Need to know what specific types of media outlets meet your company’s current marketing or advertising needs? Now, this is by no means an all-encompassing list, but it covers about 95% of what most contractors use when marketing their construction businesses. As with everything, these are general marketing principles, you may achieve greater (or worse) results depending on many factors. [Read more…] about Marketing Matrix for Construction Marketing
Contractor Marketing Online
Use Old Media to Develop a Social Media ROI
I shot this video towards the end of last year and I just dug it up after forgetting I did it. I wish I had remembered it because I think the content makes a lot of sense to contractors who are on the fence about the value of using social media. In the video I make it easy for you to find an ROI for your social media activities using your existing advertising as our baseline. [Read more…] about Use Old Media to Develop a Social Media ROI
Google Places Quick Tip for Contractors
It’s Friday, and nobody wants to use a lot of brain cells thinking. So I am going to make this a nice quick post. But one that is still pretty important!
Google Places for contractors
With so much going on in local search, especially Google’s Places page, you need to realize that it is not a set-it-and-forget-it proposition. [Read more…] about Google Places Quick Tip for Contractors
Podcast: What Mistakes Contractors Make With Marketing
What mistakes do most contractors make? That was the question posed by Chris at Magic Pools when I opened up the phone lines here at Darren’s and turned the podcast over to you guys with your questions on marketing and advertising. So, to answer Chris’ question, not having a plan in the first place is probably the number one problem, Don’t ya think?
10 Ways to Market Your Contracting Company in a Down Market
1. Steal – That’s right, steal a good idea for an ad or a flyer or a business card or whatever else catches your fancy. Some of the best marketing I have ever seen came from a “borrowed” idea that was made better.
2. Aim like a friggin’ laser – You have to know your market. And that means your customers as well as the business environment. Stay up to date on local trends and developments and know EXACTLY what your competition is doing! [Read more…] about 10 Ways to Market Your Contracting Company in a Down Market
Use Location Specific Landing Pages Instead of Keyword Stuffing!
I have noticed that a really prominent contractor website design company packs their sites with city-based keywords in the footer of their sites. It got me thinking if their clients know that their sites have the potential to be flagged (and dropped in the rankings) by Google for keyword stuffing?
My solution – Location-specific landing pages
Instead of putting their clients at risk, what they should be doing (and you should to) is create location-specific landing pages. These are pages that are optimized for two things; what you do and where you do it. [Read more…] about Use Location Specific Landing Pages Instead of Keyword Stuffing!
Narrow Your Focus
Everyone knows a window guy or door guy or concrete guy. Here is a way to cut competition, keep your prices high and become the defacto “go to” guy in your market for whatever niche you want to target.
In this environment, you have to put as much distance between you and the rest of the pack as you possibly can. In other words, you have to carve out a market or niche for your business. By creating this distance, you protect yourself from competition but also from quick dips in the market. [Read more…] about Narrow Your Focus
5 Starter Tips to Advertising
Advertising doesn’t have to be hard. Like construction, advertising is simply knowing what goes where and how. Unfortunately, many contractors don’t get the results they want (or need to stay in business) so this type of advertising fits into the square peg, round hole portion of our show. So to avoid that, here are 5 quick tips you can use when advertising your construction business.
1. Use your ad platform to work for you. In other words, let the newspapers, YP and radio or TV guys do your production for you. Believe it or not, they know what sells on their ad platforms.
2. Talking about your benefits vs. features always sells better. The reason is the benefit induces an emotional reaction to the product or service your company provides. [Read more…] about 5 Starter Tips to Advertising