When I talk to trades businesses about email marketing, most of them think I’m going to suggest something complicated. A full newsletter programme. Automation workflows. Segmented lists. All of that exists and all of it has its place, but it’s not where I’d start.
I’d start with three emails. Just three. Set them up once and they run in the background while you get on with the actual work.
Email one: the welcome email
Every time someone new joins your list, either because they booked a job, signed up on your website, or you added them after completing work, they should get a welcome email within 24 hours.
It doesn’t need to be long. Introduce yourself, remind them how you can help, and give them your direct contact details. Something like: thanks for trusting us with your home, here’s what we do, here’s how to reach us if you need us again. That’s it.
Most trades businesses never send this email. Which means the first contact a new customer gets after the job is done is nothing. No follow-up, no connection, no reason to remember you next time. The welcome email fixes that.
Email two: the post-job follow-up
Send this three to five days after a job is completed. Keep it short. Ask how everything went. Remind them of any maintenance they should schedule. And if you want a Google review, this is the right time to ask for it, when the experience is fresh and they’re still feeling good about the work.
I’ve seen this one email alone generate a significant lift in reviews for trades businesses who consistently send it. Reviews matter for local search. Getting them doesn’t need to be awkward. A simple, friendly follow-up email does the job.
Email three: the seasonal reminder
Set this up as a recurring email, sent to your full customer list, once per season or once a month if you have enough to say. The content is whatever is relevant to that time of year. A plumber might send a reminder about getting hot water cylinders checked before winter. A sparky might remind customers to test their smoke alarms. A builder might flag a limited availability window before the summer rush.
The goal isn’t to sell. The goal is to be useful. When someone needs the kind of work you do and you’re the last person who emailed them with something helpful, you’re the first person they call.
A lesson from a bigger programme
Pit Stop ran a reminder programme across more than 40 franchise stores, sending personalised WOF and service reminders from each store’s own email address to their local customers. It sounds complex, and at scale it was, but the underlying logic is exactly the same as what I’m describing here. Remind people when something is due. Make it personal. Make it easy to respond. You can read the full story at spike.co.nz/result/pit-stop/
You don’t need 40 stores to apply the same thinking. You need a list and three emails.
How to set it up
All three of these can be set up in Mailchimp in an afternoon. The welcome email and post-job follow-up are automations, meaning you set them up once and they send automatically based on triggers. The seasonal reminder is a regular campaign you schedule in advance.
The hardest part is usually getting the list together. Pull your past customers from your job management software, your invoicing system, or even your phone. Get them into a spreadsheet, import them into Mailchimp, and you’re ready to go.
If you don’t have these sequences set up yet, we can help. Contact us today and we’ll have it up and running in days, getting you ahead of most of your competition.
