Traditional marketing, that bastion of print ads, radio spots, and billboards, isn’t completely obsolete but its horizons are being expanded exponentially by digital or online marketing techniques. The toolbox for marketers has gotten much bigger of late and your competition is embracing it whether you are or not. So are your customers.
Digital marketing, encompassing websites, social media and email is quickly becoming mainstream. If you don’t have your own website by now you are probably out of contention for a number of short lists. If you do have a website but it’s pretty much an electronic brochure you may not fare much better.
Your customers expect you to be online. Your job is to determine where your customers like to get their information and have a presence there. But this doesn’t mean taking a scattershot approach. You still need to begin with a good strategy.
Strategic Thinking
Strategy begins with context, the contractor, and inhabits. This includes the 4 Cs: Company, Competition, Customer, Climate (which includes regulatory enforcement). Your company positions itself according to your context.
Next you form a strategy that will include a vision, a mission, values, objectives, and action plans. Once those are determined you find strategic vehicles, or tactics, to fulfill that strategy. Today’s strategic vehicles include traditional marketing such as print and public addresses as well as digital marketing: social media, online surveys and blogs.
The key to today’s marketing is to align all marketing with your company’s strategic vision and to align your message across channels. You want each channel to carry the same message optimized for that particular channel whether it’s Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or your website. Everything works together to build awareness and generate leads.
Channel 1: Your Website
As noted above, if you don’t have a website, you’re sunk. If you do have a website but it’s just brochure-ware, you’re in trouble and have a lot of work to do. Take a look at your competition; what is their website and digital presence like? Read industry blogs to see where construction is having success online. And don’t forget the website as a recruiting tool; younger workers in particular will pay attention to your website when considering whether to apply.
The website doesn’t have to be all bells and whistles either; simplicity reigns. If your homepage is cluttered your customers may bail rather than stay to make sense of it. Take particular care with these components:
- Keep Everything Skimmable - If you think about your own online viewing habits you will know that users rarely read anything in-depth online.
- Images and Photos - Use the highest resolution and size that will load reasonably quickly through a web browser. It needs to load fast yet be large and sharp enough to render details. Don’t forget many may be looking at this via mobile.
- Captions - Label those images and photos to make representations clear.
- Navigation - Keep It Simple. If the customer can’t find what he needs quickly and without thinking, he will leave.
- Current Information - Keep your site news, blogs, and other materials fresh, both to attract search engines and to let people know you are on top of things.
- A Blog - For education and edification of your customers, not to sell to them. If you are the expert they will come to you. The blog lets you show your expertise.
- Misc. - project bidding tools, client portals and downloadable plans.
Once the site is built and online, start tracking actionable analytics so you can continually update and tweak your site to success. Plus, mobile is a BIG DEAL. Optimize for smartphones and tablets as well as PCs and laptops.
Social Media
Where are your customers when they are online? Meet them where they live, play and work. If a majority spends a lot of time on Facebook, build a presence there. If they like skimming a Twitter-feed, make sure you are there. LinkedIn is a great place for professional engagement.
Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are the big three but Google+ and Pinterest are moving up fast. Youtube is an important channel for videos of projects and how-to as well as a way of distributing company information to your employees. Pinterest is where you can post the gorgeous photos of completed projects.
Take care when building your social media accounts. Have a complete profile.
- Industry and location
- Contact information including names, phone numbers and email address
- Description of your business
- Current profile picture and/or the company logo
These are good points for all social media. Now you concentrate on the strengths of that network. For instance, LinkedIn can help you find new associates, employees or partners. Facebook can act as a second home for your website information. Twitter is great for sharing links and promoting content.
Many social networks will optimize your profile and company pages for mobile as part of the service.
Application
While not strictly marketing tools, applications are available from many support companies such as Autodesk, DeWalt, and John Deere. ConstructionBuisnessOwner.com has a listing of applications you and your employees can use in the field such as calculators, maintenance notifications, and more. Smartphones and tablets can use these apps to access CAD files, cause the phone to act as a laser level, or to create forms to use in the field.
You may even want to put out an app of your own; a tool that helps your ideal customer answer some of those niggling questions before he contacts you.
Before You Go
Read over this post a couple of times; there’s a lot here. But don’t let it overwhelm you. Take it a step, or channel, at a time and you will have your online marketing in place before you know it. Just remember:
- Develop a strategy
- Align your message with the strategy
- Align the message across channels
Present a well-ordered presence online and your customers will see you as an efficient and effective builder.
