Working in the construction industry, you will face a huge number of challenges every day. There is no shortage of work to be accomplished from legal proceedings and extensive paperwork to dealing with suppliers and competing for projects. For most construction companies, whether they’re a single-person operation or a large enterprise, marketing is often low down on the list of priorities. Yet if you are struggling to grow your construction business, you will need to break out of this mindset. Taking the time to sit down and plan a comprehensive marketing strategy will pay dividends. It will help you boost your business’s visibility, acquire more customers, and hit your targets.
Here are five marketing tips to help you grow your construction business.
1. Go online
In this day and age, there is no excuse for a business not having an online presence. Indeed, construction is generally an offline business – building work is carried out in the real world, and very few construction services are done online. However, the internet is where the vast majority of your potential customers are to be found. When a customer has a need, they will use their phone or computer to search for solutions, and you want to be there to meet their needs. The first step is to create a website for your company. It should look professional and feature all the relevant information about your company and its services. Include contact details and examples of your work as well as positive testimonials from former clients. The most important thing is to make it as easy as possible for potential customers to get in touch with you once they have landed on your website.
2. Build a brand
A brand is so much more than a company name and logo. It is your whole business identity. It gives a sense of credibility and professionalism to everything you do. A strong brand identity makes you more distinctive and ensures people are more likely to remember and recognize your business. It should be consistent across your website, your messaging, and any other marketing materials. To strengthen your brand, consider creating materials such as banners, billboards, business cards, branded vehicle design, and signs.
3. Use social media
If used well, social media can raise your business’s visibility enormously and direct people to your website. By sharing a mixture of educational, entertaining, and promotional content, you can build your company’s status as an industry expert and amass a loyal fanbase. Share pictures of your construction projects or exciting industry news and advice. Show some personality and focus on providing value to your audience rather than being overly self-promotional. There are so many different social media platforms out there. You should take some time to identify your target customers and which platforms they are most likely to be using. Rather than taking a scattergun approach to all available platforms, a better solution is to pick two or three at first and focus on regular, high-quality activity to build your online audience. Using paid social advertising is another highly effective way to generate high-quality traffic to your website.
4. Boost your search engine rankings
When someone searches for a local construction company (usually on Google), you ideally want to be the top search result. The first page of Google listings is a competitive field, and you need to know your way around search engine optimization (SEO) if you want to beat your rivals to the top spot. The first step is to understand your customers and how they use search engines. By using Google’s Keyword Planner tool, you can identify the top keywords people are searching for related to construction services and create engaging content around these words. Be warned: Google actively penalizes websites for over-stuffing keywords into content, so don’t overdo it. Other ways to boost your SEO are to create a Google Business page, rank higher in Google Maps, optimize your meta-data, and post content regularly.
5. Attract word of mouth
You can promote yourself all you like, but the best way to attract a new customer is to have another trusted source refer them to you. One way to do this is to leverage former happy customers. Ask them to write a review of your services, recommend you to others, or give you a positive testimonial you can use on your website or social media. Building relationships with other related but non-competing businesses is a great way to build referrals. By creating a mutually beneficial relationship with a plumber, architect, or interior designer, you can generate referrals for each other and help each other’s businesses grow.
Any business in any industry requires a cohesive marketing strategy to grow successfully, and construction is no different. By building your online presence and creating valuable content for your audience, you will see your customer base grow in no time.
