Industries
Advertising for trade businesses
Most trade firms have too much work and too few staff. That inverts the entire advertising brief, and almost nobody adjusts for it.
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Industries
Advertising for painting contractors
A trade where the work is entirely visual and most firms advertise with text. The gap is the whole opportunity.
Key points
- Before-and-after photographs are the entire sales argument; collect them systematically.
- Commercial and letting agent work is steadier than domestic and rarely advertised for.
- Facade work has a season; book it in winter.
Painting and decorating is the most visual trade there is, and most firms in it advertise with a logo, a phone number and the words quality and reliability.
The photograph library is the business
Every job should produce a photograph before, one during if it is interesting, and two after. Same angle, lights on, room tidied.
Thirty complete pairs, sorted by room type, become the strongest sales tool available. They are used on the website, in quotations, on social channels, in printed material and in the first customer meeting.
The discipline is the difficulty. Assign it to one person, make it part of the job sheet, and review it monthly.
A decorator who can show the customer eight kitchens like theirs, before and after, has already won the job before discussing price.
Where the steady work is
| Segment | Volume | Margin | Advertised by competitors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private homes | high | medium | heavily |
| Letting agents and landlords | steady | medium | rarely |
| Housing associations | contract | lower, reliable | via tender |
| Commercial premises | seasonal | good | rarely |
| New build subcontract | volume | thin | via contacts |
Rows two and four are the opportunity. Letting agents need repeated turnaround work with fast scheduling, and almost nobody markets to them directly.
The approach is not advertising. It is a list of every agent in a 25 km radius, a one-page capability sheet with turnaround times and pricing, and a follow-up call.
Facade work is seasonal and planned
External painting happens in a five-month window and is decided in the preceding winter. Advertise from January.
The content that works is about longevity and cost per year, not price per square metre. A facade coating lasting fifteen years against one lasting eight is a straightforward argument if you make it with numbers.
Colour advice as a service
Many customers stall on colour choice, and that stall delays the job. Offering a colour consultation, even a short one, converts hesitant enquiries and differentiates you from firms who quote and leave.
Some firms charge for it and deduct it from the job. That framing works well.
Social channels genuinely work here
Visual transformation is exactly what image and video platforms reward. A short before-and-after clip of a room, shot on a phone, reliably reaches a local audience without paid promotion.
Post consistently rather than well. Two posts a week for a year outperforms a polished campaign for a month.
Frequently asked questions
How many photographs are enough?
Thirty complete before-and-after pairs, sorted by room type and style. That library outperforms any campaign.
Is social media worth it for decorators?
Yes, unusually so. The work is visual, the transformation is dramatic, and the audience is local.
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