Export every past customer from your invoicing or job management software today. Whether you use Tradify, Jobber, or a spreadsheet, this is your warmest audience. These people already paid you once and are far more likely to book again than a cold stranger.

Add a simple email capture to every quote, booking form, and invoice you send. If your quote template does not have a field for email, add one now. A customer who gives you their email at quote stage is telling you they are open to hearing from you again.

Ask at the end of every job, not just on the form. A quick ‘Can I grab your email to send the invoice and keep you posted on seasonal deals?’ takes five seconds and most people say yes when the job is done well.

Start with Mailchimp or MailerLite on a free plan if you have fewer than a thousand contacts. Both are straightforward, have Irish-friendly templates, and connect easily to common website builders like Squarespace or WordPress. You do not need anything more complicated at the start.

Set your sender name to your trading name, not a personal Gmail address. Emails from ‘Dublin Heating Solutions’ get opened. Emails from ‘mick1974@gmail.com’ get ignored or marked as spam. Use a proper business email like info@yourbusiness.ie.

Authenticate your domain with SPF and DKIM records before you send anything. Your email tool will walk you through this. Skip it and your emails land in spam folders before a single customer even sees them. Most hosting providers like Blacknight or Hosting Ireland make this straightforward.

Write your subject lines as if you were texting a customer you know, not advertising at a stranger. ‘Your annual boiler service is due’ beats ‘Exclusive Heating Offer Inside!!’ every single time. Locals can smell a template from a mile away.

Lead with something useful, not a hard sell. A quick tip relevant to the season, like checking outside taps before a cold snap or clearing gutters before the autumn rains, warms the reader up before you mention any offer or service.

Keep the main email to two or three short paragraphs and one clear call to action. The goal is a phone call or a booking, not a newsletter people admire and forget. One link, one ask, one job in mind.

Plan a simple seasonal calendar at the start of each year. Think boiler servicing reminders in September before the heating goes back on, gutter clearing in October before the winter rains, garden tidy-ups in March, and driveway or roof checks in spring. These are predictable revenue opportunities and past customers are primed for them.

Send a re-engagement email to any customer you have not heard from in twelve months. A simple ‘It has been a while, is there anything we can help with this season?’ often reactivates customers who just forgot about you, not ones who had a bad experience.

Follow up every completed job with a short thank-you email within 48 hours. Thank them, remind them what was done, and ask them to think of you for anything else or to mention you to a neighbour. This is the single highest-conversion email you will ever send because goodwill is at its peak.

Include a direct link to your Google Business Profile review page in your post-job email. Do not just say ‘leave us a review.’ Paste in the exact link so they can tap it in two seconds. Every extra step you remove doubles the chance they actually do it.

Ask for referrals in plain language, not corporate speak. ‘If you know anyone in the area who needs their [boiler serviced / gutters cleared / garden designed], we would really appreciate a mention’ is honest, local, and far more effective than a vague ‘tell your friends’ sign-off.

Check your open rate and click rate after every send. Open rate tells you if the subject line worked. Click rate tells you if the email itself worked. If opens are low, fix the subject line. If clicks are low, fix the message or the call to action.

Remove or re-engage contacts who have not opened any of your last five emails. Sending to a dead list hurts your deliverability, which means even your active customers start seeing you in their spam folder. A smaller, engaged list beats a big, cold one every time.

Note every inbound call or booking that mentions your email, even casually. Ask ‘how did you think of us today?’ on every call. Over a few months you will build a real picture of what your list is worth, and that number is almost always a surprise.