The Definitive Marketing Guide
Marketing your construction company is critical to your long-term success. The nature of the construction industry is that you need a steady stream of new leads and jobs in order to stay in business. No one job lasts forever and each new project you start will eventually reach completion. It’s critical for contractors to have the next job lined up in order to cover your fixed expenses and keep your employees working. In order to do this successfully, you will need to develop a system that will consistently bring in new leads and potential clients.
Passive Vs. Active Contractor Marketing
Marketing strategies can be broken into two categories: Passive and Active marketing and it’s important that you know and understand both types. Passive strategies are things on your website, Google My Business listing, and directories that customers seeking the services you provide will potentially find. Active marketing strategies include things like website retargeting and paid advertising on Facebook and other platforms that we “push out” to potential customers in the hope that they will reach out to our business and potentially become a client. The best marketing strategies include a strong passive framework in conjunction with a strong active marketing campaign. In this article, we will reveal tips and strategies for a holistic campaign for your business.
The 4-Pillars of Success Contractor Marketing
Building a solid passive framework is the best way to capture new client leads on auto-pilot, regardless if you have money in the marketing budget for advertising. The best way to do this is to set up a system that captures leads from clients that are ready to buy and searching for a company to do business with. We call these Intent-based leads and our 4-pillars system goes through the framework of how to capture the maximum amount of these leads. Watch the video below to learn the 4-pillar system:
The 4-Pillars of Successful Marketing:
- Setup Your Home Base – Your home base is your website. This is the place where client leads are converted to new customers. The best platform for building a construction company website on WordPress. The WordPress platform gives you increased functionality and control for superior search engine optimization, design, and plugin installation. A great website includes clear calls to action (CTA’s), easy navigation, customer testimonials, reviews, and a form to collect potential customer contact information.
- Get On The Map – When it comes to local search Google My Business listings are your #1 source for new client leads. When a potential customer searches for your business on a mobile device, most likely the Google Map Pack is going to pop up first. This means that in order to be competitive in your local marketplace you will need to have your company appear in the top 3 positions in the Google Map Pack. It’s also helpful if you have your happy customers leave reviews directly on your Google My Business listing. This will improve both your click-thru rate (CTR) and your customer conversions.
- Build Your Brand – Brand search is important when converting potential clients into paying customers. If you track the conversion path that most new customers take it will include doing a basic brand search in Google with your company name. In other words, these potential clients are “checking up” on your company and making sure your legitimate and have positive reviews from other happy customers. It’s important for all construction companies to control their brand search by soliciting 5-star reviews, creating social assets, and adding their company information to business directories.
- Get Em Talking – Studies show that happy customer testimonials are the deciding factor when people decide to do business with a company. Unfortunately, most customers will not leave a review of your business unless they have a negative experience. In order to combat this phenomenon, it’s critical that our contractor marketing strategy has a process in place to get reviews from happy customers. This usually involves simply reaching out and asking.
Search Engine Optimization Strategies & Opportunities
Search engine optimization or SEO is the process of optimizing both on-site and off-site factors to appear at the top of Google search engine results. The actual process is very technical but involves the keywords and backlinks from related websites. Studies show that appearing at the top of the Google search results is the most effective way to consistently drive new client leads and customers to your website. Unfortunately for most engaging in DIY search engine optimization is beyond the scope of their expertise and will most likely need to be outsourced to professionals. Hiring a professional search engine optimization company is usually a significant investment, but when done properly can produce a great return on investment.
The Top Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Secrets For General Contractors
If you’re looking for SEO services for your business, my agency Oregon Web Solutions would be happy to give you a no-obligation estimate and price quote. If you’re interested in learning more just fill out the contact form at the bottom of this article.
Why Contractors Fail To Successfully Market & Promote Their Companies
The Construction industry is a labor-intensive occupation. It involves a ton of paperwork, numerous legal requirements, and complex management and coordination services. All this gets in the way of marketing. However, considering all the opportunities popping up in real estate, as well as the rising competition, contractor marketing is now simply indispensable.
Unsurprisingly, most general contractors do not know how to handle their marketing. This comprehensive marketing guide will get you up to date on the most effective strategies for your marketing.
Contractor and construction businesses, by their very nature, are labor-intensive and marketing is usually the last thing considered.
Between giving quotes, going on jobs, completing jobs, and acquiring new customers, there seems to be little to no time to plan out a solid marketing strategy that can increase your reach to potential customers while engaging your current customers.
While contracting and construction businesses operate differently from other businesses, a planned and well-researched marketing strategy is still imperative to your business’ success and should be at the core of every effort to connect with new customers and grow your business.
