Marketing initiatives are an essential piece of every successful business growth strategy. They are the vehicle that educates and informs the consumer. Without marketing, your business most likely would not survive.
With the evolution of digital marketing, some contractors are noticing the benefit of expanding their visibility online. Others have seen their digital marketing efforts fall flat. The difference is that successful campaigns take a strategic approach to identifying buyer personas and developing marketing tactics to get in front of those groups. Let’s review the critical elements used to create an effective digital marketing strategy targeting your ideal client.
Create a Buyer Persona
If you’re marketing to everyone, you’re inevitably marketing to no one. Your message will not resonate with many when it’s too general. Contractors running successful digital marketing campaigns understand all the different buyer personas fitting their consumer demographic. With that in mind, they segregate their marketing efforts and strategically implement digital messaging that resonates with each buyer persona. Example buyer personas include:
- Restaurant Property Manager
- HOA Board
- Industrial Property Manager
- Retail Property Manager
Taking a deep dive into developing a buyer persona gives a contractor more awareness of the consumer’s pain points and other motivating factors that eventually lead to sales.
PRO TIP: Your organization may want to target more than one buyer persona. When that occurs, you will need to utilize different marketing tactics and messaging to speak directly to each of those consumers.
Identify New and Prospective Client’s Pain Points
You started your business most likely because you realized your products or services solved a problem. Maybe you formed a striping business because local contractors didn’t have the proper equipment to complete parking lot striping projects. Alternatively, your ability to pave in niche areas was possibly the reason you started a paving business. Regardless of how your organization got its start, it survives because of your ability to solve a problem.
With that in mind, the single best way to garner your ideal client’s attention is to speak to their pain point. How do you identify the problems your ideal client is trying to solve? Talk to them! Questions to ask a client to uncover pain points include:
- What do you understand the least when it comes to the pavement?
- What type of pavement project causes you the most stress?
- What is your least favorite part of working with a contractor?
- What is your biggest concern when it comes to pavement repair?
- What do you dislike when it comes to pavement maintenance?
Remember, it’s essential to interview existing clients as well as prospects. If you focus only on current clients, you’re limiting your opportunity to uncover potential clients’ pain points. Your lack of understanding of their pain points could ultimately be the reason you haven’t picked up their business yet.
Where and How Does Your Ideal Client Consume Information?
To convert a consumer into a paying client, you must know where they are online. For example, does your prospect spend time in LinkedIn groups learning about paving practices? Do they search Google for pavement maintenance tips or peruse construction-focused hashtags on Instagram? Your digital marketing efforts’ success lies in your ability to uncover where your ideal client searches for information while online.
How do you decipher where your ideal client is searching for their information? You ask them. Start with current clients, asking where they go to learn about new products or services. Additionally, ask what lead to their eventual desire to work with you. These insights are incredibly helpful and lend a hand at uncovering where other pavement owners get their information online and how you can further entice those individuals to work with you.
To further enhance your marketing efforts, it is critical to know HOW your clients like to consume their information. A few of the most common methods are:
- Video
- TV
- Radio
- Apps
- Newspaper
Knowing your client’s content consumption preferences undoubtedly increases your ability to get your products or services in front of them through free and paid marketing efforts.
Understanding your consumer’s search and purchasing habits will boost your efficiency in driving ideal clients through your sales funnel. More importantly, it will help you focus your time on creating specific marketing strategies that directly speak to their wants and needs. When your client feels understood, it builds a foundation of trust with your business. Ultimately, that helps you develop a stronger relationship with your customer resulting in more work added to your backlog.
Digital media strategies play a large part in the development and implementation of inbound marketing efforts. With years of experience helping contractors identify and target their target audience, Lead Revenue is a digital marketplace leader. Learn more about our digital marketing strategies here!
