Wake up! A Warning to all Construction Companies

After reviewing a few hundred websites this past year and looking at the overall marketing and social media accounts for dozens of construction companies, I feel like shaking some of you.

Most of the construction industry has marketing that is stuck in the late ‘90s or early 2000s. That’s before smartphones, before social media, and before we changed how we buy. The latest research shows people are doing 70% of their research about your company before they contact you. And when your marketing is stuck in the ‘90s, that research is going to lead them to your competition that is winning at marketing.

Audit Your Own Marketing

Before we take on a new client at BuildWitt, we do a comprehensive audit and give companies an honest opinion of where they stand. I can lump companies into 3 buckets for how well they are doing on marketing.

1. Very Poor - That’s a nice way of saying these companies suck at marketing and will start losing jobs and employees to their competitors. (roughly 35% of the industry)
2. Average - These companies are working at marketing and are checking many of the boxes, but their efforts are uninspiring, boring, and not believable. (60% of the industry)
3. Winning - These companies have leaders that get it, and they’re investing time and money to do marketing differently. (<5% for now, but growing)

If you want to know where your company falls, here’s a quick checklist:

Very Poor

• Website - Don’t have one, or the website was created 5+ years ago and hasn’t been updated since.
• Content - you have no videos and only small, blurry amateur photos online
• Social Media - you have 1 or 2 social accounts and post a few times a year generally at the company picnic and Christmas party.
• Google Business / Indeed - you haven’t claimed or updated your company profile on Google my Business and Indeed.
• Social Proof - you have 1 or 2 reviews posted online from a disgruntled employee and a driver that was cut off by a company truck.
• Hiring - there is no Careers page on the website, and no way for applicants to see what it is like to work at your company.

Average

Website - you hired an agency a few years ago to build a website and it generally works. It may even be mobile responsive and it uses the latest https: security protocol.

Navigation - the website has the following pages - Home, Services, Projects, About Us, and maybe even a way for people to inquire about jobs.

Content - you have some decent photos of your company and projects and maybe have a short video or two about your company online.

What Makes You Different - your website and marketing stresses the following key points about your company and why you are different than your competitor:

• You’re a family-owned company now on the 3rd generation of leadership
• You have tons of experience in your area
• You do great work with integrity, quality, and customer service. We do it right the first time.
• Safety is #1 at your company
• Your employees are what make you unique and you value them

Social Media - you have all of the social accounts (even Twitter for some reason) and you assigned a person to make social posts on a routine basis. Most posts get a few likes from employees and no other engagement. Importantly, employees are not encouraged to be active on social media and smartphones are prohibited everywhere on the job site.

Google / Indeed - You’ve claimed your business profiles and added a few pictures, and have a few reviews. You have no idea what Glassdoor is and what to do with it.

Social Proof - your company has less than 5 reviews on Google, Facebook, and Indeed.

Hiring - There is a short Careers page on the website with benefits listed and a way to download and print an application.

Job Postings - your job postings are short and uninspiring with just the experience required and a list of benefits you offer.

Winning at Marketing

Website - you have a new website, and you are investing to keep it updated with a blog and lots of new content each month. You treat the website like a phone instead of a filing cabinet where you are actively interacting with visitors.

Professional Content - your photography and video are amazing and inspiring, and you are constantly getting compliments from other companies and applicants about how much they like your company.

Make Others the Hero - you use your marketing to make others the hero, routinely highlighting your best employees and customers.

Tell Stories - you don’t make random claims, you tell stories.

Social Proof - you don't make claims about your value, you let others do it for you. You have reviews, rankings, awards, quotes from customers, and data about your customer to show your value instead of telling about it.

Social Media - you don’t assign social media to an intern or admin, your company owners and leaders are active on social media routinely posting their views on leadership, employees and the industry. Employees are encouraged to post and share their feelings about your company, and to become thought leaders in the industry.

Hiring - you have robust Careers pages on your website where applicants can see and apply for open jobs, and learn about your career paths, training opportunities, and get a sense for salary ranges. They can read stories about successful employees and read through dozens of reviews and comments from employees about what they like about the company.

Job Postings - your job postings are inspiring and detailed, with helpful information that stands apart from the competition. You have an applicant tracking system (ATS) that makes it easy to apply online and keeps a record of the people waiting to join your company.

Honesty and Transparency - your employees work hard sometimes in harsh conditions, but they love it. Your leaders welcome transparency by every employee online because you have an amazing story to tell. Where you have issues, you aren’t scared to address those publicly and fix them immediately. And you aren’t scared of a disgruntled employee venting online because 98% of your employees love the company and are very vocal about it.

The Future of Construction Marketing

I have seen the future of marketing in the industry, and there are companies that have embraced transparency and a new way of marketing and they are winning. They are hiring hundreds of employees and winning millions of dollars in new work because of their website, content and social media accounts.

If you have a great company but you’re stuck in the ‘90s and don’t know how to get unstuck, get some help. Find a marketing agency that knows your industry to help jump start your efforts. Find some companies that are winning at marketing and copy their efforts with your own unique spin.

If you need some inspiration, follow Turner Mining Group, Keaton Turner, and Mikel Bowman on LinkedIn and Instagram. Read their posts, and watch their videos. Most importantly, read through the comments below each post and watch how they interact. And watch for their new website coming later this month. They aren’t perfect yet, but these guys get it.

And tell your owners to wake up before it’s too late.