Advertising Methods For Contractors

Like all industries, construction is only as successful as its best marketing plan. Choosing the right blend of marketing channels through which to push your business is crucial to your company’s growth and success. Depending on your services and their needs and goals, the formula of marketing strategies will change. While each channel is strong on its own, the perfect mix is unbeatable. 

 

Advertising Strategies 

Within the realm of marketing, there are various channels to choose from. When it comes to construction specifically, some strategies have proven to be more successful than others. These channels are optimized to match the nature of the construction industry, which involves online research and more specialized search locations.

 

Pay-Per-Click

Pay-per-click (PCC) advertising refers to a type of internet marketing where advertisers pay a sum of money each time their ad is clicked on. Because they are paid for, these ads appear generally at the top of search results when the keyword that they target is searched for. Both Google and Bing offer PPC options, with Google Ads being the largest and most used. While PCC does involve repeatedly spending fees, you only pay when the ad is clicked on. So, because it generated a click, the ad is deemed successful. Well-made PCC ads use engaging content that makes the user want to click,  but also keeps them on the page after the fact. 

 

PCC prices range depending on the keywords that are being targeted. The more competition there is for a specific word, the more expensive it will be. Competition, in this case, refers to the number of times a word is searched on Google or Bing. The more searches it has, the more popular it is. Ideally, you want to focus on keywords that actually relate to your business. The more your services match the intended search, the more likely you are to generate a viable lead. 

 

Social Media

Social media marketing is exactly what it sounds like, it involves using various social platforms to push your business and services. The most important aspect of social media marketing is choosing the right platform to push your ads. You want to target the platform demographics that you believe best match your potential clientele.

 

Social Media Demographics Breakdown

 

• • Facebook: Facebook has 2.7 billion monthly active users, with the main age group being 25-34 (26.3%). The gender split is 44% female and 56% male. While other platforms continue to rise in popularity, Facebook is still the most used and most engaged with. While its main age range is on the younger, statistics show an influx of older people joining the platform.

• • Instagram: Instagram has 1 billion monthly active users, with the main age group being 25-34 (33.1%). The gender split is 57% female and 43% male. Instagram leads in the steadiest growth since its inception. Because Instagram and Facebook are owned by the same parent company, Meta, they share the same ad platform which offers various cross-platform promotional opportunities.

• • LinkedIn: LinkedIn has 738 million monthly active users, with the main age group being 46-55. The gender split is 49% female and 51% male. While LinkedIn statistically caters to an older audience, younger groups are visiting the platform. Because the majority of the active users are higher-educated, higher-earning, and more business-focused, it is an excellent advertising opportunity.

• • Pinterest: Pinterest has 400+ million monthly active users, with the main age group being 30-49. The gender split is 78% female and 22% male. Pinterest has one of the most evident gender predominances, making it a more common platform for products often geared towards women. 

 

Directory Online Marketing Strategy

In the contracting industry, there are online directories that function as an index to search and find potential companies to fulfill project needs. These directories can be divided into two main groups, specialized online directories, and general online directories.

 

• • Specialized: Specialized directories include platforms like Thumbtack, Builder Central, and Angie’s List. As a company offering services, you would sign up with these directories and create a profile that describes what you offer and past work. It is important to be thorough when filling out your profile as users will often skip over those that seem lacking. Encourage your past clients to leave reviews as it helps you appear more reputable.  It is important to note that while often setting up a profile is free, boosting your profile to show up higher when people search usually requires a subscription fee.

• • General: General directories are essentially the online version of YellowPages. Though hardly anyone still used the phone books, they may still opt for the virtual avenue. Either way, it is only beneficial to set up a profile in these more general directories. The more you appear on a google search, the more your company will look both professional and reputable. Additionally, these platforms offer sponsored listings where you can pay for your business to appear more often. 

 

Events To Attend

The event space is one where construction differs from other industries. Event shows are a good place for builders and construction professionals to showcase past work and meet potential clients.

