We sat down with one of the directors of WPJ Heating – PJ Luard, to talk about their recent rebranding, website relaunch and online marketing strategy. Here’s what we found out:
What sets your brand apart?
When we introduced a new marketing strategy, which was about a year and a half ago, we started with our website and we wanted to do something that stands out from other companies in our industry. We wanted to portray the company as it really is, show what we actually do and who we are – a company that takes care of their customers, takes care of their homes – and our goal was to show that in any way we could on all online platforms.
Why focus on online marketing?
We chose to focus our efforts on online or digital marketing because based on our marketing budget at the time felt that we could get more results from online marketing. Secondly, it’s where most of our customers are. Most people when they need a plumber, or when their boiler breaks down, would get on google and search for one in their local area. So we focused on our online market. We wanted to convey the message through different channels online – social media, on our website, in our email communication with our customers. Visually, our DMM thought we could step away from the industry look – workers on site – and show more homes, lives lived well. So we worked on that.
Do you have any tips for unknown brands who are wanting to become well know online?
Mainly, deciding, or knowing what you want to communicate. Which in our case is a high-level plumbing and heating service, knowing who your market is, knowing who your customer is and being consistent in your messages across different channels. Never forgetting that and being consistent and really sticking to it.
Do you engage regularly with your online audience, and how important is it for the brand?
Yes of course, we are present on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Youtube. We make sure to share content on a daily basis. We think that it’s very important that our website is as engaging as possible and easy to maneuver.
Sometimes, smaller companies may find it difficult to incorporate video into their marketing consistently. Do you use video? How?
We use video as an integral part of our branding. But we also now started to create videos of bathroom renovations because it’s a new service that we recently started. So we’ve been working on our before and after photos and videos, time-lapse videos. We believe that it’s appealing and interesting to watch a bathroom or boiler installation being done in less than a minute or so. But also we’re now working on our boiler guide videos – providing information for people who are looking to install new boilers, with our directors – either myself or Will being featured in 2 – 3 minute videos sharing knowledge in instructive videos discussing different aspects of boiler installations. It may be from what to consider when installing a new boiler, different boiler types, different manufacturers. Any questions potential customers may have, we try to address it and make it digestible.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced in changing your brand and having the new look that WPJ Heating has?
There wasn’t necessarily any great challenges. Maybe the uncertainty of how it would be received, if it would work, if it’s something that people would respond well to.
How do you stay ahead of the competition?
Try to do what no-one else does, try to think – what can we offer? There’s always something you can update or do differently. Focusing on digital is an important part of it, having people working on it constantly is an important step in the right direction.
You can visit WPJ Heating’s website here.