7 Step Construction Marketing Plan

Marketing in the Construction Sector

Though marketing applies to nearly any industry, how it is applied will vary from sector to sector. The construction business is characterized by generally dominant monopolies, technological advances, and an ever-growing workload. Because of these factors, construction marketing strategies need to be modified to match. Hiring a marketing team to handle your advertising efforts will help you develop a well researched and data-driven plan that will capitalize on opportunities and grow your business. 

Developing a Construction Marketing Plan

A marketing plan comes to fruition through a series of steps, each playing off the previous. Dedicating time and research to developing thorough strategies can be the difference between success and staying stagnant. Generally, the development of a marketing plan follows a series of seven steps, including:

• • Identify objectives
  • Identify target audience 
  • Consider the budget
  • SWOT analysis
  • Competitor research 
  • Evaluate marketing channels
  • Result tracking

1: Identify Objectives

While this may seem obvious, identifying your objectives is a crucial first step. This doesn’t mean having a general idea of what you wish you achieve, but rather, having a concrete understanding of exactly what you want. Thoroughly outline your intentions and set specific goals. These will be the foundation upon which the rest of your marketing plan will be built on.

2: Identify the Target Audience

Understanding your target market early on in your marketing efforts is not just important for growth, but can help reduce the number of headaches later on. Depending on your demographics, how old they are, where do they live, etc., you will have to modify your marketing plan. Based on your identified goals, consider which audience or audiences you will need to serve. This could be dependent on where your company is located, how far you’re willing to travel, and which construction niche you are filling. Marketing and advertising efforts are most successful when properly targeted.

3: Consider the Budget 

When creating a marketing plan, it is necessary to be well acquainted with your budget. Different marketing channels and strategies come with varying price tags. To maximize the budget at hand, you must first understand what money you are willing to spend. From there, your marketing team can help divvy up your finances accordingly.

4: SWOT Analysis

The acronym SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. It is often used as a method to hash out the core advantages and disadvantages of a particular company. Through the SWOT process, the marketing plan can be honed to maximize the strengths, downplay the weakness, diminish the threats, and capitalize on the opportunities. 

• Strengths. Strengths refer to what your company or service does well. Perhaps these are proven strengths from years of experience, or they have perceived strengths based on your target audience and business goals.
• Weaknesses. Like the strengths, the weaknesses are just as they sound. Analyze where your services could potentially fall short. In which areas do you foresee vulnerabilities, and what can you do to minimize said weak points?
• Opportunities. Opportunity areas are key to your growth. Look at the construction industry as it is, and look at where you could potentially capitalize. Is there a specific area that is underserved? Perhaps a target audience that has not yet been reached?
• Threats. As unfortunate as they are, threats are inevitable. And often, no matter what we do, they will continue to exist. But understanding potential threats, where they come from, and their consequences, can better prepare you for minimal impact.

5: Competitor Research 

Competition drives nearly every industry, and construction is no different. Understanding what your competitors do well, fall short in, and where they differ all are crucial to developing a marketing plan that will position you above the rest. Just as you may conduct a SWOT analysis for your own company, it would be wise to do the same for your main competitors.

• Strengths. What do your competitors do well? Pinpoint their strengths and ask yourself if this is something your service could potentially rival. If it can’t, this doesn’t mean your marketing efforts are futile. Rather, this will show you where else to direct your energy.

• Weaknesses. Weaknesses are important to locate for two reasons. The first is it shows where your competition falls short, and where your service could potentially capitalize. The second is it potentially shows the setbacks within the industry. Especially if your competitors have been in business for a while, their weaknesses can offer insight into potential roadblocks you may face.

• Opportunities. Of the four SWOT pinnacles, opportunity is perhaps the most important. Understand what your competition doesn’t offer and what you can do to fill that gap. Perhaps it’s different processes, better prices, or more areas of expertise. Whatever it may be, one of the best ways to grow your competitive advantage is to excel in an unrivaled aspect.

• Threats. In any industry, there will be threats. While some come more from outside variables like the economy, supplier shortages, and lack of equipment, others originate internally, like your fellow competitors. The best way to face a threat is to be prepared for said threats. Look at the threats, both external and internal, and identify which are more likely to affect your business.

6: Evaluate the Marketing Channels

Marketing channels are defined as the mediums through which specific marketing efforts are pushed. These can include social media platforms, SEO, print advertisements, billboards, email marketing, paid advertising, TV commercials, and other digital efforts. Depending on your established objectives and target audience, the channels you use may vary. Your marketing team will put together a channel strategy that matches your needs. Often you’ll see an omnichannel plan that uses multiple marketing channels to cover the different bases for your service and industry.

7: Tracking Results

Progress, and more importantly lack of progress, is more easily identified when data tracking is present. Tracking your results can help you both measure your success and locate the areas in which your efforts are continuing to struggle. With tracking, you can test new strategies and modifications to your marketing plan and actually quantify how well or poorly your new efforts are performing. Proper data tracking ensures that you don’t waste more time than necessary on marketing options that do not produce results. 

Why Work With Epic?

Epic has been serving Salt Lake and Utah counties for over 16 years. We have provided expert marketing knowledge and advertising content to construction firms all around the state of Utah. Our talented team of account executives, digital marketers, designers, web developers, and copywriters have experience in working in various aspects of the construction industry from equipment rentals to concrete and hydrovac services. For a free consultation, call us today!