Marketing for electricians: what works, what to ignore and how to book more work

Picture a letting agent ringing round on a Tuesday morning because three of their landlords' EICRs fall due next month and their usual sparky has gone quiet. Or a homeowner stood in the dark after the consumer unit tripped and won't reset, phone in hand, calling the first firm that looks qualified. That's the electrical trade: safety-driven, urgent when it's urgent, and steadier than most people assume the rest of the time.

The numbers back that up. There are around 50,400 electrician businesses in the UK, in a market worth roughly £35.3bn, and it's overwhelmingly sole traders and small firms (IBISWorld, 2026). Low concentration means no giant owns your area. A well-marketed local firm can genuinely own its patch, the same way a good plumber can.

Two things make this trade different from the rest, and both are in your favour. First, the landlord EICR. This is the closest thing the trades have to a subscription, but you have to state it correctly per nation, because it arrived at different times. In England, the Electrical Safety Standards Regulations require a fresh EICR at least every five years, with the report given to tenants and penalties of up to £30,000 for breaches, in force for all tenancies since 1 April 2021 (GOV.UK). Scotland has required a five-yearly inspection since December 2015 under the Repairing Standard. Wales has required a valid EICR since December 2022. Three nations, three sets of dates, one effect: every rented property becomes a recurring job on a fixed clock, and every landlord and letting agent a repeat client. Never blur those into "UK law".

Second, EV charging is real, new search demand. More than 410,000 home chargepoints have been funded by government grants alone, and that's just a floor (GOV.UK). Add solar and battery storage and you've got growth categories customers actively research before buying, which rewards the firm that shows proof.

It does, but not overnight, and we'd rather show you a real partnership than promise you a number we can't stand behind. Videtta are a good example, and a relevant one, because their work spans heating and electrical, so the pattern maps onto an electrical firm closely.

When we met Videtta Heating they were turning over £223k a year. Five years on, they're at £1.3m. Same owner, same trade, different system. That didn't come from one clever campaign or a magic keyword. It came from building gradually, fixing one weak link at a time, and trusting the process: the reviews habit, the Google Business Profile, the per-service pages, the follow-up, all reinforcing each other over years rather than weeks. They now dominate their local area digitally.

That's the honest shape of it. Anyone promising you a flood of jobs next week, or results that sound too good to be true, is usually the one who'll disappoint you. Look for proof of delivery and proof of results instead, and be patient enough to let a good system compound. Most trades lean too heavily on word of mouth, which is brilliant and free but unpredictable and impossible to scale. The firms that break past that ceiling are the ones that treated marketing as an investment, not a cost, and stayed the course long enough for it to pay.