As the world gets more and more digital every day, the contractors who continue to neglect the shift in society get more and more behind.
The truth is, it’s only going to get more digital from here. As a construction company owner or a construction professional, if you’re not keeping up with the modern way of growing your business…
You’re making a huge mistake.
So, if that’s you and your construction business is lagging behind the times, this article is for you. We’re going to show you exactly how to market your construction business so that you get more leads, more sales, and a longer lasting company.
Let’s dive in.
Invest in Lead Generation Services
First off, lead generation services are a must. Whether you’re a residential contractor or a commercial one, there is no easier way to win jobs than through investing in lead generation, and then cost estimating services to submit accurate bids quickly and effectively.
Some examples of great lead gen sites are:
The BlueBook
Houzz
HomeAdvisor
iSqft
These services expose you to bidding opportunities in your local areas and are the surest way to start having leads pour into your construction company.
Review Based Marketing Services
This is an aspect to marketing that the far majority of contractors seem to look over.
And I don’t blame them.
Before people hire contractors for work, they almost always look for reviews to see if they’re credible and reliable. They don’t want to get blindsided and stuck with a contractor who has a bad track record, and who can blame them?
Contractors are notorious for sometimes being difficult to work with, and people want to work with the opposite.
This is why having a service to handle your reputation is so valuable for your brand as a construction company. It makes you more likely to win jobs because your positive reputation helps speak for you, without any extra sales techniques or follow-up calls.
That’s the power of a great brand.
Local SEO
In case you aren’t sure what SEO is, it’s making sure your website is ranked on Google so that people see it when they look up specific things.
Here’s an example of someone looking up “drywall contractors near me”
Notice how there’s a box with specific people around the area? That’s local SEO. It’s making sure you’re the one everyone in your area sees when they look up your services.
If you’re interested in upping your Local SEO game, then I recommend:
Go on Fiverr, a freelance website for online services.
Look up “local SEO” and click on 5 different people offering “Google Map Citations for Local SEO” services.
Compare their pricing and what they offer (pro tip: don’t be stingy with money here, you often get what you pay for. $175 for an extensive Local SEO campaign can give your business a lot of exposure)
Once you have the service you want to hire, pay for the service and they should be done within a couple days for you to see the results.
Use Social Media to Get Leads (real ones)
There’s good news and bad news with social media, I’m going to start with the bad news.
There is very little organic reach for businesses on Facebook, which in normal English means that if you post things on your business page, it’s very unlikely people will see it as their scrolling through their timeline. Because of this, we’re going to have to pay money if we want to generate business on the world’s largest social media platform.
The good news is that Instagram and LinkedIn have incredible organic reach, and very simple and straightforward networking systems. Plus, advertising on Instagram is almost laughably underpriced.
Since social media has about 38% of the population on Earth consistently using the platforms, there’s a lot of potential clients to market to.
In order to get leads on here, you’re going to position yourself as the authority of your trade in your area. This makes you the go-to when people need to hire someone for a specific job.
It can work for both residential and commercial contractors, so don’t worry if you think “Facebook doesn’t work for your field.”
Here’s how it works.
Instagram + Facebook
Since Facebook owns Instagram, we’re going to blend the two here.
On Instagram, post videos giving advice to contractors, footage of construction projects, pictures with happy clients, anything that would help a potential client. Just remember that your focus should be to give people the most value you can. Once you post content on Instagram, then take that same content and post it to Facebook as well.
Ironically, it’s a well-known phenomenon that the more you tell people how to not use you, the more likely they are to hire you for services. So make the most of that fact.
In order to professionalize the posts with good audio and attractive visuals, consider hiring experts on Fiverr to help you out with that.
Once you have a good amount of posts on your Instagram/Facebook, go on Facebook and create ads out of them to show to potential clients in your area.
Exposure + Great Content = Positive Reputation (more business)
Here on LinkedIn, you’re going to want to prioritize networking with other contractors, developers, and homeowners.
On this platform, you’re going to post similar content to Facebook and Instagram, but with a slightly larger focus on building your personal reputation. This is because LinkedIn is where we’re going to do the bulk of our networking with people and if people recognize you from your content, you’re well you on your way to getting more jobs because of your reputation.
If you want more info on this, then check out this article on social media marketing for construction companies.
Google Ads
This is probably the most powerful marketing strategy for a construction company.
The nature of this business is that people hire you on an “as-needed” basis, so if you can consistently get in front of people when they need you, you’re very likely of at least getting looked into.
That’s where Google Ads come in, you’re essentially paying Google to show up whenever people search up specific terms.
It’s a great way of getting guaranteed exposure to potential clients and getting the opportunity to bid jobs that you can immediately send out to an estimating company so you have an automated system of getting jobs and bidding them.
Conclusion
The goal of marketing a construction company is to build a great reputation around it and making it the “go-to” business to hire when they’re needed.
A great marketing strategy will do exactly that for a construction company and more.
I hope this piece brought you a ton of value, thanks for reading and now go execute!