In the growing construction industry today, marketing has become one of the most essential tools to succeed. Construction companies can do it all right, from material and labor management to construction planning. However, at the end of the day, the business requires a strong selling point for customers to choose it. This is the purpose of a great marketing strategy.
Getting your business out to the right people in the right way is the key to any company’s success. A lot of businesses are already investing in advertising. However, marketing is a lot more than just advertisements. It consists of many small marketing aspects that need to work together in order to be truly useful. The right way to reach the right people is to develop a marketing strategy for your construction business.
A marketing strategy for a construction business is like a blueprint for a building. Can a building be constructed without a blueprint? Most likely not. Similarly, your construction business would not function at its best potential without a solid marketing strategy in place. Wondering how to develop that perfect marketing strategy? We’ve got you covered. Read on to understand the benefits that a marketing plan brings and the best ways to put one together.
Benefits of a Marketing Strategy for a Construction Business
A clear, thorough, and feasible marketing strategy can help your business flourish like never before. Regardless of how your business operates, it can only get better with a marketing strategy in place. Before developing a marketing strategy for your construction business, it is good to understand the positives of having one. After all, every task you undertake needs to have some value to your business.
Here are some of the benefits that your business can enjoy when you have a marketing plan.
- Utilizing a marketing strategy, you can increase your construction brand’s visibility among your target audience.
- Build strong credibility for your company in the construction industry, making it a reliable partner of choice.
- Understand your target audience better and focus on their specific needs.
- Generate trust, and thereby loyalty, not just among current clients but potential customers too.
- Position your construction company as an expert authority in the industry.
- Generate more traffic to your site, creating and therefore converting more leads.
- Create lasting relationships with your clients by opening communication channels through social networks.
- Create awareness for your brand. The more people who recognize your construction business, the more interest in partnering with you.
- Save time and money when your business is following a well-thought-out plan.
These are just to name a few of the advantages. Your business can soar to greater heights with the right plan. Let’s now look at some important stages involved in building the right marketing strategy for your construction business.
Define your purpose
Every construction business operates with the purpose of achieving certain objectives. For a marketing strategy to be effective, its basis should be strong and well-defined. Think about what goals your construction business needs to accomplish using marketing. It could be anything from expanding the business to grow your revenue streams. The marketing strategy for your construction business will be tailored towards the objective you choose.
It’s important to remember that your goal has to be realistic and measurable. Using the ‘SMART’ approach is one of the best ways to ensure this. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
- Specific – avoid vague objectives like ‘improve sales’, or ‘grow my business’. Delve deep into the initial assessment and identify a clear, specific, goal. For example, what markets you want your business to grow in, or what sales areas you want to focus on.
- Measurable – add numbers to your goal to measure its progress. If you want to improve sales in a specific market, define the percentage you want to grow. Add dates, amounts, counts, etc. to make it measurable.
- Attainable – is your business capable of achieving the goal you’ve set? Consider your existing resources, the monetary aspects, and other such factors to understand if your goal is doable.
- Relevant – keep the objective relevant to the direction you want your business to take.
- Time-bound – set a deadline, simple as that. Analyze your objectives to figure out how much time it should ideally take to get there. Add some leeway for contingencies, and this will be your deadline. Having a target end-date will keep you focused on the goal and bring a sense of urgency to reach it.
A smart goal is key in getting the marketing strategy for your construction business headed in the right direction.
Evaluate your company’s strengths and weaknesses
Next comes a deep-dive into your construction business itself. To develop a marketing strategy that works, you need to really understand your construction business inside and out. Look at past performance, research your records, get feedback from existing clients, and understand your business thoroughly. Identify what you’re really good at – those are the strengths that help your business grow. What needs to be improved? Identifying weaknesses is really important in order to develop a plan to handle them.
Your marketing strategy should focus on the areas of your business that enable profitable activities. At the same time, weak areas need some of the focus to ensure they don’t adversely affect the high-functioning parts. A good marketing plan improves on already great areas, while simultaneously boosting parts of your business that are lagging behind.
Additionally, another way to identify your strengths and weaknesses is to compare your business with others in the market. Competitors are always a good benchmark to access your position with customers. What are you doing differently to draw customers to your business? Likewise, what is your competitor doing that makes them a better option for customers? These are some of the questions to ask yourself in order to get a better understanding of your company. This, in turn, helps to develop a marketing strategy that works well with your business.
Understand your customer
All the marketing plans that your business makes are eventually aimed at one thing – your target audience. As such, planning your marketing strategy depends heavily on really understanding your customer type. This may be different in the various market segments your business is catering to.
