This is the first in a series of reviews of entries to the 2018 Best Construction Blog competition.
The Association of Professional Builders (APB) provides resources and services for Australian residential builders. But you don’t need to be in Australia to gain real advantages by reading the APB’s blog — because the insights and advice will work for builders in most English-speaking countries. (There of course is also, rightfully, some content that will be relevant primarily if you are an Australian builder.)
As an example, consider this recent post: How to Avoid Building for Nightmare Clients.
The recommended solution: Develop an “avatar” or profile of your ideal client type(s) and a “negative avatar” for those you don’t want. Generally you should be able to do this sort of profiling if you have a bit of experience.
Your client avatar is a fictional, generalised representation of your perfect client. Creating an avatar helps you to understand your clients and prospective clients better. Which makes it easier for you to tailor your marketing messages to their specific needs, behaviours, and concerns.
Examples of “negative avatars” could be: first time?home buyers if you are building high-end custom designed homes, people with their own architectural plans hunting for the cheapest price, or ?High D? personalities who want to be in control of the process.
The blog notes:
At the most basic level, avatars allow you to personalise or target your marketing for different segments of your audience.
For example, instead of targeting everyone that is interested in new home design on Facebook, you could refine your targeting to females between 30 and 55 who live in a certain area and are interested in new home design.
You could then use an image of family enjoying a BBQ by the pool with an opening line of ?Thinking Of Building A New Home??
The advert becomes far more effective because you have not only honed in on someone who you want to build for, but also the image is resonating with your target market which means they far more likely to respond to your advert.
The best client avatars are based on the information you gather from your actual clients through the build process.
This concept, of course, isn’t rocket science, but it reminds us of the importance of thinking about the clients we truly want to seek before we spend money on any form of marketing — because our success in defining and reaching the market with the right message(s) will determine our success.
There are many other relevant posts in this well-designed blog.
You can vote for it (along with any of the others you like) by completing the ballot below before March 31. You can only vote once.
