Marketing agencies for tradesmen: plain advice and honest shortlists

What we checked before anyone made the list

Every agency here had to pass four tests. Do they actually work with trades, not just say they do? Do they publish their pricing or at least their pricing model? Can you leave without a fight? And can you tell who you'd be dealing with day to day?

We did not rank on the size of the agency or how many awards are on the homepage. A one-man band charging £149 a month can be a better fit for a one-van plumber than a twenty-person agency with a sales team.

If you have not yet read what to sort out before you pay any agency, do that first. Half the trades we speak to are buying marketing before they have twenty Google reviews or a phone that gets answered.

1. Riley Marketing

Best for: Sole traders and small firms who want the whole foundation on one fixed fee

Riley Marketing is a UK agency for trades and local service businesses, founded by Tom Riley. He has ten years in search and lead generation, previously led organic growth at an insurtech, and has built and run his own lead generation websites, so he has spent his own money on the problem he now sells a fix for.

The core offer is a 'foundational growth system' for a fixed monthly fee, £149 a month at the time of writing. That buys an SEO-focused website with service and location pages, Google Business Profile optimisation, Google review automation that also chases past customers, missed call text back, and a CRM with lead status tracking and branded quote pages on your own domain.

Two things set the terms apart from most of this list. The site is built up front before you pay anything, with unlimited revisions and no setup fee. And you can cancel any time. Google Ads, Facebook and Instagram ads and extra local SEO are add-ons rather than bundled in.

It is founder-led, so you deal with Tom directly rather than an account manager. The trade list covers electricians, plumbers, heating engineers, roofers, builders, window and door fitters, decorators, landscapers, plasterers and kitchen fitters, and the portfolio includes an industrial painting and roofing contractor and an Essex building firm.

2. Roofing SEO Services (SEO Consultancy Ltd)

Best for: Roofers who want a single-trade SEO specialist with transparent pricing

Based in East Ham, London and founded in 2012 by Dr M Mansoor Siddique, this firm does one thing: SEO for roofers and roofing contractors, covering slate, tile, flat roofs, chimneys, fascias and guttering.

The service covers Google Business Profile and the map pack, local SEO with postcode town pages, citations, UK link building, technical SEO, review management and call and form tracking. It writes one roofer per town into the agreement and reports on booked jobs rather than traffic.

Published monthly packages run from £499 up to £2,599 depending on local competition, with no setup fee. It is rolling monthly on 30 days' notice and the client keeps all assets.

3. The Build Agency (Orbit Lead Generation)

Best for: Trades moving from domestic jobs into commercial tenders

A Maidstone agency whose main service is cold email outreach to contracts and procurement managers, backed by social media, SEO, website design, a purpose-built CRM and photography.

The pitch is built around winning commercial tenders, with a 30-day guarantee to keep working for free until a genuine tender opportunity arrives. Its published case study is a plumbing and mechanical contractor, covering sales, tender pipeline and PQQs.

Pricing is not published. This is a different animal from the local-leads agencies on this list, so only shortlist it if commercial work is where you actually want to go.

4. Digital 4 Trades

Best for: North West tradespeople who want a small, personal agency without contracts

A small in-house team based at Royal Albert Dock in Liverpool with the line 'you stay on the tools, we do the marketing'. Services cover website design, logo and brand design, SEO, social media management, lead generation and Google Ads.

Trades served include electricians, plumbers, roofers, joiners, locksmiths, heating engineers, garden services and groundworkers. Case studies cover a roofing firm and a taxi firm, with a portfolio across joinery, locksmiths, groundworks and heating.

Content management starts from a couple of hundred pounds a month. Websites are bought outright or paid over about a year, and the agency says it will not hold a site hostage or tie you into a rental contract.

5. Foresite Design

Best for: Midlands trades wanting a fast, fixed-price website upgrade

Redditch-based Foresite Design builds trade websites with a heavy emphasis on page speed and performance scores. It also offers eCommerce, technical and local SEO, hosting, branding, and an on-site lead-qualifying assistant called SiteConcierge.

Trades covered include roofers, plumbers, electricians, painters and decorators, landscapers, cleaning companies and pressure washing. Pricing is published as fixed packs: a £449 Enquiry Boost, a £699 Quote Landing Page and a Full Refresh from £1,750.

There is an examples page but no detailed trade case studies, so ask to see a live site in your trade before you commit.

6. Market Maestro

Best for: Contractors who want LinkedIn to bring in £50k-plus commercial work

Market Maestro, in Epsom, Surrey, runs LinkedIn-led B2B marketing for construction firms using a four-stage process it calls the 'Hi-Vis Method'. Clients approve all content before it goes out. Construction SEO, website building and lead generation sit alongside the LinkedIn work.

Published monthly starting prices are £850 for LinkedIn outreach and £1,100 for wider management. The case study on site is a decorating contractor that tendered for and won commercial work.

7. Websites for Tradespeople (JW Digital Services Ltd)

Best for: Budget-conscious trades who want to own a clean, fixed-price site

Manchester-based and founded in 2023 by Janusz Wozniak, this firm sells phone-first trade websites with accreditations shown up front. You get one fixed price in writing and own the site and domain outright.

Packages start at £295 for Starter, £595 for Essentials and £995 for Business, all including VAT, with optional 12 interest-free instalments. Hosting, care and monthly SEO are optional and cancellable monthly. It also publishes free quote, tax and materials calculators.

Live client sites cover a plumbing and heating firm, a groundworks firm and a landscaper. Trades served include plumbers, electricians, builders, roofers, landscapers, carpenters, handymen, decorators, plasterers, tilers and locksmiths.

Side by side

Which one fits your firm

One van, domestic work, no real website yet: Riley Marketing covers the lot for a fixed fee and you do not pay until the site is built. Websites for Tradespeople is the cheapest way to simply own a site if you are happy to chase your own Google reviews and handle follow-up.

Roofer with a few vans in a competitive town: Roofing SEO Services, as long as you are comfortable at £499 a month and upwards.

Want commercial contracts rather than more domestic calls: The Build Agency or Market Maestro, depending on whether cold email or LinkedIn is the route you believe in.

Decent site already but slow and dated: Foresite Design's fixed packs or Digital 4 Trades if you are in the North West. And whichever you pick, read how to spot a cowboy marketing agency before you sign anything with a twelve-month term.

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