For many businesses like construction firms that have been around for a while, the whole idea of digital marketing causes angst. However, turning to digital sounds great because things will be automated, much faster, and it‘ll be easier to keep up with your target audience. As a construction business owner, how exactly do you get there? For you, what exactly does “digital marketing” looks like? If you’re not aware of the tools or cannot even keep up with all of the tools, will you actually can able to keep up with your marketing goals and target audience?
Suppose you wanted to learn more and are considering moving or upskilling from traditional to digital marketing. In that case, this blog will provide an overview of the field to help you with the transition.
Where You Need to Start?
Knowing that digital marketing is essential for your construction business but not knowing where to begin will make you feel clueless and anxious. Every day that you are not taking steps and actions towards digital means losing out on your business. It can cause a significant impact on your company’s long-term success, and you don’t want that to happen.
Speaking in general, here are some common characteristics most construction companies tend to share that usually create a barrier in the entry of digital marketing:
- The construction industry is most likely the oldest in history. It is no surprise that marketing and sales in this sector apply the “if it isn’t broke, do not fix it” type of approach.
- For the most part, digital marketing often takes place in the office with the use of modern devices (laptop, etc.) In reality, the majority of construction work is often done onsite, away from the office.
- The company culture is a direct reflection of its employees. Hence, a B2B construction company that usually spends most of the time outdoors is more likely to embrace traditional marketing and not digital.
With everything stated above, are you in the same situation? Do you face the same barriers? However, if you want to remain competitive regardless of these barriers, you will embrace changes as an opportunity to grow. Drastic changes may be scary; however the best companies in the world are the ones that adapt time and time again. So have that mentality!
Traditional Vs. Digital
The digital age has already made big improvements in how companies can reach potential leads and clients. It also gives control over how they can consume their marketing, which is also very important. But keep in mind that there are many differences between digital marketing and traditional marketing, many of which are worth discussing. However, for now, we’ll discuss the most crucial differences:
1. Prospects are more empowered with ads
A specific type of marketing that has been popular lately is micro-moment marketing. This type of approach aims to acquire tactics where digital marketing needs to be approached differently. Micro-moment is a term used for the kind of searches that clients are increasingly conducting.
2. The Metrics are more accurate
When it comes to digital marketing, always remember that metrics do matter and they are absolutely a good thing. You must need to track and report metrics regularly. To correctly do this, you can ask help from a digital marketing team that has a good understanding of how the metrics can be used to create brand awareness and build a strategy.
3. The Demographics are different
Here is the thing, your target audience is engaging with many brands in a more different way than they do. Today, users are becoming more dynamic compare to before. Consider the fact that any info you post online can have the potential to reach a global audience. It shows that things are competitively different than usual, particularly in the way the audience interacts with a given brand.
4. Real-tracking means better targeting
Today’s technologies and advanced strategies allow you to analyze and track both historical and real-time data to understand how effective a given marketing campaign is and measure it against your entire ROI. When it comes to traditional marketing, there was no way of doing this precisely.
5. Next-Level Audience Engagement
Nowadays, there are numerous opportunities to interact with your target audience from any spot and location through social media management. It will be easier for you also to get feedback and reply to the queries of the viewers. Digital marketing is proven to give you more leads. On top of that, your expenses for your digital marketing campaigns are much lesser as well. Before you know it, you can reach a global audience within a specific budget.
Tips for Transitioning from Traditional to Digital Marketing
1. Start Simple
Landing pages, Local SEO, and carefully outlined social media campaigns are a huge part of digital marketing. However, they are not the very first steps. Instead, they are the strategies and tools that will help you achieve your activities more effectively and efficiently. But as of now, your main priority is to get started with the marketing campaigns in the first place.
Before utilizing the tools and strategies mentioned, you first need to have a basic digital marketing foundation in terms of your digital know-how and construction marketing.
2. Know This: Digital Does Not Replace Traditional Marketing
Digital marketing is proven to be very effective. In some cases, it is a means of doing less of traditional methods. Yet, it is crucial to acknowledge that transitioning into digital does not mean abandoning traditional marketing. In fact, there are still many old-fashioned and offline marketing strategies that still work perfectly that digital marketing can both improve and supplement.
Transitioning over to digital means:
- Integrating offline with digital marketing activities
- Trying new marketing activities
- Benefiting from insights, tracking and more efficient reporting on all activities
3. Incorporate traditional and digital marketing tactics
Expect that no one is always online 100% of the time despite today’s digitalization. In most cases, traditional tactics such as direct mail marketing work effectively better than other digital tactics. Always look for better ways to integrate digital marketing tactics in your present marketing strategy rather than creating a new one.
For instance, giving your clients the option to receive digital versions of any printed materials you might want to send out can extend the impact of your marketing materials. The same way also if you want to integrate digital aspects such as QR codes into postcards and brochures.
4. Find digital counterparts that accomplish the same goal
To easily transition from traditional and digital marketing, ensure to think about what drove the strategies and objectives of your traditional strategy and how you can best achieve the same thing with digital marketing. While some conventional marketing strategies like email marketing have obvious counterparts, you can take advantage of the more data-driven digital marketing tactics like custom blog articles and contextual targeting to acquire a more customized approach to obtain leads within your trading area.
5. Look forward to the returns
Digital marketing helps you in carrying out several marketing activities much faster. It also provides your insights and reporting that enable you to get accurate and better results from the same or even lesser effort. Moreover, if the digital marketing channels and social media platforms are being set up already, you spend less effort because the work can be done 24/7. Digital marketing doubles your actions every single day and taking reigns even when you sleep.
This is very true when you’re working with a digital marketing agency as they can provide constant upkeep to your digital marketing channels. These marketing experts will always be helping you to build a more substantial online presence, generate leads and clients for your business.
Going Digital with Construction Marketing
When transitioning, one excellent recommendation is to look for a marketing agency specializing in a range of services to help you apply your marketing skills. A digital marketing agency is completely different from traditional marketing in the digital world. In fact, ROI and measurable marketing is the name of the game.
We are ConstructionMarketing.io, and we are not your average digital marketing agency. We focus more on collaborating for the growth of your business. Our work reflects your brand’s primary purpose while delivering results tailored to your company’s specific marketing needs.
No matter where or how you are currently marketing your construction business, one is certain – a full-service digital marketing agency like us can take your marketing, ROI, brand awareness, and overall profitability to the next level.
Talk to us today! We are happy to serve you.
Key Takeaways
The shift from conventional to digital marketing is already expected yet never easy. While it is crucial to connect with your clients and prospects digitally and create more and more channels for interaction, it is similarly critical to delivering a brand message aligned with your marketing approach. So stay true to your brand persona, and still be extra creative to stand out in this digital domain.