12 June 2026
How to get more work as a painter and decorator (8 ways that work)
Decorating is repeat-and-referral work — but the best decorators also get found by new local customers. Here are 8 practical ways to win more jobs.
Painting and decorating runs heavily on trust and repeat custom. Do a good job on someone’s lounge and they’ll have you back for the hallway, then recommend you to their sister. That referral engine is the lifeblood of most decorating businesses — and it’s a good one. But it has the same weakness every referral-only business has: when your regulars go quiet, so does your diary, and there’s no lever to pull for more.
The decorators who fill the quiet patches add a second source: local strangers who find them, see their finish, and call. Here are eight practical ways to set that up.
1. Show your finish — it’s the whole sell
Decorating is judged on finish: crisp cutting-in, no brush marks, clean lines where the wall meets the ceiling. A potential customer can’t assess that from a phone call, but they can from a photo. A gallery of real jobs — a transformed living room, a freshly papered feature wall, a restored period staircase — does the convincing before you’ve spoken.
You’ve got these photos already. The decorators who win new work are simply the ones who put them somewhere customers can find them. That’s the heart of what we build for decorators.
2. Before-and-after photos are your secret weapon
Decorating is one of the few trades where the transformation is dramatic and instant. A tired, dated room next to the same room freshly painted is a more persuasive advert than anything you could write. Get into the habit of taking a “before” shot the moment you arrive on a job and an “after” when you pack up. A handful of those pairs will out-sell every other piece of marketing you do.
3. Claim your Google Business Profile
When someone searches “painter decorator near me” or “decorator [town]”, Google shows three pinned businesses on a map above the normal results, and most clicks go to those. You can’t appear without a Google Business Profile.
Claim one free at google.com/business, set your category, add your area and hours, and upload your best before-and-after shots — Google shows those photos in the local results, so they’re doing double duty.
4. Name what you actually do, and where
“Decorator” is broad. The valuable searches are specific: “interior painting”, “exterior painting”, “wallpaper hanging”, “spray painting”, “commercial decorating”, plus your town. If those words appear naturally in your website copy, Google can match you to people searching for exactly that. Most decorator sites we audit are vague and rank for nothing — naming your services plainly is an easy, high-impact fix, and it’s how the right searches find you.
5. Reviews close the gap a stranger can’t see
A past customer knows you’re tidy, reliable and clean up after yourself. A stranger doesn’t — and “will they make a mess of my house?” is the quiet worry behind every decorating enquiry. Recent Google reviews answer it. They’re public, hard to fake, and they lift your local ranking.
Ask for one by WhatsApp the day you finish, with a one-tap link — the method’s in our guide to getting more reviews. Reviews that mention “spotless”, “no mess” and your town reassure exactly the customer who’s nervous about letting a stranger loose on their walls.
6. A fast mobile site, because that’s where they look
Most customers find you on a phone. If your site takes more than four seconds to load, over half leave before your portfolio even appears — and a visual trade can’t afford photos that don’t load. A Facebook page won’t rank for “decorator [town]” and can’t lay your work out properly; more on why a page alone usually isn’t enough.
7. Make quoting effortless
Decorating quotes are nearly always per-job, so customers don’t expect fixed prices — but they do want it to be easy to get one. A simple enquiry form, a click-to-call button and a WhatsApp link cover every preference. Someone browsing at 9pm should be able to fire off “after a quote to repaint a three-bed semi in [town]” in one tap. The easier the first step, the more browsers become bookings.
8. Catch the seasonal swings
Decorating demand moves with the calendar, and the decorators who plan around it stay busy through the quiet stretches:
- Spring and summer — exterior work and pre-summer refreshes; make sure “exterior painting” is front and centre.
- Autumn — interiors as people prepare for Christmas guests.
- Quiet winter weeks — push smaller interior jobs and offer to get booked in early.
You’re not creating demand, just being visible and ready the moment it shifts.
A realistic order to do this in
| Week | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Claim and complete your Google Business Profile; upload before-and-after photos |
| 2 | Get a fast mobile site live with a portfolio gallery and easy enquiry options |
| 3 | List your services and town in the copy; ask every customer for a review |
| 4 | Build the before-and-after habit on every job from now on |
By the end of the month, the transformations sitting on your phone are working for you — and your quiet weeks have a way of filling that doesn’t depend on whoever happens to recommend you.
The webfascia bit
A fast, mobile-first site with a before-and-after gallery, your services and area in the copy, and your reviews on show — that’s exactly what we build for decorators. Live in around 30 minutes, £29.99 a month, with the first 30 days free and no card needed.
Want to see how findable your work is right now? The free 60-second analyser gives you an honest score in under a minute.