MARKETING IN CONSTRUCTION
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You have probably heard the term ‘marketing’ being used severally to mean ‘selling’ or ‘advertising’ but is that all there is to marketing? Granted, these are fundamental elements of marketing, however, marketing goes beyond simply advertising to make a sale. It is a strategic plan highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of your construction business.
Marketing allows you to make use of your competitive edge, pricing structure, and market demographics to drive sales. In marketing, as in most construction activities, it is crucial to plan and monitor performance.
Why should you market your construction business?
You have set up the perfect construction business. Your skills are top-notch, your customer service is excellent and your delivery prompt. Now all you have to do is open your doors and the sales will trickle right in, right? No. For you to make sales and achieve the desired profitability, you must put in more work to attract customers to your business.
Marketing enables you to expand your market while retaining existing clients. The market is full of businesses just like yours, if not better and consumers are spoilt for choice. Developing the right marketing plan for your business is a sure way to motivate people to pick you over your competitors.
Is there a specific time for marketing your construction business?
The competition starts as soon as you open your business and grows every moment thereafter. This means that there is no right time for marketing. However, marketing needs vary from business to business.
For example, a new business may need to market itself in order to familiarize people with its products and services while an established business may require marketing while launching a new product or service.
Developing a market plan
Marketing is hardly a one-size-fits-all affair as marketing needs vary from business to business. This also means that each business comes with its unique marketing budget and target market hence the need for a market plan. A good market plan is thorough, competitive and all-inclusive. It must be monitored and adjusted where necessary.
The construction business is rather dynamic therefore your marketing plan must be adaptable to the changing environment. The following are the steps to developing a sound marketing plan;
- Set your goals
Determining an objective helps to focus your energy, time, and resources to a specific thing. Whether you are looking to grow revenue or increase market share of a specific product/service, your objective must be clear and measurable. If your company has many revenue streams, it is best that you develop a marketing plan for each as their markets will vary.
- SWOT analysis
Together with your staff, analyze the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business. What advantage do you have over your competitors? How stable are you as a business? Does your team possess the required skills? What is your financial strength? What opportunities lie ahead of the business? Are you in a position to grab some of your competitors’ clients? Are your competitors’ charges much higher than yours? What problems do you foresee?
- Market analysis
Determine opportunities for growth and work on those in which you already have an advantage over your competitors. Take into account the cost and barriers to entry. Challenge new markets that are most aligned to your business objectives.
- Develop a budget
It is almost impossible to come up with a perfect marketing plan. You will need to adjust it along the way. The key is to be realistic so that you do not end up stretching your resources too far. Be creative and promote to as many folks as you can comfortably manage to. Consider the extra hands you will require in case the marketing plan brings additional work as expected. Start looking for an alternative source of labor.
- The marketing mix
The next step is to create a list of possible avenues to reach your target audience. Examples include; local radio stations and television ads, the company website, social media, magazine and newspaper advertisements, sponsoring local events and community outreach.
The composition of your marketing mix should be based on your target demographics. Analyze your past clientele to get a feel of who your average client is. Think out of the box to come up with the best mix.
- Monitoring
Compare your sales to the sales of the previous year. Are your efforts paying off? Request feedback from clients and measure it. What do they think of your customer service? Does your business have a good reputation?
Get to understand your business and the construction business as a whole. A marketing plan is only worth it if it helps your business to grow.
Ways to market your construction business
The list of marketing options in construction is endless. However, here are a few to start you off;
- Social Media
Forget newspapers and magazines; the internet has become the go-to source of information. A strong social media presence is crucial for your construction business. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram provide a platform where potential customers can access you at the touch of a button.
You may post testimonials from actual people on your social media page so that potential customers can read. Put up pictures of sites you have worked on and encourage customers to do the same.
- Online search engines
The co-founder of Fit Small Business, Marc Prosser advises that you should ensure your business appears at the top of online search engines especially locally. This is because the first place potential customers look is online.
- Support local activities
Offer corporate sponsorship to a local community group, school or sports team. You may also form a company team of y our own and invite partners or customers to team-building competitions. Cara Moroze, King Rose Construction’s communication manager advises that this should be done annually.
- Create a custom logo
Develop a custom logo that will help people recognize your brand. Companies such as apple and hp have maximized on this. It is hard to miss their products from a group of many.
- Word-of-mouth
Partnering with local communities will get you free word-of-mouth advertising. If people associate your business with good deeds, they are likely to refer their friends and family to you. You may also develop a program to motivate customers to tell other people about your services.
For example, you may offer a gift or discount for every referral a past customer sends you.
So How can we help?
Our company has been providing marketing solutions to businesses for four years now. Our small but dedicated team does all the work for you including;
- SEO social media management
- website creation
- content management
- content creation
Our passion for construction and understanding of the business is unmatched. This combined with knowledge and experience is what makes us the best at what we do. Contact us today and let us get you the online presence that your business needs.
