Digital marketing for trades & home improvement
When a boiler dies or a fuse board trips, the search happens in the next five minutes and the job goes to whoever looks findable, credible and quick. I help plumbers, electricians, builders and installers own their local patch and keep the diary full of the work they actually want.
What Trades & Home Improvement are up against
The hurdles I hear most often, and what I do about each one.
Feast or famine diary
Flat out one month, quiet the next, with no lever to pull when the phone goes quiet.
Directories taking the margin
Checkatrade and the lead platforms send work, then charge for the privilege and sell the same lead to your rivals.
Invisible in the map pack
The three businesses in Google's map results take the emergency calls; being fourth is being nowhere.
No proof of good work
Ten years of tidy jobs and not a single photo, review or case to show a stranger deciding at 9pm.
Quotes that go cold
You visit, you quote, you never hear back, and there is no follow-up because the diary is already chaos.
Big jobs going to bigger firms
Renovations and installs go to companies that simply look more established online, not ones that do better work.
What I do for Trades & Home Improvement
Trade marketing is local search first, proof second, everything else third. Most of my trade clients start with exactly that order.
Marketing Trades & Home Improvement: what actually works
Trades are the purest local-search businesses there are, and the good news is that most of your competitors do this badly. A modest, consistent effort puts you in the top three where the calls happen. Here is the order I do it in.
Win the map pack first
For "electrician [town]" or "emergency plumber near me", the map results get the lion's share of calls. Your position there comes down to a complete Google Business Profile, the right service categories, a steady stream of genuine reviews, and photos of real jobs. Weekly photos from the van, honestly captioned, outperform any stock image. This alone has taken clients of mine from invisible to first choice in their patch, before a penny went on advertising.
Reviews are your shop window
A customer at the door has usually read your last five reviews and your replies. The trick is making the ask automatic: a short text with the direct link the same evening the job is finished, from the person who did the work. Nobody minds being asked once, politely, while the tidy job is fresh in their mind. Reply to every review in a human voice. And keep your own reviews on Google first, where they help your ranking, rather than only inside a paid directory where they help the directory.
Directories: use them, do not depend on them
Checkatrade, Trustpilot, MyBuilder and the rest can be worthwhile sources, especially early on. The danger is renting your whole pipeline from platforms that charge per lead and share it with your competitors. My aim for every trade client is simple: over time, more work arrives through your own name and your own Google presence, so the directories become optional rather than oxygen.
Emergency work and planned work are different campaigns
The 10pm burst pipe and the planned bathroom refit are searched, judged and bought differently. Emergency demand needs the map pack, a phone number everywhere and an ad presence in the hours you actually answer. Planned work needs job pages with photos, ballpark pricing and evidence you turn up when you say. Treating those as one campaign wastes money on both; splitting them is often the single change that makes ads start paying.
Look as established as you are
Bigger jobs go to firms that look solid: a clean website that loads fast on a phone, real photos, your registrations shown plainly (Gas Safe, NICEIC, TrustMark, whichever apply), insurance mentioned, areas covered listed. None of that is vanity. It is what lets a homeowner justify choosing you for a £15,000 job over a firm with a showroom.
A sensible first 90 days
- Rebuild the Google Business Profile and start the same-evening review text habit.
- Put up simple pages for your main services and towns, with real job photos.
- Get tracking in place so you know whether calls come from Google, ads or directories.
- If capacity allows, trial ads on emergency terms in answering hours only.
- At day 90, count booked jobs by source and double down on what paid.
Trades & Home Improvement: common questions
Other sectors I work with
Ready to keep the diary full?
Tell me where you are now and where you want to be. I'll prepare a clear, tailored plan, in plain English and with no obligation.