(1) Construction Marketing Strategy and Brand Building for Contractors
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Corey Halstead
Owner, HALSTEAD.
The foundations of the marketing plan aren’t changing—strategy and brand still set the stage. And as the industry becomes evermore competitive—evermore cutthroat—and as the communications landscape is constantly transformed by technology, managing and promoting your brand only becomes more crucial to building consumer connections.
Today, even smaller contractors are beginning to adopt big-business brand practices and reaping the benefits over their larger incumbents. Combine that new brand focus with the decreasing barriers to entry for smaller competitors due to digital reach, and you’ve got a newfound importance on brand in the design/build industry that any firm looking to compete—big and small—must notice.
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When asked, savvy business leaders know that their brand must be pervasive—and consistent—across every touch point, yet so many still fall short.
But how can you fall short on your company’s identity? Your reputation, what you want people to think of when they see your logo, and what they feel when they read you online content—these are not things to take lightly.
The foundational nature of branding is certainly one reason to lead your strategy with a critical review of the state of your brand. Are your key brand components showing their age? More than ever, logos and taglines must be clean and impactful. Your messaging must be concise, impactful, and consistent across all places that customers, and potential customers, see it. Email signatures, business cards, truck lettering, employee uniforms, websites, social media channels...everything.
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All of this said, it’s amazing how many businesses formulate an elaborate sales and marketing strategy without adequately defining their ideal customers.
As a result, they end up diluting both their messaging and their marketing dollars, instead of promoting an ill-defined and scattershot approach to messaging consumers.
Everything about your strategy depends on that definition. You can’t craft messaging for an audience you don’t know, and you can’t direct your marketing dollars effectively with no target in sight.
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So, what does your target look like? What factors define your ideal customers?
It’s not just enough to have a basic idea—you need to draw out the details. Proper strategy work involves quantifying—and clarifying—information . Tactically speaking, the strategy and brand phases include a comprehensive marketing audit, discovery, service offering analysis, persona development, and competitive analysis and brand positioning studies. It’s business soul-searching if you will, and it’s a critical step toward maximizing marketing ROI.