Why Marketing In The Construction Industry Is Different
Marketing in the general contracting and construction industry is slightly different from marketing for other business types.
One advantage of being a general contractor is that you can get before and after pictures from your clients in order to promote the quality and success of your work. This is part of what will help you properly Market in the construction industry. It doesn’t just help you with gaining new clients, it can also help you with partnerships when it comes to referrals from other businesses or creating an affiliate program with other businesses who are in a complementary industry.
Best Advertising Strategy For General Contractors
There are many options that contractors have when it comes to advertising. One of the best ways is by getting a website and getting your business and information online. It’s important to remember that a website alone will not just bring in new business for your company. In order for your website to be found by potential customers, you must optimize it for the keywords that your customers are searching for. This process is called on-site search engine optimization.
Another good option for contractors to advertise their business is by going to trade shows. There are many options that you can choose from when it comes to attending a trade show and getting a booth at one. But, what you want to remember is that not all trade shows are created equal. It’s important to ask questions as far as the cost of the booth in relation to how much foot traffic will be coming through the trade show. If you find that the trade show seems to have more speakers on their stage than attendees who are walking through it, then it may not be the best option for your business at this moment.
Paid advertising strategies can also be an effective form of marketing. Paid advertising includes things like Facebook Ads, website retargeting, Google PPC, and any other paid advertising platforms. It’s important to note that before you spend money on paid advertising strategies you make sure you have sufficient knowledge on the advertising medium, and strategy you are looking to execute. Paid ads have a higher level of risk because you can spend a lot of money very quickly with very little results if you’re not familiar with the advertising platform.
Google My Business Listing Construction Industry Best Practices
To set up the Google My Business Listing for your General contracting business, visit Google.com/Business
while logged into a Gmail account. This will take you through a series of steps that will help you properly set up and optimize your Google My Business listing. The most important thing is to fill out your profile completely with all the information that’s available to you. This means adding your name, address, phone number, hours of operation, website URL, and any other relevant information. Next, go into the photos section and add as many photos as you can to your profile. By filling out the profile completely you are giving your business an advantage over the competition. Finally, take the time to get as many 5-star customer reviews as possible using the strategies outlined below.
Social Proof & 5-Star Customer Reviews
The best way to convert potential clients into paying customers is to leverage the power of social proof and customer reviews. Getting reviews from happy customers usually involves reaching out and making the process simple for them. There’s a number of useful tools on the market today that you can utilize to make this process easier. One of which is a review tool called Grade.us. Grade.us will allow you to send a link to clients that will take them through a simple process for leaving you’re a review online. The reviews can be posted on a number of different review sites including Google, Yelp, Facebook, and a number of others. The tool also allows you to screen potentially harmful reviews and send the customer to a questionnaire where you can solicit information about why they were not happy about your services. If you’d like more information on Grade.us you can watch the video.
How To Automate Customer Reviews
How To Get a Direct Link To Your Google My Business Listing
If you prefer to manually build 5-star reviews to your Google My Business Listing then it’s important to send a direct link to your customers. The goal is to limit the amount of work and friction in order to have the maximum amount of customers follow through and actually leave the review. I’ve created a video to give you a step by step guide in finding a direct link to your Google My Business listing.
Contractor Marketing Strategies That Get Results
Remember that marketing strategies for general contractors are not just about having a good website or nice business cards. The best strategies include a holistic approach that includes all aspects of marketing your business.
In the marketing world, there is a saying that it takes approximately 7 touches for a person to see an advertisement to have a response and sign up for the service that they viewed through your advertisements. This is just an estimate and it could take more or less depending on the effectiveness of your advertising.
With that in mind, it’s important to make sure that your contractor marketing strategy is considering all aspects of your business in any way, shape, or form that people may come across it.
Things like your logo, a wrap design for your company vehicle, flyers and signage that you use when you’re handing out information in the community. All of these are part of a smart strategy and should be well planned and executed before you move on to the next stage – using other outlets to Market your business.
Social Media Marketing For Construction Companies
One of the key strategies in marketing your business will be the proper use of social media through both organic posting and advertising.
Organic social media posting is a great way to keep your business “top of mind” for your potential clients. This form of social media promotion can be labor and time-intensive, but when done correctly can result in a steady stream of new customers for your business. Facebook and Instagram and constantly adjusting their algorithm to make it harder to reach your customers organically, so you will have to think outside the box to effectively promote your business. The best strategies usually include providing value or even giving things away for free, in exchange for likes, shares, and comments from your followers. Social media marketing strategies that rely entirely on self-promotion will usually fail because your engagement will be little or non-existent. It’s important to think of your social media promotions not as a direct sales tactic, but instead a long-term branding initiative.
