For a lot of contractors, marketing is just another thing on an already long to-do list. It’s easy to push aside in favor of more immediate issues on job sites or in the back office. The problem with this mindset is that it paints construction marketing as a nice-to-have if you’ve got the time, instead of the necessity it really is.
A good marketing strategy ensures your pipeline stays full and that new jobs are easier to close, which helps you scale and take on more of the right kind of projects for your business. Thankfully, you don’t need a big budget or a marketing degree to get the ball rolling. Below you’ll find everything you need to know about marketing for construction companies.
Key Takeaways
- Construction has a perception problem. Homeowners and corporate firms don’t tend to trust contractors. The right marketing tactics help address this by building your brand’s reputation and overcoming key objections at the start.
- If you don’t have time for anything else, focus on creating a strong brand identity and website. Then, you can create a Google My Business account and choose a social media platform to focus on. You don’t need a big marketing team to make an impact - you just have to start.
- If you have trouble, remember that marketing is all about association. What do you want your brand to be known for? If you can answer this question, the rest becomes much easier.
The Biggest Marketing Challenges Construction Companies Face
From supply chain issues to project delays, construction companies deal with plenty of challenges. On top of that, the construction industry as a whole has a serious perception problem. A lot of owners don’t trust the companies they hire to build for them, either because of bad past experiences, or because they don’t understand the processes that go into a construction project. Either way, that negative perception can make it harder to find solid work.
This is why your construction company needs a good marketing strategy. Marketing lets you set the terms for how you want people to find and interact with your business, not the other way around. Think of it this way: Instead of sitting back and hoping people start talking about and recommending your business, marketing lets you take an active role in promoting your business and finding potential clients.
This doesn’t mean word-of-mouth referrals aren’t important. They definitely are, but they can only take you so far, and they’re tough to scale. You could spend a week knocking on a hundred doors. You might get one or two bites if you’re lucky, but you have to sink a lot of time into getting those bites. Using digital resources to supplement your boots on the ground approach not only gives those word-of-mouth referrals a way to look you up, but it also enables you to scale. This is because digital marketing gives you more avenues for “one-to-many” marketing strategies. One-to-many communication is as if you’ve been given a stage in front of a hundred people to speak to instead of a personal conversation with one person. The trick is, you still need that personal one-to-one communication to close the deal, but introducing ways where you can reach hundreds of people first helps get the right people into your funnel, so you’re only spending time talking to leads that are interested in your services (versus knocking on a 100 doors of people you don’t know much about).
A good construction marketing strategy means you get to enjoy scalability + consistency. Once you’ve laid a good foundation, people will begin to consistently recognize your brand and reach out. All you have to do then is maintain it - so you spend less time knocking on doors and more time building your business.
4 Pillars of Construction Marketing
Trust us - it’s easy to get into the weeds when it comes to construction marketing. Before you go down the rabbit hole of ppc campaigns and conversion rates, we recommend spending time on these four things first:
Branding
What do Coca-Cola, Nike, and Apple all have in common? Even if you don’t buy their products, these brands are instantly recognizable. And whether you love it or hate it, high-quality branding can be the difference between standing out and blending in.
Your branding is usually the first thing potential customers notice about your company (and it’s often what they remember most). The more “brand awareness” you have, the more people will recognize you.
In my area there’s a large, commercial landscaping company that is widely known. They all drive the same color trucks, with the same branding, and their employees wear the same things, so I always know what company is working on a project before I even read their name.
There’s power in this because I don’t need to read their name to know it’s them. I just see that mint green truck sitting outside a housing development and I think “Oh those guys do the landscaping for that community.” Not only can I see their work right there, I can also associate their company with a certain type/quality of job. I might think “Oh, they get hired to work on the nicer properties in our area” and start to associate them with a certain tier of work. The point is, it takes me less than 5 seconds to glean all that information about them because they’ve built a recognizable brand.
Your branding doesn’t have to be flashy or perfect, and you don’t need a huge marketing budget to nail it down. Good, simple branding just takes time and consistency. If you chose orange and black as your primary colors in your logo, make sure you use those same colors on your website, on your equipment, and on your team’s shirts.
If you have trouble picking your logo, colors, font, etc, take a step back and ask yourself: What do I want people to think of my brand?
Whether you want to be known as a no-frills jack of all trades or a luxurious custom home builder, the right branding should match how you want to be perceived by your audience. Are you goofy or serious? Do you serve high-end customers or the everyday man. These questions will help you design a brand that stands out and appeals to the customers you want.
Website
Now that you’ve defined some consistent branding, you need to stake your claim on some digital space. Before you go all-in with matching company vans, make sure you build an online presence with a company website. A website makes it easier for new clients to find you and vet you before reaching out, and at a minimum, your website can give people an idea of what to expect from you and your business.
This goes back to the idea of building trust. Your customer base isn’t going to hire the first construction firm that pops up on Google. People want to get to know your business first. A clean, professional website won’t be enough to build trust alone, but it does create legitimacy.
