Handyman Marketing: Why Nextdoor Is Your Best Friend
Nextdoor, door hangers, weekly GBP posts, and van wraps. The hyperlocal marketing guide for handyman businesses.
Jake spent his first year as a handyman in Portland doing what every new contractor does: posting on Craigslist, paying for thumbtack leads, and hoping the phone would ring. He was averaging four jobs a week, barely covering expenses.
Then a client posted about him on Nextdoor. "Just had Jake fix our leaky faucet, hang a TV, and install a new mailbox. All in one visit. Highly recommend." Within 48 hours, Jake had nine new inquiries. He booked six of them.
That single Nextdoor post taught him something the marketing gurus never mention: for handyman services, neighbor recommendations on a hyperlocal platform outperform every other channel by a wide margin. The reason is trust. A homeowner is inviting a stranger into their home. A recommendation from someone three streets over carries more weight than 50 Google reviews from strangers.
The Nextdoor System That Generates Leads Weekly
You cannot just create a profile and wait. Nextdoor rewards active, helpful participants.
Step one: complete your business profile with photos of completed work, a clear list of services, and your service area. Step two: monitor your local neighborhoods for handyman requests. These posts appear constantly: "Need someone to fix a gate," "Anyone know a good handyman for small jobs?" Step three: respond helpfully even when it is not a direct lead. Answer home repair questions. Suggest DIY fixes for simple problems. This builds your reputation as the neighborhood expert.
Step four, and this is the most important: after every job, text the client a simple message. "Thanks for hiring me today. If you are happy with the work, a recommendation on Nextdoor would really help my business." Roughly one in four clients will post.
Jake now gets 6-8 leads per week from Nextdoor alone. Zero advertising cost. The platform replaced every other marketing channel he was using.
Door Hangers After Every Visible Job
When you finish exterior work, the neighbors see it. A new mailbox, a repaired fence, a freshly stained deck. Capitalize on that visibility immediately.
Carry door hangers in your truck. After any job that is visible from the street, hang them on 10-20 nearby homes. The message should be specific: "We just repaired your neighbor's fence at 215 Pine Street. Need any repairs or projects done around your home? Call or text for a free estimate."
Response rates on same-street door hangers run 1-3%. That does not sound like much until you do the math. Twenty hangers per job, five jobs per week, 100 hangers per week. At 2% response, that is two new leads every week for the cost of printing.
Jake keeps it simple: a half-page door hanger with his name, phone number, a photo of recent work, and a short list of services. He prints 500 at a time for $40. Those $40 in hangers generate $3K-$5K in work over a month.
Your Van Wrap Is Working While You Sleep
A van wrap costs $2,000-$3,500 and lasts 3-5 years. In a suburban market, a wrapped vehicle gets 30,000-70,000 daily impressions. That is more eyeballs than a billboard at a fraction of the cost.
But here is what most handymen get wrong: they list too many services on the wrap. "Plumbing, electrical, drywall, painting, assembly, mounting, doors, windows, decks..." Nobody can read that from a moving car.
Keep it simple. Your company name, phone number, and three words: "Your Local Handyman." Maybe a photo of you in a clean uniform holding a toolbox. The wrap's job is not to list every service. It is to make people think of you when they need something fixed.
Park on the street, not in the driveway, when you are on a job. Park in your own driveway overnight instead of the garage. Every hour your van is visible, it is advertising for free.
Google Business Profile: Weekly Before-and-Afters
Most handymen set up their Google Business Profile once and never touch it again. That is like opening a store and never putting anything in the window.
Post one before-and-after photo per week. It takes 60 seconds. "Replaced a broken railing in [neighborhood name]" with a before photo and an after photo. Google rewards profiles that are regularly updated. Active profiles rank higher in "handyman near me" searches.
Jake posts every Friday morning. He scrolls through his phone photos from the week, picks the best transformation, and uploads it with a short caption including the neighborhood name. His GBP profile now has over 100 project photos. When a potential customer finds his listing, they see a track record of real work in their area.
Ask every happy customer for a Google review. Text them the direct link within an hour of finishing the job. Aim for 3-5 new reviews per month. In a fragmented market with 330,000 handyman businesses nationwide, most with zero or a handful of reviews, 50+ reviews makes you look like the obvious choice.