As a construction company, it can be difficult to see results with a typical lead generation strategy. Your services are considered an important, but also a costly investment. Today, meeting with potential clients and walking them through the process is no longer sufficient to secure their business. A lead generation strategy should be customized to your company, and to your clients. We have compiled a list of ways you can show your clients that you will go above and beyond for them, all while ensuring that your message is meeting the right audience.
Continue reading below for the ways you can continually improve your lead generation strategy and grow your company’s client base.
4 Ways to Improve Your Construction Company’s Lead Generation Strategy
1. Connect with Your Audience
Connecting with clients and prospects is an important way to build trust and position yourself as someone they want to work with. Instead of simply promoting your contracting services, start a conversation with your prospects and see what kind of issues they are experiencing. Show that you are human and that you care. For instance, if your prospects are worried about moving out of their home during construction, offer a flexible building schedule with plenty of time to make arrangements.
You can do this with your content as well. Writing blogs that inspire your audience to start a remodel project or promoting content offers, such as a "Moving Checklist" to assist them with their move are great ways to showcase your expertise as well as be helpful. If you can truly connect with your clients, and show that you are listening to their concerns, you have a much better likelihood to convert leads and earn their trust to start a working relationship.
How to Use Buyer Personas
Defining your ideal customer is key in creating a successful lead generation strategy. Knowing a client's specific motivations and pain points gives you the benefit of tailoring your messages to fit their needs, resulting in a higher chance they will convert to a lead. Creating buyer personas is a great way to gain this kind of insight into your audience.
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on data you've collected from real customers. This can include demographics, behavioral characteristics, motivations, and goals. Buyer personas can provide much insight into your audience and help you structure your marketing efforts to speak to the people that are most likely to do business with you. For example, you may be targeting:
- first-time homebuyers
- ages of 30-55
- household income = $200k+
- interested in living in a walkable neighborhood
These traits allow you to gain perspective on your audience's motivations and in turn develop messaging that speaks specifically to them. For instance, if you are targeting first time home buyers with your campaign, then promoting your custom home building services may not resonate with them, but your pre-built or semi-custom options may be a better fit to interest them.
2. Help Your Marketing Tactics Reach Your Prospects
It's natural to want to show off your brand in as many places as possible including online advertisements, social media, and email. However, if your message isn't getting in front of the right people, it's not bringing you any business.
How to Reach your Target Audience
In order to determine which channels and platforms to focus your efforts on, you must look at the performance of each. This means diving into tools like Google Analytics, SEMRush, social media insights, and more. Low performing channels may not be worth the effort, while other channels may simply need some tweaking to reach optimal results.
You must also have an in-depth knowledge of your audience. This is where your buyer personas can provide much insight into the channels and the kinds of content your audience would likely respond to. Knowing what motivates and drives your customers allows you to tailor the placement and the message of your marketing tactics. If your ideal customer is interested in design then you may notice that they frequent Houzz or Pinterest looking at home design projects. They may also be interested in a design guide for their first home which you could create and market on these channels. The point is, the more detailed the buyer persona, the more valuable leads you will be able to attract to your site.
Why Inbound Marketing is Important for Construction Companies
Inbound marketing is a solid strategy to promote your business by serving as a way to further develop your web presence in order to effectively reach your ideal clients. Since many construction companies focus on outbound marketing tactics, their marketing strategy consists of reaching out to prospects and sending them messages directly. While this certainly can be effective, many fail to realize the benefits that inbound marketing can bring to their construction company.
Inbound Marketing appeals to potential clients by publishing informative and engaging content on your website. Essentially, you attract new clients to you by answering their questions and offering solutions to their home improvement needs. This content will show up on search engines as individual articles, all living on your website. Knowing your buyer personas is key with inbound marketing as you plan your content strategy to reach different personas at different stages of the buying process. Providing helpful content for the varying levels of prospects that visit your site will not only show off your expertise but pitch you as a problem solver that can help them.
While inbound marketing has offered much success to companies that implement these tactics, it truly shines when coupled with outbound marketing. Together, inbound and outbound marketing provides a well-rounded strategy that will not only support your business but foster growth as well.
3. Improve Your Content Strategy to Provide More Value
A content strategy is meant to guide you in achieving your goals. If your current strategy is failing to do this, then it is time to reassess. A content strategy not only brings in more traffic to your website but they bring traffic that is interested in your services and what you have to say. This is incredibly powerful for lead generation and conversion. It's also a great way to stand out from your competition. Most people conduct research online before deciding to buy a product or service and over 70% of construction companies do not have a blog on their website. This means less competition for you!
