Guest Author: Anthony Bartell

In the past 10 years, marketing strategies have changed a lot. Establishing an effective and profitable digital marketing strategy for your construction technology business can be the difference between high growth and a bumpy road of trial and error. In this article, we highlight some proven tips for construction technology firms to help build their brand and drive sales.

Benefits of Digital Marketing for Construction Companies

The construction industry is different from other industries due to the size and complexity of the projects. These projects are more demanding now than ever before. In the construction world, sustainability is needed to plan and execute a project. As with any technology firm, you probably don’t have an unlimited budget for marketing so take some tips from experts. It boils down to building up brand awareness, credibility and driving sales.

Showcase Your Best Clients

The right digital marketing strategy will help build a valuable portfolio of clients. Moreover, you can create a persuasive company portfolio, which will help reiterate your client’s capabilities and expertise. Making clients the cornerstone of your campaign to disrupt the market works in construction. Construction companies are risk adverse, so they want to hear from their peers what is working before they are willing to invest time and money with the vendor.

Collect Positive Customer Reviews

Marketing helps businesses advertise their services and keep track of their customer’s level of satisfaction. It will also help gain new customers through social media platforms. Let your customer know how to leave a positive review about your company. Please don’t be shy to ask them for referrals. 

Reach Your Target Audience

A suitable digital marketing strategy will offer you tools to help find new clients and stay relevant to the existing clientele.  You need accurate data (e.g., ZoomInfo or some other source) and determine which platforms will drive brand awareness and sales.

Platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads allow your business to reach interested consumers looking for your company’s services, but Capterra, Software Advice, G2 Crowd, may offer better return on investment for lead generation. Trade Shows are starting to return, it’s time to attend but develop marketing programs to promote your participation.

5 Website Must-Haves to Drive Traffic and Generate Leads 

1. Learn how to generate more traffic to your website, gain more leads, and increase sales.
2. Converting Traffic to Leads – You hardly see construction companies with a well-designed and optimized website. The truth is, you should be putting as much time and effort into your website, as you do your actual store. Your goal is to entice the customer into buying your product. 

3. Your websites visual appeal and relevant content will increase your lead conversion rate. 

4. Monitor Your Website Traffic – Create a digital construction marketing strategy will equip you with tools to monitor your website traffic and analyze the data to help improve your marketing efforts. Free tools such as Google Analytics allow you to do just that!

5. SEO Optimization – SEO optimization helps improve your websites’ visibility. The goal is to improve rankings on search engine searches. The SEO-optimized website will increase your chances to appear in the top results on web searches. This will increase your website traffic which creates opportunities to improve ROI,

Types Of Marketing For Construction Companies

Website

Your website is a customer’s first impression of your company.

Did you know people tend to leave a website within 20 seconds of landing on the page? That’s why it is so important to focus on the quality and accessibility of your website. 

You can include interactive features on your construction company’s website, such as furniture or floor planning tools, elevation tools, etc. Providing complementary tools like these will keep website visitors on your page longer which will lead to more customers.

The more you focus on the design of your website, the better impression it has on the customers. You should offer things like guidelines, sample designs, and tutorials on your site. This will help you gain customer trust and loyalty.

SEO in Construction Marketing

Here are three of the most significant benefits of using SEO optimization for marketing your tech company. 

● Higher Search Engine Ranking: Using Keywords and phrases in your content will boost your ranking. According to a report, 50 percent of all clicks go to the top three search engine results.

● Boost Brand Awareness: The customer’s visibility of your construction company increases as your website and other posts appear higher in search results. Moreover, if the consumers like your company, they are more likely to recommend your services. According to a report, 80 percent of people in the U.S. look for personal recommendations before making a purchase. 

● Qualified Leads: SEO optimization ensures that your website attracts the most qualified consumers. SEO helps your company reach your target audience which increases the conversion ratio. This helps you avoid wasting money on traditional marketing strategies that don’t target a specific audience.

Editorial Calendar – Keyword, Content and Funnel

Invest time into keyword research – this helps you create relevant content by using trending topics and words related to the construction industry. Once you have identified keywords, create and editorial calendar and develop different types of content to attract web traffic (Top of Funnel), educate visitors (Middle of the Funnel) on your site and content that gets them to take action (e.g., fill out your demo request).

Consistent messaging across all marketing channels 

• Develop messaging and a brand voice for your firm and products – this may evolve over time as you learn what works (see more tips under content marketing)
• Develop value-props for each product for your target buyer and personas
• Develop a messaging matrix, so you can pull from this master messaging doc into all necessary assets

Local SEO Optimization

Helps you appear on top search results of the customers in your area. Own your backyard! 46 percent of Google searches are for local information, and almost 90 percent of local services call or visit the business within one day. The rule is to add your location keyword into your webpage title and its content. You can register your company on Google Maps, and you can claim free local business listings on Google My Business, Yelp, and Bing. 

Email Marketing

• Allows you to send personalized, targeted content-based emails to your clients as per their needs and interests. 
• You can categorize your clients by location, lead status, etc., then send information that might pique their interest. 
• Email marketing is a cost-effective method.

Email Marketing Tips

• Compile a contact list that fits your Ideal Customer Profile
• Come up with interesting subject lines and A/B Test
• Make sure the customer knows who the email is coming from
• Do not spam customers
• Include links to your website and other pages to make it easy for the customer to follow your company

Video Marketing

Video marketing will upgrade your marketing strategy. It will help target a large market and deliver information in the most effective manner. 

According to a report, consumers remember 95 percent of a message delivered via video while retaining only 10 percent of what they read. In addition, visitors time page increases a staggering 85%. You can use video marketing in the following ways:

• Live Video 
• Video Tutorials
• Create Time Lapse videos
• Video Snippets (30 sec – 5 min) depending on the type of web page
• Make videos of your satisfied clients and use them to your advantage. 90 percent of clients use a service because they saw a positive video about that business. 

Persona-Driven Content Marketing

Content marketing helps your construction company improve your organic search engine results and increase website traffic.

Content marketing and SEO optimization collaborate to increase the clicks on your website, increase lead generation and increase sales conversion. 

Tips for creating exciting content are: 

• Create content on current trends, exciting news, and innovation in the construction industry
• In-depth reviews of a project or technology
• DIY tutorials
• Stay consistent with your content throughout all platforms
• Do not shoot for sales right away.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing can be done at little to no cost. You need to find the right platform.

Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter may work better for you if you’re into B2B construction. On the other hand, if you are into B2C construction (e.g., residential), you may want to target clients looking to build a house using Facebook or Instagram. 

You can use social media to post content and create videos to communicate with your target audience. Moreover, you can customize your pages based on income, location, profession, age, etc.

Conclusion

If you are a construction technology firm looking to find a marketing partner to develop a digital marketing strategy or assets, let Peritus Marketing help you. We are experts in construction marketing and executing successful marketing strategies.