Getting found locally
Your Google reviews, turned into videos. And marketing for tradesmen that works without an agency.
One 5 star review a day, made into a short video and posted on your YouTube. People check you out before they ring, so let them see what your customers say.
Every plan also comes with a simple CRM for your quotes, invoices and customers. Use it when you want it. Your data stays yours.
Make my free videoYour first video is free, with no card. After that you choose: the Free plan, the Reviews plan at £19.99 a month with the first 7 days free, or the Pro plan at £49 a month.
Marketing a trade business is not about clever adverts. It is about being easy to find, and looking trustworthy once you are found. Five things do most of the work, and none of them has to cost money. Here they are in the order worth doing them.
1. Your Google Business Profile
This is the listing that shows on the map when somebody searches for a trade near them. For a local tradesman it is usually the single most valuable thing online. It is free, and Google has clear rules for it. These are quoted from its guidelines for representing your business on Google, read on 10 November 2026.
- Use your real name. "Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your shopfront, website, stationery and as known to customers." Google also warns: "Including unnecessary information in your business name isn't permitted, and could result in the suspension of your Business Profile." So no town names or extra trade words squeezed in, unless they really are part of your business name.
- Hide your home address. "If you’re a service-area business, you should hide your business address from customers." If you work from home and go to your customers, set a service area instead.
- Keep the area honest. Google says the service area "shouldn’t extend farther than about two hours of driving time from where your business is based."
Then fill in everything else. Choose the main category that matches your trade, add your opening hours and your phone number, and add real photos of your work and your van. A profile with photos and up to date hours looks like a business that is still trading.
2. Reviews, asked for after every job
Reviews do two jobs on that profile. They help you show up, and they persuade the person reading. The firms with dozens of reviews are rarely better at the trade. They simply ask every customer, every time.
The words are the hard part, so there are six ready to copy messages on the how to ask a customer for a review page, with what Google will not allow when you ask.
3. Short job videos for social media
Social media for tradesmen works best when it shows the work, not an advert. A short upright video of a job, filmed on your phone, is the format people watch most on a phone screen.
Which platform? Facebook is where local groups ask each other for a recommendation, so a business page there is worth having. Instagram suits trades whose work photographs well, such as kitchens, gardens and decorating. A YouTube Short can be shared by link with anybody, app or no app.
- Show the problem, then the fix. The leak, the tired kitchen or the overgrown garden, then the finished job. Ten seconds of each is plenty.
- Hold the phone upright. The video then fills the screen it is watched on.
- Leave out private details. No house numbers, no car number plates and no faces without permission.
- Post steadily. Two videos a week for a year beats twenty in one week and then nothing.
If filming feels like one job too many, a customer review makes a good video by itself. DrSaaS turns one real 5 star review a day into a short video and posts it on your YouTube. How that works is on the review videos for tradesmen page.
4. Before and after photos
A good pair of photos sells better than any description. Take the before shot as soon as you arrive, before a single tool comes out. Take the after shot from the same spot, at the same angle, once the area is cleared and tidy.
Use them everywhere: on your Google profile, on your website, and in the quote you send to the next customer who wants the same job. Ask the customer before you post photos of their home, and they will usually say yes.
5. Free local listings
Google is not the only map. Bing Places and Apple Business Connect are both free and put you on the maps other phones use. Your trade body, if you belong to one, may have a find a member page worth being on too.
Whatever listing you add, use the same business name, phone number and area on every one.
What to skip
- Bought followers and likes. They never ring you, and a page with ten thousand followers and no comments looks odd.
- Rewards for reviews. Google removes reviews that have been paid for, and the rule covers discounts and gifts too.
Questions
Which social media is best for a tradesman?
The one you will keep posting on. For most local trades that means short upright videos, because they can be watched on any phone and shared by link. Pick one channel and post steadily before you add a second.
Do I need a website if I have a Google Business Profile?
Not to start. The profile is what people see first on the map. A plain one page website helps later, because it gives your profile and your videos somewhere to point, and it is yours whatever any platform does.
Should I pay for leads?
Only once the free things are done. A paid lead is shared with other firms and gone when you stop paying. Reviews, photos and videos keep working for you after the job is over.
What it costs
Your first review video is free. Reviews is £19.99 a month and posts one review video a day on your YouTube. Pro is £49 a month and adds videos of your own jobs. See the three plans.
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