5 construction marketing ideas to build your business

Key takeaways

• Pay attention to where your potential customers are doing their research—search engines, review sites, and social media
• Marketing campaigns that build brand awareness and trust can help you land customers, especially when amplified with online ads
• Building relationships with current and potential customers is essential to growth in the construction industry 

Hands-on projects in the field are central to every construction company, but just because you’re in the business of building doesn’t mean you spend 100% of your time away from your desk. Much like any other industry, construction business owners need to focus on creating and refining a marketing strategy to gain new customers and keep current ones happy. But not all construction marketing ideas are created equal.

When you want to generate more sales and spend less budget, throw old-school tactics like cold emails, direct mail, and unsolicited phone calls out the door. Instead, try adding these five highly targeted, modern tactics to your construction marketing strategy to bulk up your clientele.

5 construction marketing ideas

Construction work is often a pricey investment for clients. Whether you’re a home builder, a renovator, or run a full-blown commercial construction team, there’s a good chance that your potential customers will be dropping thousands of dollars on each project. This means they won’t choose you simply because you say they should—they’ll likely conduct extensive research before deciding on a company. 

With a construction marketing plan focused on building recognition and trust online and offline, you can start to sway their decisions in your favor. Below are five ways to make that happen.

1. Start blogging

When potential clients start looking for construction companies, many will use search engines to get the information they need. They might do a search for terms like “construction firm near me” or “home remodeling in Phoenix, Arizona” or seek specific solutions for questions like “how to renovate a bathroom” or “how much does it cost to build a house?” Through blogging, your website has the chance to rank high on search engine results pages for terms like these.

For your blog posts to rank well for specific keywords, you must write with search engine optimization (SEO) in mind. When a customer types in a particular search term, your blog posts let search engines know that it has the answers for those inquiries. How do your blog posts do this? By including relevant keywords in the titles, blog content, web address, and more.

You also have a better chance of showing up on the first page of search engines if your website design is mobile-friendly. Having these elements in place will boost your SEO and help you reach the 211 million people in the U.S. who use their smartphones to search online.

As your content marketing helps you rank higher on search engines, your target audience will begin to recognize your brand and see it as an industry leader. You’ll build trust when you’re consistently the one with the right answers, getting you one step closer to landing new clients. As such, it’s a good idea to add a contact form at the end of each blog post so you don’t miss a lead generation opportunity.

You can manage your blog SEO strategy on your own—our beginner’s guide to small business SEO can help. However, if you don’t have time to write articles consistently, you can also pay a consultant or agency to do it. Outsourcing this marketing strategy usually costs at least $750 per month, depending on the scope of work.

2. Master online review management

Some of the best leads could be searching for you directly on review sites to see what people have to say about your customer service experience. Managing your online reviews is one way to ensure consumers get the best first impression of your brand.

Great online review management starts with promptly responding to every review you receive. Be professional and thank customers for taking the time to rate your business—even if it’s a not-so-positive review. 

You may ask an unhappy customer what you can do to improve the situation or explain how you’ve taken action to ensure an issue doesn’t happen again. Showing that you care about each customer’s experience can make others more willing to give your company a shot.

Good reviews are modern word-of-mouth marketing for your business, effectively driving new customers to your small business. To start managing your online reviews, claim your Yelp Business Page, fill out your business information, and interact with customers as they leave their testimonials.

3. Establish your brand on social media

Social media marketing is used in practically every industry these days. It’s not surprising, considering 72% of U.S. adults are on at least one social media platform. For construction marketing ideas, let’s focus on Facebook and LinkedIn—two sites that offer big potential for both brand-building and relationship-building.

On both of these online marketing channels, you have a chance to tell the world who you are beyond your company name and visual branding. You can use these platforms to showcase your unique values, story, voice, and much more—everything that sets your construction company apart—through consistent posting each week. On LinkedIn, you can also use your personal profile to brand yourself as a business owner and link to your company.

On both Facebook and LinkedIn, you can then amplify your marketing efforts and grow your following through highly targeted ads that help you reach your target audience. This way, you can build brand awareness and generate leads while only spending money on the people who are most likely to become customers.

As your audience grows and starts engaging more with your content, don’t forget to reciprocate. Have (and initiate) conversations with people in your comments and your inbox, and give them a sense of your commitment to customer care. 

You can pair these conversations with calls to action (such as asking them to provide their contact information), so you can build a rapport and persuade them to choose your company for their next construction project.

4. Boost your online presence with Yelp Ads

Great reviews on Yelp are already good news for your business. But if you want a construction marketing idea that can capture even more potential customers, consider advertising on Yelp.

Ninety-seven percent of people make a purchase after visiting Yelp—most within a day. Using this marketing service to make your construction business more visible on relevant search results and competitor pages can mean new clients and higher profits.

Just like Facebook and LinkedIn, Yelp offers targeted cost-per-click (CPC) ads, which means you can customize your ad to reach a specific audience and pay only when a potential client clicks on your listing. You can even set your own daily average budget, so you never have to worry about spending too much.

Before you get started with Yelp Ads, don’t forget to make sure the information on your business listing (including your phone number, service offerings, and service area) is complete and up-to-date. This way, customers get the most accurate picture of your business once they tap your ad.

5. Partner with local businesses

While all of the construction marketing ideas we’ve mentioned so far have been digital marketing tactics, getting out in the community is still vital in your line of work. Relationships help you build trust and your referral network—and relationships with other local business owners are some of the best ones you can form.

Partnering with non-competing local businesses can help you widen your network and instantly become a top choice for their loyal customers. The terms of your partnership can be simple—perhaps you agree to exclusively refer clients to each other, give referred customers a discount, or promote each other on your websites. 

As long as the company you’re working with offers relevant but not directly competing services (think home repair businesses, general contractors, or hardware stores), this can be an incredibly effective marketing strategy.

Tap into the best construction marketing ideas

Whether you’re on the web or in your community, there are endless marketing tools and opportunities ready to boost your construction business and land new projects. Spend some time away from your construction sites each week to build your brand and form relationships with leads, clients, and other business owners in your areas. It takes time, but following through on these ideas is worth the investment.