Creating a marketing plan for your construction company or specialty contracting company may seem like a reasonably straightforward task at first:
- You make the plan, similar to designing the blueprint.
- You strategize how you’re going to execute the plan, similar to gathering the right products and materials.
- You execute the plan, similar to installing framing, floors, and drywall.
- You evaluate the campaign’s performance, similar to completing periodic building inspections.
- You adjust the plan whenever necessary, similar to repainting, replacing the roof, or performing other necessary maintenance.
But just like it can happen with a construction project, marketing plans can fall off track and out of scope without the right tools or knowledge for how to market your company.
You know that the average person should not pick up a hammer and start nailing boards together without any past construction experience. Why? Because some sort of disaster is bound to strike during and after the build. In that same vein, a construction company should not attempt to market its business without a deep understanding of why marketing for your company matters and what it takes to create, execute, and track an effective, strategic marketing plan.
Today, let’s walk through the ins and outs of construction marketing and marketing for specialty construction companies like yours.
Why Market Your Construction Company in the First Place?
You may wonder what the point of marketing is for your construction company. Your clients know who you are, and word of mouth is a fairly common standard in an industry like construction and specialty contracting. Is marketing for your business really necessary?
It may sound biased coming from us, but the objective answer is yes. Marketing should be a necessary part of your overall business plan for your construction company, so long as you want your company to stand out, grow, and thrive.
Marketing Promotes Your Ability to Sell a Vision
Generally speaking, construction companies or specialty contacting companies like yours seem the same at first glance. Whether you head up a small team or operate a big firm, chances are that what separates you from your direct competitors is your team’s breadth of experience in the construction industry. The rest of your selling points are likely the same as everyone else’s: Professional, honest, trustworthy, driven by quality, and other generic values props.
What is it that you do so differently and so well that potential clients would be drawn to choose your company over everyone else?
The answer is your ability to harness and execute your clients’ visions.
A construction project or a specialty contracting project is a major investment, and clients do not take their decision-making lightly when choosing the team to bring their vision to life. If you can sell your ability to harness a vision and execute the project so that the vision is met, you’re better positioned to win over new clients, win bids, fill your schedules, grow your client base, and improve your bottom line.
Through the right marketing strategies, especially an online portfolio, you can communicate this vital component of your construction services, attracting more leads and taking advantage of more business-growing opportunities.
Marketing Simplifies the Complexity of Construction
There is a lot that goes into the sales process, the pre-construction phase, the construction phase, and the final touches once a construction project is complete. To outsiders, it can be hard to grasp the intricacies of it all. To construction pros, it can be hard to explain everything without overwhelming the client or general audience.
Well-executed marketing strategies and tactics help bridge these gaps. Marketing takes complex concepts and ideas and forms easy-to-follow messaging that gets needed points across to the right audiences.
Marketing Guides You Toward Your Goals
What goals do you have for your company? Do you want to see your client base increase? Your bottom line to improve? Your cash flow become more steady? Your service area grow? Your brand recognition and reputation improve?
Then you need marketing. Technically, you could achieve these goals without a marketing plan, but it would take a really. long. time. to reach the growth and expansion you want to see. Marketing—effective marketing, complete with a strategized plan—expedites the goal-chasing process and yields positive results on a much faster and more desirable timeline.
Goals, Goals, Goals
Before you dive too deep into your marketing, understand that you can’t just throw a plan together and figuratively press “go.” Your marketing absolutely MUST reflect the goals you are hoping to achieve through your plan, which requires some pretty deep thinking.
How to Set Goals for Your Construction or Specialty Contracting Business
- Start with a deep understanding of your audience. Your audience will affect your growth in the near and distant future. If your audience isn’t turning to your company for your services, there will be no improved bottom line, increased revenue, or business growth. Reach them by developing a deep understanding of who they are, where they are, and what messages best speak to them.
- Keep your clients front of mind, not your revenue: When setting your goals, stay focused on your clients rather than your money and numbers. Your clients will request your service and benefit from your work. If your goals are client-driven or at least client-focused, increased profits and leads will follow.
- Brainstorm with trusted team members: Pull in other leadership members, your marketing team, and anyone else who can contribute positively to your brainstorming session and nail down what it is you want your company to achieve this year. Ask yourselves how much you want your revenue to increase, which types of construction projects you want to do more of, how many new clients you want to gain, etc. When forming your brainstorming team, keep in mind that it’s almost always more productive to have a team that’s small but sharp rather than one that is large but dull.
How to Set SMART Goals for Your Construction or Specialty Contracting Business
No matter what goals you and your brainstorming team decide on, the next step is to make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
- Specific: Each of your goals needs to be specific. Saying that you want to “build more” is not a good goal—it’s too vague. But saying, “Our company wants to increase our client base by 15% within the year,” is a specific goal that you can definitely go after.
