28 marketing ideas for your business

1. Treat your Google profile like your van45 min

In home services the Google Business Profile is the shopfront: exact service area, every service listed, twenty before-and-after job photos. Most of this work is won in the map pack before anyone picks up a phone.

2. Ask every caller where they got your number0 min extra

Write it in the diary on every enquiry: Google, a neighbour, the van, Facebook, a paid directory. A month of that tells you which listing is earning its keep and which one you can cancel on Friday.

3. Photograph every job, before and after15 min

Two photos on every single job, taken from the same spot. Post one pair a week with what the problem was, what you did and roughly what it cost. Price honesty is rare in trades and it wins the nervous customer.

4. Ask for the review while you're packing up20 min

The moment for a review is standing in the finished room, not three days later by text. Ask in person, then send the link before you drive off. Reviews are the biggest ranking and trust factor in home services.

5. Chase every quote you sent45 min

Ring or text every unanswered quote from the last month, once, and ask plainly whether they went elsewhere and why. Most tradespeople never follow up at all, so this is paid work sitting in your sent folder.

6. Ask for the neighbour10 min

At handover: 'if a neighbour needs the same, send them my way and I'll look after you both.' A street has the same houses, the same age of boiler and the same problems. One job should breed the next three.

7. Read the diary and cancel the dead listing15 min

Look at where the month's work actually came from. Whatever brought most jobs, feed it. Whatever costs you a monthly fee and brought nothing, cancel it this week and put the money in the van.

8. Find the gaps in the job book15 min

Look back three months and find the pattern: the week between big jobs, the January dead spot, the days rain writes off. Name the gap you actually want to fill before you try to fill it.

9. Build a small job that fits a gap25 min

Design one fixed-price, half-day job you can slot into any gap: a service, a safety check, a gutter clear, a small-repairs morning. Fixed price and fixed duration is what makes a gap fillable at two days' notice.

10. Go back to everyone you've already worked for30 min

Text two years of past customers with that fixed-price job. They already trust you and already know what you charge. Past customers are the cheapest work a trade can win, and most never hear from you again.

11. Post to the street you're already on15 min

When you have a gap and the van is already in an area, post in that area's Facebook group: 'I'm on [street] Thursday, I've got a half day, here's the fixed price.' Proximity is the entire pitch.

12. Book the seasonal job before the season25 min

Boilers in September, gutters before the leaves, drains before winter, gardens before spring. Message the relevant customers six weeks early: you fill a quiet month and dodge the emergency-only rush later.

13. Turn up and note what else needs doing0 min extra

On the small job, look around and tell the customer honestly what will need attention in the next year — written down, not a hard sell. Half of them will book it, and the rest will remember you were straight with them.

14. Count paid days, not enquiries15 min

Compare how many working days were actually paid this fortnight against the last. Days earning is the only number that matters. If the small job filled them, make it a permanent part of what you offer.

15. Say what you now do in the customer's words20 min

Finish this: 'I now do [what], for [who], and it means [what it saves them].' Write 'air-source heat pumps' if that's what people type into Google, not 'renewable heating solutions'.

16. Show the certificate and the kit15 min

Post the qualification, the training course, the new tool going into the van. In trades, proof of competence is the marketing — nobody wants to be the house you learn on.

17. Do the first one at cost45 min

Pick a customer who'll let you photograph everything and do the first job at cost. You get real before-and-afters, a real review and a real price, instead of a manufacturer's brochure nobody believes.

18. Add it everywhere a customer looks30 min

On launch day, add the service to your Google Business Profile services list, the van, the quote template and the voicemail message. Trades lose new-service work because the old listing never mentions it.

19. Publish the finished job with the real number15 min

Post the before-and-after with what it cost and how long it took. Being the one tradesperson in town who publishes prices is worth more than any advert you could buy.

20. Ring everyone you had to turn down30 min

Go back through the enquiries you couldn't take for this exact work and call them. 'I couldn't do that last year — I can now.' It is the warmest list you will ever ring.

21. Check the new job actually pays20 min

Add up the hours, materials, travel and warranty risk on the first few. If the day rate comes out worse than your normal work, re-price it now, before you build a diary around it.

22. Be findable where a panicking homeowner looks45 min

Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Facebook and whichever local directories your town actually uses: same business name, same number, same service area. A wrong number on one listing is a lost emergency callout.

23. Be the specialist, not the general trade15 min

Pick the job you want to be known for — old boilers, bathrooms, listed buildings, emergency leaks — and lead with it. 'No job too small' is what everyone says, and it makes you nobody's first call.

24. Show the work nobody sees20 min

Post the tidy pipework, the dust sheets, the swept floor, the fix squeezed into an impossible cupboard. Homeowners hire on the fear of mess and cowboys, so show them the opposite of both.

25. Answer the DIY questions in the local groups25 min

In your town's Facebook groups, answer the 'my radiator's cold' questions properly and for free, including when the honest answer is 'you can do that yourself'. Never advertise. You'll be the name in every recommendation thread.

26. Get recommended by the trades next door30 min

Swap recommendations with three non-competing trades — the electrician, the plasterer, the decorator. A large share of trade work arrives through other trades, and that network is free and permanent.

27. Make the van and the paperwork match25 min

One name, one number, one colour across the van, the invoice, the quote and the card you leave behind. Being recognised on a driveway is the cheapest local advertising a trade has.

28. Post one job a week, forever20 min

One before-and-after a week and ten minutes a day answering messages and reviews. A trade that posts every week for six months becomes the name neighbours say to each other. It's a long game and almost nobody plays it.