 

• • Trade and home shows: Depending on the types of construction your company does, you may find a lot of value in attending trade and home shows. Before attending an event do your research on who is attending. If you target other businesses as opposed to individuals, look for more commercial venues. If you tend to target individuals, then more personal shows may be your best bet. Additionally, if you work mostly in a certain industry like hospitals or retail, look into potential shows that align with your target audience.

• • Community events: While community events aren’t the most lucrative of business opportunities, they offer value in their own right. Sponsoring a community event is a great way to get your brand presence out there as well as help a local cause. Leads aren’t the only important end goal, pushing your name and services to the public can benefit in the long run and foster results down the line. 

 

Publications

While traditional print marketing may seem like it’s on its way out, online versions are still viable sources. Depending on your target clientele, the publication avenue you choose will vary. Direct mail and regional publications are the two primary categories that your business may fall into. 

 

• • Direct mail: Direct mail refers to what many call email marketing. This option is considered rather successful as it is almost guaranteed that the recipient will see it. You can purchase local mailing lists that fall into your target market or generate your own based on past clients and projects. You can narrow these down by type of work and specific locations.

• • Regional publications: Regional publications are more general than direct mail and are also often less expensive. Most places have publications that go out to the general public and highlight life and work in the area. If you’re targeting location-specific clients, it may be worth your time to put an ad in your local regional publication. While quite a few of these publications are printed, they almost always have an online version as well. 

 

Tips For Boosting Your Online Presence

Online marketing is becoming the core aspect to many advertising strategies. Your brand presence, both online and offline, is incredibly important for growing your business. You want to be reachable, searchable, and reputable. With these three things, your service can rest above the competition.

 

On-Brand, Helpful, High-Performing Website

 

A great website is non negotiable. Your company’s platform should be fast to load, easy to navigate and hold all the necessary information for booking work. Investing in a custom-built website is imperative to get a high-quality site that looks good, loads quickly, and has interactive features that are both useful to you and your potential clients. Perhaps it’s a map pack that highlights your location or a responsive form for those looking to inquire. Whatever it may be, a custom site is the best way to guarantee all your features can be built out.  

Key Elements For a Good Website

 

• • Functional: Good websites function properly in the sense that the flow of the site is intuitive and the clickable aspects are usable. Functional sites need a site map that includes all necessary pages and the key information to be easy to find.
     
  • Clear CTAs: Call to actions (CTAs) are generally buttons that call the user to take a specific action. This can include a “book now” button that leads clients to make an appointment or a “learn more” that leads to an inquiry form. CTAs help users stay on the page and generate potential leads to foster.
  • Optimized for mobile: More and more, most people are doing their web surfing on mobile search applications. It is necessary to build a site that will function properly and look good on a mobile version. If your site is not easily accessed or used on a phone, you may be losing potential customers.
  • Easy to find core information: Core information like location and contact email should be found almost immediately. Most companies opt for placing this type of information in the footer or the header so that it appears on every page. Its exact location, whether it’s at the top or the bottom, is not as important as simply being able to be accessed easily and quickly.
  • Load speed: The more things you add to a site, especially photos and videos, the bigger your site becomes. And the bigger the website, the longer it takes to load. Statistically, sites that are slow to load will get clicked off of and you may lose potential clientele. Custom-built sites that are programmed to your needs can help combat slow load times.
     

• • Reviews: Reputation is everything when it comes to services. While word of mouth is still incredibly important, your online reputation is becoming just as paramount. Most potential clients will look to your online reviews to gauge whether or not your company is worth spending the money on. Online reputation management on platforms such as Yelp, Google Reviews, etc., is worth spending the time and effort. Check in to see where your reputation sits online and if needed, reach out to unhappy or unsatisfied clientele.

