←back to Blog

10 Ways to Promote Your Construction Company in 2015

Startup Stock Photos

Contractors are busy people, juggling multiple jobs while quoting others. It is difficult to find the time or energy to focus on marketing efforts. When you do decide to sit down and spread the word about your business, how do you do it? Though personal referrals are wonderful ways to boost your business, they should not be counted on as your sole marketing effort.

Here are ten marketing tools that home improvement contractors should be using right now:

  1. Website. There is no way around it in our digital age. If you have a business, you need a website. People looking for a contractor are going to search online to consider their options, and you do not want to be one of the results that pop up with nothing but an address and phone number. Your contractor website is an ideal place to showcase photos of finished projects and testimonials from past customers. You can also provide a request for quote form for those prospective clients who are hesitant to pick up the phone.
  2. Social Media. Start business accounts for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This is a free method of spreading your name and is another place to feature pictures and comments from happy customers. Include links to helpful information about your business and items that may interest your followers, such as home maintenance advice.
  3. Blog. Having a blog as part of your website gives visitors a reason to come back. If you are habitually posting new examples of your work and tips that are helpful to homeowners and renovators, people will share these links on social media. This spreads your name and increases your online presence. This means increasing your website SEO, or moving up in the Google result rankings.
  4. Network. Keep in touch with past clients, giving them first notice of your sales or discounts. Use LinkedIn and professional organizations to connect with other people in the home renovation business. Participate in community events and get to know people, so that when they need work done you are the contractor who comes to mind. Create referral incentives with related businesses that you can both benefit from.
  5. Sponsorships. When you have a banner up with your name on it at local events, people will notice. Not only does it spread the word about your company, but it does so with the positive connotation of the event. For example, if you sponsor a private school auction, you will be remembered as the contractor who cares about our kids. Most events can be sponsored for an amount that makes them quite affordable for contractor marketing.
  6. Home Shows. Participating at a home show is a wonderful way to place samples of your best work in front of people who are coming to you for ideas. Where better to focus your contractor marketing efforts than in a captive audience of people who are longing for you to sell them something. Hand out business cards and attractive flyers that direct people to your website. You don’t want them to get home and only remember you as “that one contractor with the picture of the fabulous bathroom.”
  7. Home Tour. Taking part in a local home tour is another contractor marketing method that focuses on potential customers who are willing to do the legwork to see the best local contractor offerings. Having a home featured that you renovated increases your company’s standing in the community. It is also one of the few ways for people to physically see and touch your finished product.
  8. Creatively Promote. You would like to give every house a new kitchen, bath, or new addition, but this simply is not in every household’s budget. Advertise affordable alternatives that they may not have considered. For example, have a sale on countertop replacement or bathtub refinishing. Showing potential clients that you are willing to take on the not-so-big jobs will encourage them to ask you about their own ideas.
  9. Don’t Forget Investors. Create a relationship with property investors who are continuously buying, selling, and renting properties. These are great opportunities for repeat business. Point out how beneficial it could be for them to have a contractor on speed dial that they know they can count on to turn their properties around quickly and efficiently. Provide a rental facelift package that will get a property ready for new tenants.
  10. Home Inspections. Offer home inspection service to people considering home purchases. You will give them peace of mind about their new home, and they will remember that when they want to begin renovations.