindful of local rules and property tolerance! The tactic is simple: door hangers or cards left on car door handles.
Door Hangers Beat Windshield Flyers: People don’t see a windshield flyer until it’s an inconvenience—they're in their car, groceries loaded, starting to drive, and then "What is flapping in my face?!" A little hook door hanger on the driver's door handle is where they interface with it. You want them to grab it easily and hop in their car. If your guerrilla marketing becomes an inconvenience, you become annoying. And while there are times to be annoying (just ask any used car salesman in the US!), I wouldn't recommend it for a first run at a new customer.
The Power of Interaction: That client who used this method? He got a $5,000 job on his first day! But he did one more thing right: he chatted people up. While he was placing the hangers, he was also interacting with people, showing curiosity about them and his market. Those impressions get way deeper than just a piece of paper. You have to be more than a passive marketer; you have to show up and be human.
The Post-Job Knock
If I had to pick one single form of guerrilla marketing to start with, this is it, and people aren’t going to like it because it requires so much hustle: door knocking around every job you do.
The routine is simple:
After you finish a job, go up the street five houses, and down the street five houses.
Make sure you hit the houses on the opposite side as well.
Go to the door with your branded door knocker.
Your Script: "Hey, I'm down the street with your neighbor doing a water heater replacement. Just wanted to introduce myself. I really like this neighborhood and I'd love to serve more people in it. Here's a door knocker with X percent off for your first service with me. I'll be the one doing it, and I promise you I’ll give you a five-star service."
You are setting the stage, making a promise, and getting in front of people. If they don't answer, you put the door knocker on and it's there for when they get home. This consistent, hyper-local activity is how you become a physical force in your service area.
Digital-to-Physical Guerrilla: Facebook Neighborhood Groups
This next strategy is a blend of digital and physical that I love, and it’s especially powerful when you're starting out and money is scarce.
Your service area has a bunch of neighborhood groups on Facebook. Go join them!
Be a Helper, Not a Salesman
Using your personal Facebook account (the one people will trust), go into those groups and interact. Anything that turns you into a community player is good. Then, make it a habit to search for keywords like "drain clog," "plumbing," or "water heater."
When you see a post about a plumbing issue:
Offer Good Advice: Be the person who provides genuine, helpful advice first. You have to be a helper before you’re a salesman.
Open the DM Channel: After offering advice, finish with, "Hey, if you have any more questions, I happen to be a plumber. Just DM me if you need any help."
This opens a private channel of communication. They direct message you, and now you’re talking to them one-to-one in Facebook Messenger.
Building Credibility with Your Personal Brand
In order to set yourself up for success, post regularly on your business's Facebook page and share it to your personal Facebook page. When a neighbor scopes you out after you've given good advice, they'll see, "Oh, he's not just some random guy who knows a bit about plumbing. He's a full-on plumber with a real business."
This is a series of tiny cuts, over and over again—the kind of consistency that builds greater awareness.
Community Engagement and Stunts: Be the Hero, Not the Logo
Sponsorships and community events are classic marketing, but most businesses do them wrong. They become "logo soup."
The Problem with "Logo Soup"
I ran a 5K fun run with my son recently. I looked at the back of the shirt they gave us, and it was covered in 10-20 different sponsor logos. Only the title sponsor stood out; everyone else was just part of the soup. Paying to be a logo on the back of a shirt isn't your best leverage.
If you’re sponsoring an event, you must show up and be a part of it.
Fulfill a Market Gap: At that 5K, none of the sponsors had a water table halfway through the run. A random family did it, and they were the heroes. As a business, you should be the one fulfilling that gap in the market. Set up a water table with your branded banner at mile 1.5. You'll be the memorable one who alleviated pain for free, and people will notice your plumbing van and logo. If you help, they'll come to you when they have a problem.
Throw Your Own Event: Own the Chatter
The ultimate guerrilla stunt is to throw your own event. It gives you something to talk to the community about multiple times over several weeks or months.
Here at Mammoth Marketing, we threw a kids' film festival. While we’re a media company, a plumbing company can do this kind of thing, too.
Focus on the Kids to Get the Parents: If you go after the kids, you get the parents, and the parents are the homeowners. Host a free family fun day, a 'Build-a-Boat' race (get it, water?), or a community workshop.
The Media Opportunity: The event itself is just the excuse. The real win is the marketing around it!
Pre-Event Hype: "We need entries," "Here's a tip on how to shoot a better video," or "Come check out our free class."
During the Event: Go live on social media. Live videos get notifications and make your brand feel human and present.
Post-Event Drip Feed: Don't stop when it's over! "It was so cool to see people come out," "Here's a photo of the winner and their prize," or "We went through this much popcorn!" You're championing something the community cares about.
By throwing our film festival, we became the "chatter of the town." Even though I serve businesses, I still got a huge lift in notoriety because we were active and everybody was talking about our event. For a plumbing company, the connection is even more direct to the homeowner market!
Documentation: Turning Events into Marketing Gold
When you engage in the community, you need to turn that time and energy into marketing assets.
Swag and Notoriety
First, invest in swag that stays in the home: calendar magnets, notepads, things that are reusable.
For documentation, you need to think like a media company:
Photos and Video of the Crew: If your team is at an event, take photos of your crew in uniform interacting with the community. You can post things like, "Our team had a blast giving out water at the Fun Run today! We love our community."
Building Hype: Hype up your involvement. For our film festival, we'd post pictures of our crew huddled around a laptop saying, "We just watched the funniest entry yet! We can't wait for you to see this!" This promotes your brand along with the event and gives you something to say that's not just "Hey, hire us!"
Be a Media Proponent: Your camera is your best friend. Document your activity: photos of yourself door-knocking, talking about why you’re doing it, sharing problems you're seeing in the neighborhood, and how many steps you put into your campaign today. People love to cheer for the underdog, and if you’re a one-man show, you can be that underdog!
Turn everything you do into a media opportunity. Over time, this consistent output—this slow, steady build of the compound effect—will make you a powerhouse. Put three years of consistent effort in, never taking your foot off the gas, and you'll grow. By the end, you'll have enough revenue to be deep in advertising, stacking your marketing strategy nice and high.
If you're ready to put your foot on the gas and want the Tyler Williams crew to take a look at what you need to focus on to grow your plumbing business, schedule a consultation at my website today!
