Strategic Pete · Home services & contractors

Home Services Marketing Agency
for Contractors Who Want the Phone to Ring for the Right Reasons

Most homeowners choose a contractor before they compare quotes. They decide who feels safe to let into the house. Everything after that is paperwork.

We are a marketing agency for contractors and home services businesses that want to be the obvious choice rather than the cheapest one. The work is positioning, proof and demand — not a bigger ad budget aimed at the same undifferentiated offer.

It is published work, not a promise. For Koehn Paintings the result was a 33% revenue increase in the residential division and a 400% lift in call volume, with the general manager saying so on the record.

Book a call with Pete Read the Koehn case study

What this is not

We do not sell map-pack packages, Google Business Profile management or review-gating. Plenty of good local shops do, and if that is the whole job they will serve you better and cheaper. We are the right call when the business has outgrown lead-buying: several crews, a service area wider than one town, a brand worth building, and an owner who is tired of competing on price against companies that are worse at the work.

What a home services marketing agency should actually run

Eight capabilities. Most contractors we meet are buying the last two and none of the first three.

Positioning against the price competitionOffer & estimate-process designProof, reviews & case studiesBrand story & owner visibilityLocal and service-area SEOPaid search & paid socialEmail and reactivation of past customersFractional CMO leadership

Digital marketing for home services is not hard to buy. It is hard to buy in the right order.

Why more leads is usually the wrong goal

Every contractor who calls us says they want more leads. Almost none of them actually has a lead problem.

The problem is usually the close, not the click

If half your estimates go unanswered, doubling the ad spend doubles the silence. The fix is upstream: an offer a homeowner can say yes to, an estimate process that feels professional, and enough visible proof that price stops being the only comparable thing.

Trust is the product in a home services sale

You are asking a stranger to let your crew into their house for days. Photographs of finished work, named customers, a real face on the business and reviews that read like people wrote them do more for close rate than any creative refresh. That is where we start.

Then the demand layer, and it gets cheaper

Once the offer converts, search and paid stop being a tax and start being an investment. Service-area pages that answer what homeowners actually ask, paid search on the jobs with margin rather than the jobs with volume, and a reactivation programme aimed at the customers you already have — which is the cheapest revenue in this industry and the most consistently ignored.

This page sits inside our consumer-facing practice: B2C marketing agency.

How the work runs

Five moves, in order. The order is what makes the last two affordable.

Find out why you win and why you lose

We call your recent customers and your lost estimates. Owners are almost always wrong about this, and it is the cheapest research in marketing.

Fix the offer and the estimate

What you sell, how it is presented, what happens in the 48 hours after a homeowner asks. Most of the gain in the Koehn engagement came from making the commercial process work, not from buying more attention.

Build the proof

Before-and-afters, named customers, a written case study, and the owner or GM on the record. Koehn’s general manager said the call volume tripled or quadrupled and the investment had paid off — that sentence sells better than any headline we could write.

Make the service area findable

Pages for the jobs and the places you actually want, written for homeowners rather than for a keyword tool, and linked so the whole site benefits rather than one landing page.

Spend on demand, on the jobs with margin

Paid search and paid social aimed at the work you want more of, plus reactivation of past customers. Measured on booked jobs and revenue, not on form fills.

Who we work with

Home services businesses where the job is considered, the ticket is meaningful and the owner wants a brand rather than a lead subscription.

Painting & exterior contractors

The category we have published results in. Koehn Paintings is a residential painting contractor and the engagement is written up in full.

Remodeling & renovation firms

Long consideration, high ticket, and a homeowner who is terrified of choosing wrong. Proof matters more here than promotion does.

Multi-crew home services businesses

You have outgrown word of mouth but the marketing is still whatever the owner has time for. This is the most common shape we take on.

Specialty trades with a considered purchase

Anything where a homeowner researches for weeks and asks a neighbour before they call. If the sale is impulse and price-led, we are the wrong agency.

Home services groups with several locations

One brand, several markets, and the problem of staying local in tone while running marketing centrally.

We are a marketing agency for contractors, not a lead reseller: you own the brand, the content and the customer list at the end of it.

The published result

One client, named, with figures we can point at. We would rather show one real engagement than a wall of logos.

33%

revenue increase

In the residential division at Koehn Paintings, following the marketing engagement.

400%

lift in call volume

Measured across the same engagement, and corroborated on the record by the general manager.

Our call volume tripled or even quadrupled, and the investment has definitely paid off.Laura Waterson — General Manager, Koehn Paintings

The Koehn work is published as a written case study and press coverage. We say that plainly because contractors are sold fictional numbers constantly, and a figure you cannot check is worth nothing.

Across the wider practice: 20 years of operating experience, 100+ CEOs served, and 99 earned PR quotes placed with zero ad spend behind them.

