Creating a marketing strategy for your construction company involves developing tactics to attract new customers and retain existing ones. It involves everything from advertising to social media to website development. To get potential customers invested in your brand, you’ll need a solid strategy and consistent outreach. These 10 strategies for marketing your construction company should set you on the right path to gaining new clients and retaining current ones.
1. Create an Easily-Recognizable Brand
Creating an identifiable brand means potential clients will recognize your name before they even meet your team. Your brand consists of your logo, company colors, fonts, and brand styles. Many construction companies use heavier, bolder fonts compared to other industries.
This article from DesignBro notes that blue, green, red, black, and brown are the most commonly used colors for construction companies. A well-designed logo should tell potential customers right away what your specialty is or what kind of work you perform. For example, a plumbing company may utilize pipes as icons in their logo, while a landscaper may use trees or greenery.
2. Invest in Social Media Strategy
When done well, social media is an effective strategy for construction companies looking to grow their marketing. The most important part of social media marketing, for any industry, is to go where your clients are. In our experience, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram have given our construction industry clients the most success.
Facebook is a great platform for advertising, and its audience-targeting tools are phenomenal. LinkedIn is the place to find building owners and developers looking to renovate commercial spaces. Because Instagram is a visual social channel, it can be very beneficial for construction companies to share their work on job sites with followers.
3. Generate SEO-Friendly Content
Use tools like UberSuggest, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to begin tracking the keywords your website is currently ranking for and find key phrases that make sense for your company to incorporate in your content. Content can include anything from social media captions to website blog posts. The most important thing to remember when thinking about content marketing strategies for your construction company is to not oversell. Creating good content should both appease search engines and humans.
Not every piece of content needs to have a selling factor, but each should have a clear call to action. Content ideas for construction companies include; sharing job site progress, featuring new team members or team member anniversaries, talking about your area of building expertise, or sharing tips and tricks with potential customers who are looking to renovate their home or office.
4. Develop and Manage a User-Friendly Website
Ensuring that your website is easy to navigate and visually appealing is critical. It is likely that potential clients will search for your company online and view your website before hiring you. Make sure that the first impression is a good one by either hiring an internal marketing person with website experience or engaging with a website developer to ensure your site is functional and looks modern.
5. Build Partnerships with Organizations
Engaging with local organizations is essential when it comes to the extremely word-of-mouth-driven construction industry. By joining your local Builders Exchange or Contractors Association, you’ll gain access to contact information for other local contractors, potential clients, and more. Many associations and organizations even have members-only benefits that help build your business. In many instances, it can also be beneficial to join your local chamber of commerce or even the AIA chapter closest to you to improve your networking opportunities.
6. Make it Easy for Customers to Contact You
Unlike other industries, construction industry professionals tend to prefer phone conversations over emails. It is crucial that your phone number is easy to find online. The easiest way to do this is to make sure you have a working Google My Business account so that you can manage and edit necessary information about your company. Make sure that your contact information is also included on your website, your social media pages, and your physical business cards.
7. Establish a Follow-Up System
Construction industry professionals greatly value a contractor’s ability to stick to deadlines. This includes your ability to follow up with other contractors and clients that you want to work with. The construction industry is relationship-based, so how you interact with others in the industry will spread. Make sure the word on the street is that you are reliable, professional, and punctual.
8. Produce Compelling Videos
Video can feel intimidating when you don’t have an individual on your team with a lot of experience in this area. However, it’s pretty easy (and not too expensive these days!) to invest in a simple drone to take video footage of completed projects from great angles. Even using inexpensive tools like Canva will allow you to edit video footage, add text, and create engaging content for your audience.
9. Show Customers That You’re Human
This can be as simple as having your team members photos on your website’s About page to sharing (with permission, of course!) when a team member has a major life event – like getting married, welcoming a new child, or earning a promotion. Potential clients want to see that your company culture has positive impacts on your employees. And keep in mind – your employees are your best marketing tool around! Creating a culture that encourages employees to engage with the company’s social media content or write articles for the company blog will draw in potential clients.
10. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Reviews
After each completed job, ask clients and other contractors for feedback on how your team performed! These snippets of verbiage are great to use on your website, in your content marketing plan, or share on your social media pages. As humans, we tend to be more likely to purchase a product or hire a contractor who has many positive recommendations from previous clients. The easiest way to gather these is by creating a process of asking after each completed job.
An excellent construction marketing team should include people who understand the industry and how to market to building owners. Whether you handle your marketing internally or hire an outside organization, these professionals will help you build a solid marketing foundation for your business. Using these strategies for marketing your construction company, you’ll see higher engagement – and hopefully – more bidding opportunities!