If it helps, you can think of your company’s website as your “digital business card”. At the very least, you should have a standalone web page (called a landing page) that includes:
- Your business name and logo
- Contact information, including your phone number and business email
- A short blurb about your company
Keep that landing page active while you work on building a bigger website. The next phase of your website should include more valuable content for prospective leads, like:
- Photos and videos of previous work
- Customer testimonials
- Project case studies
- An inside look into your process
- Blogs, videos or other marketing materials that showcase what types of client you want to work with and how your company approaches your work
- A contact form for people to reach out (double check that all inquiries actually route to your email so you can follow up!)
A few last website marketing tips to keep in mind: When you’re building your website, make sure you’re consistent in the colors and branding you use. People should know it’s your company’s site at a glance, just like you would know a John Deere tractor before you ever see their logo. (Who can miss that iconic green and yellow color scheme?)
You should also make sure your website follows basic search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines so Google knows to serve your site up in search results to relevant users. Here’s a quick guide to get you started.
Social Media
Once you’ve got a working website, the next step in your marketing plan should be to explore social media. Social media marketing sometimes gets a bad rap, but it’s an incredibly powerful lead generation and marketing tool for small businesses today.
Because there are so many, we recommend starting with just one social media platform and going as deep as you can with it. This helps you focus on the kind of content that will succeed on that platform, build a solid audience, and really hone in your process before you expand. Here’s a rundown of some of the most popular platforms and the type of content you’ll find on them:
LinkedIn - Great for contractors who have a more commercial audience who spends time on Linkedin.
Facebook - The OG marketing channel for sharing photos, videos, and thoughts with your local community. For smaller contractors, prospects will often check your Facebook page to see your work and get a behind the scenes look at how you perform that work. Facebook also has local groups where people will recommend contractors to other locals looking to start a project.
Instagram - A place for short videos and pictures that offers a behind-the-scenes look at your company and current projects. Instagram is great for when you have a lot of visuals that can come across well in video.
TikTok - The go-to for creative video marketing that has potential to reach a wide audience. Videos here are short and satisfying (think about things like timelapses of drywall going up or painting). “ASMR” type videos are a big trend on Tiktok for contractors.
So why bother with social media? Google is getting crowded, and more than ever people are choosing to search for products and services on social media instead. People naturally love buying from other people. By pairing your website with a social media presence, you can build even more trust, and make sure your business is visible on the platform(s) people are actually using. When done well, this can drive more organic traffic (and prequalified leads) back to your website.
One of the nice things about social media is that it’s an incredibly cost-effective digital marketing strategy (read: free!). The opportunities to help your business stand out are endless. First and foremost, it’s a great place to post up-to-date photos and descriptions of your current projects. This is another vote of confidence for prospects because they can see your handiwork and the process behind it just by scrolling through your page.
Other construction marketing ideas for social media you can try:
- Behind-the-scenes video content showing how a project is built
- Customer testimonials (free Canva templates make these easy to put together)
- Before and after photos of a build
- Partnerships or giveaways with other local businesses
Pro tip: When you make a post, try and talk about some of the details you pay attention to. This can help educate your audience and build more confidence in their minds. For instance, if you’re building a deck, you could take a photo during the process of joist tape being laid down on the joists and talk about how this extra step helps weather-proof the deck and increase its longevity.
At the end of the day, remember that social media isn’t all about the number of subscribers you have - it’s about serving relevant content to your prospects. If you ever need inspiration, try stepping into their shoes and imagining what kind of content you’d want to see from a contractor.
Google My Business & Local Search
Finally, we can’t talk about marketing for construction companies without mentioning the importance of local search. If you’re operating within a specific town, region, or city, you need to show up in local search. Think, “plumbers near me”, “pizza near Austin, TX”, etc. This means that when people in your community search for a contractor, you’re more likely to show up.
Like we mentioned earlier, SEO helps people find your business. But unlike big chains, smaller businesses need SEO that’s more specific. This is called local SEO. One of the easiest ways to start to show up in local SEO results is to enter your business in a directory like Google My Business. Creating a Google My Business profile with your logo, photos, and company information allows you to show up on Google/Google Maps when people search for companies like you. It also lets you collect reviews straight on your profile, which are one of the first things people will see when you pop up on search. Here’s a guide to optimizing your digital presence for SEO
Once you’re all set on Google, you can add your business information to other local directories like Yelp and Yellow Pages too. And if you have a little extra marketing budget, you can create Google Ads that will show your business to more folks. We could write a whole article on paid advertising, but basically, Google Ads lets you build custom marketing campaigns where you pay-per-click on your ad. Don’t feel like you need to start here though. Focus on the basics first.
Wrapping Up
Marketing for construction companies doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive. What it does need to be is consistent. Once you’ve got the basics down, you can let new customers come to you, so you can put your focus back into doing great work.