• • Commercials: Even as time goes on, television commercials continuously prove to be effective advertising tools. While it is not recommended that you rely on commercials alone, paired with other marketing channels can make for a successful advertising campaign. You want to highlight your unique value proposition. Focus on what makes you better than competitors and why your potential leads should choose you. While this information can be included already on your site, a video provides a visual aspect that some potential clients may respond better to. Though it’s a heavy upfront investment, the long-term results are worth it.

• • SEO work: Search engine optimization (SEO), refers to the process of helping a web page rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP) and generally falls within the digital marketing strategy. When Google is composing the SERP, it crawls through potential web pages and ranks them based on their perceived quality. The higher you rank on the page, the more potential customers will see your company name and thus the more work you may get. Starting a blog on your page is one of the best ways to boost your SEO. Your marketing team can identify keywords in the industry or services in which you specialize, and create content that reflects them. Over time, Google will continue to push your page higher and higher.

Top Ways To Optimize Your Content

• • Cover related questions: Often people search for specific questions to find a piece of information. By identifying these questions and placing them on your site with helpful information, you can rank high in the SERP. Not to mention, you’ll be offering important content in your related field.

• • Keep it updated: Updating your content over time keeps it fresh and timely. This is important as time goes on and searches start to shift slightly in their keywords. By keeping your content updated with the search trends, your page will continue to rank over the competition.

• • Look at the word count: The length of your content is important. Too little information and you won’t be able to compete with other, longer pages. Too much information and your content can be hard to read and people may even potentially click off the page when they can’t find their answers quickly.

• • Keep it easy to read: Content on your page should be easy to read. As a rule-of-thumb, keep your paragraphs short and use headings to segment the piece based on topics. Pass your writing through online editors like Hemingway, to ensure that your sentence length is optimized. 

Conclusion 

Tailoring your marketing strategy to your industry and business is key in crafting the most successful campaigns. Choosing the right channels can take some trial and error, but with proper research you can identify some key spaces to grow your brand awareness and generate potential leads. Marketing is an investment that may not always drive immediate results but holds immense value in the long term.

Construction Industry Website Design

The construction industry, like any other, relies on company awareness to land jobs. Whether it’s word of mouth, reviews on online platforms, or prevalence on the search results page, getting seen and being known is a key factor in growing your business and increasing your work. Having a good-looking and properly functioning website is necessary for establishing an online presence. The more often your site is seen and recognized by potential clients, the more likely you are to generate conversions. 

 

Why a Website?

Well-built websites are part of any effective marketing plan. Similar to social media marketing, they act as a brand awareness tool. Aside from housing important information on your products, services, or business, your site acts as a powerful marketing asset through a variety of features. A construction website design should play into the strengths of your business or specific service, highlighting why your construction company is the one to choose for potential jobs.

 

• • Showcase Work.

    
    For starters, your construction company’s website can act as an online portfolio to showcase past and current projects. This is particularly important for general contractor websites, as their work can span many different industries, from residential to retail. Your previous work reflects a lot of who your company is—your style, caliber of construction, ability to tackle challenging products, and the final product you’re capable of producing. Potential clients in the construction industry are looking for companies that have a record of producing good quality work over and over. People also respond well to images and videos when comparing businesses. A well-built portfolio on your site can help outline your company’s capabilities for future employers.

     

• • Paid Performance.
    

    
    A good site is built to drive conversions. Landing pages are in large part responsible for conversions and should be treated as an important aspect of the site. Landing pages refer to the site page where users are directed when they click on the ad. The first part of driving a lead is developing a good enough ad for them to click on, but from there, a quality landing page is what turns the lead into a client. Well-built landing pages include some of the following features:

     

• • Consistent Branding.
    

    
    Your business’s brand should be kept consistent in all online aspects, including and most importantly the landing page. Because landing pages are usually generated through an external ad, the user should recognize that the landing page and your site are the same business. Whether that’s logo consistency, color consistency, or message consistency, it should be clear that this page is linked to you.

     

• • Visuals.

