Continuing the chapters about the tools that can be used to help you have a Successful Construction Business. This chapter is about getting and retaining customers.
This segment is split into 2 chapters – Marketing and Sales. Lots of people look at them as the same thing but they are very different. Marketing is about addressing the entire audience of interested industry parties, media, prospective customers, etc. – the “Market” – to promote awareness of the product and/or service to effectively funnel the interested prospects to the Sales team.
Marketing
Before anything else, get whatever licenses and insurance are necessary for your business. This is not only critical to the financial and legal future of your business but, it is another way of marketing your intent to deliver value to your customers.
Strategizing on how the company lets the market know that they exist and what their expertise is in that market. It is also about making and retaining a positive impression the entire market. Operations has, within it, a marketing component. What the customer thinks of what you do builds your reputation and a large part of what your market will know about you. If you can use a customer as a reference you have taken a large step toward more business. It is also a part of branding of your company it goes back to what we have said before about selling value.
Branding – Identity
Establishing a positive brand is critical to the company. What do you think of when you hear Lexis or Honda? How about BMW or Chevrolet? Each of those companies has established an image in your mind of what you can expect. Having a positive brand takes the load off future marketing and sales.
Your Branding must be consistent, easily recognizable and memorable where ever you use it
What operations can do to establish positive Branding
- Make sure that the job is better than expected
- Consistently and timely communicate with the customer and all people trying to communicate with you company
- Bring in jobs on time and under budget
- Make sure the customer thinks of you as punctual, dependable and clean
- Continual training on whatever aspects of your trade will make you stand out
- Leave the customer an unexpected,inexpensive but memorable gift as a signature at the end of the job
What the person or persons responsible for Marketing can do for Branding
First, establish your entity. Create something that has a positive ring and can represent you to your prospect base as the high quality company to deal with
- Decide on the name
- make long list of possibilities
- prioritize list
- research for availability of domain
- Decide on the identity, color scheme and logo to be used everywhere
- research on attraction of colors that have relevance with to the product
- Differentiation between your solution and other contractors. What makes it unique
- Create a concise mission statement
- Create a tagline that epitomizes the products impact and is used everywhere with your logo
- Prepare a document, for each of your staff to understand, that explains what makes your company and the value you deliver worth what the customer would have to pay for your service. This needs to be the mission of everyone in the company and they must be able to teach it your audience.
- Create a “30 second elevator speech” that everyone in the company uses which is consistent, clearly states what your company does based on that mission statement and leaves a lasting impression
- Modify the elevator speech take into consideration where it goes, i.e.: elevators, meetings, Facebook, Twitter, print advertising, door hangers, etc.
- Modify the elevator speech for the specific segments of your audience
- Make sure your experience is discussed wherever it possible.
- Get a well implemented website – no website means you are not really in business
- Get a web designer who provides
- Strategic Designing that takes advantage of the work you have done to portray that value image you are looking for
- Impeccable Development that uses the right technology
- To handle today and tomorrow with its constant changes
- To quickly and inexpensively give you the look and feel you want
- To incorporate the eCommerce solution that makes your job easier
- Vigilant Monitoring that
- Looks for and implements the best technology changes as they arrive
- Keeps your site up-to-date to handle the hacks and malware attacks without incident
- Check references on each of the above
- Make sure your mission is very clear and visible
- Show project pictures – before and after where possible
- Add keywords to each photo (“contemporary kitchen”,”basement remodel”, etc.
- Discuss the value you bring to the customer in easy terms
- Make sure your content is usable for SEO or Digital Marketing (DM)
- Place Customer reviews on the website
- Get a web designer who provides
- Take the positive picture given by your customers and make sure they are placed on sites like Angie’s List or Yelp
- Publish stories in the local newspapers showing, from the customers viewpoint, the positive jobs you have completed
- Establish a referral list for future branding and marketing
There are many more tactics that can be used. Be inventive because it shows your dedication value and it could mean more business.
Strategy
Take a look at your company’s history to assess the number of estimates it takes to get a job, the exposure to the audience it takes to get the opportunities for estimates and the venues for exposure. It takes constant evaluation of the position in which your company is to determine if your goals, direction and methods are working. We need X leads in X time to generate $X of income and X% of the leads will require X number of follow-up communications within X time before they will buy.
Remember that critically analyzing and tweaking the list below is, at the very least, a monthly cycle and that you cannot get off the cycle or you will not see the results you want. You must continue to analyze the results, tweak what you are doing and analyze again. One thing you should be aiming for is diminishing the amount of effort you exert in the following list of tasks and increasing the effort in areas you are more familiar with, making the customers happy enough to refer their friends and neighbors to you.
A construction business should be referral driven. That does not mean you don’t do any other marketing. It just means that producing value and asking for referrals should be the main driver.
- Financial Goal
- What is necessary to have the life style you want
- How much revenue is necessary to maintain the company and get profit you need
- How much business does it take to make your financial goal
- Direction – Are you going after the proper type of business to reach that goal
- Methods – Each of the following need constant evaluation and work
- How do we get the right number of leads
- Print advertising – types that generate the right number
- Newspaper, magazine, Yellow Pages, flyers, Money Saver coupons, etc
- Social media advertising – Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, etc
- Pay-per-click advertising – Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc
- Angie’s List, Yelp, etc
- Posting projects to indirect online lead sources like Houzz, Porch, etc
- Add a robust description to each project and photo
- Add a minimum of 20 keywords to each photo (“contemporary kitchen”,”basement remodel”, etc.
- Add multiple photos for each project to increase the likelihood of users adding your photos to their idea book
- Add product tags where applicable
- Add geo-specific information to each project to increase the likelihood that users in your service area will see your page (ex: Custom Outdoor Kitchen in Bethesda, MD)
- Add credits for other contractors you worked with on the project
- Direct Online lead sources
- contractormarketing360.com
- getserviceleads.com
- networx.com
- homeadvisorpros.com
- Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Lists for email and print mail distribution
- Door hangers – is this right and what does it generate
- Shows – which types work
- Referral partnerships with other contracting companies
- Referral partnerships with realtors
- Print advertising – types that generate the right number
- Do we have enough customer referrals
- Do we ask for them
- Do we reward them
- Do we have enough repeat business
- Are we looking for other work while doing the current project
- Is our work and relationship good enough to warrant it
- How do we get the right number of leads
Get the proper software to handle the suspects, prospects, leads and customers so the information about them and the numbers can be managed to give your marketing efforts and your historical tracking the power needed for your company to grow.