Online ads and paid advertising, when done properly, can increase your business significantly. It’s important to remember that using ads online as a contracting company should be done with great care and planning. If you’ve never worked with social media ads before, then it’s imperative to hire a professional who has worked with an online advertising campaign within the contractor industry. The best-paid social media marketing campaigns leverage high-quality content that fits the medium and channels that it will be delivered to the audience. For example, platforms like Instagram are strictly phone-based, to your paid advertising should fit within the aspect ratio and specification with which your audience will consume it. On the other hand, YouTube is watched primarily on computers and in a wide aspect ratio, therefore wide versions of videos work best. In order to be effective with your paid advertising, it’s best to pick a platform that will work best to promote your business and focus the majority of your advertising spend there. I always advise contractors to go deep on one platform rather than using a shotgun approach on multiple platforms.
How to Use Instagram To Promote Your Contracting Business
Instagram is one of the most popular social networks and is still growing quickly. The nature of construction is it is very visual, making it the perfect tool for contractors to promote their business. Plus, Instagram is still one of the few social networks that you can get significant organic reach without having to pay for advertising, and that’s why I recommend it for marketing. In the video below I show you step by step how to use Instagram to promote your business.
Instagram Marketing Strategy For Contractors
New & Innovative Construction Marketing Ideas
Successful marketing campaigns always include out of the box thinking. In order to promote your construction business to a wider audience, you could use email marketing, video content, and personalize interviews with past customers. Most of these strategies will be beyond the scope of what your competitors are doing and will set your business apartment. Of the three outside the box marketing strategies discussed above, past customer interviews will no-doubt be the most effective.
These are some ways that contracting companies are using in order to promote their business in a new way. As we move along in this article, you will see more ideas to utilize in your new marketing plan.
Marketing your company is not hard, but it should be planned and thought out thoroughly. Use some of these suggestions, do your research, and understand what direction will work best for your business.
How To Use Branding To Make Your Construction Company Stand Out
There are thousands of contractors in the construction industry, but only a handful really stands out in the busy marketplace. Branding is the key differentiating factor between those who succeed long-term and those that fail.
Your branding campaign is the face of your business. It is what your clients identify with. It represents your business’ virtues, beliefs, and so much more. Consequently,
it is also a pivot point for any marketing strategy. As such, it is prudent to begin by building the ideal brand for your business. You will need to take several factors into consideration including an image that represents your business, a motto to go with it, values and virtues that you stand for, and more. You should also take a personal brand into consideration if you are an independent contractor.
How To Get A Great Logo On A Budget
Your logo is the most important part of your overall branding campaign. The logo you choose will be the visual representation of your business to your customers and the sub-contractors you work with. There are no hard and fast rules for logo design except to pick a logo and stick with it. It’s important to not fall into the trap of constantly changing your logo because this will only confuse your potential clients and erase the majority of the branding work you have done previously. One strategy I like to use for logo design is to mimic the color and look of popular logos that already exist within your industry. For example, you could use the same color yellow as the Dewalt power tools. This color is already associated with construction and will make your logo recognizable almost instantly in the mind of your potential customers. If you’re on a budget and you’re looking to get your logo done at a reasonable price, then watch this video for some quick and easy tips to getting a high-quality logo designed at an affordable price.
How To Design a Contractor Logo On a Budget
Final Thoughts On Contractor Branding
Your audience will identify better with your brand more than it will identify with you or just simply a business name. Great branding can make you stand out in a busy marketplace and will instill a sense of trust in your customers. Once your logo is designed it is important to prominently display your brand identity on all your marketing material. There are many different ways to promote your brand including vehicle wraps, custom shirts, hats, business cards, and more. Utilize your logo anywhere you can and make sure your branding is consistent across all advertising platforms both physical and virtual. When properly executed, branding will help drive more leads and customers to your business.
Marketing Summary
In the digital era, most businesses have found a way to make revenue online. The construction industry is an exception because it is entirely physical. However, smart contractors can still use the internet to market their services. The construction industry includes a wide variety of different trades including general contractors, electricians, plumbers, roofers, gutters, HVAC, concrete, foundations, tile layers, cabinet makers, and many more. All of these trades can benefit from a complete and robust digital marketing strategy. To effectively promote your business online follow the below framework.
Build a Stylish and Functional WordPress Website
When you decide to get a website for your contracting business, you will want to choose a WordPress website design company that can help you build a stylish and functional WordPress website. This will help you rank better in Google search and give clients a place to learn more about your business and the services you provide.
