Construction industry marketing has changed a lot in the past few years and it’s easy to find yourself lagging behind. Nowadays, sales and marketing teams work together both internally and with freelancers or agencies to produce more successful marketing initiatives. Here’s what you need to know in order to excel at marketing your construction company, and getting to the next level.
The Current Condition of Construction Industry Marketing
Compared to other industries, construction businesses have been slow to adopt digital marketing strategies. For years, the industry has relied on direct sales, much from referrals.
Construction sales people spend more time searching for contact information and less time closing deals.
Many construction businesses and home renovation contractors, from Vancouver and Burnaby, to Delta and Surrey, have yet to implement a CRM system, consistent lead generation plan or even a marketing strategy.
As the owner or employee of a HVAC, roofing, renovation or construction company trying to drum up more leads and sales, you’ve most likely experienced a few of these issues:
- Your website fails to hook potential customers
- You have a difficult time getting your name out to new prospects before your competition does
- You have no idea where to begin with digital marketing
The methods landowners and developers are using to find construction trade companies, from plumbers and electricians to home remodeling firms and contractors, are changing, too. They’re looking online. They’re using social media to get referrals and they’re taking time to do research before engaging with their sales teams.
The takeaway? Marketing for your home renovation company has never been more vital than it is today.
We’ve put this article together to introduce you to a few of the ways other construction companies consistently win customers, ranging from Greater Vancouver and Lower Mainland to out in the Fraser Valley. After reading this, you’ll be well on your way to implementing a successful marketing strategy for your business.
Let’s go through marketing plan essentials before we dive into how to market your construction company.
Putting Together a Construction Business Marketing Plan
Here are the main things you need to keep in mind:
What are your marketing objectives?
You need to be clear on what your goals are before you start any kind of marketing campaign. A few examples of marketing objectives are profit, revenue, or market shares. Maybe you want to grow your revenue by 20% by the end of Q3 or raise your profits by $550,000 by June 2020.
Your industry, business, and competitors
An important part of your marketing plan is understanding your business and the industry in which you operate. A
SWOT analysis is a great way to figure out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that your business faces.
Here are some questions you should ask:
Strengths
What’s your company’s competitive advantage?
What does your business do that is different?
What areas of your company do you excel in? Think machinery, people, standards, etc.
Weaknesses
Where could your business improve?
Are there parts of your company that struggle to keep up with demand?
Any complaints about certain areas of your service?
Opportunities
Are there specific services or sectors where you can grow your sales?
Where are your competitors failing?
Is there an opportunity to take market share from notable businesses in your niche?
Can you become the leader for a certain service niche?
Threats
How is the wider industry and local economy fairing?
How much is your business affected by technology?
Is there an upcoming shortage of skilled employees?
How will you surmount these challenges and reach your goals?
Plan out a clear strategy
The strategic level is where the majority of marketing plans and companies lapse. They dive right into how to target customers, which channels they’ll use, and how much their budget will be.
Big mistake.
If you allocate time to develop a clear-cut construction marketing plan, you’ll be rewarded.
Begin by defining your main products, customers, and market. You’ll be a step ahead of your competitors by defining your central services and products, target audiences and customer profiles.
It’s also important to define what you offer at this stage. By using the strengths named in your SWOT analysis you can come up with positioning statements for your target audiences. As an example, let’s say you’re an expert in construction projects for hospitals. Why should the decision maker choose your company? You offer a safe service with a track record of providing excellent work for other local homeowners, from Richmond to Abbotsford.
Figure out what your advantages are and use them in your marketing campaigns.
Your strategy is what drives every aspect of your marketing activity. Without it, you’re building a project without any foundations.
Creating a Customer Persona
This is also a good time to figure out your audience profiles. Create a customer persona for every service that you provide. Think about:
Where they are located?
Which industry are they in?
What business do they work for?
What is their main function/job role?
What kind of problems are they facing at the moment?
How can your construction business help solve their problems?
It is important for you to understand exactly who your target market is and why. You can start making decisions about your marketing activity once you know this.
Create marketing tactics to carry out your strategy
Now that you’ve developed a clear plan for your construction marketing, you’re ready to start getting more active online.
There are many different ways to market your company. The best place to begin is with the methods you’re already using.
Do you have a blog?
Are you on social media?
Is your email marketing performing well?
Review your current marketing activity so you can stop the methods that aren’t working and invest more into the tactics that are.
Audit your existing tactics, then plan your marketing campaigns for the next 12 months. Aim to couple your campaigns with important dates in your industry. If you’re looking to earn more student accommodation projects, plan your campaigns around the semesters.
Marketing should be integrated, meaning that your approach should be a unified experience for customers to interact with your brand.
Your marketing activity, both offline and online, must work cohesively to create more effective campaigns that are consistent and targeted.
Construction Industry Digital Marketing Tactics
There are many ways to market your business digitally. We’re going to elaborate on two key tactics.
Search Engine Optimisation
You should have a website for your company. That is step one, and a must-have! Assuming you do, your website may not be performing as well as other construction web pages, in terms of showing up in search engines such as Google and Bing. SEO helps your website rank higher for keywords your target audience is searching for. There are two things you need to d to excel at if you want to rank better: create relevant content and build links from leading websites in your industry.
Use “long tail keywords”. These phrases are more specific and have greater buyer intent. A potential customer
searching for “best Vancouver home renovation and remodeling company” is more relevant than one searching for “construction company”.
Content Marketing
Not every prospect in your target audience may be ready to buy. Their decision about who to hire for their upcoming construction project may be a few months off.
An excellent tactic to help you sell to these undecided customers is content marketing.
Content marketing is focused on creating and sharing relevant, consistent, and valuable content to drive profits.
People who aren’t yet ready to buy can watch, read, or listen to your educational and entertaining content. This build trust and shows people why your company is an authority in your industry.
Examples of content marketing are videos, blog posts, webinars, and ebooks.
Match your content to your different target audiences. As an example, you can write an article about the issues a certain sector is facing. However, a guide detailing key information customers need to know before starting a building project would be a lot more relevant to your prospective clients.
Measure your results
It’s important that you measure how effective your marketing campaigns are, the number of leads that are generated, how many people are visiting your blog, etc. Keeping track of this information helps you create more effective marketing campaigns and gets you closer to your overall goals.
Google Analytics, Moz Site Explorer, and Hootsuite are helpful tools that allow you to track your marketing performance.
Is it worth it to team up with a construction marketing agency?
One of the key factors to consider when you’re seeking to improve your marketing strategy is your internal resources.
Do you have the knowledge, time, and experience to successfully implement your strategy as fast and effectively as needed?
If so, that’s awesome.
If not, consider working with a construction marketing agency. An agency can help you create successful marketing tactics, clear strategies, and give you more insight into how your company is performing.
What do you have to gain by hiring a construction marketing agency?
A team of specialists in B2B and B2C marketing
More resources and allocated time to market your company
100% transparency and accountability on your marketing activity performance
If you think teaming up with a construction marketing agency is right for you, contact Builder Zone. We’d be happy to help you reach your marketing goals.
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