Sometimes we make things more complicated than necessary. Here are three simple rules for effective construction marketing. If you get all three right, you should be okay. If not, you will be in trouble.I think you need to excel at least one of these three components and have a solid passing grade at the other two; better to be great at all three.
You need to be uniquely great/competent/recognized at something important to your current and potential customers
Uniqueness is the key word here. It relates to focus, market priority, and/or specialized knowledge and must be validated by others. ?”I’m a great general contractor” won’t work. ” By annual volume, we are the largest contractor in (name of city),” might work. “Clients represented by (name of association) have voted us the most recognized contractor in Passive House construction in (name of state),” would be better.
You must provide a truly solid client experience — ideally to the point where clients spread the good word about you without you needing to do anything to help the positive word-of-mouth along.
This is more than “we provide great customer service” — it is your customers recognizing and speaking well about you. However, even if you aren’t excellent at this attribute, you still need to be good enough that most of your clients are at least satisfied — or you will be heading down a nasty slope to business disaster.
You must be aware, integrated, and ready to change with adapting technologies, business practices and market conditions.
Sure, it helps to be consistent and maintain your values. And you don’t need to be at the bleeding edge — except if you want that to be your differentiation (see the first point above). But if your website is 20 years old (or you don’t have one yet), or you haven’t the foggiest about BIM, you will flounder. And if the market shifts or crashes, if you don’t respond quickly and adapt your operations accordingly, unless you have incredibly deep pockets (and even if you do), you will fail. ?You don’t need to give up your uniqueness to be well aware of the market.
Take these three thoughts to heed when you are contemplating your marketing. If you have opinions, please feel free to share through a comment, or email me at buckshon@constructionmarketingideas.com.
