In Galway, a good tradesperson is usually booked through word of mouth alone, right up until the moment the recommendations dry up and the calendar goes quiet with no warning. That's the trap with relying entirely on referrals: it works beautifully until it doesn't, and there's rarely time to build a new pipeline once the current one runs out.
The problem sits between jobs, not on them
An emergency callout looks after itself, someone needs help urgently and calls whoever answers. What actually hurts a trade business is the swing between fully booked and quiet, chasing free quotes that lead nowhere, and cash flow stretched thin between finishing a job and getting paid for it. Property managers and letting agents are worth writing to directly because they generate repeat work over years rather than one job, and general contractors on larger builds are often looking for a reliable subcontractor they haven't found yet.
Where Irish property managers actually look
| Where to list | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Google Business Profile | What most people check first before deciding whether to reply to an email from a trade they haven't used before. |
| Golden Pages | Still genuinely useful outside Dublin, where trade and local searches remain common. |
| Bing Places | Free to claim and worth the ten minutes it takes to set up. |
| Kompass Ireland | Useful if you're aiming at agencies and contractors rather than individual homeowners. |
| Trustpilot | Often checked by someone deciding whether to trust a trade business they haven't worked with before. |
Irish customers generally search Google first, but outside Dublin, Golden Pages is still genuinely consulted for local and trade services, including the kind of search a letting agent might run before ever opening an email from someone new. Ireland's market is compact and relationship-driven, which means word of mouth still carries real weight, but it also means a complete Google profile and consistent listings make it far easier for an agent outside your existing network of clients to find and trust your trade business in the first place.
Writing to a letting agent instead of waiting to be recommended
Put together a short, specific list of property managers, letting agents and contractors covering your actual working area. Find a real name wherever you can, since Ireland's market runs heavily on relationships and a message addressed to a specific person reads completely differently than one sent to a generic inbox. Mention briefly how you found their contact details, since that context matters here more than in some other markets. Keep the message focused on one thing, your availability for callouts or the specific trade you cover, state clearly who you are, and include an easy way to opt out. Expect to follow up once or twice, since most replies come after a second message rather than the first.
Budget and how a job actually gets confirmed
A few hundred euros a month is a reasonable budget for tools, the time spent on follow-ups, and the odd bit of local promotion. Speed of decision varies a great deal. An emergency repair gets approved almost instantly, while a full renovation project or an ongoing maintenance contract with a letting agency is usually the result of several weeks of quotes and site visits before anything is signed.
Ireland's comparatively open approach to B2B outreach
Ireland follows GDPR and the ePrivacy Regulations as part of the EU, but its treatment of business-to-business outreach is comparatively permissive by European standards. Writing to a professional contact without asking first is generally acceptable when your message is relevant to their actual role and their details were obtained fairly, for instance from their company's own website or a public listing. It helps to briefly note in the email how you came across their contact details, identify yourself and your trade clearly, and include a simple, working way to opt out that you act on immediately. Since the details of what counts as fair collection can matter, it's worth checking current guidance before building a list from scratch.
What Kaptor does
Kaptor builds a list of property managers, letting agents and contractors matching your trade and area, with contact details attached, so you write from your own inbox and keep every reply in one place rather than scattered across calls and texts. For the wider approach, see compliant cold email for building tradespeople, and for how outreach looks in a fast-growing market further along, see compliant cold email for building tradespeople in Nigeria.