    
    Enticing pictures and videos are an important strategy to capture the attention of potential clients. A good web design will be both informative and nice to look at. These visual elements should have practical value aside from being just good-looking. Perhaps these images show past work or the videos take you through a company mission statement or a collection of work footage.

     

• • Call-To-Action.
    

    
    Call-to-actions, which we will delve into further down, are a key aspect in generating some sort of click on the landing page. A call-to-action encourages the user to take some sort of action on the landing page. Generally, these are built into landing pages in the form of bright colored or contrasting colored buttons. You want to keep your CTAs to one per page so as to not confuse or overwhelm your potential client.

     

• • Lead Capture Form.
    

    
    Lead capture forms are perhaps the most important part of a landing page. Lead capture forms work to do just that, capture leads. This form generally asks for a few basic pieces of information. This includes name, email, phone number, and a basic blurb on what the person is needing. Depending on the purpose of your lead capture form, you may ask one or two supplemental questions to get a better idea of what this person is looking for. For a construction company, this could look like some descriptive factors on the work they want to be done, the type of project, the size, etc.

     

• • Impact SEO.
    

    
    Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is the process of improving both the quantity and the quality of traffic to a specific website. The more traffic that sees your construction website, the more likely it is that these page views will turn into conversions. SEO can be strengthened in a number of ways.

     

• • Page Content.
    

    
    The content you house on your page should not only be informational and practical but should be selected and curated to improve SEO. A popular method of boosting SEO through content is the use of keywords and keyword phrases. Keywords refer to terms that are commonly searched in Google. The more content your site has that reflects those terms, the higher chance the search engine will display your site towards the top of the results page.

     

• • Page Structure.
    

    
    Consistently updated and easy-to-read content is key to improving your site’s SEO. The use of headers to separate various content topics works not only to make it easier to follow, but search engines actually recognize the text in the header format. Quality headers that include important keywords can make a significant difference in how well your site ranks on the search results page.

     

• • Metadata.
    

    
    Metadata refers to information that you can write into the code of the website. This information often describes the content of the page and what it is discussing. It is key that you consistently update your metadata over time as your site changes and grows to ensure that it continues to reflect its current state. While there are three main types of metadata, title metadata, description metadata, and keyword metadata, the most important is the first. Title metadata is what is displayed at the top of your browser window as well as what comes up as the headline in search results. 

 

4 Pillars of a Quality Site

The best websites are custom, ground-up builds. You want your website to reflect your company in every way. From the design to the copy, and the features to the photos and videos, it should be a platform that mirrors all the strengths your business has to offer. Construction web design is no different, your webpage should be an informational highlight reel of your past work, your services, and all the necessary information that a potential client would want or need to know.

 

• • Mobile-Ready.
    

    
    More than half of all search inquiries are now done through a mobile phone. For maximum audience retention, websites should be optimized to function seamlessly on a smartphone operating system. If a site fails to load or loads too slowly, chances are the user will leave the page and move to a different one, potentially costing you business.

     

• • Functional & Fast.
    

    
    One of the most important factors when looking at website performance is how long a user stays on a page. Sites that are slow to load or aren’t functional in the way they should cause users to leave the page and go to a different one, causing a loss in conversions. Your site should be quick to load and function without glitches. Whether your page features a map tool, a form fill-out, or any other interactive element, it is of the utmost importance that they work well.

     

• • Clear CTAs.
    

    
    CTAs are also called “Calls to action” and refer to a specific button or feature on the site that urges the user to take a specific action. This could be a “join now” button or a “get in touch” form. Whatever the call to action may be, it must be clear to the user. Most call-to-action elements sit on the header of the page. This is because the header is displayed on every additional site page, not just the home screen. Additionally, being up in the header follows the eye line of the user making it stand out and easy to see. 

• • Built For Growth.
    

    
    Your site should be built with growth in mind. A site design for growth includes building out features that drive long-term results. While it may be tempting to use your website to house main information and a contact page, effective sites have so much more to them. Adding a blog to your site can help rocket your page to better search results. As aforementioned, the content on your site can do a lot for your visibility on the internet. When you’re looking to build or redesign your site, consider investing in aspects that can help your site grow with your business from the get-go. It can save you from a lot of future headaches. 

