Plumber Flyer Example With 3 Easy Fixes

Most of these case studies come from emails my readers send me. With their permission, I share them with the names changed. I do this so that others can learn from what worked and what didn't. Have a story of your own? Share it with me.

3 to 14calls a month from print
$2,300 to $760yearly print cost
22repeat calls from stickers

The sticker was smaller than a playing card.

It had a name, three words and a phone number, and it lived on the side of a water heater.

That little sticker brought Dmitri Ostrova more work than 5,000 glossy postcards ever did.

This plumber flyer example follows Dmitri, who runs a two-van plumbing business in Kokomo, Indiana.

It shows how he rebuilt his print marketing over about five months.

Calls from print went from roughly three a month to fourteen. His print bill also dropped by about two thirds.

The problem

For three years, Dmitri did what a print salesman suggested.

Twice a year, he mailed a big glossy postcard to every home in a few zip codes.

Each mailing cost him a little over $1,100. Each one brought a handful of calls, and he couldn’t tell which ones.

Postcards to strangers

The postcards went to thousands of homes that had never heard of him. Most landed in the recycling bin the same day.

People who needed a plumber that week might call. Everyone else forgot the card long before their next leak.

Twenty services in small print

The card listed every job Dmitri had ever done, from garbage disposals to gas lines. The list took up half the space.

Nothing stood out. A homeowner couldn’t tell what he was best at or why they should pick him.

A number hiding in the corner

His phone number sat in the bottom corner, in the same size as everything else. The logo was four times bigger.

One customer told him later she’d kept the card for months but couldn’t read the number without her glasses.

The solution

Dmitri stopped trying to reach everyone. He focused on the streets where he was already working and the homes that already knew him.

He made three changes, all cheaper than the postcards.

A plumber flyer example built on the job next door

After every job, his team now hangs a door hanger on the five houses on each side. The headline changes with the job.

“We just fixed a leak on your street.

Need anything checked while we’re nearby?” Below that sit three services, one price line and a big phone number.

Neighbors call because they’ve just seen the van and know someone on the street trusted him.

The hangers are printed on thick, matte card, so they survive wind and light rain.

Each one also carries a short tip on the back about finding the main water shutoff, which gives people a reason to keep it.

Stickers where water fails

At the end of each job, his plumbers ask if they can put a small sticker on the water heater or under the kitchen sink.

Nearly everyone says yes.

The sticker shows the business name, “Leaks, drains, heaters” and the phone number in large type.

One code per street

Each batch of door hangers carries a short code, like KOK12, for $15 off. The code changes for each street and month.

When a caller mentions it, the office writes down exactly which batch brought the call.

The process that worked

The new system grew out of three things Dmitri already had lying around.

The label printer

His office already owned a small label printer for invoices. He used it to make test stickers before ordering a proper batch.

The first version had his logo and a slogan. Customers said the number was too small to read under a sink, so the slogan went.

The van glove box

Door hangers used to sit in a box in the garage. Now a stack of 50 lives in each van’s glove box, with a pen to write the street code.

If the hangers are in the van, they get used. If they’re in the garage, they don’t.

He also made it part of the end-of-job routine.

Finish the work, clean up, put on the sticker, then hang ten hangers on the walk back to the van.

The call notebook

The office keeps a plain notebook by the phone. Every new caller is asked one question, how they found the business.

After a month, the answers showed a clear pattern.

Stickers and door hangers near recent jobs brought most new calls, and the old postcards brought almost none.

Before dropping postcards completely, Dmitri tried one small mailing.

He used the USPS Every Door Direct Mail service, aimed only at streets around his busiest jobs.

It did better than the old mailings, but still far worse than door hangers.

What we learned from here

This plumber flyer example shows that a small, well-placed piece of paper can beat a big, expensive one.

Calls from print rose from about three a month to fourteen within five months.

Print costs fell from roughly $2,300 a year to about $760.

The stickers kept paying off.

Over the next year, they brought 22 repeat calls from customers who simply looked at their water heater when something went wrong.

Here’s what rang the phone and what rang no bells.

Rang the phone	Rang no bells
Door hangers near a recent job	Postcards to whole zip codes
A headline about the street	A slogan about excellence
Three services, not twenty	A crowded list of every job
A big phone number	A big logo and a tiny number
Stickers on water heaters	Business cards in a drawer
A code for each street	No way to track anything