So, what exactly is a target audience? These are the people who are most likely to partner with your construction business. The ones who want to utilize the service or product that your business is offering. If your construction business caters to different sectors like commercial, residential, industrial, etc., this target audience changes with each one.
Each type of customer looks for different things in a construction company. A homeowner may be looking for a company that provides detailed planning and interactions. Similarly, a commercial developer may be looking to partner with a construction business that can handle heavy workloads. Whatever the requirement, your marketing strategy should identify it and plan to market it accordingly.
Understand the market and the competition
Research and analysis are the pillars of any successful marketing campaign. Market research is the next important step to developing a solid marketing strategy for your construction business. The construction industry, your competitors, the market situation, are factors that have an impact on your marketing plan.
There are 3 ways in which you can gather data on the market and your competitors.
- Existing data – utilize existing information from sources like the internet, internal records, and connections in the industry.
- Fieldwork – set up survey systems to gather information from people in the industry itself. There are numerous online tools available to help with this type of research.
- Hire an agency – you can also outsource your market research to professional agencies. They will provide in-depth market analysis and studies for a price.
Additionally, assess the competition by comparing your business to some of your closest competitors. Compare your pricing plans and service quality. Are your competitors able to provide better quality at lower rates? If so, what are they doing differently? Understanding the kind of marketing strategies that they use also helps in improving your own marketing plan.
Arrive at a sound marketing budget
Financial planning is another crucial element in the marketing strategy for your construction business. If not planned right, marketing budgets can negatively impact your business performance. Spend too little and your business may not reach enough customers; spend too much and it could lead to losses. Arriving at the right amount is not tough, it just needs analysis and understanding of what you want to achieve.
There are several factors to consider before arriving at your marketing budget. Answer these questions to get a starting point in your budget planning.
- What marketing channels do you want to include in your marketing strategy?
- Do you need to hire an additional workforce to handle marketing activities?
- Does your existing staff have the capability to manage the marketing plan?
- Are you looking to utilize free marketing tools or paid channels such as Facebook advertising?
- How many different market segments do you intend to target?
- How long are you planning to run each marketing channel you choose?
The answers to these questions will give you an idea of the financial burden to expect. Additionally, the type of construction business you own will also have an impact on the monetary aspect. Small scale construction companies more often than not focus on local or niche market segments. This reduces the marketing budget since there’s no requirement for large-scale advertising. However, construction firms operating in multiple domains and markets will need to have a more comprehensive budget.
Tie it all together
At this point, we have defined your construction company’s purpose, strengths, weaknesses, target audience, markets, competition, and budget. Now comes the ‘strategic’ part of building your marketing strategy! All these are individual components of the marketing strategy for your construction business, which need to be combined cohesively.
Here are some tips to keep in mind when you develop your marketing strategy
- Focus on growing construction sectors when choosing your markets. More growth means more business.
- If your construction business offers specialized skills, focus on those niche markets more. There may be fewer competitors in niche sectors, thereby allowing your business to become experts in that area.
- Highlight innovative designs and techniques that your business uses in your construction work. Make your marketing plan stand out from the competition in every way possible.
- Build an effective communication channel with both existing and potential clients using your marketing tools. The more you interact with them, the more trust you build. Make your brand real and relatable by maintaining a connection.
- Keep your profile, website, and social media accounts up-to-date. These aspects form the face of your business and are the first point of contact for potential customers. Add engaging content emphasizing your company’s track record, specializations, niche skills, etc.
- Document the marketing strategy for your construction business as a well-defined, clear, and trackable source.
Use these tools and tips to develop your marketing strategy into an effective one.
Develop your marketing plan now!
Now that you know how to develop a marketing strategy for your construction business, get started! An effective marketing plan is a key factor in growing or expanding your business. For success in the long run, it’s important not to underestimate the importance of marketing. Getting the marketing plan right is even more essential.
Although developing a marketing strategy is not easy, it’s important to spend adequate time and resources to get it right. Moreover, your marketing strategy need not be a fixed source. As your business grows and starts enjoying its benefits, additional insights can help tweak it for future use.
Finally, don’t forget to monitor your marketing strategy regularly. Keep doing what works well for your business and learn from the plans that don’t work out. Don’t hesitate to experiment with your marketing plan as it progresses. In today’s fast-paced, evolving construction world, things can change at a moment’s notice. Stay in tune with the latest trends and make changes to your marketing strategy accordingly.