The stuff they hold in
their hands and remember.
Brochures, door hangers, mailers, yard signs, business cards — print that matches your brand, gets noticed, and puts your name in front of homeowners long after the screen goes dark.
One brand, every piece, done right.
Every piece is built on your brand so the truck, the card, and the mailer all look like the same company. Here's just some of what we create for trades businesses.
Banners & Signage
Job-site banners, event backdrops, and A-frames that put your name where the work is happening.
Click Here →Business Cards & Stationery
The first thing people notice. Clean, professional, one-of-a-kind — letterhead, invoices, and cards that match.
Click Here →Clothing & Apparel
Polos, hoodies, and hats that keep the company name consistent across estimates, service calls, and jobsites.
Click Here →Brochures
Leave-behinds and sales pieces that give a homeowner the full picture of what you do — and why you.
Click Here →Direct Mailers
Postcards scoped to a defined route, offer, deadline, and response path so the business can measure what happens after the drop.
Click Here →Door Hangers
Work a whole street. Perfect for "we're in your neighborhood" drops and seasonal specials that get your foot in the door.
Click Here →Flyers & Rack Cards
Big statement, small footprint — for counters, community boards, and events where space is tight.
Click Here →Print Ads
A big statement in a small space — local papers, magazines, and community books that reach homeowners with money.
Click Here →Stickers & Decals
Window stickers, toolbox decals, bumper stickers, Service Reminders, and "Who to Call" labels for your work.
Click Here →Trade-Show Booths
Home shows and community events — striking, on-brand booth designs that pull people in and get remembered.
Click Here →Truck & Cargo Van Wraps
A clear name, trade, and phone number that remain readable while the vehicle is moving.
Click Here →Yard & Lawn Signs
With permission, a finished job can carry a readable sign that connects nearby homeowners to the company responsible for the work.
Click Here →The list doesn't end here — ask us about POP displays, presentation folders, magnets, and more.
Digital gets scrolled past. Print gets kept.
For the trades, a piece a homeowner can hold beats one more ad they swipe away. Print is tactile, trusted, and it sticks to the fridge.
It gets noticed
A door hanger or mailer lands in their hands with nothing else competing for the moment — no feed, no skip button.
It builds trust
A polished, consistent brand across every piece makes a one-truck shop look like the established name in town.
It works with your digital
Print + wraps + website + reviews reinforce each other. The name they see on the truck is the name they search later.
From your brand to the mailbox.
Brand & brief
We start from your logo, colors, and goals so every piece looks unmistakably like you.
Design & copy
Our writers and designers build the piece together — words and art that actually sell the job.
Print & proof
You approve a proof, we handle premium printing and finishing. No surprises.
Deliver or mail
Shipped to your shop or mailed straight to the neighborhoods you want to win.
Straight pricing to get you in print.
Design starts here — printing and mailing quoted per run based on quantity and stock. No mystery fees.
One professionally designed, print-ready piece built on your brand.
- One piece (flyer, card, door hanger, etc.)
- Built on your existing brand
- Copywriting included
- Two rounds of revisions
- Print-ready files you own
The core set every trades business needs, designed as one matching system.
- Business cards + letterhead
- Brochure or tri-fold
- Door hanger or mailer
- Yard sign design
- All matched to one brand system
- Print & mail coordination
Ongoing design + print + mail, managed for you all year.
- Fresh seasonal pieces every month
- Direct-mail campaigns managed
- Neighborhood targeting & lists
- Print handled at cost, no markup games
- Priority turnaround
Not sure what you need? Get a free print audit and we'll tell you what's worth printing.
Print marketing for trades businesses in the Midwest.
Print marketing for contractors still works because it does something digital can't — it puts a physical, branded piece in a homeowner's hand and keeps it on the fridge, in the truck, or by the phone. At Toughjobs, we design and produce trade print collateral for home-services businesses across Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana, from the Quad Cities and Peoria to Dubuque and anywhere within about three hours of home. Brochures, direct mailers, door hangers, yard signs, business cards, flyers, print ads and trade-show booths — every piece built on your brand so you look like one company everywhere a customer sees you.
The magic isn't any single piece — it's consistency. When your door hanger, your truck wrap, your business card and your website all share the same logo, colors and voice, a one-truck operation starts to look like the established name in the market. That's how you earn trust before you ever knock on the door. We pair sharp design with copy that actually sells the job, then handle premium printing, finishing, and neighborhood-targeted mailing so all you do is approve the proof.
Whether you need a single door-hanger drop for this weekend or a full collateral kit that matches your rebrand, we scope it to your goals and your budget with honest, up-front pricing. Print works hardest alongside the rest of your marketing — wraps, local SEO, paid ads and reviews — so the name people see around town is the name they search when they need you. Below are the questions trades owners ask us most about print.
How much does print marketing cost?
Design starts at $249 for a single piece or $899 for a full brand kit; printing and mailing are quoted per run based on quantity and stock. We give you real numbers up front and never mark up print behind your back.
Do you handle the printing and mailing too?
Yes. We design, print, finish, and can mail straight to the neighborhoods you want to win — including building the mailing list and targeting. You approve a proof; we handle the rest.
Does print still work for home-services businesses?
