Whether you are a small residential company or a large business-to-business (B2B) servicer in construction, you’ll find that marketing for construction presents certain unique challenges. In particular, the construction industry is filled with competition. Standing out from your competitors to get in front of the necessary decision makers is imperative to your success. However, many construction company owners are working long hours and don’t have the time to focus on marketing and branding. If this sounds like you, marketing agencies like Strategic Marketing can help you with marketing for construction while you focus on running your team and finishing projects. Below are just some of the ways to ensure your company is on the right track with its marketing efforts.
BE FOUND EASILY
A key component for your business will be to make sure that you can be found easily almost anywhere, and that people can contact you at the press of a button. This means ensuring your Google My Business listing is up to date (appropriate address, number and hour information), being present for local searches and ensuring you have click-to-calls or other contact buttons directly at the top of your website. The fewer obstacles you can give a customer to reach you – even if it is one less click – the more likely it will be that they will turn into a lead.
INVEST IN SEO
When marketing for construction, you need to be able to show up (preferably above your competitors) in Google for the services you offer so that when a customer searches for “contractors near me” or other services-related searches, your business comes up at the top. Investing in local SEO will help make sure that you are appearing when people in your area are searching for your services. For example, Google’s Local Service Ads allow the user to confirm their project type and service area. If you fit the criteria, your business will be matched with the searcher.
Whether you are working in a small area or nationwide, on-site SEO is imperative to being relevant in search. Ensuring your website contains information, technical data and appropriate formatting to support your services will help push you to the top of search results. Working with an experienced marketing agency partner like Strategic Marketing will allow you to audit your local and on-site SEO and develop a strategic plan for improvement. The more relevant you can be to your customers and their searches, the more traffic you will get to your website to convert into leads.
FOLLOW UP WITH PREVIOUS LEADS & CUSTOMERS
If your business has been around for a while, you likely have a plethora of leads that never resulted in a job or just fell through the cracks. Make sure you have a follow-up system in place to follow up with these leads regularly. Incorporating tactics like email drip streams, phone-call check-ins or monthly newsletter lists will help to create a “catch-all net” for the leads that may have not purchased now but could still be future customers. Staying top-of-mind for these past leads will help your company be the first stop for these customers when they are ready to proceed with a new project.
Similarly, there is still business to be found among your past customers! Satisfied customers will be the most likely to work with your company again. More importantly, they are in a position to refer your services to other professionals in their network or through personal relationships. Making sure to have regular follow-ups in place can help ensure that next time a job a comes up in conversation, your company will be the first choice. Implementing a referral program will also drive leads to you through a mutually beneficial arrangement where past customer referrers can get rewarded for spreading the word.
PROSPECTING & MARKETING FOR CONSTRUCTION
Don’t just wait for jobs to come to you. Small prospecting efforts can make a dramatic difference for the bottom line. An outreach email campaign asking customers what they need help with is an easy way to put the “feelers” out there for new business. Partnering with lead generating sites can be helpful to drive leads. But remember, you will be shown next to the rest of your competition and these sites often bombard new leads with information. This usually leads to very low conversions of these leads.
Sometimes new business can come from your existing customers. Create a list of large key customers for your company and make a personal effort to maintain a relationship with these large clients for continued business. Setting up monthly or quarterly visits with these customers will help new projects come to your company directly. As a marketing agency, Strategic Marketing can help you set up these and other tactics for prospecting to make sure you’re not passively waiting for projects to come your way.
SOLICIT CUSTOMER REVIEWS
A high-touch, expensive service like construction requires a significant amount of trust from your customer. As a prospective client enters the sales funnel, there will likely be a significant amount of time spent comparing prices, reviews and service providers. Take advantage of every sale and job completed by asking for reviews to Google, Yelp, social media or other platforms where customers are searching for information. Good reviews will tell your new customers that others have had great experiences working with you, which according to 84% of people, is almost as good as suggestions from personal friends. You can easily work the review solicitation into the fabric of your sales process to ensure it is never missed.
Overall, it takes a certain mastery to be successful in marketing for construction. Between the high sales figures and the tumultuous competition, your company has to be able to stand out on its own. The great news is that even if you don’t have a multi-million-dollar marketing budget, you can still be successful by playing smarter, not harder. Strategic Marketing will help you to set up processes and tactics that ensure success and drive new business. By taking advantage of a multichannel approach with thoughtful spending techniques, we will help you quickly grow your business while you focus on the work and customer satisfaction. For a free marketing evaluation, visit thinkstrategic.com.