- Measurable: The only way to track your efforts and see if you’re working toward reaching your goal is to ensure it is measurable. Saying, “We want to increase our client base by 15% before the end of the year” allows you to follow the numbers from now until your deadline and see how close or far you are from hitting that goal.
- Attainable: There’s nothing more discouraging than setting an impossible goal and then trying to work toward it. Setting goals that are inherently out of reach is defeating and pointless. For instance, saying you want to “increase your client base by 200% before the end of the year” is setting you and your team up for failure. Lowering that to a more reasonable percentage will still give you something to strive for that can be within reach with the right efforts and strategies.
- Relevant: No matter what your goals are, they must be relevant to your business. A goal of leisurely travel sounds fun, but that’s for your personal planning—it’s not relevant to your business endeavors.
- Time-bound, or timely: Your goals have to have a deadline. Otherwise, they are not specific enough or measurable. After all, without a target date, you have no way of determining whether something has been successful or not. Deadlines allow you to track progress and pivot/make strategy changes that set you back on course to achieving your goals if your current efforts aren’t cutting it.
For more about why and how to think through goals and develop a marketing plan, check out our Definitive Guide to Creating a Marketing Plan.
Common Misconceptions and Facts About Construction Marketing
Construction companies and specialty contractors operate in a much different way from those in more traditionally marketed, consumer-facing industries or markets. As a result, creating a marketing plan becomes less straightforward than it may be for other companies.
Let’s take a look at some of the misconceptions that those in construction and specialty construction face when it comes to marketing.
Misconception #1: “Our Selling Methods and Long Sales Cycles Make Marketing Unnecessary”
When we think of a sale, we typically picture a consumer buying a product or service from a company and receiving that product or service either immediately or soon after the sale is finalized. But it’s a little different in construction and specialty contracting. Actually, it’s a lot different.
There are several key stages in the construction sales cycle, including:
- Capturing leads/prospects
- Receiving the opportunity to bid or provide a quote
- Winning the bid or scoring the accepted quote
- Prequalifying to ensure you have the resources and manpower for the job
- Evaluating the project and the materials required to complete the job
- Creating the estimate and proposal
- Following up with the client as many times as needed to land the deal
- Landing the deal
- Beginning the months- or sometimes years-long project until construction is completed
On the surface, marketing is about increasing brand recognition, capturing attention from leads, converting leads into clients, and increasing sales for a company. And all of that is fairly straightforward for your typical B2C or B2B company:
- The company has a product and/or service to sell.
- The consumer needs or wants the product and/or service.
- Marketing makes the consumer aware of the brand, product, and/or service.
- The consumer approaches the company for the product and/or service.
But in construction, where sales cycles can last months at a time, and the selling process is more complex, marketing can seem like a waste of time and money, or at least something with an ROI that is too difficult to track.
The Facts: Marketing Is Valuable for Growing Your Business
Sure, tracking your marketing efforts against long sales cycles and complex selling processes can be difficult. But strategic, effective marketing can boost your brand’s visibility within your industry, help you stand out from competitors in your service area(s), lead to lucrative sales with new clients, and more.
Both digital and traditional advertising techniques [link to section] are valuable to growing your construction or specialty contracting business, landing more sales, and producing work that your clients can brag about.
Misconception #2: “Word of Mouth Is the Only Form of Marketing That Matters in the Construction Industry”
Word of mouth is a powerful marketing tool among contractors or specialty contracting companies, just like it is for any company. After all, people trust the people they trust. In fact, approximately 88% of consumers trust recommendations provided by people they know. If friends, family, peers, or colleagues recommend a product or service to someone, there’s a high likelihood that the person will choose the company that the product or service comes from.
In the construction industry, specifically, construction companies and contractors rely heavily on word-of-mouth marketing because it is so effective at building relationships with clients, opening the door for new opportunities, and paving the way toward fostering more relationships.
Companies with strong brand recognition in their industry and solid relationships with clients don’t always see the point in investing in other marketing solutions.
The Facts: Word-of-Mouth Marketing Limits Your Growth Potential
If the only type of marketing your company relies on is word-of-mouth marketing, you are only going to get referrals. However, there are so many other potential leads you could capture and convert into clients through effective and strategic marketing.
Just a few examples include:
- Website and business listings: Clients and their trusted circles use Google and other search engines to research the companies they are interested in partnering with. If you have an SEO-optimized, user-friendly website, optimized listings, and/or another valuable online presence, you could land a lucrative project.
- Search engine marketing (SEM): Again, people turn to Google or Bing to look for solutions. If a client performs a relevant Google search and your ad appears at the top of page 1, that increases your brand exposure and increases the likelihood of the client reaching out or possibly choosing your company in a bid.
