Marketing for contractors and home service businesses
Your best marketing is the job you just finished. How to turn each one into photos, a review and the next phone call.
· 2 min read
If you are a plumber, roofer, landscaper, electrician, painter or cleaner, you already do the hard part of marketing every day: good work, in front of a customer, in a neighborhood full of people who need the same thing. Most of what follows is about not letting that go to waste.
1. Tell Google where you work
Customers search for "roof repair near me" or add the name of their town. Your free Google Business Profile is how you show up for those searches.
- If you travel to customers and do not have a storefront, set the profile up as a service-area business and list the towns you cover.
- Add each service you offer by name. "Water heater replacement" and "drain cleaning" are separate searches.
- Make sure the phone number goes to a phone somebody answers.
2. Take the before photo
The before-and-after is the most convincing thing a contractor can show, and it only works if you remember the "before." Make it a rule: nobody unloads a tool until someone has taken three photos of the job as you found it. Take the same three angles when you finish.
Those photos go three places: your Google profile, your Facebook page, and the estimate you send the next customer with a similar job. Ask the homeowner first, and keep house numbers and license plates out of the frame.
3. Ask for the review at the walkthrough
When the customer is standing in front of the finished work saying "this looks great," ask right then:
"I'm glad you're happy with it. Would you leave us a Google review? It's how most of our customers find us. I can text you the link right now."
Send the link before you pull out of the driveway. A request made a week later by email gets ignored; one made at the walkthrough usually gets done. If you leave paperwork behind, put a review QR code on it with the free review sign maker.
4. Answer fast
For a leaking pipe or a broken furnace, the first company to answer often wins the job. You cannot always pick up while you are on a ladder, so set up the next best thing: a voicemail greeting that says when you call back, and a saved text reply you can send in ten seconds. "Got your message, I'm on a job until 3 and will call you right after."
5. Go back to the customers you already have
A customer who trusted you once is the easiest sale you will ever make. Keep a simple list of names, emails and what you did for them, with their permission to email. Then send a short note at the right time of year: gutters before the leaves fall, the furnace check before the first cold week, the lawn before spring. Add one line asking them to pass your name to a neighbor.
Do this today
Put "BEFORE PHOTOS" at the top of your job checklist, or tape it to the dashboard. Start with tomorrow's first job.