Having an online presence nowadays is not optional, especially for builders and contractors. The majority of customers look online to find a contractor or builder for their project, and if you’re not marketing effectively, they’ll fall to one of the many competitors that are. Here, we’ll tell you why digital marketing for contractors and builders is necessary and how contractors can generate more leads and customers by utilizing the latest marketing strategies and trends.
Contractor Marketing Tips for Getting Started
Contractors and builders can use digital marketing to get more leads and more traffic to their website. The first thing you should do is use search engine optimization, or the organic part of Google when someone does a keyword search. Getting your site to rank as one of the options for someone to click on organically, so you’re not paying for every click, is one major goal for digital marketing. This strategy is keyword-driven. So, you’re identifying the keywords that your customers are using to find you, and then you make sure that those keywords are found in the content of your site.
A major piece of digital marketing that contractors and builders should take advantage of is Google My Business. It’s very important for local searches; it’s what fuels Google Maps. Make sure that you have Google My Business verified, and that your profile is completely filled out from the right category to photos, hours of operation, and a keyword-rich description. And of course, make sure your website, business name, address and phone number are correct.
Target Your Customers
Targeting customers is vital in digital marketing. You want to make sure that content on your website targets the services you provide and the areas you serve, in terms of where you want to pull customers from. A simple way to do this is to create project pages. For example, if you renovate a bathroom in Fairfield, New Jersey, you would create content around that service you provided. The city, photos, and content around that project would help you rank for local searches in Fairfield, directing the right kind of potential customers to your page.
What about PPC Advertising?
Another thing to consider is pay-per-click advertising. This is also like SEO where it’s keyword-driven, but with PPC, you’re bidding on keywords. For example. you’re telling Google, “Show my ad when someone searches for bathroom remodeler in Fairfield,” and you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. You can geotarget the ad, meaning you only show the ads when someone searching within a specific area. The advantage of pay-per-click advertising is that the traffic is immediate, and you have a lot of flexibility as to when your ads are shown. You can also grow and shrink the budget based on seasonality.
One other tactic you can try is running marketing out of pay-per-click as well. That is the same platform you run the remarketing from it, so when someone leaves your site, they see your banners. So if a potential customer comes to your site because they have a project in mind, but they are not ready to commit right away, remarketing will keep your company in the top of their mind.
Content Marketing Is Key
Content marketing is important for contractors and builders. You can use it to educate potential customers, build authority, and drive traffic to your website, since Google will rank these pages for certain keywords. Content marketing helps drive traffic, so it’s an ideal way to educate customers around a particular service or theme, like bathroom remodeling. You could also explore a design idea, display a building trend, or write an article or press release. A good content marketing tip? Create visual pieces of content, like infographics. Infographics are especially useful for builders and contractors, as they provide easily digestible information in a visually appealing manner. With infographics, it’s simple to establish your expertise in the field.
Build Brand Awareness with Social Media
Using social media is the perfect way to stay in front of potential customers and build brand awareness for builders and contractors. Popular social media platforms for contractors and builders include Facebook, Instagram, and Houzz. Builders and contractors can share high-quality photos and videos on these, as well as run ads that are targeted based on geo and interests. So, if you do a project spotlight in a specific city, you can run ads to people that live in that city to increase the chances that they hire you.
Especially for builders and contractors, video is of paramount importance. This content sells your services by visually showing the potential customer what you could do for them. There are also a lot of ways you can repurpose the video. You can put it on your website, in an email, use it to run ads, or get more visibility on YouTube. You can also use it as a sales tool. For example, if someone is considering you for a project, you can use the video within your proposal. It’s smart to have strong content for you social media channels, but having good video is one versatile tool builders and contractors need for all aspects of their marketing.
Hello, Email Marketing!
Using email marketing to nurture existing customers is one of the best marketing strategies for contractors and builders to perpetuate customer relationships. If you redo someone’s bathroom, email marketing increases the chance that they will call you to renovate their kitchen the next year. Email marketing also gives you a step up with leads who aren’t ready to commit. When the time is right for them to get started on a project, they’ll think of you, because they’ve seen your emails. Mailchimp is a popular email marketing tool that businesses often use to stay in their customer’s mind.
Recap
Builders and contractors can use digital marketing to:
- Target customers in a given area
- Showcase projects and services
- Stay in touch with existing customers and encourage potential clients
- Generate new leads
Through these methods:
- SEO and Google My Business
- PPC Advertising
- Strong social media presence
- Content marketing and video
- Email marketing
Ready to increase your customer base and improve your digital marketing? Ballantine has experience with contractors and builders, aiding them in building their marketing strategy. Contact us today for top-notch contractor marketing services to boost your business!
I'm the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a family-owned and operated direct mail & digital marketing company based in New Jersey. and started in 1966 by my great uncle!