- Social media: Clients and their trusted circles are on social media—if a potential client or someone the client trusts comes across your brand online, it could lead to a new sale for your business.
Word of mouth can only take you so far. Additional marketing for your construction company can help you expand within your market and grow your business.
Misconception #3: “Branding Doesn’t Matter, Only the Work”
Every business has a brand, even if the business hasn’t put much thought into it. Whether you have a logo and brand colors or not, your name, reputation, services, and customer experiences all play a part in defining your brand and how your audience sees you.
Many in construction and specialty contracting believe that their work alone defines who they are and separates them from the competition. Why would they need unnecessary branding services like a logo, brand colors, or brand voice?
The Facts: Consistent Branding Is Crucial to Your Construction Business
People are naturally drawn to appealing designs, attractive colors, a strong brand voice, and other branding elements that are consistent with one another. Clients who encounter a poorly thought-out brand with an unattractive logo and an odd brand voice will likely bypass the company for another that has all the qualities consumers want from a brand.
If your branding elements are not optimized, your brand voice is not fleshed out, and the overall brand you’re known and recognized for is more negative than it is positive, you can produce exceptional work all day long, but you’re still setting your company up for limited growth potential.
Marketing Strategies to Overcome Construction and Specialty Contracting Challenges
Forget the misconceptions—your construction marketing matters. Regardless of whether you’re a general contractor or a large firm, your marketing efforts are essential to generating leads, converting leads into sales, and getting projects on the schedule.
With the right strategies in place, you can experience numerous benefits from your marketing, including:
- Brand exposure and recognition, leading to an increase in new leads and customers
- Better performance against competitors
- More trust in your company from and more recognition of your authority by others in the construction industry
- Better position to expand into new service areas, target new audiences, and grow business
Effective strategies can involve traditional and digital advertising tactics for your construction business.
Effective Traditional Advertising Options for Construction Marketing
Traditional advertising is highly effective for marketing construction businesses and specialty contracting companies. Consider incorporating these traditional advertising tactics into your marketing plan:
Billboards and OOH Signage
Billboards and OOH (out-of-home) signage allow you to display your name and branding elements for potential clients and their referral sources to see. When well-placed, these ads increase brand recognition within your service areas and attract new customers to your company.
Print Ads
Print ads in magazines, newspapers, programs, bulletins, and more can be highly effective at further increasing brand recognition and brand recall among your audience. If you know the types of publications potential clients or their referral sources are likely to engage with, you can optimize your chances of reaching the right audience and growing your customer base.
Direct Mail Marketing
Send well-designed and personalized letters, postcards, flyers, and more directly to your audience through direct mail marketing. Through these pieces, you can show your audience exactly who you are and what you can offer to the potential clients you are targeting.
Trade Show Marketing
There are many home shows and trade shows you can participate in to boost your brand and land leads. Deck your booth out with branded tablecloths, banners, A-frame signs, backdrops, and swag items that potential clients can take with them.
Effective Digital Options for Construction Marketing
If there is one thing to know about this day and age, it’s that people are online. From searching for answers on Google to scrolling through posts and videos on social media, your audience and their referral sources are in a digital space somewhere. Optimizing your digital footprint will ensure you capture audience attention, encourage new leads, and win conversions.
Some digital marketing tactics can include:
Portfolio Website
First and foremost, if your company does not have a website, especially a portfolio website, it’s imperative that you build one.
Your site is the largest piece of online real estate you can have, and optimizing your presence through a well-constructed, SEO-focused website that showcases the work you have done and details the work you can do will allow you to provide effective messaging to the potential customers and referral sources who need to engage with it.
Many competing construction companies or competing contractors in your market have a website to promote their projects and show potential clients what they are capable of. If you are not doing the same thing, you’re likely missing out on profitable projects and beneficial opportunities to land new clients.
In a similar vein, if your website is outdated with old branding, a stale design, old content, and an outdated portfolio, a redesign can update your online presence and begin capturing the attention of the clients interested in your services.
Google Business Profile and Other Listings
Optimizing your local marketing means creating a Google Business Profile (GBP) and utilizing other listing platforms to enhance your presence online.
Google is king when it comes to search engines. When potential clients turn to the internet to research their options, they’re likely to open Google, making your Google Business profile a crucial tool in your digital toolbelt. And even if they use Bing or Yahoo!, effective listings management for your business can optimize the likelihood of your name appearing in their search.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Not to belabor the point, but nearly every internet user out there uses Google or other search engines to find solutions to their queries. In fact, according to a 2024 report, 98% of internet users turn to a search engine at least once a month, the vast majority turning to a search engine much more frequently. In the same report, it was found that Google processes more than 8.5 billion searches a day.
What’s our point? Our point is that your clients are likely using search engines like Google or Bing to find companies like yours or at least research your company to see what kind of work you can do for them.
