You're good at what you do. Your work is solid, your customers are happy, and you always leave the place tidy. But the phone isn't ringing as much as you'd like, and you're starting to wonder what the busy lads are doing differently.
Nine times out of ten, it's not that they're better tradesmen. They're just better at putting themselves in front of people who need work done. Here's how to do the same.
Word of Mouth Still Wins
Let's start with the obvious one, because too many people skip past it chasing shiny marketing tactics. Word of mouth is still the single best source of work for tradespeople. A recommendation from a friend carries more weight than any advert.
But here's the thing — word of mouth doesn't just happen. You have to encourage it. When you finish a job and the customer's happy, say: "If you know anyone else who needs work done, I'd really appreciate you passing on my number." That's it. Just ask. Most people are glad to help if you've done a good job for them.
Referral Incentives That Actually Work
Take it a step further. Offer existing customers £20 off their next job for every referral that turns into paid work. Keep it simple — no complicated schemes, no loyalty cards. Just a genuine "thanks for sending work my way" discount. Dave, an electrician in Manchester, gets about a third of his new work this way. He reckons that £20 discount is the cheapest marketing he's ever done.
Your Google Business Profile Is Non-Negotiable
If you haven't set up a Google Business Profile, stop reading this and go do it right now. Seriously. When someone searches "plumber near me" or "electrician in [your town]," Google shows local business profiles before anything else. If you're not there, you're invisible.
Setting it up takes about twenty minutes. Add your trade, your service area, your phone number, and some photos of your work. Real photos — not stock images. People want to see actual bathrooms you've fitted, actual kitchens you've wired. Before-and-after shots are gold.
Then keep it alive. Post a photo of a finished job every week or two. Google rewards profiles that are active, and it gives potential customers confidence that you're actually working and not some bloke who set up a profile in 2019 and disappeared.
Reviews: The Modern Word of Mouth
Google reviews are everything. A profile with 40 five-star reviews will get ten times more calls than one with two reviews, even if both tradesmen are equally good.
Ask every happy customer for a review. Every single one. Most won't do it unless you ask, but about one in three will if you make it easy. Send them a direct link to your review page — you can find this in your Google Business Profile dashboard. A quick text after the job saying "Cheers for having me today, would really appreciate a quick review if you get a minute" works a treat.
Some tradespeople use AI tools like Gaffer to automatically send review requests after a job's marked complete. Takes it off your plate entirely — the customer gets a friendly message with the link, and you don't have to remember to ask every time.
Van Branding: Your Rolling Billboard
Your van is parked outside customer houses for hours at a time, sitting in traffic, parked at the merchants. That's thousands of eyeballs a week seeing it. If it's a plain white van, you're wasting that exposure.
You don't need a full wrap — a decent set of vinyl graphics with your trade, name, phone number, and area costs about £200-£400. Keep it clean and professional. No clip art, no fifteen different fonts. Your name, what you do, how to contact you. Done.
Make sure the phone number is big enough to read from a car length away. You'd be amazed how many vans have a phone number you can only read if you're standing right next to it.
Facebook Local Groups
Every town has Facebook groups — "[Town Name] Community," "[Town Name] Recommendations," that sort of thing. Join them. When someone posts asking for a plumber or sparky, reply quickly with a friendly message offering to help.
Don't be salesy. Don't post your advert every three days. Just be helpful, answer questions, and let people come to you. The tradesmen who do well on local Facebook groups are the ones who come across as genuine, approachable people — not walking adverts.
Checkatrade, MyBuilder, and Bark
These platforms can be good for filling gaps in your diary, especially when you're starting out. Checkatrade gives you credibility through verified reviews. MyBuilder lets customers come to you with specific jobs. Bark sends you leads to quote on.
The catch is cost. Checkatrade runs about £60-£120 a month depending on your trades. MyBuilder and Bark charge per lead. The maths only works if you're converting a decent percentage of leads into paid jobs and quoting quickly — within the hour if you can. The tradesmen who complain about these platforms are usually the ones replying to leads two days late.
Follow Up Old Customers
This is the most overlooked source of work in the entire trade industry. You've got a list of people who've already paid you and were happy with the result. They trust you. They know your number. And most of them have more work that needs doing — they just haven't got round to booking it.
A simple text every six months works wonders. "Hi Sarah, it's Mike — I fitted your bathroom last year. Just checking everything's still working well. Give me a shout if you need anything." That's not pushy, it's professional. And you'd be surprised how often the reply is "Actually, I've been meaning to call you about the kitchen tap..."
Gaffer handles this kind of follow-up automatically if you want to take the manual effort out of it, but even doing it yourself once a quarter will bring in work you'd otherwise never see.
The One Thing That Ties It All Together
Every single tactic above has one thing in common: speed of response. The tradesman who replies first gets the job. Not the cheapest, not the most qualified — the fastest to respond.
If someone requests a quote at 7pm on a Tuesday and you don't reply until Thursday, they've already booked someone else. If a lead comes in from Bark and you wait until after lunch, three other tradesmen have already quoted.
Whatever else you do, be fast. Reply to enquiries within the hour. Send quotes the same day. Return missed calls before the end of the day. Do that consistently and you'll have more work than you know what to do with.