Nobody knows your construction company better than you. And as a contractor, you must know firsthand that creating a construction marketing plan does not come easy. Whether your construction firm is medium or small, there will always be intense competition you will face in the industry. Relying on word of mouth strategy to get more leads and win more construction jobs isn’t enough in today’s competitive environment.
Establishing your brand with the strongest foundation is critical for your construction marketing success. So, before you start marketing your construction company, make an observation first and examine your target market. Then it will be the time for you to have some good old-fashioned decision making.
In this blog, you will discover some of the most important decisions you need to consider before starting to market your construction business.
1. Define Your Brand and your marketing goals
Your potential leads might assume that commercial construction firms are all similar. Yet, it does not mean there is nothing unique to make one stand the most from the rest. Your brand is what your target audience should know, believe, and understand before they will partner and collaborate with you.
Defining your brand begins in creating your brand vision. Once you have crafted your vision statement, you can work on your brand positioning next. These branding exercises can help you communicate your company’s unique values so your target audience can decide if you are right for them.
It is also equally important to determine exactly what your marketing goals are. Be specific as possible. Make sure you fully understand how you are going to measure these goals in such a way that it makes sense to your construction business. Below are some questions you need to ask yourself:
- How much am I willing to pay for a lead or a conversion?
- How many mobile sessions am I shooting for my company’s website?
- How many organic sessions am I shooting for the website?
- What is the average lifetime value of my clients?
- What marketing tools have I employed in the past? Am I still going to use them?
2. Determine Your Construction Niche and Ideal Target Clients
To deeply understand the importance of what you offer, you should know firsthand who your potential targets are. And the most successful builders know they are solving a problem for a particular set of people with specific needs. Trying to market everybody can mean you miss the mark. Hence, creating a comprehensive buyer persona place a human idea right in you to base your marketing efforts.
Answer the following questions:
- What are you best at?
- What areas in construction make you extremely excited to go to work?
- Out of your current clients, who are the most profitable?
- Are there any other areas that you have tons of experience working for?
- What types of clients are looking for long-term partners?
You can establish a formidable construction business when you have the right target audience. So, find the right mix of the audience that value your work and the services you offer, the ones that give profitable projects to the table, and lastly, the people who aim for long-term partnerships.
When you know exactly who you want to attract, it helps you in clarifying your branding decisions. It will be easier to decide what your web design and logo should look like and how you communicate with people.
3. Pinpoint Why People Must Care
You have decided what is different about your construction business, but why should your target audience care? You might have the latest construction equipment, tools, and the most experienced and talented workers. Still, the only thing that matters most to your potential leads and existing customers is how your service can effectively help them and solve the problems.
There are several construction marketing ideas that can stem from addressing these buyer motivations.
So consider this:
Ordering/Purchasing processes are vital for accomplishing a competitive edge in the construction sector. And there are some common issues that one can encounter. These issues include poor customer service, shipping delays, and incorrect orders. If you have long and strong relationships with your suppliers and a proven track record of supply chain management – you have something relevant or worth talking about.
Your potential clients will care because working with you is what they are looking forward to.
4. Figure out How to Present Your Construction Business to the Public
Presenting your construction company typically involves many points of action. Below is a general guide that will help you to present your construction business to the public.
- Decide what the first impression you want your prospects to have. Do you want your clients to see you as friendly, professional, or innovative? Pin down the reaction you think will matter most. Work with the ideas you have been getting. Keep everything authentic.
- Decide how to deliver your major differences in a way that makes your audiences more interested. Do your clients make buying decisions based upon seeing previous projects or reading technical details? Keep everything relevant.
- Decide what marketing avenues are the most logical for your target audience. Are your clients likely to subscribe to AEC Business or Professional Builder? What trade shows do they commonly attend? Perhaps, do they gather details from any social media marketing sites like Facebook or LinkedIn? Keep it focused.
5. Set Your Marketing Budget and Always Commit to It
Construction Marketing is a significant investment and not an expense. You should know the difference. If your goal is to be the leader in the market, you have to budget more than the others who want to get by. At first glance, budget is the main default. It always has been a necessity. However, it is one of the complex resources to handle and can be hard to determine, especially if your marketing goals, needs, target clients, and competitors are not identified.
Here we share with you what your yearly marketing budget could look like. It includes sales, marketing, and business development expenses.
- Proposal development and submitting bids
- Marketing agency services
- Salaries and related expenses (travel, company cars, etc.)
- Public relations firm services
- Employee and customer appreciation events (entertainment, events, lunch, learns, etc.)
- Industry-specific events (networking opportunities, trade shows, golf tournaments, etc.)
- Graphic design and printing for company brochures, business cards, and other handouts
- Branding development (company clothing, logo designs, vehicle graphics, job signage, etc.)
- Promotional merchandising and gifts to clients
- Trade show event displays
- Website design and maintenance
- Creating content (blog content articles, case studies, etc.)
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services
- Social Media Management
- Google Ads and other paid search marketing
- Membership fees for trade associations
- Sponsorships, etc.
The most significant chunk of your investment should be online, for about fifty percent. This number should include online business development, digital marketing, website development, design, and web maintenance.
6. Establish what actions can prove that you are incredibly different
You have your differentiators in mind, yet follow-through is the main proof in the pudding as what they say. So, always have a plan to back up your statements before releasing your first advertisements.
For instance, if your company states like this:
“You won’t find another builder who provides all the included features and offer you this much square footage for the price…”
Remember, pick the best part and make sure that your company can back up what it claims. Otherwise, you can lose any trust you have garnered with other prospects, causing an adverse reaction on your client base.
7. Decide how to communicate your main differences
By now, you know already how you differ from others, what you offer, and why that is important to your ideal customers. It’s always better to have a game plan for setting the ideas in motion. There are tons of construction marketing ideas you can always include in the digital marketing plan. The list consists of social media, branding, search engine marketing, blog posts, direct sales, press releases, and to name more.
Your construction marketing plan must become part of your daily routine. You do not have to do it overnight. To start, begin with 2 or 3 ideas that somehow make sense for you. Add them as your company grows and just when you want to expand your reach.
Give Your Construction Marketing Strategy the Direction
Initial planning is crucial to a well-designed marketing strategy for your construction company. It is okay if you do not have figured it all out and have the answers. Your core product is not marketing; actually, it is construction. Therefore, you do not have to be the jack-of-all-trades in terms of marketing strategies.
If you are the only marketing resource on your construction firm, always feel free to outsource services. Working with a full-service digital marketing agency like us gives you specialized help when it comes to your ideal digital marketing services.
Reach out to us. Here in ConstructionMarketing.io, we will help you decide what is best for your business regarding digital marketing tactics. We offer a scalable set of digital marketing services and deliver you measurable results in the most effective ways.