Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Construction Businesses

Making your small construction business noticeable in a sea full of big fish can be difficult. You could invest in scaffold wraps, billboards, or banners in your local area, but this can be a costly venture with a minimal return. 

However, these are all safe solutions. And since construction workers are known for their fearlessness, it’s time to consider taking a risk and knocking down that barrier between you and your potential leads. 

Today, we will go over 5 effective marketing strategies that will not only give your business an edge that allows you to compete with others, but will also focus on things that your clients need besides just a construction project!

5 Most Effective Marketing Strategies for Small Construction Businesses

Fearless Business has helped hundreds of companies by implementing effective business and marketing strategies. How do we do it? Well, we simply follow the practices that show the best results. With the following 5, you’ll see rapid growth in client inquiries, and if you want to find out even more, book your free coaching session now! 

Become More Visible on Google

If someone wants to find any kind of information today, they will most probably search for it on Google. And if your small construction business cannot be found on Google with a simple “local construction company” inquiry, well, you’re in trouble. 

You may not have heard about Google’s local services ads, but you’ve definitely seen one before. It’s that one ad that pops-up after you click “Search” with a green “Google Guaranteed" badge, a rating, and a precise location. Does your small construction business have one? No? Let’s change that!

These kinds of Google ads are perfect for construction companies because they give people all of the necessary information in no time. And trust us, it’s easier to set them up than it seems. Here’s how to do it in just 8 simple steps:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account - if you don’t have one yet, this is a perfect opportunity to create one. 
2. Click on "Tools & Settings" and select "Local Service Ads" from the dropdown menu.
3. Click on the "Get Started" button and select your business category.
4. Enter all your business details, including the services your business offers as well as service areas.
5. Set your fixed budget and customise your ad preferences. Note that you decide how much money you want to spend based on how many new leads you want each week. You only have to pay if people contact you due to your ad.
6. Send in your licence, insurance, and background check information to finish the verification process.
7. Wait for Google to review your application (this may take some time, so be patient).
8. Once approved, you can use the Google Ads platform to start getting leads and running your ad campaign.

And it’s not just about the green Google badge; these ads provide much more:

• Increased visibility: Your construction company will get increased exposure to local customers because of Local Service Ads' prominent placement at the top of search engine results pages. With more people seeing your business, you may receive more inquiries and new clients.
• Targeted advertising: These ads narrow down the audience to people who are actively looking for construction services in your area by focusing on certain service areas and categories. Using this method, you may improve your chances of converting leads into paying clients and reach a highly relevant audience.
• Empowered trust: Customers have more faith in businesses advertising on Google since Google validates and screens them before displaying their ads. Customers will be more likely to use your services instead of those of competitors if they have trust in your small construction business, thanks to this verification process.
• Pay-per-lead: You only have to pay for Local Service Ads when a potential client contacts you through the ad. With a pay-per-lead strategy, you can better monitor your advertising budget and assess its effectiveness.
• Transparent user reviews: These ads include customer reviews and ratings, which can positively impact your reputation. Positive reviews attract more customers and will make your construction business stand out from competitors.

Create a Website That’s Both Valuable and User-Friendly

Don’t get us wrong - old school marketing techniques, such as brochures, flyers, and so on, aren’t bad. In fact, they can still bring you new clients, but quality marketing is more about what you have to say than just what you have to show. 

People who are interested in learning more about your business and its offerings will most likely use your website as their initial point of contact. So, it needs to be user-friendly and give consumers what they want. Any prospective customers who see it treated like an old-school brochure will most likely close the tab instantly and say their last goodbyes to you. 

To beat the competition and be the top dog in the online game, you've got to serve up some useful content that'll knock the socks off your audience. They're seekers of knowledge, and your website is the holy grail of answers to all their burning inquiries. 

This is where you start answering questions, and truth be told, there are a lot to answer. Think about these four when building your website:

• Who is my audience? 
• What kind of information do they need?
• What are their pain points?
• How can I help them and direct them towards useful information?

Once you find answers to these questions, you will find it much easier to create an online space that people want to explore, not escape as soon as possible. 

But why do all that? Well, once you build trust after giving people what they need, you will create a relationship with them that makes any lead take action. 

