Business - 5 min read
An effective marketing strategy is one that uses various activities to engage prospects at different points of their buyer journey or the sales cycle. Unfortunately, many builders make common marketing mistakes that hinder their business growth.
Due to limited resources, you need to identify those marketing efforts that take precedence over others and avoid the following five mistakes.
It’s important to clarify the goals of your marketing program and how you plan to achieve them. A few example goals are:
Naturally, your marketing goals need to be an extension of your business objectives. Merely targeting an increase in sales is not enough. You should be specific on where to spend your marketing budget and when measuring the success of the campaign.
Perhaps the biggest marketing mistake many construction companies make is not having a defined plan of action. Without a plan, your campaigns will be ad hoc and ineffective. You should decide on the channels to use, formulate a budget, and measure your results to maximise your marketing investment.
Your construction company’s marketing budget should require a lot of input, time, and thought. Unfortunately, many small-sized builders cut their marketing budget when trying to balance their operating budget. This is a big mistake considering that marketing is not an expense but an investment.
A good benchmark for deciding the sum of money to spend on marketing is the Advertising-to-sales ratio (A/S), which should be 10 percent. This is calculated by dividing your advertising costs with your projected sales. Of course, this metric varies according to factors like business size, age, and popularity. It also doesn’t hurt to have a secondary budget in place.
If you don’t know or understand your target market, it’s best to assume that your past clients are probably the best indicator of your future clients. From here, dig deeper. After collecting all the data you need, the next step is aligning your marketing strategy with the target market trends.
Once you determine your target audience, you need to learn where to find them and the best channels to use to reach them. For example, if your potential clients are upscale inner-city professionals, then digital content and social media could be your channels of choice. However, if you’re a small town builder serving a local market, then print media ads, radio time, outdoor advertising and local event sponsorship may be a more strategic option.
According to a Deloitte report on a study conducted on behalf of Google, 35 percent of small business owners in Australia (with 20 to 100 employees) don’t have an online presence or website. Moreover, those businesses that do have sites fail to take advantage of the numerous marketing opportunities available like social media, content creation, or listing their businesses on local search directories.
Today, customers searching for businesses tend to start online first. Therefore, it is essential to leverage the power of inbound marketing with an active website that provides fresh and reliable content to consumers. An online presence also allows you to overcome geographical boundaries and tap into other markets across Australia.
Email marketing remains an effective marketing tool for businesses across different industries. Therefore, it is a big mistake not to implement email marketing into your overall marketing strategy.
Research has revealed that email marketing remains one of the most cost-effective ways of marketing a business and its products/services. In fact, a Direct Marketing Association research study revealed that for every dollar invested in email marketing, you expect a $38 ROI. Moreover, automated email marketing software has become a popular way to make this process easier and more efficient.
On top of email marketing, you also need a robust mobile marketing strategy because almost every Australian owns a smartphone. Over two-thirds of emails are accessed via mobile phones because of convenience. Moreover, Google is presently factoring in a website’s optimisation for mobile devices in its ranking algorithm.
Forget the ‘one size fits all’ marketing strategy. Your efforts need to address your business’ vision and goals to be relevant. Always identify your target audience; have a solid marketing plan and budget; and remember to leverage social media, search engine optimisation, email marketing and mobile strategy.
For a free marketing plan template for construction companies, download our Tradies' Template Pack today:
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