Construction Marketing: 10 Strategies to Build Your Business

1. Enhance your website

• Make your website mobile-friendly

• Show your company's total picture

Today’s customers want to find what they need online, and quickly. As 85% of people in the United States now own a smartphone, according to Pew Research, mobile optimization should remain a top marketing tactic.

Your construction company’s website should load quickly and offer an easy-to-navigate menu with your company name, phone number, and contact information prominently displayed. Display quality photos of your work and consider including video content, whether of stellar projects or customer testimonials. Make your reviews easy to find and provide social media links, so potential customers can see what sets your general contractor company apart from the competition.

By improving your construction company’s website and online presence, you can establish brand awareness and build trust.

2. Automate email marketing

• Know your audience and message

• Streamline your email campaigns

Email marketing remains one of the most effective marketing tools for businesses. Statistics show segmented email marketing campaigns drive as much as a 760% increase in revenue—proving email becomes even more effective when you target your message to a specific customer base.

ServiceTitan's Marketing Pro streamlines your efforts by automating your email marketing campaigns based on customer data, so you can send the right message to your target audience at the right time.

“It’s taking your broad audience and applying criteria to it in a way to narrow it down, so whatever message you’re sending out is very relevant and resonates with the audience you are creating,” says ServiceTitan Strategic Project Manager Heather Donaldson.

Think about what you are trying to get from the customer before you hit send, says Megan Bedford, owner of Mugyver Consulting, in a ServiceTitan webinar about using email marketing to drive leads. If you can’t answer that question, don’t send the email.

3. Invest in online advertising

• Use Google Local Services Ads

• Consider pay-per-click (PPC) ads to increase visibility

In today's digital age, if your construction company isn't at the top of a Google search, you may miss out on potential new clients. Make sure you update your Google My Business listing with your company's phone number, address, hours, reviews, and a link to your website. 

For even greater reach, use Google Local Services Ads to put your company’s name at the top for customers in your service area, above other pay-per-click (PPC) ads and organic searches. It also increases convenience for your customers, as 60% of smartphone users have contacted a business directly using search results, such as the “click-to-call” option.

“If people don’t have a frequent need (for your services), they’re going to Google and they’re searching,” Bedford says. “Are you found there when your customers are actually looking? Local Services Ads, pay-per-click advertising, your reviews—those are the kinds of things that can get you customers, or potential customers.”

4. Employ local SEO strategies

• Attain a higher search ranking

• Generate more website traffic

There’s a reason local search engine optimization (SEO) comes up in online marketing strategies—because it works. Considering 97% of search engine users looked online to find a local business, construction firms who prioritize local SEO likely will obtain a higher search ranking and generate more traffic to their website.

Find out what your customers search for online, and home in on local, relevant keywords for the best search results. If your business has multiple physical locations, create landing pages for each one. Use content marketing, whether in the form of fresh blog content or construction project videos, to generate interest in your company and its work.

5. Manage your online reputation

• Make a plan for managing reviews

• Use software to streamline customer reviews

Before choosing a builder or contractor, potential customers go online to read what others say. In fact, 87% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses in 2020, according to a consumer review survey.

To properly manage your online reputation, make sure your construction marketing plan includes a strategy for reviews, including your preferred review platform, how to ask customers to leave reviews, and a plan for responding to less-than-stellar reviews.

Travis Ringe, co-founder of Proskill Services in Arizona, knows how to build an online reputation and get top reviews. The company has a five-star rating with nearly 4,900 reviews, and uses ServiceTitan’s built-in survey tool to customize a personal message to ask customers specifically to leave a Google review.

What’s the key to his success? Provide excellent service. “If you want to drive reviews,” Ringe says, “you have to deliver a full experience worthy of writing a review.”

6. Promote through social media

• Enhance your social media marketing strategy

• Post engaging content on key platforms

The more ways you can reach your audience, the better. More than half of the world’s population uses social media, so enhancing your company's social media marketing strategy remains a smart move.

Find out which social media platforms your customers use so you can focus your energy on the ones with the most traffic, and post engaging content on a regular basis. 

When marketing a construction company, think about what your customers want to see, whether it's before-and-after project photos or community-related projects or sponsorships. Consider joining LinkedIn and other networking sites in the construction industry to get your company’s name noticed online.

7. Utilize video marketing

• Increase engagement

• Showcase projects or testimonials

Video remains one of the best ways to capture an audience, and 84% of people were persuaded to buy a product or service by watching a brand's video.

In construction, visual progress at a job site is a powerful tool to show your company's building expertise and diverse project portfolio. Use video to showcase your company's story or capture testimonials from satisfied customers.

Construction videos can be embedded in your company’s website, uploaded to YouTube, or posted to social media. Whatever construction marketing ideas you choose, marketing construction through video can increase brand engagement and conversion rate.

8. Leverage direct mail

• Target your audience

• Automate direct mail campaigns

Since marketers sent out 18% less direct mail in 2020, direct mail could be a good strategy to get noticed. As with any marketing campaign, you should first understand your audience and their needs.

“If you're just creating more noise, you're not going to be very successful in your campaigns,” says Sam Yarborough, Director of Partnerships at PFL, in a ServiceTitan webinar on successful direct mail campaigns. “If you can really reach your audience where they're at and solve problems for them there, that's where you're going to be successful.”

Whether it’s a few postcards or thousands, ServiceTitan's Direct Mail feature allows you to customize templates for professional-looking results and automate your direct mail campaigns to increase lead generation and maximize revenue.

9. Track marketing ROI

• Compare real-time data

• Measure revenue results

An effective construction marketing plan delivers the results you want. Measure the success of your marketing strategies by determining return on investment (ROI) from each marketing campaign.

ServiceTitan streamlines this process by enabling your company to make data-driven decisions so you can focus your marketing dollars on campaigns that generate the most revenue.

Digital marketing consultant Chris Yano, CEO of RYNO Strategic Solutions and co-host of the trade-focused “To the Point” podcast, advises service companies to focus on lead tracking and reporting to measure success.

“You’ve got to know,” Yano says. “You have to know 100 percent where you stand.”

10. Use all-in-one software

• Manage construction projects

• Make data-driven decisions

From managing construction job costing and project cash flow to construction marketing, ServiceTitan Construction & Service Software gives your company the tools it needs to streamline business operations and optimize growth.

“I need to know from search to sale how we’re doing if I’m going to truly know how my team is doing,” Yano says. “This is what you should expect from your agency. It will allow you to make very good decisions. You need facts down to the dollar.”

Save time and money by streamlining your construction company's operations, capturing the data you need to increase revenue and grow.