The top 5 marketing tips for the construction industry

How do medium-sized construction product manufacturers get into the heads of decision-makers?

Marketing in the construction industry works differently.

Marketing managers of medium-sized building product manufacturers have difficulty of having to address many different target groups. In addition to architects, planners, fabricators, general contractors, builders, and suppliers, marketing campaigns in the direction of the existing network are not uncommon.

This is not just about collecting leads for sales but more importantly finding different communication channels for prospects to move through to enable branding and image. Since the construction industry is highly dependent on B2B contacts; customer care, and relationship management are important components in marketing and sales.

Another distinction from other industries in marketing is the distribution channel. In most cases, online stores or direct sales are not the desired solution – construction products should primarily be made known so that they can then end up in the bidding process with architects and planners. This involves creating an interest and forcing an appointment. The final deal is still made face to face. So there are many differences and reasons why marketing in the construction industry is a little different. But what exactly should companies be looking out for? At Craftcloud, we have five tips for you:

Tip 1: Talk to your customers regularly

Architects are multipliers, and it’s no different with institutional builders. Why multipliers? Well, let’s assume your company produces windows, switches, doors, stairs, or insulation materials – all building products that are used in almost every construction project and if the multiplier has once had a good experience with you and your building product, it is very likely that he will rely on your product again.

Because architects don’t build once in a lifetime, they build all the time. So it is all the more important that you build up a permanent communication channel to these multipliers through your marketing department and maintain your network properly. This also includes that exactly this network regularly learns about you.

The GDPR has made it much more difficult to establish new contacts via company newsletters. Therefore, you should primarily use your existing customer network to draw attention to yourself. This can be, for example, news about your company, the presentation of architecturally sophisticated references, or information about your latest innovation.

It is important that you do not annoy your customers and that you offer real added value. However, it is at least as important that you have maintained your data and know at all times who your customers actually are and what importance the relationship has for your company.

Tip 2: Involve your sales colleagues

In marketing, actions are planned and the sales department knows nothing about them. Let’s face it: we’ve all been there, haven’t we? Likewise, we all know that this should not be the case and yet sometimes it cannot be avoided. The main reason for this at least minor failure lies in incorrect or inadequate communication between the two departments.

Due to the advancing digitalization, sales, and marketing are increasingly merging with each other and blind understanding between them should therefore be doubly important. It often happens that an already existing contact with a potential new customer has been addressed by a marketing action and the responsible sales department cannot react to it because it did not even notice this action. Of course, this leaves many opportunities unused, or even worse, prevents them from being used in the future. It is therefore very important to create an internal system that is so transparent that sales and marketing always know what is going on in the other department.

This can be ensured, for example, by a functioning CRM system with which not only sales but also marketing regularly interact. In addition to the system, regular meetings, e.g., via remote, are also useful and promote transparency and mutual understanding. One thing is clear – good marketing in the construction industry no longer works in isolation from sales, and the same is true the other way around.

Tip 3: Get a grip on your customer data

Data, data, data! Not only the large US corporations such as Amazon, Google, and others use customer data to enable individual marketing approaches, but also more and more medium-sized construction product manufacturers are exploiting this tactic.

The aim is not only to persuade their potential prospects to buy but also to gain an overview of their existing network. As already mentioned in tip 2, a transparent customer overview not only facilitates the respective marketing campaign but also ensures that sales opportunities are not lost.

From our expert point of view, it is not even crucial to capture all customer characteristics down to the smallest detail. You should focus more on the essential characteristics that really matter to your business and consistently capture and harness them. At the end of the day, as always, it’s a matter of effort versus return, and it should benefit you more than hurt you.

In short, data capture yes, by all means! But not excessively, and, above all, focused on what is important. Here we are happy to help you.

Tip 4: Use your existing network

Networking here, networking there. Everyone talks about it, but hardly anyone does it. This is not witchcraft, but rather the permanent play on the stakeholders of your company. By stakeholders, we really mean everyone who is connected to your company in some way or another. In addition to customers, these can also be your own employees, external agencies, or even competitors.

The important thing is to use the power of recommendation in a targeted way, and who better to do this than someone who already knows your company? Company events with individual invitations, social media channels, or individual mailings are all very well suited to cultivate the existing network.

Here, too, the following applies, make sure that the added value for the addressed group of people is in the foreground instead of wanting to shine through quantity in communication. Of course, the basis for this is also that you have complete digital control over your data.

Tip 5: Make use of digital helpers

As already mentioned in tip 3 “Customer Data”, CRM systems, for example, can serve as excellent digital helpers to take over your basic homework. After all, without a transparently maintained database, our tips won’t help you much, unfortunately.

In addition, there is the rapid advance of digitalization, which has also found its way into the construction industry since the beginning of the pandemic. The competition does not sleep and you should also use digital helpers to put your everyday business and especially your marketing on a professional footing.

The Craftcloud CRM was developed especially for the requirements of medium-sized building product manufacturers and enables you to have transparent communication between marketing and sales, to maintain your network permanently, and to have a lot of transparency in your everyday business. We would be happy to offer you a free analysis of your current customer management and get to know you.

Simply contact us here.