Owning a construction business comes with its own unique set of challenges. One of those challenges is how to market and grow your business year after year. As the peak season comes to an end, income slows, making owners curious about ways to grow their revenue while increasing efficiencies.
Strategically utilizing the off-season to focus on sales and marketing initiatives will benefit your business in the long run while setting you up for success when construction starts back up. Before identifying specific marketing strategies, it is essential to understand the hurdles construction companies face. Those challenges include:
- Multiple customer segments and diverse target audiences
- Negative reviews that impact your online presence
- Limited online brand presence
- Competition from other construction businesses in your region
- A seasonal business that creates shifting profits from month to month
While these challenges may seem overwhelming, contractors can minimize their impact by utilizing swift and strategic action. With the implementation of digital marketing efforts, you’ll be able to identify and target customer segments searching for your services DURING the off-season. Furthermore, you’ll learn how to stand out in a crowded marketplace, utilizing content that attracts and engages your ideal client, ultimately driving them to do business with you.
Additionally, you’ll identify how to move from a reactive to a proactive marketing strategy. A proactive approach means you’ll become purposeful with your online presence while shaping your brand’s public perception. Being proactive inevitably creates a better business all year long.
Segment and Engage Your Email List
A crucial step in creating engaging and sales-driven content is to segment your email list. Segmenting consists of separating subscribers based on their preferences, user demographics, and even ways they have worked with you in the past. You can effectively segment your list by having subscribers answer a few quick questions when they sign up for your email list.
Once your list is segmented, you can send engaging email content to those subscribers, explicitly targeting and addressing their pain points. Whether you’re targeting an HOA Board, Industrial Business, or a Commercial Property Manager, it’s critical to be very specific with your messaging, addressing their unique construction concerns.
Consistently sending email campaigns to defined audiences throughout the off-season keeps your business top of mind. When done correctly, your email marketing efforts will convert new leads into customers by the time the next season rolls around.
Connect with Customers via Social Media
There is no denying it; customers browse your social media feeds to gain knowledge about your organization. Potential clients watch every move you make by following company updates, viewing posted photos, and monitoring how you interact with your audience online.
With this in mind, it is crucial to take all your social media platforms seriously. Being unresponsive to comments, negative feedback, or posting unprofessional images can be a massive detriment to your brand’s online image.
Alternatively, offering a professional and consistent social media presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram will garner the brand authority that you desire. It also creates a great starting point for using other digital media efforts like targeted ads.
Implement Paid Social Media Ads
Along with bolstering your email click-through and open rates, identifying customer segments further allows you to define which demographic is most likely to visit your website or contact your organization in the off-season. Perhaps these customers need emergency repair work or are analyzing budgets for next season and want to get a jump-start on project planning.
Once you identify your customer segment, use paid social media advertising to target that audience with engaging content and educational tips. Paid social media advertising will undoubtedly drive consumers’ interest in your business during the offseason and can be shifted in the peak season to reach broader market segments. Analytic reports will help identify which audiences are searching for your social sites, giving you the insight needed to create and promote content that further piques their desire to learn more about your products and services.
Fine-Tune Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy
Most consumers use Google to find a local contractor, so your website must show up in those searches. The initial step to populating Google’s first page is to perform keyword research to identify the keywords used in your ideal client’s searches. Submitting title tags and meta descriptions will further help customers find your business any month of the year.
Google reviews help with SEO as well, so encourage clients who had a good experience working with you to leave reviews on your Google My Business page. Bad reviews can certainly happen, so keep in mind that consumers watch how you react to negative feedback. By responding quickly and with a genuine desire to correct or learn from the issue, you can limit a lot of the harm that a negative review may have done in the consumer’s eyes.
Conclusion
The off-season creates a stall in revenue for most contractors, which can be stressful to navigate during challenging years. However, implementing off-season marketing techniques will give you the confidence you desire and the backlog you need to hit the ground running come spring. While there will never be a way to avoid slow months of the construction year, incorporating digital marketing activities strategically during the off-season can improve sales and bolster your client base.
With years of experience managing the digital marketing presence for construction companies, Lead Revenue will help your organization stand out online. Learn more about our full portfolio of construction-focused digital marketing strategies here: www.leadrevenue.com.
