Marketing should be seen as your construction company’s strategic plan to maximize strengths and downplay weaknesses. It’s also a way to identify where your company has a competitive advantage, assess which markets to focus on and understand demographics.
To achieve these goals and help your business grow, your company must take a few simple steps to develop a construction marketing plan.
Create a marketing objective
Most projects start with some type of objective. Marketing’s no different. Setting one will help you craft your company’s market. Ask yourself this question: What should the goal be of your marketing efforts? A solid marketing plan must start with a measurable objective that you can compare your results against.
Perform a SWOT analysis
A SWOT analysis can help you create your marketing plan while providing a clearer perspective of the industry landscape in your area.
- Strengths: What does your company do best? Where does your company have a competitive advantage?
- Weaknesses: Where does your company need improvement? Where are you at a competitive disadvantage to other companies? Are you lacking key team members or processes?
- Opportunities: Where do you see opportunities? What services could you begin to provide as add-ons that would be natural/logical for your business? What areas are competitors weak in where your company is strong?
- Threats: What market conditions are posing a challenge to your business? Are some of your business processes in danger of being replaced by new technologies? If so, are you developing strategies to counteract the changes? What other problems exist (financial, economical, etc.)?
Analyze the current market
Your construction team should ask themselves: What opportunities align most closely with the objective that you set? Where does your firm have a competitive advantage? Does this area of strength align with your strategy? In some cases, your company’s strengths won’t necessarily fit into your initial marketing objective. Don’t be afraid to adjust your objective accordingly. Always compete in the areas where your company’s already strong and has the advantage. These should also be areas where you see the potential for growth.
This doesn’t mean you should dismiss potential areas where your company lacks an advantage. Your goal should be to develop an advantage as quickly as possible. That’s unless the cost and barriers for entry are too high for it to be logical.
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Create a marketing budget
We’ve all heard the saying about spending money to make money. That definitely isn’t easy for many companies to do. Start by considering the platforms you want to focus on and go from there. You must set a solid dollar figure you’re willing to spend and develop the mix within your budget. It’s also important to consider some additional budget questions. If your marketing efforts work, do you have enough staff to cover additional work? Is your company able to hire more staff if necessary?
Develop a strategy to market your construction company
Once you have completed the other steps, it’s time to determine the platforms that you will take to achieve your objective. Your construction company’s website is a strong sales tool, so make sure it’s easy to use for customers. Consider making the most of your marketing dollars by creating engaging content on social media channels. You can also invest in video marketing. Remember to analyze your target market often and make the necessary adjustments to fine-tune your campaign.
Monitor the results
Look back on the objective you made at the beginning of this process. Take stock of how much progress you’ve made with the strategies and tactics you’ve used. Maybe even try getting some feedback from clients and make any necessary adjustments from there.
Creating a marketing plan for your construction company in itself won’t magically bring results. But a well-constructed, thoughtful marketing plan will help you allocate resources most efficiently and earn new business in markets where you have a competitive advantage.
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