Ontario / Practical guides
Have next week's posts written before Monday
Marketing slides at exactly the wrong moment: you are busiest when the pipeline is full, then it empties and you start from a cold account. A ready-to-post pack every morning, written from your own city, pipeline and won jobs.
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Marketing is the first thing to slide, and it slides at exactly the wrong moment. You are busiest when the pipeline is full, so nothing gets posted; then the pipeline empties three months later and you are starting from a cold account with no plan.
The fix is not discipline. It is having the week already written when Monday arrives.
The same problem, in three different threads
"Anyone else in the trades trying to keep up with social media? Between jobs, quotes, and paperwork, I barely have time to breathe, let alone post reels 😅"
"Now all the work I had is starting to dry up. Most of it is repeat customers and word of mouth has slowed. I have Google ads, a website and social media although I'm not too active."
"We've gotten a lot of recommendations from word of mouth because we do good work but those word of mouth seem to have also dried up."
The channels already exist. What is missing is anything to put in them on a Tuesday when there are nine other things on.
A pack, every morning, ready to post
A ready-to-post pack every morning at nine. Pause it when you are flat out, and ask for one early when a job lands.
It arrives by email at nine. Captions written, hashtags chosen, a suggested channel, a posting time, and the reason that post exists. Copy, paste, done, before the first coffee.
Change the cadence to weekdays, three times a week, or Mondays only. Pause it for a fortnight when you are flat out on a job, and pause from your phone by tapping a link in the pack itself without logging in anywhere. Ask for one early on the day a job lands and you want something up while it is fresh.
It is writing about your business, not about construction
Every slot names a channel, a reason and an angle drawn from the actual business: the pipeline, the won jobs, the local rebate that just closed.
Look at what those slots are actually built from.
Your city, not "homeowners". Panel upgrades pitched at Mississauga's older housing stock, because that is where the panels are old.
Something that just changed locally. The ChargeON rebate closed, plenty of homeowners still think it exists, and there is a post in clearing that up which positions you as the one who knows.
Your own pipeline. A post aimed at general contractors and property managers because there are four open renovation deals with exactly those people in them.
Your own wins. A review request timed to the three jobs you just completed, while the client still remembers you fondly.
That is a marketing plan built from your CRM, your jobs and your city. It is the plan an agency would charge you to write and would need a month of onboarding to get to.
You are still the editor
Every slot on the calendar has an Edit on it. Change the date, the channel, the topic, or leave a note telling that slot what it has to do.
Or say it in plain English and let the next pack change: "stop saying we're family-owned", "more residential, less commercial", "we don't do service calls any more". Type it in the feedback box or just reply to the pack email. The agent keeps it and the next pack reflects it.
Every pack passes a quality gate first
A pack that invents a phone number, a certification or a claim it cannot back up is held rather than emailed, and regenerates on the next run.
That matters more in the trades than almost anywhere else. A post claiming a licence you do not hold is a complaint, and one that invents a discount is a conversation with a customer holding a screenshot. What reaches your inbox is what survived that check.
Link your Google Business Profile while you are there
Reviews are the highest-leverage marketing a contractor has, and they compound. Link the listing and earned reviews surface on your client portal while a prospect is reading your proposal, which is the exact moment social proof is worth the most.
What it costs
Commercial terms depend on the workflow. Review the relevant AEC Stack product page before you start.
On AEC Stack: the site those posts point at is brand, website and documents, and where the leads land is every job on one board.
Open your marketing tab, read the next four slots on the calendar, and edit the one that is wrong about you. That is the whole setup, and next Monday is already written.
Take this guide with you
The full write-up, every screenshot and clip, captions, and a machine-readable manifest in one zip. Share it with your office or hand it to whoever runs your socials.
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