In the past, successful constructions companies relied primarily on personal relationships, professional networks, and word-of-mouth referrals to generate profitable new business. While all of these are still important, a growing number of construction companies are adding inbound marketing to the mix. A survey by the Construction Marketing Association found that 82 percent of construction firms employed some form of inbound marketing.
Relationships Start Before the First Conversation
In the past, construction firms built new relationships through the time-tested, age-old process of having a conversation — either over the phone or in-person. And while conversations are still (obviously) vital, construction firms cannot exclusively rely on them to build new relationships, because the process typically starts before they pick up the phone, or answer an email.
This is because today’s prospects are doing their research weeks, months or sometimes years before they reach out. HubSpot research has found that 60 percent of the buying decision is made before first contact! Inbound marketing allows construction firms to provide this research, and position themselves on the radar screen for when it’s time to move forward.
Expertise is Everything
While “thought leadership” is important in every industry, it’s arguably even more of a dominating factor in the construction world – because as far as clients are concerned, incompetence is not just costly: it can be catastrophic.
Inbound marketing helps construction firms of all sizes – including smaller organizations – to establish their thought leadership and earn trust by delivering authoritative content (read: not sales collateral). Both of these translate into a solid foundation upon which strong, mutually beneficial relationships are built.
All Prospects Aren’t Created Equal
Construction firms know that they aren’t just trying to reach a single target audience. There are several, or perhaps in some cases dozens of client types in both the B2B and B2C space.
Traditional marketing cannot come close to cost-effectively reaching these different groups – there are too many, and what’s more, traditional marketing isn’t particularly effective in the first place. Spending more doesn’t usually translate into better results.
However, inbound marketing is fundamentally designed for target audience segmentation. That means constructions firms can affordably create and automatically distribute content that is relevant and interesting to each client type — which drives engagement, and builds relationships.