Every professional business needs a website – it is like your very own entry in a vast virtual directory. Your website speaks for your business. You can use it to list the products and services you offer in a detailed manner. It can also function as a receptionist whereby your clients can hire your services directly through the website.
It is not enough to just get a website – you will need a website that outranks your competitors’ websites. As such, ensure that you get the best web design services for your website and utilize the best SEO strategies to ensure that you rank at the top of search results.
Leverage Organic and Paid Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is a great way to keep your brand “top of mind” to your prospective customers. In this article we’ve discussed both paid and organic social media marketing strategies that will help your business grow. Remember, social media is rapidly growing and changing. In a way, it is taking over communication. Billions of people around the world communicate on social media sites such as Facebook, and Twitter every day. For marketers, this creates an opportunity to meet large audiences at scalable levels starting with small localities on a global basis.
Marketing your construction business on social media is no different than any other type of business. The key is to provide value to your potential customers so when they decide to make a purchase, your business is the one they go with. By using the advanced targeting systems available to you on Facebook and Instagram, you can target your audience precisely at the exact moment they are ready to make a purchase. Finally, it is an interactive way to market as your audience can offer honest feedback, thus helping you modify and improve your products and services.
You will need professional social media pages for your construction business on all major social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. It is also advisable to hire professional social media marketing services for more successful leads.
Setup and Optimize Your Google My Business Listing
Google My Business listing is the most important asset you have when it comes to local marketing. The majority of people searching for contractors on the local level will click on a Google My Business listing first, before navigating to a website or contractor directory. It’s important to not only set up your Google My Business but to completely fill out your profile and make sure you have 5-star reviews. All of these factors will be taken into consideration in Google’s algorithm when deciding your search positioning.
Use Video Marketing To Stand Out From Your Competition
A majority of people would prefer watching a video based on a book to actually reading the book. The same is the case with adverts nowadays – video adverts are more popular than written pieces. They are much more engaging and illustrative. Additionally, they can be fun and enjoyable, thus helping generate more leads. What’s more, you do not have to pay astronomical fees to have your videos featured on TV – you always have video sharing sites such as YouTube.
YouTube gets billions of visitors every day, so your video ads will get great exposure. What’s more, YouTube offers a wide range of features such as geo-targeting, so you can get the most out of your marketing efforts. Another way to utilize video marketing is to get video testimonials of happy customers. These provide positive social proof for your brand and will help you stand out in a busy construction marketplace.
Give Back To Your Community To Promote Your Business
As mentioned earlier, construction is entirely physical. In fact, it can be described as dirty. To this end, there is no better way to showcase your skills than by getting your hands dirty by building things for free. That’s right, utilize your unique skillset by volunteering in your community when the need arises.
Construction makes up a significant part of the public infrastructure, and it is usually never enough. To this end, your services may be needed in upcoming charity events. As such, be on the lookout and volunteer for any charity events in your area that will require your services. Make sure that you make your presence known by doing an excellent job.
This way you can help nurture confidence and trust in your business from members of your community and get more leads. Besides, you have a moral obligation to contribute to the embitterment of your community as a (potential) business leader. If you’re a painting contractor you could help paint your local youth center or library for no charge. If you’re a contractor you could help build a shed or a kids playground. Find unique ways to use your talent to give back to your community and it will pay big dividends in the long run.
Engage in Strategic Partnerships to Promote Your Construction Company
Everyone needs some help to get by especially in an industry as competitive as construction. Considering the nature of this industry, your partnerships should be strategic. Experts recommend partnering with interested third-parties who are not in competition with you. For instance, you can partner with materials suppliers and have them spread the word about your services to their customers. Essentially, make strategic partnerships with other businesses also looking for partnerships and have something to bring to the table. You can also go the extra mile to combine forces with other contractors if your pool of resources is not enough – major construction companies are merging and putting smaller contractors out of business in the process.
Final Thoughts On Contractor Marketing
There are numerous opportunities to exploit in the construction industry. However, most of these opportunities are only accessible to the few who successfully engage in marketing. As such, take some time off your busy schedule to come up with the ideal marketing strategy for your business. The tips in this guide have been tested and proven to work optimally and will put you ahead of the competition.
Contractor Marketing Online Training Course
If you’re a contractor who would like to learn how to do their own marketing then we have the perfect resource for you. We’ve put together the ultimate DIY contractor marketing training that gives you step by step instruction in all aspects of marketing including website design, Google My Business, branding, advertising, and more. The training course includes over 50 video training modules. This training is perfect for the business owner, spouse, or even marketing manager to use to be more effective with their marketing efforts.
