In the construction industry, we are not always concerned about the latest tricks when it comes to marketing and advertising, but this could be letting us down as business owners. I recently spoke to serial entrepreneur, and specialist in construction industry marketing, Michaela Wain. She has a lot of experience with digital marketing, especially for the construction industry, and spoke about the most important areas in digital marketing for your business.
Michaela mentioned that the construction industry is far behind when it comes to digital marketing. If you look at some construction companies’ web presence, you will find unprofessional websites that are really underperforming. However, it is so important to get this right for your business. Your website is the foundation for all digital marketing, and so it’s vital to invest in it as it will give you a lot in return.
What can you do to improve your digital presence?
When it comes to digital presence we can break it down into three key areas:
- The copy, or writing that you have on your website
The images and look that you have on your website
Your social media presence and engagement
By focusing on these three areas you can improve your reach online and attract more clients to your business.
Copy on your website
Humans are generally attracted to problem and solution scenarios, and that’s how everything should be written and structured on your website. A lot of businesses make the mistake of just talking about themselves on their website, but by using problem and solution language it will be much more appealing and inviting for your clients.
Try not to make things too complicated. For ranking on search engines, you need 150 key words planted around the pages, but don’t make any of the pages too wordy. Most people nowadays won’t spend hours reading through information that could actually be better communicated with images or a few key paragraphs.
One great thing to add to your homepage are client testimonials. They can be really powerful and could mean the difference between a client going with you or a competitor. Ask a client who was happy with your service to answer a few questions:
- What was their problem?
- What solution were they looking for?
- Why did they choose you?
- Would they recommend you?
Consumers and customers naturally trust each other more than the service provider. Using the answers to these questions you can create a story that will help you to establish credibility and stand out on your homepage.
The look of your website
When people land on your site it needs to be visually appealing. The colours of the website need to be cohesive with the branding and the cleaner and clearer the content the better. Make sure you have your logo on your page, and it can also be useful to have a “Trusted by” section with a collection of businesses or clients you work with. This can be another way to add to your credibility, so show off the top businesses you have done work with.
One way to get contact information and leads for potential clients is to offer them something of value for free. These could be tips and tricks from you the expert, for example Ten tips for kitchen design if that’s your trade. Calculators also perform really well on trades websites so talk to your website developer and see what they can implement on your site.
You have to continue to work on your website to engage with your audience. Have frequent blog posts, and if this is not your cup of tea then there are plenty of copywriting experts who you could get to do this. Also remember when you set up a website, it will be 6-12 months to see any of your targets being met, so be patient.
What about social media?
Social media really does work, and whether you like it personally or not it will bring you incoming leads. While posting on social media can be frustrating for people, Hootsuite is a great platform that you can use to plan out your posts. All you need to do is schedule it and then it will do the hard work for you. When you have posted make sure you reply to people as soon as you can to increase engagement. You can also bring in your community and reach out to them on your social media platforms, you don’t have to wait for them to come to you.
The social media channel you choose really depends on where you think you will find your customers. It can be a good idea to use a few different ones to speak to different demographics, plus when you have the content you can put it across the board with little effort. It’s important on all these platforms to engage when you are genuinely interested.
Follow people on all platforms (Linked in, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and SnapChat) and after a couple of weeks liking posts and commenting, you can send a direct message and reach out to them.
It may take a little bit of time to get these areas of marketing set up and working optimally for you, but it is well worth the time. We don’t want to stay in the past in the construction industry and digital marketing is becoming more and more of a necessity to scale up our businesses. To keep up to date with the latest strategies to help you grow your business make sure you join the Construction Trade Accelerator Facebook group.
