Marketing is a key part of running a construction company, even though it may be one of the tasks people rarely associate with the industry. Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that every business, no matter what it does, must have a well-planned and executed marketing campaign in order to remain competitive. If you don’t market yourself correctly, no one will know your company exists. Marketing isn’t something you can just make up on the spot, either. It takes a carefully crafted plan to market yourself in the right manner. Here are some tools and tips to help you create a strategic marketing plan for your construction company.
Set Your Objective
Before you can design a great marketing plan, you need to decide what your goal is. Many people would say they want to bring in more money or grow their customer base, but those goals are fairly vague. They’re tough to measure. Your goals need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time-related.
For example, instead of saying you want to bring in more customers, your goal may be to increase your customer base by a minimum of 10 percent over a six-month period by running monthly ads in a local newspaper and a local magazine. This is specific and gives you a measurable goal. You will be able to tell in six months if your marketing plan was successful or not.
Self-Analysis
The next step is to conduct a SWOT analysis of your construction company. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. This analysis will reveal internal and external issues that affect your business. Internally, you’ll determine what your company’s strengths and weaknesses are. Externally, you’ll develop a list of opportunities and threats to your objectives and goals.
How does this affect your marketing plan? By knowing what you do well, you’ll be able to play to your strengths while minimizing the impact of your weaknesses. You’ll also have a clearer picture of what opportunities exist for you to take advantage of and what threats you may face, both now and in the future. You may even be able to create a marketing plan that builds up your weaker areas or neutralizes threats.
Do Your Market Research
Who is your target audience you are trying to attract with your marketing? With a construction company, it could be a number of different people. If you mainly focus on residential builds, you want to market yourself to those looking to purchase a new home. If you’re in commercial construction, you will want to appeal to business owners. You need to know who your target audience is, so you know the best way to reach that audience. You also need to research where these people get their information. Your market research needs to include demographics related to your audience, including their location, age, median income, needs, and likes.
For example, if you’re targeting young, newly married couples who are looking to purchase their first home, you’ll want to make sure your marketing plan includes social media marketing. Your younger audience is much more likely to find you online than notice an ad you put in the local paper.
Determine Your Strategy
Now that you have an objective and understand both your company and your audience, it’s time to build your marketing strategy. The first thing you will want to do is set a budget. While you want to bring in new customers, you don’t want to spend so much that you don’t make a profit in the long run. Your budget needs to be realistic, of course. You may need to a little research here to see what it costs to market your company in the media you’ve chosen.
You also need to determine which platforms you will use, how long your marketing campaign will last, how you’ll measure results, and decide on any other factors that will play a part in the campaign. Will you hire models or actors? Do you need to purchase anything specific? Will you focus on one product or several?
Data, Data, Data
Everything in a marketing campaign runs on data. Without data, you don’t know what to market or who to target. You don’t know which media to use or what type of marketing to focus on. You also can’t evaluate your current campaign or see if you’ve succeeded or not. The data you gather from one marketing campaign can be used to fuel your next one, so it’s vital that you collect as much information as you can. You can have too little data, but you can never have too much.
There’s No Better Time to Start Marketing
Every day you’re not marketing to someone is a day you’re potentially losing a customer. However, it’s essential you don’t simply throw together a marketing campaign and expect results. Instead, you need to carefully craft a strategy using the above tips. In the end, a well-created marketing campaign will help you expand your construction business.
