Many contractors out there have loads of knowledge on the operations side of their construction business, but they tend to fall short on the actual “business” part.
Instead of spending all their time at the job site, contractors need to focus on their sales and one of the most important ways to do that is revamping their advertising.
In this post, we will go over 4 tips on how you can promote your construction business and start winning jobs.
Tip #1: Know the difference between residential and commercial
One important thing to remember is that marketing in construction is unique from other industries. Not only is construction more about personal relationships, your strategy largely depends on the kind of clients you are targeting.
Typically, strategies that generate massive leads such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and lead generation platforms are better for residential because these methods target small clients like homeowners who are using Google and social media to find contractors for smaller jobs.
The advantage with this is that there is less effort in converting leads. However, residential clients don’t offer much more work after the job is finished, making residential advertising more about quantity than quality.
On the other hand, commercial construction is all about quality over quantity…
In commercial, you’re dealing with architectural firms and the representatives of large corporations, so your reputation plays a much bigger role than brand awareness.
How do you increase your reputation? Unfortunately, there’s not really a shortcut to this. It takes networking and people skills to get noticed by bigger clients, who value reliability more than a good price,which is something we have discussed in our articles on construction bidding.
Pro Tip:
A good strategy for networking is organizing meetups or seminars. All it takes is sending out a cold email campaign to nearby contractors that you think would be interested, and you can let your social skills do the rest…
Tip #2: Make the most out of Google
Especially if you are a smaller construction company, most of the traffic you will get will be through search engine results, your Google Business Profile, and your Google Ads, if you decide to use it.
What this all means is that your digital presence is crucial for advertising construction businesses nowadays.
One of the ways this digital presence is seen is through your company’s local SEO, which is essentially how high Google places your business on Google search results pages, in comparison to other businesses in your area.
There are few steps you can take to get started on improving your local SEO on Google:
- Create a good landing page for future ads and traffic
- Organize your Google Business Profile with accurate information and images
- Manage your Google reviews
- Invest in Google Ads (optional)
If you don’t have a web page for your business already, that should definitely be your first step. A good landing page is the most important tool for converting your leads, no matter if your traffic is organic or paid.
After making your website, go to your Google Business Profile and make sure that all your information is up-to-date and you have multiple photos posted for a more professional look.
Lastly, to complete your basic digital profile, you want to make sure to keep up with your reviews. Your business rating is one of your most important metrics, so make sure you remind clients to leave a review and show Google you’re active by replying to reviews.
All of these steps put together will make it much easier for you to be recognized online, which is essential if you are interested in running Google Ad campaigns in the future.
Tip #3: Drop the tools, start shaking hands
Marketing is more than just what you do online, it is also how you present yourself to potential clients. Construction is an industry where word of mouth is one of your greatest assets.
But here’s the problem:
So many contractors find themselves stuck in the day-to-day operations of their business, that they can’t make time to network and build relationships, so their construction sales stagnate.
We have written articles in the past on construction management that go more in-depth on this issue, but the bottom line is that you need to spend less time on the job site and more time meeting with potential clients.
Since construction is an industry notorious for having lots of backstabbing, incompetent contractors, portraying yourself as a trustworthy option to potential clients and giving them your time is one of the most important marketing strategies you can do.
Tip #4: Follow up, follow up
Marketing isn’t just about attracting new clients, it’s also about maintaining your current ones.
An all-to-common mistake that contractors make is not following up with clients after bidding a job. The problem with this is that contractors are missing out on an opportunity to stand out from their competitors.
Every GC and sub alike should make it a habit to call, text, email, or even visit potential clients after the bid is sent and throughout the whole sales process.
Although this tip is more related to sales rather than marketing, it still is one of the best and easiest ways for contractors to increase their leads and to win more jobs.
Pro Tip:
The ways you can reach out to potential clients are known as touch points. There’s four of them: email, text, call, and visit. Due to the mere exposure effect, people prefer options that are more familiar, so remember to hit these touch points and stand out from the crowd.
The Secret to 10X your Construction Business
If you are interested in growing your construction business, I’ve prepared a short training video for you that you can watch for FREE:
In this training, I will show you how you can put your estimating on autopilot and boost your sales to 10X your business in 90 days; step-by-step with a simple copy and paste formula!