Search engine marketing helps ensure the right people encounter your brand while conducting relevant searches. More than that, SEM works to encourage potential clients to click on your ad and follow the path of the marketing funnel all the way to signing a contract with your company.
Social Media Marketing
Nearly everyone is on social media in some capacity, from LinkedIn to Facebook. Through social ad strategies and social media management, you can attract audiences to your company profile, increasing your chances of landing new projects.
The beauty of social media marketing is that it is one of the only marketing channels that allows for quick, immediate engagement with your audience. Posts, comments, and direct messages allow you to communicate both publicly and privately with potential clients or referral sources, which can enhance people’s trust in your company and prove your authenticity as a reliable construction company.
When it comes to social media, remember that each social media platform works differently and is most suited for different things. For example, Instagram is a perfect platform for sharing photos of recent construction projects, project progress, and other visuals. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is great for engaging with followers about news, updates, and trends in the construction industry. Facebook, the most popular social media platform out there, is a place where you can reasonably share both.
Why M&R Is Your Construction Marketing Partner in Growth
If all of this sounds overwhelming, we get it. Building a valuable marketing plan can seem as intimidating as it would be if you asked our team to build even a one-story office building. We’ll leave that kind of project to pros like you while our pros do what we do best—market for your company.
Our Experts Know Marketing for Construction
M&R is a boutique marketing firm in Macon, GA, that understands what it takes to target unique audiences like yours and achieve results that drive your construction or specialty contracting business forward. Our copywriters, designers, web developers, and digital strategists have over 200 combined years of experience helping companies establish their brands and carry their multichannel marketing strategies from conception to launch and beyond. Since 2008, we have taken the stress of marketing management away and have given construction clients the tools and solutions needed to enhance communication with their audience and foster relationships with leads that ultimately turn into lucrative construction opportunities.
Our Agency Is Full Service and Fully Engaged
When we design your marketing plan, we only include the services we know will help you gain attention from the right audience and see a valuable ROI. Whatever services we include in your plan, you can bank on the fact that we go all in to create and execute your marketing plan with a results-driven strategy.
While they might not all apply to your company’s needs and goals, our full-service agency provides a complete suite of marketing solutions, including:
- Marketing strategy development
- Brand design and messaging development
- Website design, development, and hosting
- Search engine optimization (SEO) services
- Digital marketing services
- Search engine marketing
- Social media marketing and management
- Business listing management
- Email marketing
- Video marketing
- Traditional marketing services
- Direct mail marketing
- Broadcast advertising
- Billboards
- Print advertising
- Other marketing services
- Graphic Design
- Photography
- Videography
We Rely on Our Proven Process
M&R follows a proven process for managing all your construction marketing needs:
Discover: Before we begin any project, we start with a detailed discovery of your company. We discover your story, values, target market, and goals. Without this vital information, we cannot move forward in good faith.
Strategize: Based on what we discover about your company, we will develop a highly customized strategic marketing solution designed to target your specific needs.
Communicate: We cascade your vision and project goals clearly to the team members assigned to your project(s).
Create: While every step in our proven process requires creativity, this is the point where our creative juices really start flowing as we create and launch your strategic solutions to market.
Evaluate: Launch does not equal complete. We must evaluate performance data after the go-live date to see what’s working, what areas could use improvement, and how to adjust to optimize your marketing efforts.
We Have Designed Marketing Solutions for Companies Like Yours
With more than 17 years in the marketing business, we have helped clients from across all industries maximize their strategies with effective marketing. Those we’ve served in the construction and specialty contracting sector include:
- Abbeville Commissioning
- AfterCare Restoration
- Alan Frank Roofing
- Allstate Construction
- ASP Pools
- BHE Openings
- BTBB Architects | Planners
- BTV Systems
- Buckland Paving
- Craft Cottage Builders
- DIM Landscaping
- Dixie Lawn and Landscape
- Hang and Maintain
- Hays Systems
- HHNT Environmental Consulting
- JLJ Contractors
- Jones Glass
- Lake Country Pools
- Macon Door and Hardware
- Mid GA Electrical
- Mid State Pools
- Middle GA Turf Solutions
- Overhead Door Company of Macon-Warner Robins
- Pruett Air Conditioning
- Sheridan Construction
- Stokes Scapes
- Versatech
Construction Marketing You Can Build On
Construction and specialty contracting are all about starting with a quality foundation and building from there. At M&R Marketing, we’re all about quality, too. We’re dedicated to designing highly valuable marketing solutions that are custom-built to target the right audience, achieve your company’s goals, and keep your business thriving. And the best part is that our methods allow us to build on what we’ve already established, pivoting when the data calls for it, for even stronger success with your marketing efforts.
Ready to Build Your Construction Company Up Even More Within Your Market? Call M&R Marketing at 478-621-4491 to Get Started.
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