Most marketing advice for contractors is written for nowhere in particular. Tampa Bay isn't nowhere in particular. It has bridges people won't cross, a storm season, a state license anyone can look up, and thousands of new neighbors who don't have a plumber yet. We're based in Riverview, and this is what we tell the contractors we talk to here.
Pick your towns, and say them out loud
The bay area is too big to serve all of it well. A crew based in Riverview can cover Brandon, Valrico, Apollo Beach and Ruskin without thinking about it. Clearwater is a different day.
Decide which towns you want work in, then name them everywhere: on your website, in your Google Business Profile service area, in your Facebook page description. People search by town. "AC repair Brandon" and "roofer Apollo Beach" find the contractor whose site and profile say those words. "Serving the Tampa Bay area" matches none of them.
Put your license number where people can see it
Florida homeowners are told, every storm season, to check a contractor's license before signing anything. The state's lookup at myfloridalicense.com takes about a minute. If you hold a state license, Florida also requires the number in your advertising, and a website counts.
So put it on the site, on the truck, on estimates and in your Google profile description. It costs nothing, and it separates you from the crews who followed the last storm into town.
Plan for storm season before it starts
Hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30. For roofers, tree services, electricians who install generators and anyone who does repairs, that is when the phone either rings or doesn't.
The time to get ready is May. Make sure your site lists the storm work you do. Have a line ready for the top of your site, like "Booking storm prep now," so it can go up the day a storm is named. Get your reviews up before you need them. After a storm, homeowners choose between the local name they can verify and a flyer on the door, and you want to be easy to verify.
Remember who just moved here
New subdivisions keep opening across South County, Pasco and Manatee, and seasonal residents come back every fall. None of those people have a neighbor of twenty years to ask. They search, and they ask in neighborhood groups.
For you, that means the basics matter more here than in a town where everyone already knows everyone. A real website, a filled-in Google profile and ten reviews are what a newcomer has to go on.
Work the neighborhood groups the right way
Every part of the bay has Facebook community groups, and Nextdoor is busy here. "Anyone know a good electrician?" gets asked daily. Two rules cover it.
Join from your personal account and be a neighbor. Answer questions in your trade even when there's no job in it. Someone asks why their breaker keeps tripping, and you tell them what to check. People remember who was useful.
Don't post ads. Most groups remove them, and the ones that don't are full of them. A recommendation from a customer in the comments does more than anything you could post yourself, so when a happy customer mentions they're in the Riverview group, ask if they'd say so there next time someone asks.
Ask for reviews that name the town
A review that says "replaced our water heater in Valrico the same day" helps you twice. The next reader learns what you do and where, and Google gets one more signal tying you to that town. When you ask for a review, say "if you mention the job and the town, it helps people nearby find me." Our post on getting your first ten reviews has the exact text to send.
What to hold off on
Paid ads, until the basics are done. An ad sends a stranger to your site or profile. If the site is thin and the profile has two reviews, you've paid for a visitor who leaves.
Paid lead services, until you've read the terms. Many of them send the same lead to several contractors at once, so you're racing to call first and bidding against people who will cut the price. Some contractors make them work. Go in knowing how the leads are shared.
The order to do it in
- Claim and fill in your Google Business Profile, with your towns listed. Our checklist walks through it.
- Get to ten reviews.
- Put up a website that names your services, your towns and your license number.
- Join the community groups for the towns you picked and start answering questions.
- Take a before and an after photo on every job.
- Then think about ads.
The first two cost nothing. If you want the third handled for you, we build websites for Tampa Bay contractors from $99 a month, and you can see a free preview of yours before you pay anything.