What are some good ideas to help market a construction company?

[HowdyHoNeighbor]

I'm interviewing for a marketing position with a construction company. I have a few ideas for marketing, but I've never worked with a construction company before, the target audience is so different. Anyone have some ideas? I would be very very appreciative!! I've been researching all morning but curious to know more!!

[daogcolonel]

depending on the central location of the company it may be useful to get in some local Chamber of Commerce in the surrounding areas, ofcourse a strong online presence is a must as the modern consumer/construction company customer consults the web today for way more resources than we have in the past, hope that helps

[loudpickle170]

Depending on the company, lead generation likely will be the hottest topic in marketing. Branding may come second - depending on the size of the company, how established they are, and the person you're interviewing's thoughts on branding vs lead generation

For lead generation, there are many great sources for marketing a construction company. here's a few thoughts:

- Online - 3rd party lead providers. Company's such as ServiceMagic,com, RenovationExperts.com, Contractor.com - provide performance-based "pay per lead" marketing services. These are a great source to get instant results, and only pay for the leads generated.

- Online - Pay Per Click advertising can be, by far, one of the best sources of advertising any construction company can do. You simply bid to advertise on words that relate to your business, and only pay each time a person clicks on an ad to go to your website. If your website converts the visitors into leads, it can be very cost effective.

- Online - Search Engine Optimization - ranking organically for the keywords related to your business can bring massive results. It's a full-time gig and requires a bit of time to "build up steam and results", but the payoff can be monstrous. It's a good thing to include in the mid-to-long term plan, but expect a delay of 3-6 months before you see the big results from the efforts.

As you can tell, I'm a big advocate of online marketing for construction companies.

Offline, here's some other sources that can work well for lead generation:

- newspaper ads
- Magazine advertisements
- yellow page ads
- trade shows/builder shows/fairs
- direct mail/coupon mailers

For the branding push, these typically work best:

- Radio
- Television

As a wrap-up, if the company deal mainly with the residential market, social media approaches are typically not my biggest recommendation. Think about it. When's the last time you went onto FaceBook looking for someone to replace your siding? Additionally, since most construction companies are not a "residual"-based sale (where the customer buys multiple times), staying in front of existing customers from this approach doesn't give much value.

Social media can be very valuable, however, for networking and connecting with professional contacts that you could partner with. For example, if engineers refer work to the company, you could connect with engineers on the social media sites, build report, and give yourself the opportunity to earn their referrals.

Hope this helps. If you like the answer, give it a thumbs up!