Right, let’s do this!
Give us a call today or send us an email with a link to your website and we can chat the way forward for your business. We are so excited at the potential of working together to get your business online. We look forward to hearing from you.
Measure Manage is committed to ensuring we satisfy all our customers’ needs at a reasonable cost. We always want to learn new ways to improve our services. Leave us a comment and let us know what you enjoyed and what you did not like. Remember, Measure Manage is always willing and available to answer your questions.
The profession does not require candidates to undergo a specific course before entering this field, however, a relevant subject study may help a lot such as a graduate coursework in Construction, Economics, Mathematics, Geography, etc.
When you use construction estimating software, you will consistently use the same of similar processes for each new build which will ensure that your processes are both reliable and predictable.
Integrating estimating into project management once the project has been won makes the process far simpler. In construction, there are many grey areas in terms of what the estimator can be allowed for. Ultimately the estimator has to imagine the building getting built long before any construction team is appointed. The software can greatly help the estimating team with conveying the allowances in the tender
As with most situations, having a great team is of utmost importance. Creating a contract management team that work together on logistical issues and to successfully meet deadlines is imperative. This means that the optimal team should:
Clarity around how the team will then manage your portfolio is essential. This means identifying each person’s key strengths and assigning work accordingly, taking into consideration objectives and timeframes. Contracts are a deeply important part of business operations, proper administration on is essential for:
Using the correct technology is essential if you want to stay organised and on top of your performance. When considering tech solutions some things to consider are:
Building on your relationships with others will pay dividends in terms of business opportunities and cost, as well as a pleasant working environment of course. In marketing terms, it is cheaper to retain an existing customer than it is to gain a new one. In construction building relationships is so important. In international construction, it is important to know and understand the culture of the country you are working in. Making the effort to try and learn new languages can go a long way to nurturing relationships, as I found out on a recent trip to China.
The contract sets out the agreement between the parties. The clauses within the contract describe the agreement in detail to ensure that all parties are well aware of exactly what is expected of each of them at the various stages throughout the project.
For each of these clauses, the contract lays down the exact procedure the parties must follow to ensure that the project runs smoothly. The contract administrator’s role is to see that these clauses are followed by the party they are representing in a timely and professional manner.
The contract administrator is responsible for notifying the other party of potential delays to the project. In this respect, timely notification is absolutely crucial as the other party will need to take appropriate action to avoid.
Assisting in the preparation of subcontract packages
As a project stakeholder, you need to be sure your construction project is on time and on the budget, and that you’re getting the best quality for your money – but how do you achieve this? In a nutshell, you call in a quantity surveyor: a professional, whose job it is to ensure that you receive maximum value for your money. Quantity surveyors will help you acquire premium quality materials and labour at the most cost-effective rates. From years of experience, they know that virtually any project can at any time be subject to unexpected costs, and they are there to keep things running smoothly whatever the situation. Here’s a list of the main things a quantity surveyor would do during any construction project:
1. Quantity take-off – this is when a quantity surveyor uses drawings and designs to work out the amount of material and work items that need to be performed in order to complete a task. After measuring all the quantities, the quantity surveyor transfers them into a Bill of Quantities (BOQ). This is basically a shopping list. But instead of your groceries, it lists all the items that need to be completed in order to finish a task.
5. Risk management – another important part of the construction that involves quantity surveyors. The ability to identify risks requires experience and knowledge of the challenges that have faced former projects. Identifying risks is a challenge in itself within an industry notorious for having so many. The quantity surveyor must also understand and take steps to compensate for any impact the risk may have on the project. At the start of a project, the quantity surveyor would generally populate a risk register, which would be managed throughout the construction process. When faced with absolutely unforeseeable risks – such as a key subcontractor going out of business – arising during the project, quantity surveyors have to manage as best they can.
7. Project Management – this is where a quantity surveyor can really get a hold of a project and make sure that it runsproperly. Project management makes demands on all the quantity-surveyor skills discussed so far.
Once you have understood the different requirements depending on the type of such a role, you can divide project, the role of quantity surveyor may perform all or only a few of a Quantity Surveyor into the duties listed above.
The role of the quantity surveyor starts from the very beginning of the construction project. During this phase, he plays a major role in preparing cost estimates. When the project owner is preparing the budget, the quantity surveyor helps in defining the optimal quantity and price of the materials being used in construction.
Although the project plans are initially designed before the start of a project, these documents help in preparing the actual budge. However, there are always surprises in any construction project. Some of the scenarios could include weather delays, unforeseen delays, materials shortages, labor shortages, bad ground delays and many more.
An ideal quantity surveyor has a strong eye for detail and always keeps a foot on the ground. He makes regular visits to the construction site. These visits serve many purposes such as getting an actual feel for the progress of the project, face to face interaction with the construction team and analyzing the task requirements ahead of time.