Successful marketing for contractors comes down to three things: Visibility, Trust, and Satisfaction.
The Brutal Fact In Construction Marketing
But first, let’s face a brutal fact:
Everybody in your trade offers the same service.
Sure, maybe your warranty is a little longer, or you offer customization, but for the most part, all construction companies are offering the same thing.
All plumbers fix plumbing, all electricians install wiring, and all home builders build homes.
So how are you going to get customers?
Competing on price is a sure way to kill your profits. What else can be done?
Focus.
You can grow your construction business if you will just focus on The Big Three: Visibility, Trust, and Satisfaction.
Improving Your Company’s Visibility
As Myron Golden is fond of saying, marketing is being ‘findable’ by people who want to buy what you have.
You can never sell to a homeowner who can’t find you. If people do not know you exist, they will not buy from you. It’s that simple.
Whether it’s showing up at the top of Google search results, running online ads, or going door to door, your business must be visible to people who need what you have.
Before you can “Always Be Closing”, you have to “Always Be Visible”!
Building Trust With Homeowners
When a homeowner is looking online for a plumber or a concrete contractor, they may get a dozen different contractors showing up in the search results.
For a homeowner, their challenge is not finding a contractor. It’s finding a contractor they can trust.
They’re looking for any kind of signal that will help them narrow their search. They’ll read customer reviews, research if your company is local to them, and scan your website to get a feel for your company.
All of these factors are trust signals. If you have great reviews, appear local to them, and they like what they see on your website, there’s an excellent chance they’ll contact you.
Throughout the sales process, you need to keep building trust with the homeowner.
After they sign your contract, you’ve won, right?
Not so fast.
Customer Satisfaction: The Key to Faster Growth
Right now you might be thinking, “I thought this was an article about marketing. Why are we talking about customer satisfaction?”
Here’s the thing: Every completed job has the potential to make it easier to get your next customer.
It can also do just the opposite. It can make it harder.
A really happy customer will leave a great online review, and recommend you their friends.
That online review improves your visibility and trust with prospective customers.
That creates a virtuous cycle, where each happy customer helps you get more customers.
The opposite is also true.
A customer who feels like you did shoddy work or cheated them will leave a bad review, and grumble to their friends.
They’ll actually make it harder for you to get your next customer.
You should view every job as a part of your marketing, because it is!
Make an Action Plan: Visibility, Trust, and Satisfaction
Marketing your construction business can feel like a big, complicated project, but it doesn’t need to be. Just focus on improving one thing in each of these three areas every 90 days.
For example, let’s say you have a plumbing company. Here are some action steps you can take:
Visibility
Hire someone to create a Google Ads campaign (or improve the one you already have).
Trust
Set a goal for your receptionist to get 10 new customer reviews every month.
Satisfaction
Use a texting service that automatically keeps customers updated on their tech’s ETA.
Marketing for Contractors: Simplicity Wins
Most great companies are great not because they’re so complex, but because they know how to simplify. Keep your action plan simple, and focus on making regular progress.
Simple but consistent marketing will be absolute jet fuel for your construction company.