Off-Season Marketing for Contractors: How to Get Clients Year-Round
Here’s What You Need To Do During Slower Months To Prepare For Better Days Ahead
December 2nd, 2025
Jaden Galinato
One of the best times to market your business is when you experience seasonal slows—usually the winter time for most contracting businesses.
By marketing during the off-season and preparing to dominate during peak season, you can position your business to bring in the most amount of clients you can handle.
But if you waste this valuable time and ignore it like every other season, off-seasons will always be super dry and you’ll stay behind your competition again…
So how exactly do you market your contracting business during the off-season? What steps are the most important to take? Is there anything you should skip? Read below for our full breakdown on setting up your business for success, even when customers aren’t knocking at your door.
Looking For Something In Particular?
Why Marketing Matters During The Off-Season For Contractors
What’s Unimportant During The Off-Season… (Skip These)
4 Key Steps To Win Your Off-Season Marketing
Making Your Slow Season Count
Why Marketing Matters During The Off-Season For Contractors
Most contractors ignore marketing, especially when business is slow, thinking that they “just can’t do anything about seasonal demands” – but that mindset couldn’t be further from the truth… When your business is slow, that’s actually a hidden luxury that some of the highest level contractors don’t have—since you aren’t swamped with work, and you can actually focus on making your marketing a client-reeling machine.
Here’s why you need to lock in your marketing during the off-season:
1. You Have The Time To Plan
It’s one thing to plan your business operationally during the off-season, but planning your marketing is a whole ‘nother beast that some contractors completely ignore or don’t touch, thinking it’ll just “run on its own.” Especially if you haven’t hired anyone to run your marketing for you yet, this time is absolutely valuable. And later on, we’ll show you the right steps you need to be taking so you can capitalize on this down-time.
2. Other Contractors Aren't Doing It (As Much As They Should Be)
It’s one thing to plan your business operationally during the off-season, but planning your marketing is a whole ‘nother beast that some contractors completely ignore or don’t touch, thinking it’ll just “run on its own.” Especially if you haven’t hired anyone to run your marketing for you yet, this time is absolutely valuable. And later on, we’ll show you the right steps you need to be taking so you can capitalize on this down-time.
3. Do It Right, And You Get More Clients
A strong marketing foundation pays off in two ways:
You stay busy during slower months.
You explode during peak season because your systems are already running smoothly.
Do it right, and the next time the season slows, you’ll still be closing deals while your competitors are wondering where all the customers went.
Now, let’s move on to tactics.Specifically, what you don’t need to waste your time on…
What's Unimportant During The Off-Season... (Skip These)
Not all marketing methods are created equal. Some give you little to no results despite pouring massive hours into them. Here’s what you can safely skip or scale back on during your off-season:
Expensive Paid Ads Without A Strategy
Running PPC or social ads just to “stay active” can waste a ton of money if you’re blindly throwing up ads. Assuming demand for your services is already low, simply advertising your business as if that wasn’t the case, won’t change anything. Not to mention, if your website or SEO isn’t dialed in, paid ads won’t convert.
Constant Sales Promotions
Discounts and deals aren’t as effective when customers simply don’t need your service right now. It can bring in a few sales, but don’t let this be the sole focus of your marketing for this period of time. Focus on education and awareness instead — which we’ll explain later.
Random Posting Without A Plan
Posting just to post doesn’t build momentum. If you don’t have a content plan, you’ll burn out fast and see minimal growth, especially when you aren’t in peak season. Instead, post things that actually build long-term visibility, trust, and conversion potential.
Now, this is where the fun begins.
4 Key Steps To Win Your Off-Season Marketing
Here’s where to invest your energy this off-season for the biggest payoff:
1. Inspect Your SEO Visibility
Before you make any changes, you need to know where your business currently stands. If you’ve been working on your SEO, the off-season is the perfect time to measure your visibility across your service areas. That way you can make an adjusted plan for the next few months.
Use tools like Local Falcon to see exactly where you rank on Google Maps and in search — it gives you a heatmap of your visibility so you can visually track your progress over time. This data tells you what’s working, what’s not, and where to focus next.
(Learn more about how we use LocalFalcon to help contractors see their SEO performance clearly in our full transparency breakdown here.)
2. Refresh Your Website Content
Google (and customers) love fresh, relevant content.
During the off-season, update your website with:
New blogs that answer common customer questions. These are great to post during off-season because SEO can take months to kick in, coming in hot during your peak season.
Updated photos or testimonials that show your latest work.
Seasonal language updates (for example, “Get your home ready for spring!”). Customers are looking for a seamless customer experience, so make sure they’re in the right place.
Refreshed service pages with the location-specific keywords that you want to rank for. You might be surprised just how many pages are missing enough keywords.
Service location pages for each city you serve, packed with – you guessed it – location-specific keywords. These are SEO-powerhouses that most contractors don’t know about…
And don’t forget your Google Business Profile — keep your descriptions and services updated, and post Google updates so the amazing-yet-simultaneously-annoying Google algorithms keep you relevant in search results year-round.
3. Build Your Reputation (The Right Way)
One of the easiest ways to improve your marketing in the off-season? Getting reviews. Saying you’re the best business in your area can be way different than a real customer saying the same thing. Reach out to past clients and ask for honest feedback. — And don’t be the business that begs for 5-stars.
You can do this through:
Email
Text
Social media DMs
Then highlight your best testimonials on your website, Google Business Profile, and social platforms. And if you can get video testimonials — that’s the icing on the cake.
At Grandir, we help our clients collect and showcase real reviews seamlessly with a Google Tap Card, email review campaigns, and flyers.
4. Post Valuable Social Media Content
Now’s the time to stay top-of-mind — not by constantly selling, but by adding value. You have social media platforms for a reason — not just to look pretty – but to convert lookers into customers. So how exactly does one do that?
Share posts that educate, entertain, or inspire your audience, such as:
Quick home maintenance or remodeling tips.
Before-and-after project photos – even better if you turn them into a blog and write the story behind it.
Behind-the-scenes looks at your process, showing off your fun yet professional team that gets the job done.
Stories about your team, clients, or community involvement that would separate you from your competitors and humanize your brand.
If you happen to put out a hit that’s performing really well, you can boost it for a few days to maximize traction and visibility. But, if you’re short on time or ideas to actually post, create a content calendar to plan your posts in advance to rollout later.
By putting these 4 steps together, you basically have an SOP for every slow season you eventually run into. Since marketing requires fine tuning and trial and error, keep making small improvements with every campaign, and you’ll be outperforming your competitors year-round.
Making Your Slow Season Count
When you spend your downtime refining your SEO, improving your reputation, and showing up online consistently, you’ll head into peak season with more visibility, stronger branding, and more customers waiting to call.
Because while your competitors hit pause, you’re quietly preparing to dominate. And when spring-summer hits, they’ll be scrambling to catch up — while you’re already booked solid.
Let’s make your off-season your most productive time of year by turning your slow months into your growth months.