Absolutely. Direct mail routinely outperforms email response rates many times over, and a well-branded door hanger or yard sign keeps working in the neighborhood long after a digital ad disappears. Print is strongest paired with your website, wraps and reviews.
What areas do you serve?
We serve trades businesses across the Midwest — the Quad Cities, Peoria, Dubuque and surrounding communities in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana. If you're within about three hours of home, we can help.
Be the name they can't put down.
Let's put print in their hands that looks as good as your work. Start with a free print audit — we'll tell you exactly what's worth printing.
PRINT COLLATERAL & DIRECT MAIL FOR CONTRACTORS
Print isn't dead — for trade contractors, it's one of the highest-ROI channels left, precisely because everyone else has abandoned it. Door hangers, yard signs, and direct mail postcards let you dominate a neighborhood after a job, land in mailboxes that never get a competing flyer, and convert the 40% of homeowners over 55 who still trust paper more than a Google ad. Toughjobs designs, prints, and deploys print programs that look professional and actually generate calls.
WHY PRINT STILL WORKS — AND WORKS BETTER FOR TRADES
Digital saturation has flipped the economics. A homeowner sees 4,000+ ads a day online, tunes out 99% of them, and blocks another chunk with ad blockers. Meanwhile, they get maybe 3–5 pieces of mail per day — and every one of them gets touched, if only to get thrown out. For a well-designed direct mail piece, that's a guaranteed impression a Facebook ad can't buy at any price.
Trades also have a unique advantage: geographic concentration. When your plumbing crew replaces a main line on Elm Street, you should own Elm Street for the next 30 days. Door hangers on the 20 neighboring houses, a yard sign in the customer's yard, a postcard mailed to the surrounding block — you become the visible plumber in that neighborhood, and the next leak call goes to you.
WHICH PRINT PIECES ACTUALLY DRIVE ROI
Door Hangers
The highest-ROI print piece for trades, period. After completing a job, techs hang branded door hangers on 15–25 neighboring homes. Response rates commonly run 1–3%, which means every job creates 1–2 additional leads for essentially the cost of paper. "We just fixed your neighbor's [X] — here's what we found in the neighborhood" is a proven angle.
Yard Signs
The cheapest billboard you'll ever run. A crisp branded sign in every completed roof, driveway, HVAC install, or landscape job puts you in front of every neighbor, delivery driver, and passerby for the length of the project. Simple design, big logo, big phone number, one clear service.
Direct Mail Postcards
EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) through USPS lets you saturate specific carrier routes for around 20 cents a piece. Best use cases: seasonal service reminders (spring AC tune-ups, fall furnace checks), post-storm follow-ups, and neighborhood-specific offers tied to recent completed jobs.
Business Cards, Flyers, and Brochures
Still essential — but as support pieces, not lead generators on their own. A well-designed card handed to a homeowner during an estimate, a leave-behind brochure explaining a maintenance plan, a flyer at the parts counter of the local supply house. They reinforce trust and give people something physical to remember you by.
WHAT DOES PRINT COLLATERAL COST?
| Service / Tier | Typical Investment | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Business card design + print (500) | $250 – $500 | Custom design, premium stock, matte or spot-UV finish |
| Door hangers (design + 1,000 prints) | $450 – $800 | Custom design, heavy card stock, die-cut hanger |
| Yard signs (design + 25 signs w/ stakes) | $400 – $700 | Double-sided corrugated plastic, H-stakes, weatherproof |
| EDDM postcard campaign (5,000 pieces) | $1,800 – $2,800 | Design, print, USPS postage, route selection, tracking phone number |
| Full print brand package | $3,500 – $6,500 | Cards, hangers, signs, postcards, brochure, folder — coordinated design system |
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A PRINT COLLATERAL PROVIDER
Cheap online printers can produce anything you upload — but they won't design it, they won't strategize the campaign, and they won't tell you when the piece you approved is going to look amateur. A real print partner treats the design and the distribution plan as one project, not two.
- Trade-experienced designers who know what actually converts homeowners — not generic graphic templates
- Coordinated brand system across every piece — cards, hangers, signs, and trucks all match
- Understands EDDM, route selection, and USPS mail specs so nothing gets rejected at the post office
- Uses tracking numbers or QR codes on every piece so ROI is measurable
- Print production quality on par with national brands — heavy stock, sharp color, no faded prints
- Fast turnaround on reorders so you're never handing out a photocopied card at an estimate
Toughjobs builds print collateral programs for trade contractors across the Midwest. Set up a time to talk — no pitch, just a straight read on your business.
Frequently Asked Questions About Print Collateral
Each category below jumps straight to the matching answers, so you're not scrolling past questions that don't apply to you. Want the complete list instead? Open the full FAQ hub underneath.
Two ways we give back
Go independent, backed by us
You bring the truck, tools, and skill. We hand you the website, brand, systems, and marketing to turn one truck into a real company.
Explore PartnershipA hand up when budget is tight
One day a week we help people with more grit than budget get a business off the ground — honest guidance, real direction, no pressure.
Explore Helping HandsWe’ll File Your LLC for FREE
An LLC isn’t a license — we help you sort both. You only pay the state’s filing fee; we handle all the paperwork and file it for you at no charge, ever.