How Can I Promote My Construction Company?
Marketing your business might seem overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. FieldWrk is here to get you started.
It’s Time to Demystify Construction Industry Marketing
Introduction
How To Market a Construction Company
You post drone photos of your projects, but you can’t break five likes.
So you ask a junior employee to run your social media. She designs a graphic celebrating Construction Safety Week aaand… Ugh. One share.
Your head of biz dev takes matters into his own hands and makes a Facebook business page. Nice! But it never gets any messages.
Sound familiar?
If you’re frustrated with marketing your construction company, you’re not alone. Most Dirt World business owners struggle with boosting organic engagement or attracting paid traffic.
What if we told you there’s something you (and the rest of your peers) are missing?
DIY Marketing
What Construction Marketing Companies Aren’t Telling You
We’ll level with you. When it comes to promoting your construction company, there are two things the other guys aren’t telling you.
- You can do all of this yourself. Seriously. With enough time (and the right team), it’s totally possible to buy a chunk of ad space, fire up Canva, and hammer out some landing page copy about your excavation capabilities. But here’s the thing.
- You probably won’t get a good return on that investment. Yeah, you’ll save money on a construction marketing agency — that’s a huge plus for the DIY route. But will you make money? Promotion takes a lot of time away from other projects (solid branding and marketing take months, not hours), and at the end of the day, you may not be happy with the result.
That’s what construction marketing companies aren’t telling you. It’s possible to run your own promo, and for smaller contractors, that’s exactly what we recommend. We’ll tell you how to do it in this blog.
But if you’re burned out on DIY and you’re ready to take your business to the next level, it’s time to bring out the big guns.
With that out of the way, let’s talk tactics.
Construction marketing is a big commitment. But it’s also an investment in your company’s future.
Considerations
Construction Marketing Strategy
Introducing the Holy Trinity of any successful construction marketing strategy: branding, web, and ads. Follow these three steps (in order!) when you’re ready to drum up new business.
Consider Rebranding
First, you’ve got to take an honest look at your current brand. That’s not just the logo your dad designed in AutoCAD (how did he do that?). When we talk about branding, we mean:
- Visual identity elements (logo, colors, fonts, imagery, ancillary graphics)
- Existing materials (branded swag and equipment, stationery, RFPs, etc.)
- Company-specific messaging (mission, vision, purpose, values, UVPs)
Get everything in one place and try to see it with fresh eyes. Feel free to pull in friends, family members, or new employees — people with fewer sentimental ties to the brand. Ask yourselves the following.
- What image does this project to potential clients? Is that what we want?
- Does everything feel cohesive, or does something stick out?
- Are we using multiple logos? Is that confusing for the public?
- Have we gotten feedback on any of this in the past? What do others say?
- What is our biggest pain point with the current branding?
These are very condensed versions of questions our construction marketing company asks during the discovery process. Channel those insights into new visual and verbal identities. You’ll need some sort of design software (Adobe Express and Canva are free), a pen, and a supportive team to fill in the gaps. Determine your business’ purpose, differentiators, values, logo, and brand colors, at a minimum.
Pull Inspo from the Best Contractor Websites
Once you’ve nailed down your brand’s look and feel, it’s time to spruce up your digital presence. Start by hunting down the best contractor websites — start with your competitors, then branch out to major industry players. Look at those sites critically. What makes their homepage better than yours? How do they talk about their services? As a user, how do you feel after clicking through a few pages?
Once you know what you’re going for, it’s time to start building. Create an account on Squarespace, Wordpress, or another page-builder platform, select a template, and customize it to match your new brand. Take time to make sure the colors, fonts, and image edits align exactly with your visual identity.
Once you’ve got the skeleton in place, you can start writing your site’s content! Be sure to mention the purpose, differentiators, and values you finalized in the branding phase.
We know — it’s a lot to keep track of. Our team has put together a nifty construction website checklist for your reference. Check your work below.
- Work with key stakeholders to create content that captures your services and culture.
- Upload high-quality images of your work and people (but be sure they’re scaled for web!).
- Attract organic traffic by optimizing your site to rank for service-, industry-, and location-specific keywords.
- Create an easy-to-find contact form. Submit plenty of test responses to make sure it works!
- Connect every link and button, then click them to make sure they work.
- Don’t forget your favicon :)
- Test your site on mobile — some page builders won’t automatically scale for different viewports.
- Set up Google Analytics to track site traffic.
- Connect the DNS and launch your website!
Try Construction Ads
Perfect, now you’ve got a shiny new website.
Ready to reach new clients? It’s time to put yourself out there and run some ads.
When choosing placements, think about who you’re marketing to and where they’ll find you.
Marketing Your Services?
Ads for your services will probably fare best on Google, where prospective clients may be searching for contractors in your area.
Looking for New Talent?
Hiring ads are a whole different story. We’ve seen them perform well on Facebook and Instagram, where laborers and operators scroll in their free time. They’re also great to place on LinkedIn — the go-to destination for jobseekers nationwide.
How Do I Start Running Construction Ads?
We’re not gonna lie, running ads can be intimidating, especially if you’ve never used Google Ads or Meta’s Ads Manager. Here’s a general guide to navigating that process.
- Start by learning everything you can about running construction company ads. Resources like YouTube and Skillshare offer step-by-step tutorials.
- Tailor ad targeting and messaging to your desired audience. Who are they? How old are they? Where do they live? Considerations like these should shape your approach — generalized ads probably won’t convert.
- Experiment! Then adjust your ads according to what’s working the best.
- Keep an eye on the right metrics. While cost per click (CPC) may be impressive, it’s not always the best sign of campaign success. Cost per conversion — whether that’s a job application or a client acquisition — is what we recommend tracking.
Call the Construction Industry Marketing Experts
If you’ve gotten this far, you’ve probably concluded that construction marketing is a tall order. You’re right — it’s a big commitment. But it’s also an investment in your company’s future. Whether yours is a multi-generational business or a brand-new venture, every org needs a steady source of new jobs and top talent. Marketing helps you reach those audiences, but it can be overwhelming.
We’re here to help.
FieldWrk exists to help hardworking people and their companies reach their full potential. We do that by delivering authentic, people-focused brands that work.
As an agency devoted to the Dirt World, we’re plugged into industry trends and your audiences’ needs. We pride ourselves on gathering the real field perspective — not a disconnected office POV. That approach lays the foundation for messaging that really resonates.
Our process isn’t a mystery. Here it is, spelled out.
- We listen to you and make recs based on what you actually need, not what pads our bottom line.
- We meet you where you are (literally — we’ll set up a workshop in your conference room, tour active jobsites, and interview your team).
- We filter our findings through our years of experience, bounce ideas off one another, craft your new identity, and get your signoff at every step.
- We deliver a rebrand, website, and ad set to rival the best in the industry.
- We give you everything you need to make it all work.
At the end of the day, it’s all about building a better Dirt World. Helping you attract the applicants and clients you need to do what you do best.
Sound good?