A lead vendor, a local SEO shop, or a marketing agency

Three different purchases, and at different stages each of them is the right one.

What you are buying	A lead vendor	A local SEO or ads shop	Strategic Pete
What you get	Shared leads, priced per lead	Rankings and campaigns	A brand, an offer and demand behind both
Who owns the customer	They do	You do	You do
Fixes your close rate	No	No	Yes — it is where we start
Works when you are the cheapest	Yes	Yes	Not the point — we build you out of that fight
Works below a few crews	Yes	Yes	Usually not worth it yet
What is left in two years	Nothing	Rankings, if you keep paying	Positioning, proof, content and a customer list you own

If you are a one-van operation, buy leads and do great work. Come back when you have crews to keep busy.

Where we are the right answer — and where we are not

A strong fit

Several crews, a real service area, and revenue that a marketing budget can be argued from.
You are winning work on relationships and losing it on price to companies you know are worse.
Your estimates convert inconsistently and nobody has looked at why.
You have finished jobs and happy customers that have never been photographed, written up or published.
The owner wants a business that would sell one day, not just a busier month.

Not a fit

You want a map-pack package or Google Business Profile management on its own.
You want leads bought by the unit with no interest in a brand.
The work is genuinely commodity and price is the whole offer.
You cannot let us call your customers or publish a result.
You need next week’s calendar filled. That is a paid media job, not this.

Where the growth actually comes from

Three levers, and contractors almost always buy the first one alone because it is the only one anybody sells them.

New demand

Service-area pages, paid search on the jobs with margin, and paid social where the work is visual. Real, but the most expensive of the three and the slowest to compound.

Close rate

The same enquiries, better converted. A clearer offer, a faster and more professional estimate, and visible proof. Costs almost nothing to change and moves revenue fastest.

Past customers

The cheapest revenue in home services and the most consistently ignored. A list, a reason to get back in touch, and a seasonal rhythm to it.

A good marketing agency for contractors argues about which of these to pull first. An agency that only ever pulls the first one is selling you a channel, not a plan.

What actually gets built in the first six months

Things you will own

A positioning line the whole crew can repeat, and an offer that does not compete on price alone.
A written case study with real figures, plus before-and-after work photographed properly.
Service-area and job-type pages written for homeowners rather than for a keyword tool.
A customer list that is actually usable, with a reactivation programme running on it.

Things that will change

The estimate: what it looks like, how fast it arrives, and what happens if nobody replies.
Which jobs you chase, because margin and volume are not the same target.
How reviews get asked for — consistently, and without gating.
What gets reported: booked jobs and revenue by service line, not impressions.

Everything above is transferable. If we part company you keep the positioning, the content, the case study and the list.

The first ninety days

Days 1–30 — why you win and why you lose

Calls with recent customers and lost estimates, a walk through your estimate process end to end, and a read of every competitor a homeowner sees when they search. Output: a positioning read and a list of the things costing you jobs before any marketing runs.

Days 31–60 — the offer and the proof

The offer and estimate rewritten, before-and-afters and named customers captured, and at least one written case study published. This is usually where the close rate moves.

Days 61–90 — demand

Service-area pages, paid search on the jobs with margin, and a reactivation campaign to past customers. Reported on booked jobs and revenue, not on form fills.

Questions we get asked on the first call

What is the difference between a home services marketing agency and a digital marketing agency for contractors?

In practice, usually nothing but the name — both phrases are used by shops selling ads and rankings. What matters is whether the agency will touch your offer, your estimate process and your proof, or only your traffic. Ask that question of anyone you are considering, including us.

Do you do Google Business Profile and map-pack work?

No, and we are deliberate about it. Local pack optimisation is a real discipline and there are specialists who do it well. We work on the parts of the business that make a homeowner choose you once they have found you.

Which trades do you work in?

Painting and exterior work is where our published result sits. Beyond that, the test is not the trade — it is whether the purchase is considered. If homeowners research for weeks and ask a neighbour before calling, we can help. If the decision is made in ten minutes on price, we cannot.

We are a contractor selling to builders and developers, not homeowners. Still relevant?

Partly. The proof and positioning work transfers, but a commercial-sales business is a B2B problem — start at B2B marketing agency instead and mention the contracting side on the call.

How is this measured?

Booked jobs, revenue by service line, and close rate on estimates. Traffic and rankings are reported because they explain movement, but they are never the headline. If an agency leads its report with impressions, ask what happened to revenue.

What does it cost?

A number, not a range, after a call. It is a strategic engagement with a fractional CMO attached rather than a monthly package, and it is not the cheapest marketing you can buy.

Tell us why your last three estimates went cold

Bring your close rate, your best job of the year and the competitor you keep losing to. That is a useful first call whether or not you hire us.