 

Custom Web Design With Epic

Epic Marketing has been designing and building custom sites from the ground up for nearly 16 years. We believe high-quality websites that drive conversions and escalate growth are custom built from the ground up. Our talented team of developers and designers have trained in web design best practices and constructing functional, fast, and good-looking online platforms designed to push your business to the next level. If you’re looking to up your website game, give us a call. 

 

SEO in the Construction Industry 

The Construction industry can be highly competitive. In any given region there can be upwards of ten top construction companies all competing for the same projects, bids, and clients. It can be difficult to elevate your specific company above the rest. But, with the right marketing plan and a well-researched and well-developed SEO strategy, your company will start to see results like never before. 

 

Do construction companies need SEO? 

SEO should be part of any company’s marketing strategy. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) serves a primary purpose in making your construction company more competitive. When there are so many types of similar companies in one industry or one region, it can be difficult to stand out among the others. SEO works to do that through your website and online presence. It can drive online traffic, rank your site on the first page of search results, and increase your chances of getting work. 

 

SEO is defined as the process of increasing the quantity and quality of a website’s organic traffic as well as improving its position on the search engine results page (SERP). The higher your page ranks, the more likely a prospective client will get exposure to your business. SEO is an investment that can produce long-term results that will drive conversions and elevate your company above its competitors.

 

SEO vs Other Marketing Channels

SEO differs from other marketing channels, like social media, in that it is one of the easiest strategies to scale as your construction company grows. By establishing a strong SEO presence at the beginning, over time, as your business grows, your online presence is able to keep up. Because SEO establishes a position in the SERP and constantly works to improve it, you can start ranking higher and higher, making your services more visible to potential clients. Additionally, with the proper custom SEO strategy or SEO campaign, you can begin to rank for keywords that are specific to the services you offer in your target audience or area. 

 

On-Site SEO strategies

On-Site, also known as on-page, SEO refers to the strategies used to optimize the elements on your site for search engines.

 

• Good, Fast Site. One of the key elements of good SEO is having a fast, responsive website that houses all important information related to your business and services. Most users have grown to expect load times one 1 second. If your site takes too long to load, the user may just leave.
  
  The content of your site should be easy to navigate. If a user can’t find useful and important information relatively quickly, then chances are your content layout isn’t great. Most users generally make a web inquiry with the intent of finding specific information. And if they can’t find it on your site, they may go to your competitor’s

• Mobile-Friendly. To no one’s surprise, over 50% of search inquiries are done on a mobile phone. If your site is not optimized to perform well on its mobile version, and it has slow load times and is difficult to read, chances are the searcher will just exit out. This can result in many lost job opportunities.

 

• Keyword Optimization. Keywords refer to the most commonly searched words in relation to an industry. For example, in the construction industry, someone may be googling “demolition” or “demolition equipment”. For your page to rank well in the SERP, you’d want to optimize your content to have a page that refers to demolition or demolition equipment. You can even get more specific by the location of your services and further specify that your page covers demolition and demolition equipment in Salt Lake City.
  
  Properly researching keywords is key to developing successful and worthwhile content. Without proper keyword research, you can produce a lot of high-quality content, which takes time, and still not see any sort of improvement. There are a variety of free platforms like Google Trends and paid platforms like AHREFs, that can provide a list of commonly searched words that fall in your area of interest.

• Sitemap Structure. The sitemap refers to the layout of your website. It’s similar in essence to the content layout, but it functions more for the search engine than for the user. The sitemap will tell the search engine which pages are most important and gives search crawlers all the information they may need to properly do their job.

• Proper Tags. Search engines use what are called “tags” to identify your site and the content that exists on it. These tags include title tags, meta descriptions, and alt tags. Title tags are the HTML code that identifies the title of the page. This is important to rank for specific searches.
  