Many contractors out there have loads of knowledge on the operations side of their construction business, but they tend to fall short on the actual “business” part.
Instead of spending all their time at the job site, contractors need to focus on their sales and one of the most important ways to do that is revamping their advertising.
In this post, we will go over 4 tips on how you can promote your construction business and start winning jobs.
Tip #1: Know the difference between residential and commercial
One important thing to remember is that marketing in construction is unique from other industries. Not only is construction more about personal relationships, your strategy largely depends on the kind of clients you are targeting.
Typically, strategies that generate massive leads such as Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and lead generation platforms are better for residential because these methods target small clients like homeowners who are using Google and social media to find contractors for smaller jobs.
The advantage with this is that there is less effort in converting leads. However, residential clients don’t offer much more work after the job is finished, making residential advertising more about quantity than quality.
On the other hand, commercial construction is all about quality over quantity…
In commercial, you’re dealing with architectural firms and the representatives of large corporations, so your reputation plays a much bigger role than brand awareness.
How do you increase your reputation? Unfortunately, there’s not really a shortcut to this. It takes networking and people skills to get noticed by bigger clients, who value reliability more than a good price,which is something we have discussed in our articles on construction bidding.
Pro Tip:
A good strategy for networking is organizing meetups or seminars. All it takes is sending out a cold email campaign to nearby contractors that you think would be interested, and you can let your social skills do the rest…
Tip #2: Make the most out of Google
Especially if you are a smaller construction company, most of the traffic you will get will be through search engine results, your Google Business Profile, and your Google Ads, if you decide to use it.
What this all means is that your digital presence is crucial for advertising construction businesses nowadays.
One of the ways this digital presence is seen is through your company’s local SEO, which is essentially how high Google places your business on Google search results pages, in comparison to other businesses in your area.
There are few steps you can take to get started on improving your local SEO on Google:
- Create a good landing page for future ads and traffic
- Organize your Google Business Profile with accurate information and images
- Manage your Google reviews
- Invest in Google Ads (optional)
If you don’t have a web page for your business already, that should definitely be your first step. A good landing page is the most important tool for converting your leads, no matter if your traffic is organic or paid.
After making your website, go to your Google Business Profile and make sure that all your information is up-to-date and you have multiple photos posted for a more professional look.
Lastly, to complete your basic digital profile, you want to make sure to keep up with your reviews. Your business rating is one of your most important metrics, so make sure you remind clients to leave a review and show Google you’re active by replying to reviews.
All of these steps put together will make it much easier for you to be recognized online, which is essential if you are interested in running Google Ad campaigns in the future.
Tip #3: Drop the tools, start shaking hands
Marketing is more than just what you do online, it is also how you present yourself to potential clients. Construction is an industry where word of mouth is one of your greatest assets.
But here’s the problem:
So many contractors find themselves stuck in the day-to-day operations of their business, that they can’t make time to network and build relationships, so their construction sales stagnate.
We have written articles in the past on construction management that go more in-depth on this issue, but the bottom line is that you need to spend less time on the job site and more time meeting with potential clients.
Since construction is an industry notorious for having lots of backstabbing, incompetent contractors, portraying yourself as a trustworthy option to potential clients and giving them your time is one of the most important marketing strategies you can do.
Tip #4: Follow up, follow up
Marketing isn’t just about attracting new clients, it’s also about maintaining your current ones.
An all-to-common mistake that contractors make is not following up with clients after bidding a job. The problem with this is that contractors are missing out on an opportunity to stand out from their competitors.
Every GC and sub alike should make it a habit to call, text, email, or even visit potential clients after the bid is sent and throughout the whole sales process.
Although this tip is more related to sales rather than marketing, it still is one of the best and easiest ways for contractors to increase their leads and to win more jobs.
Pro Tip:
The ways you can reach out to potential clients are known as touch points. There’s four of them: email, text, call, and visit. Due to the mere exposure effect, people prefer options that are more familiar, so remember to hit these touch points and stand out from the crowd.
The Secret to 10X your Construction Business
If you are interested in growing your construction business, I’ve prepared a short training video for you that you can watch for FREE:
In this training, I will show you how you can put your estimating on autopilot and boost your sales to 10X your business in 90 days; step-by-step with a simple copy and paste formula!
