Branding for Construction Companies: Part 2 – Essential Online Presence

Once the brand identity of your construction start-up is well defined, you need to work up your online presence fast. The whole world, or so it seems, has some kind of internet presence, but don’t settle for getting your company merely up and running - aim for outpacing the competition at every opportunity. A highly effective online presence is one which ranks highly on the search engine results, leads to plenty of conversions and paves your way to success.

Your online presence has to maintain strong branding throughout to prove to the world at large that you are a professional company and can deliver high quality results and to tempt new clients to come your way. At a bare minimum, your new construction company needs online presence in 2 key areas:

1. High ranking website

To ensure potential clients become putty in your hands, your website must be professionally designed, showcase your completed projects and explain clearly why your company is the one to hire. You need to appear far better than you competitors to seal the deal.

Work with a professional brand development company which offers website design, content writing and programming so you have a great eye-catching website that explains your brand message and results in sales. It should have:

• A homepage that is visually attractive, shows the construction services on offer and gives an indication of how you are better than other companies
• Simple navigation to make it easy for visitors to find what they are looking for
• Plenty of images of completed projects to show what you can do
• A Content Management System to enable you to easily upload more images as more projects are finalized
• Great client testimonials proudly displayed in hard to miss locations
• Call-to-action buttons which demand attention and encourage visitors to convert – to contact you or request a quote
• Social media sharing icons on each page so visitors can share your information with their family and friends

For your website to rank highly in search engine results, it has to be found. This is why the wed development team you work with must also have exceptional search engine optimization (SEO) skills. By identifying and using keywords within your website content and on invisible tags, they can help your website appear on the first page of the search engine results.

2. Killer social media marketing

Social media has taken the world by storm and billions of people use it to share information and to peek at what others are up to. Social media is also booming for business marketing – more shares equate to more brand exposure.

Here are the top 4 killer social media websites to include in your marketing strategy:

• Facebook – It’s the biggest social media website - so get your company page set up without delay. Then start to share tips, photos, information and offers relevant to your niche in the construction industry. Don’t be afraid to use humor, a little diplomatic controversy and anything else that grabs attention. Posts that get more shares are those that are unbeatable offers, thought provoking, or just plain simple common sense advice.
• LinkedIn – It’s really not so different from Facebook and it’s a great site to be active on because the user profile tends to be people over 40 who hold college degrees. One can assume that they have more disposable income than the younger Facebook crowd so you definitely want them to hear about your great company.
• YouTube – Create a company YouTube channel and start uploading your videos. This is the ideal platform to show off your skills by adding short videos of completed projects. Don’t go mad and spend thousands on creating a professional video - a well constructed video shot with a steady hand will suffice. And you can also use stills and graphics to create a video to give specific information about your services.
• Pinterest – This content sharing service is growing fast and some people think this is definitely the next big social media thing. It’s great for construction companies as the emphasis is on images. Pin a photo of a project you’re rightly proud of onto a ‘board’ and those who like it can re-pin it or click on a button to take them directly to your website.

Handy tip: Place free classified ads on both Kijiji and Craigslist websites. Add some text and images – it’s as easy as 1-2-3. Just keep an eye on the ad and keep renewing it so it doesn’t get buried by new ads. Also list your construction start-up on free online directories such as Bing, Google and Yelp.

Optional extras: If budget allows, consider a Google Adword campaign. These are the ads that you see at the very top of the search results. This type of campaign can be particularly useful when your company is in its infancy as it drives targeted traffic to your website. But best to use a professional company to manage this, monitor effectiveness and keep an eye on the cost.

As your construction company starts to take off, you will find that a professional and determined online presence will greatly help to improve brand awareness which will lead to more sales. Get the essentials nailed down first and then determine if you need to pump up your presence with paid online advertising.