A 12-month marketing calendar for Richmond trades

How to use this calendar

Treat it as a starting point, then adjust it with your own numbers.

1. Pull 12 to 24 months of invoices and count new-customer jobs by month and by job type.
2. Mark your peaks and troughs. Most trades see two or three clear patterns.
3. Shift each marketing task six weeks earlier than the peak it supports. Pages take time to rank; review counts take time to build.
4. Set a yearly budget and weight it toward the months where your cost per booked job is lowest. Our cost per booked job guide shows how to calculate it.

Late summer (August to mid-September): get ready for the rain

This is the most important preparation window of the year for rain-driven trades. It's also when many owners are busiest with summer work and forget to look ahead.

Marketing tasks:

• Update service pages for leaks, gutters, roof repairs, drainage and sump pumps with fresh photos from this year's jobs.
• Write or refresh two or three answers to common rain-season questions, such as "why is water pooling by my foundation" or "how often should gutters be cleaned".
• Draft rain-season ads and landing pages so they're ready to switch on.
• Ask every happy summer customer for a review. Reviews earned now are visible by October.
• Check that your phone, text-back and after-hours process can cope with a surge.

Trade notes:

• Roofing and gutters: inspection and maintenance offers before the rain.
• Drainage: perimeter drain and camera inspection messaging for older detached homes.
• Painting: last call for exterior work before the weather turns.

Fall (mid-September to November): the first rain wave

When the first heavy rain arrives, call volume for leaks and drainage usually jumps within days. Be visible on day one.

Marketing tasks:

• Turn up paid search for urgent rain-related jobs, limited to hours you can answer.
• Post recent job photos to your Google profile weekly.
• Reply to every new review within a couple of days.
• Watch search terms closely; urgent seasons attract many irrelevant clicks.

Trade notes:

• Roofing: emergency leak calls and re-roof quotes from owners who've just found a problem.
• Plumbing: drain and sump calls rise; so do hot water tank failures as incoming water gets colder.
• Electrical: fall is a good time to promote lighting, generator hook-ups and panel upgrades as days shorten.
• Strata trades: councils often plan repair budgets in this period, so make sure property managers have your capability sheet.

Winter (December to February): storms and steady indoor work

Winter brings storm spikes and a steady flow of indoor work. Holiday weeks are quiet for planned jobs but can be busy for emergencies.

Marketing tasks:

• Keep emergency ads running, with schedules adjusted for holiday hours.
• Promote indoor planned work for January and February: bathroom renovations, repiping, flooring, electrical upgrades.
• Plan the year: set budgets, choose two or three marketing priorities, and book any website work for the spring.

Trade notes:

• Plumbing: frozen-pipe risk is lower than in colder parts of Canada, but cold snaps still bring calls. Have a page ready.
• Renovation and flooring: January is a good time to reach owners planning spring projects.
• Heating-related work: where your trade touches energy upgrades, check the current CleanBC Better Homes programs. As of October 2026, the Energy Savings Program had changed its requirements for invoices dated on or after July 6, 2026, so confirm details with the administrator before mentioning any rebate in your marketing.

Spring (March to May): planned projects and outdoor prep

Spring is when homeowners act on plans made over winter. It's also when outdoor trades start to fill their calendars.

Marketing tasks:

• Shift ad budget from emergencies to planned, higher-value jobs.
• Publish project pages showing completed renovations, with before-and-after photos.
• Run a review push for winter customers.
• Update your Google profile hours and services for the season.

Trade notes:

• Landscaping and irrigation: spring clean-ups and irrigation start-ups; townhouse complexes often contract this work.
• Painting: book exterior jobs for the drier months.
• Electrical: EV charger and outdoor lighting interest often rises.
• Roofing: quote season for replacements discovered during winter.

Summer (June to July): exterior work and the quiet trades

Summer is busy for exterior and outdoor trades and slower for rain-driven ones.

Marketing tasks:

• Keep local search running; summer is when pages and reviews are easiest to update.
• Reduce emergency ad budgets if your cost per booked job rises.
• Use slower weeks to fix your website, photograph jobs and write answers to customer questions.
• Start the late-summer preparation list above by the end of July.

Trade notes:

• Painting, decking and fencing: peak demand; ads can usually be paused when you're full.
• Plumbing and drainage: promote planned work like repiping or fixture upgrades to fill gaps.
• Electrical: cooling-related upgrades and outdoor projects. Remember that gas and electrical contractors in BC are licensed by Technical Safety BC; show your licence clearly on your site.

Common mistakes with seasonal marketing

• Starting when the phone rings. By then, competitors who prepared in August have the reviews and pages.
• Pausing everything in quiet months. Local search loses momentum, and you lose the chance to build proof.
• Running the same ads year-round. A leak ad in July wastes money; a deck ad in December does too.
• Ignoring capacity. If you're booked three weeks out, cut spend and protect your reviews.

Putting it together

Print this calendar, mark your own peaks on it, and set a reminder for the first of each month. If you'd like the seasonal shifts handled for you, our paid search and local search services build them in. Plan prices are on the pricing page, and you can contact us by call, text or email.