  Meta descriptions are another form of HTML code that tells the search engine what your page is about. If you’ve ever searched a page on google, and read the few sentences listed underneath the title, that is the meta description. The better your meta descriptions, the more likely someone is to click.
  
  Alt tags store the information that describes the visual elements that exist on a page. This is specifically important for those who are visually impaired. Well-written alt tags can help in terms of search purposes as well, but realistically they work to prove accurate descriptions of visual elements. 

 

Off-Site SEO strategies

Off-site SEO strategies, unlike their on-site counterparts, are methods to boost your business that don’t pertain to the website and its content.

 

• Search Engine Reviews. Most search engines like Google offer a spot to leave reviews on a business. They generally give a star rating and provide a spot for the client to talk about their experience with a certain service or business. The best way to interact with these reviews is to respond to every single one, both the good and the bad. This shows an effort of engagement from the business owner and offers a chance to address any problematic experiences.

• Review Websites. Aside from the search engine-specific reviews, there are a variety of online review sites like Yelp, that offer a platform for customers to write their reviews and express their opinions on an experience. It is important that your business has an active account on all these review sites to respond to feedback, fix any issues, or respond to questions.

• Google My Business. Google My Business is a tool that Google has developed to help businesses manage their online presence and to help customers find the business they’re looking for. It is important that as a business you claim your Google My Business listing and fill in any missing or incorrect information and add visual elements like images so potential clients can recognize your office front.
• Other Business Listings. Similar to Google reviews and other review sites, there are other business listings aside from Google My Business that provide similar tools. These are important places to verify your correct phone numbers, addresses, hours, and other important information that potential customers would be looking for.

 

Local SEO Strategies

If your construction company only works or primarily works in a specific locale, developing a local small business SEO strategy would be beneficial.  The biggest aspect of strengthening your local SEO strategy is ranking higher in local searches. There are several strategies that work to boost your local SEO.

 

• Keywords. As previously discussed, keywords work to rank your pages higher based on google searches that have matching verbiage. For local searches, you’ll want to include the name of your target location in your content so it reflects what people may be searching for. For example, most of your content could include your service followed by the location you’re targeting, e.g. construction equipment for rent in Salt Lake City, Utah.

• Maps. There are a variety of mapping services that potential clients use, including Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze. Taking advantage of these mapping services by putting in your business’s information can help your company rank when people search within these platforms. The more places your business shows up locally, the better chance you have of attracting local clients. 

 

Measurement and Tracking

When working with SEO, it is important to use tracking metrics to see how these strategies are helping your business. Because SEO functions mostly in the long game and generally doesn’t provide immediate results, having an accurate measurement system can help you visualize the difference, albeit relatively slow, that SEO can make for your business. 

 

• Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a tool offered by Google that will track and report your website’s traffic. It provides important statistics and basic analytics that you can use for your SEO and marketing purposes.

• Google Search Console. Google Search Console is another of Google’s marketing tools. It allows webmasters to check the indexing status and the current visibility of their websites. Using this information, marketers can then further optimize your visibility in hopes of increasing the overall search ranking.

• Screaming Frog.  Screaming Frog is a common non-Google suite tool used by marketers. It has been dubbed an “SEO spider” which essentially means it is a website crawler that can help you improve your on-site SEO. It extracts a webpage’s data and uses that information to audit for common SEO issues.

• Google Lighthouse Audit. Lighthouse is a Google tool that is used for improving the quality of a specific webpage or set of web pages. It is particularly useful because you can run it against both public and private web pages. It provides august for SEO, web apps, accessibility, and performance. 

Work with Epic

Epic Marketing has over 16 years of experience in full-service marketing strategies. Our clients range from construction companies to bakers. Our digital team works to provide top researched SEO strategies, including specific construction SEO services,  to drive local traffic to your site, increase sales, and help your company rank higher on the SERP. For any marketing inquiries, we are here to help. Call us today or schedule a free consultation.