Marketing Challenges Facing the Construction Industry
One of my favorite ways to learn more about the grander scope of the construction industry is through podcasts. You hear the most interesting stories and get to experience brilliants minds coming together to innovate the industry and make it better!
I was so excited to meet another passionate problem-solver for the construction industry, Todd Weyandt. Todd is the host of the Bridging the Gap podcast and Director of Marketing at Applied Software.
Ya’ll, if you’ve never met/heard of Todd Weyandt — let me just tell you, he’s an absolute innovator in the construction industry. By having conversations with experts changing the technological and leadership landscape throughout the built environment, Todd is on a mission to share insights with the rest of the construction industry on the Bridging the Gap podcast.
So what is this podcast all about?
Join the construction innovation and digital transformation adventure with a mission to model the future for the great industry of construction. The award-winning Bridging the Gap podcast gives voice to the incredible things happening in and around the construction industry.
If you like innovation, technology and a society-shaping industry, this is the place to be. Are you interested in the future of construction, building a sustainable tomorrow, industrialized construction and much more? Subscribe and join the adventure today.
I’m so grateful I got to be a part of this project by telling my own story!
How to market your construction business with website design
Prefer to watch? I dropped the video below!
So, what did Todd and I chat about in this episode?
(You’ll definitely want to tune in while you drive to the job site, but here’s a quick little run-down in the meantime!)
An introduction to Katlyn and her ties to the construction industry
How construction companies can identify their core values (6:52)
Walking construction web design clients through telling their marketing story by asking “why?” (12:07)
Using brand questionnaires to help construction companies get their message across effectively (13:53)
The thing missing from your construction website that is costing you thousands of dollars (14:33)
How to use obvious calls to action to get results on your website (19:19)
The importance of knowing your numbers/analytics to track ROI from your website (24:46)
Wrapping up: What innovation means to Katlyn (32:23)
Ready to give it a listen? You can find the episode on:
SPOTIFY | APPLE PODCASTS | GOOGLE PODCASTS | OVERCAST
You can also find the full show notes and resources mentioned here.
Here are some of the key topics we discussed on the episode:
Q: How do you walk a construction company through thinking about their brand story?
A: It’s so important to ask “Why” when it comes to our business. Why did you start? Why are you passionate about what you do? Why are you the right choice for your customers? Why do you care about growing your business? Why…why…why.
Start asking those deeper questions. It wasn’t easy to start your construction business. You went through blood, sweat, and tears.
So how did you overcome those challenges? What are your goals for the future? What’s your mission? What is your company culture?
It can be hard, but it’s important to answer these questions before you can market to your customers.
Q: What does a good construction website really look like?
A: It wasn’t until recently that website strategy was introduced to me.
I thought just making a website look “good” was enough to be successful. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
What was missing from my business was offering that personal element to my clients’ websites.
A website for a roofer is going to look much different than an ecommerce website, or a website for a health coach. Their business goals, objectives, needs, clients…they’re all vastly different. So their website approach shouldn’t be the same across the board.
It’s important in my website design process to sit down with each and every client and get to the heart of their issue. What issues are affecting them right now? What is not working with their website? What are their financial goals for their business? Who do they currently serve? Do they want to currently serve those people or do they have an ideal client they aren’t currently reaching?
Based on those answers, their website should be strategically designed to meet those unique goals.
A “good” website is a website that is hyper focused on the unique goals of each client and works to meet and exceed those goals so their company can scale.
A website is NOT just a digital business card. If that’s all you see it as, you’re leaving real money on the table.
A website should be a powerful tool that works to make more money for your business.
Q: How do you turn a website into a money-making machine for a construction company?
A: Tailoring a website to a company’s goal is a key factor, but there are also design elements you can implement to help increase engagement and leads that come through your website.
Calls to action are a big one! These are the buttons on your website that tell people what to do.
Call Now
Book a Consultation
Get a Free Quote
It seems simple, but these buttons and calls to action should be BIG and OBVIOUS, because people will not take the time to search for them.
You have less than a tenth of a second to make an impression when someone lands on your website. They will not take the time to look for how to get in touch with you.
But these small design changes can make all the difference in getting more calls/inquiries into your business and booking more jobs.
Having high quality photos is another tip. It shows you take your work seriously and your’re legit, which builds trust and authority with potential clients.
Keeping the contact forms on your site to less than 5 fields makes a huge difference in conversion rates.
Again, people do not want to take the time to fill out this long form. Research shows that as you go over 4 to 5 fields, conversion rates drop dramatically.
Name, phone number OR email, and a simple message/comment box is all (most) businesses need for the contact forms on their site.
Q: How do you track ROI for a website?
A: When I sit down with a client, the first thing I collect from them is their number or analytics.
In order to measure growth, we first need to know the starting point.
How many people are visiting your site per month?
What pages are they going to on your website?
How many people are clicking on your calls to action and reaching out to you?
We can then take this information and pinpoint the areas of the website that need improvement.
Then, after the design is done, we can check in at 3 months, 6 months, or a year, and be able to see the new numbers and progress.
But the first step is knowing your numbers to see where the problems are.
Want a powerful construction website to scale your business this year?
Learn how website strategy can put more money into your pocket with a free consultation today!