Four Elements That Bring Value to a Website

Your construction business can get a huge leg up on the competition with the help of a well-designed website. Here are four must-haves for any respectable website:

1. A clean design and a menu bar. There is no need to be extra fancy because, most of the time, functionality is more important than looks. Everything a person sees should be easy to digest, and they shouldn’t have trouble navigating your website. That’s why a descriptive navigation tool, like a menu bar, is crucial for people to know where to look for the information they need. 
2. A visible phone number. Construction is one of the few businesses where phone calls are essential. Make it as easy as possible for your leads to get in touch with you by putting your phone number above the fold on your website, linking it to all branded content on other websites and social media, and, naturally, having someone answer and follow up on incoming calls to get the majority of business out of them.
3. Chatbots. Automation can become your best friend once the calls start coming in and your customer service agents can’t answer every single one of them. Chatbots give you a chance to answer the most frequently asked questions through your website without even calling. 

Make a list of these questions and employ a bot that can instantly answer them. This way, your customer service agents will save their energy for making greater deals, and your leads will get the information they need in just a few seconds.

4. Blog. Despite the general public's misconception that construction companies have little to gain from blogging, we hope to prove you wrong. A construction company blog is a clever way to attract new clients and strengthen relationships with existing ones.

In the construction industry, having a blog on your website can encourage leads to get in touch since they learned something from your posts. In addition, having a construction blog can help your site receive more natural, high-quality visitors that will spend more time on your website and therefore remember you. 

Start Posting On Social Media

Would you believe us if we told you that videos about bricklaying have 2.8 billion views on TikTok? You may follow up with: “Why would I even post on TikTok???” Well, the numbers above should be a clear reason why. 

Whether you’re installing natural stone slabs in gardens, building homes, or just demolishing old buildings, literally anything can become social media content. In your industry niche, you can become successful anywhere, from Facebook and LinkedIn all the way to Instagram and TikTok. 

Your target audience is surely already using social media, so you should join them there. Strong and consistent social content can assist in engaging them, increasing brand recognition, and generating leads, which is a smart move that can do wonders for your company.

There is no need to bang your head on a wall to figure out what to post on your social channels. Find inspiration through your blog posts, visualise them into stunning infographics or sleek designs, and lead people to your website in order to find out more about the same topic.  

But there’s a catch with social media - not every piece of content is a well-performing piece of content. 

Post More Videos

Gone are the days of Facebook statuses and boring Instagram posts that have no stories to tell. Video content has taken over all social media platforms, and according to Sprout Social, people remember 95% of the information they see in a video as opposed to just 10% of what they’ve read in a textual post. 

And if you’re a construction worker yourself, there is a big chance you’ve seen at least one of those videos of people building swimming pools and astonishing villas in the wild. Yes, we’re talking about Primitive Survival Tool, and guess what? These guys have 6.27 million subscribers on YouTube. The only secret behind that number is keeping their audience engaged. 

Don’t know what to film? Here are some quick ideas:

• How-to tutorials (especially the bricklaying!)
• Do’s and don'ts on a construction site
• Tools recommendations
• Before and afters of your construction projects
• A day in the field
• Industry news and insights

Another great thing to think about is your employees. Although you’re creating things that are just material, there are people behind those projects. Introducing your audience to your workers can be a great way to implement a more human approach to your work. 

This is especially helpful if you have a charismatic group of people working in your company. A great example that comes to mind is Let’s Get Moving Boys, a moving company that focuses on the daily lives of the guys working for the company. Okay, your company may not have workers that look like magazine cover models, but there certainly are some great people on your team that can:

• Make people laugh. 
• Tell an inspiring story.
• Simply explain stuff to people they didn’t even know they wanted to know. 
• Or just show how things are done at your company. 

Once you have some recognisable faces behind your company’s name, there is a greater chance that customers want to get in touch with you because your brand feels familiar to them. 

Stay SMART

One of the best ways to get everyone on the same page in the construction company is to implement a growth marketing strategy. It's efficient because everybody knows their role and nothing is spent that isn't in line with the company's goals. Identifying and defining your company's success metrics is the first step. Want to increase your sales? Increase your social interactions? Or simply expand? Write it all down. 

Once you define the metrics, set SMART goals based on them. All those objectives should, ideally, pave the way for the ultimate triumph. These goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timely

After that, ensure that all of your additional marketing efforts are in sync with your SMART objectives and your ultimate measure of success. Everything you do to promote your website, social media pages, sponsored Google ads, etc. You name it, and it should definitely match.

Metrics for success or failure are established in the final phase. The best way to keep your team on track is to have frequent check-ins. Therefore, growth marketing will never cease to ensure the uninterrupted development of your business.

Conclusion

So, are you still considering investing in that billboard near the city exit? Truth be told, it may be effective for some, but you will definitely end up missing out on hundreds (maybe even thousands) of leads that you can get just by implementing these 5 effective marketing strategies. 

We hope you put these construction marketing strategies to good use, since we can't wait to see your viral social media content, read your future blogs, and find your small construction business on a local Google listing!