By 2023, global digital marketing spending will reach billions. Many businesses, including construction, are increasing their investment in online marketing because it works well. But not always, apparently, because many of these businesses are constantly making the same marketing mistakes that significantly affect their traffic, ROI, and lead generation conversation rates.
This blog will give you an overview of the most common online marketing mistakes that can negatively affect your construction business. We also offer some actionable tips on fixing the issues to fully optimize your ROI and efforts.
1. Doing everything without clearly defining your target audience
As a business leader, you may believe that casting your net wide is an excellent way of expanding the market and reaching more clients. The reality is only a few particular groups will bring in most of your revenue. So, casting your net wide means neglecting many things in favor of indecisive possibilities. And what is more, this particular approach inhibits them from developing a deeper understanding of your prospects’ real interests and pain points.
Knowing your client is the foundation of every solid construction marketing strategy. Therefore, define your market and get to learn more about the people you are eyeing to. To determine your ideal client:
- Define buyer personas: Section your target market into several categories. You can label the first category as “customer types”. Outline them demographically and determine their pain points, expectations, and possible objections to your service offerings.
- Hire experts to do the market research: Work with experts to develop further a much better understanding of your target market and its changing expectations and habits.
- Talk to your prospects: Communicate with them on social media via surveys, comments, poll forums, etc. Communicate with them directly and learn more about the target audience straight from the source.
2. Superficial approaches to SEO
94% of online experiences start with the search engine. Therefore, with over one billion blog posts popping on the Internet every day, optimizing your blog content for search engines is the only way to attract organic traffic and gain visibility.
SEO is a fast-changing game and you have to keep on your toes at all times to ensure you follow the latest set of rules. We know that you are not an expert on this, but we will share some time-tested SEO tactics that will surely help your content appear in the search results and rank higher.
The elements you should include in your SEO strategy are:
- The right keywords: This applies to keywords you desire to rank for and the main keywords that your target audience is searching to find what they need. We suggest you focus more on the keywords on those with a search volume and have a more realistic chance of ranking.
- Quality content: Google favors relevant, high-quality, long-form, well-researched content. Add visually rich elements like videos to improve users’ dwell time and engagement.
- Backlinks: Getting backlinks straight from authority domains in your field ranks you much higher and designates you as one of the authorities.
- URLs: Use clear and short URLs that contain the main keyword. These are significant SEO signals.
PRO TIP: To stay on top of the ever-evolving field of EO, make sure to subscribe to many updates by SEO authorities that are at the forefront of such developments and learn from them. Alternatively, avail of the service offerings of a professional and reliable digital marketing agency like ConstructionMarketing.io, whose main job is to follow and apply SEO trends and knowledge.
3. Neglecting the Keyword Research
The heart of your SEO strategy is the keywords you will use. They served as a portal to your construction business. 88% of your clients start their searches online. Neglecting keyword optimization means missing out on your chance to meet your clients organically via search whenever the purchase intent is high.
Here are the many advantages of getting your keywords right:
- Increase in organic traffic
- Increase in the number of qualified leads
- Insights into your audience’s pain points and preferences
The best tips that can help you with your keyword research are:
- Discover what keywords you have already ranked for
- Look at what the competition is doing
- Use the search engines of Google as a tool for research
- Put yourself in the position of your clients
And ask yourself such questions to identify the best keywords to target:
- Are my current keywords targeting what my target audience is searching for?
- Will people who visit my construction website find the answers they are looking for?
- Will these people help me in reaching my conversion goals?
PRO TIP: Make the keyword research tools the main part of your regular digital marketing efforts. Use free tools to adapt more a primary strategy. If you are developing a stronger SEO strategy, choose tools that can give you general insights, competitor insights, and analytics.
4. Investing and campaigning without a strategy
Lack of vision and structure is one of the construction marketing mistakes many, if not most, small and start-up construction businesses commit. As a result, their efforts are disjointed and difficult to manage, assess, and scale. Your target competitors may also be stuck in the maze, leaving more room for your construction business to take the lead.
To get started with developing your marketing strategy:
- Define and know more about your target audience
- SET realistic goals
- Define the channels, tools, and tactics to accomplish them
- Keep track of your progress and fine-tune your strategy based on the results.
It is clear to build objectives. However, it is equally important to lay out the steps you can take to reach them.
5. Spending Recklessly on Paid Ads
PPC marketing on platforms like Google Ad Words and Facebook can be advantageous when it comes to growing traffic, reach and conversions. However, it can be costly if you execute it without a robust strategy. And before deciding to go down to either Google Ads or Facebook, make sure to:
Run A/B testing and test out several ad campaigns with various ad formats and audience segments to determine which one provides the best results.
Research your target audience and section it into different sub-groups containing different age groups, levels of education, locations, interests, and income levels.
Define your budget and be all-time ready to further adjust the price per click.
PRO TIP: Save paid advertising for later. We suggest you spend time testing other tactics first and getting to know your clients to clearly define your target audiences, increase your ROI, and refine your targeting.
6. Expecting Results Overnight
We know that you feel demotivated when you do not see immediate results in your marketing efforts. But these tactics and campaigns need time to succeed further. The online world’s fast development and quick accessibility can make you wrongly assume that construction marketing is a magical shortcut to their goals.
Know that marketing targets people or your main audience. It always takes time to reach them and make them notice you. The only thing that can guarantee results in digital marketing is consistency and constantly trying out various methods and ways.
7. Posting on Social Media without a Concrete Plan
Whether it is organic activity or ads, a great number of businesses, including construction, use social media aimlessly. These social media channels hold greater opportunities to further engage with your clients directly, and expand your reach and build relationships.
Good timing and consistency are two of the most critical factors for the social media posting strategy. Here are some tips for properly use social media. These tips can help you to grow your construction business:
- Determine your goals on social media
- Find the right platforms
- Write, curate and be consistent
- Team up with influencers
- Work on growing your followers
- Engaged with your followers
8. Blogging but not providing value
Contractors who prioritize blogging efforts are thirteen times more likely to see positive ROI. The highlighted word here being is prioritized. Those who blog just because blogs are said to offer X, Y, and Z benefits run the risk of damaging their reputation and credibility due to poor quality blog content.
You have to do blogging most strategically. Focus more on providing real-time value to your target clients. To reap many more benefits, make sure you create and publish well-research, high-quality, in-depth blog content relevant to your target audience.
Partner with ConstructionMarketing.io to Minimize Your Marketing Mistakes
Do you know how to analyze your marketing tactics, lead generation strategies, and client base? We safely assume you do not. That is one of the many reasons you constantly make mistakes in your marketing efforts. We know that this is not your craft and we are here to help you with your marketing needs. Here in ConstructionMarketing.io, we focus more on your top sources of leads, customers, and audience.
Below are the top digital marketing services we currently offer:
- Social Media Marketing
- Local SEO
- Keyword Research
- Web development and design
- Custom Blog Articles
- Google My Business