With the construction industry being so large, a content strategy is particularly useful in focusing your marketing efforts on the right prospects in your niche. Having a blog and resources page on your website that offers helpful information in the areas you specialize in, aids in presenting you as a credible resource in your field. Also, your website visibility will be maximized if you add a blog page because it adds pages and searchable terms to your website. This contributes to your site's SEO and increases the likelihood of your website being ranked higher on search engines.
How to Structure a Blog
Blogs play a key role in sharing your knowledge and producing an effective content strategy, so it's important to format your content in a way that is easily viewed by the reader. Here's a couple of our best tips:
- Have a Clear Introduction
Your intro paragraph should summarize what your post is about. Identify the problem or pain point your content will address. - Use Headers and Sub-Headers
Using headers and sub-headers can not only help you organize your content but also draws the reader's attention and gives them an idea of what each part of your page is about. - Make Paragraphs Short
Short paragraphs are easier to read and digest by the reader. Break up your content where it makes sense and avoid long, drawn-out sentences. - Add Lists
Lists should be used when appropriate as they are easy to follow and "skim." Many people do not want to read large amounts of text and appreciate this upfront information. - Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)
Place a call-to-action strategically with your content to persuade readers to take the desired action. This could be to download a related e-book on remodeling in exchange for their email address or to simply contact you for a consultation.
How to Write Engaging Content
You may be wondering how to write effective and engaging content that converts. Along with attention-grabbing topics, it's important to write content that speaks and relates to your audience. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Write an Eye-Catching Headline
Your headline is going to play a huge part in whether or not a user will even choose to read your content. Your headline should be unique, specific, and convey a sense of urgency. Your title should also be useful to the user. Remember, they are often looking to solve a problem so your headline should ideally hint at an answer. - Be Original
Instead of paraphrasing or quoting from other articles, write something new. Include your thoughts on a subject in your field and your experience. For construction companies, this could be as simple as your favorite home remodeling tips. Original content will make you stand out from your competition and help to establish you as an industry thought leader. - Be Clear and Concise
Keep your information short, sweet, and to the point. Readers can get overwhelmed with too much information and it makes your content hard to follow. The information should be easy to understand without ambiguity. - Tell a Story
Stories are much more engaging than simply writing out facts, they are also more memorable. Use recent remodel projects to push your points home, better explain a concept, or warn against potential pain points in the construction process. - Use Graphics
Pictures, charts, and graphs are great ways to illustrate a point and engage the reader. In fact, powerful graphics may be able to convey an idea much easier than text. This is especially true in the construction industry. Before and after images will be able to convey your expertise much better than simply explaining your construction process.
4. Allocate Your Marketing Budget Correctly
When it comes to budget, most small business owners only spend about 1-5% of their annual revenue on marketing. While you want to be smart with your money, overall marketing spend should be based on your goals - 5% may not be enough if you are aiming to double your revenue in the next few years. If you have not set a budget, even a low starting budget, you won’t know how to measure results, or what is needed to reach your goals.
How to Determine Your Marketing Budget
If you are currently spending between 1-5% on marketing and not seeing the results you want, then it would be wise to reassess where you are spending your money and consider allocating more budget in areas that need help. Common areas to assess are branding, content strategy, organic search, paid advertising, and website design and development.
Consider the platforms you are currently on and the ones you'd like to be on. What are the costs and potential ROI of each as well as the performance of your existing channels? Obviously, you want to keep and possibly add to what's working, but when things are not working it is important to either alter your tactics or select a different method that will give you the results you are wanting.
When dividing up your budget, the first thing to allocate funds to are any shortcomings in your marketing strategy. For instance, if your website is outdated and not converting, a refresh or redesign should be your first priority. Other than that, the budget allocation should be driven by the goals you set for your business. If you are wanting to capture and nurture more leads, invest more in content marketing and marketing automation. If you want to appear on the first page of Google, allocate more budget to SEO. If you want to drive store traffic immediately, put more money towards pay-per-click advertising.
The Lead Generation Process at LAIRE
A lead generation strategy is key in getting more customers, and if you analyze where you are currently (mis)spending, and adjust your focus to make sure you are connecting with potential clients, you have high possibilities to turn your marketing around! However, we know it can be tough to assess the weak points in your digital marketing and know how to fix them. If you are struggling with getting leads and marketing to your audience, then contact us and we can walk you through our process.
* This blog was originally published on March 22, 2016, and updated on February 08, 2021 for accuracy.
