Advertising for construction companies - how to promote your services online?
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4 October 2023
The renovation and construction industry is full of both small contractors and large companies employing multitudes of people. This makes it extremely competitive, and this makes it difficult to reach customers with your offer. However, nothing is lost. With the help of the right marketing strategy, you can successfully showcase yourself both online and offline. So what do you need to do? Our tips will make your construction company advertising a success!
What challenges do construction companies face in advertising online and beyond?
Every industry faces similar problems, albeit with different intensities. A good example is the building services sector, where these are greater than in many other areas of the economy. In order to cope with them and stay in the market, it is necessary to constantly promote one's activity.
High competition in the sector
The building services business is a lucrative one, and it is not difficult to get orders if the company is sufficiently recognisable at least in the local market. This generates in many people the desire to join the industry and create their own business. As a result, the market is not only saturated, but actually oversaturated with companies performing such services.
For this reason, their high quality alone is no longer enough today to stay ahead of the competition and be financially successful. Extensive marketing is essential. Above all, online visibility must be ensured, as this is where customers are looking for service providers. However, online visibility costs money and it is not easy to create good advertising for a construction company.
Crises
However, the renovation and construction sector faces not only the difficulty of promoting itself among market rivals, but also the crises that batter the economy from time to time. Demand for the services of such companies is declining as a result of many customers feeling the effects of the economic crisis. In other words, they are willing to postpone less necessary renovations, prioritising the most important, everyday necessities of life over them.
Obtaining orders from such people sometimes requires you to lower the prices for your services while leaving your promotion budget the same. To stay in business, therefore, you have to spend more while earning less.
Effective marketing for a construction company, or what kind of marketing?
The promotion of a construction company should start with the creation of a professional website. It should comply with Search Experience Optimisation (SXO), i.e. search engine optimisation and positive user experience.
In contrast to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), emphasis is placed on, among other things, easy access to all website functions such as bookmarks and the contact form. Importance is also attached to ensuring that all important information for the customer is always provided on the website, above all the telephone number, address of the company's head office, scope of services provided and price list. What SXO combines with SEO is attention to aspects such as the speed of loading the site and its adaptation to different types of devices - computers, tablets and smartphones - as well as a simple and functional layout.
Advertising However, a construction company's online presence should not be limited to creating the best possible website. Promoting your business should be extended to include as many channels of communication with potential customers as possible. The most important is invariably Google search and reaching out to the local community. In addition, you should also have a presence on social media. You can also advertise with sponsored articles on local websites. As you can see, there are many possibilities to create effective campaigns and adapt the strategy to the company's current budget.
Where do I start to advertise my construction company online?
The best way to advertise building services is to start with the launch of a company website. It is the basis for all other activities aimed at promoting yourself to your audience. This way, they will be able to quickly check whether an advertisement they have seen or text they have read on an external website is true. Furthermore, some effective forms of marketing are not available at all to entrepreneurs who do not have a website. This applies in particular to sponsored links and banner ads. Both lead precisely to the websites of the companies and the product pages they advertise.
However, web users will not be convinced solely by a well-constructed website and texts extolling the quality and punctuality of the company's services. Nowadays, opinions of other people who were previously customers of the construction company play an extremely important role.
The natural place to express one's opinion remains social media. However, not every Internet user has a profile on such sites. This is why it is a good idea to create a comments section on the company website. Once it looks as intended and all the necessary information is there, you can move on to improving its visibility in search results.
SEO - an effective method of advertising construction companies
Building even the best website will be of no use if few people find it in the search results. It is for this reason that every company, regardless of what it does, strives to be as high up in them as possible.
Optimisation is primarily performed for the search engine Google. The reason is its enormous popularity. Competitor Bing, although doing better and better, is lagging far behind the Mountain View company's tool. Others, such as DuckDuckGo, are already a complete niche. What is the best way to advertise a construction company using its own website? It is important to ensure that the website works properly and that it is saturated with content that improves its positioning. It is important to create a business card on Google Maps in order to be even more visible.
Technical optimisation of the website
Google's algorithms are primarily responsible for finding content relevant to users' questions. The search engine company also wants to ensure the best possible user experience. For these reasons, attention should be paid to, among other things:
- page loading speed;
- its correct protection against hacker attacks;
- implementation of the sitemap;
- adaptation for display on different devices;
- publication of useful and unique content.
Page loading speed
The speed at which a page loads is crucial for both Google's bots and its owner. No advertisement for a construction company will succeed if an impatient Internet user simply switches off a long-loading website. Algorithms aware of this correlation degrade such sites to further down the search engine subpages, i.e. where hardly anyone looks anymore. But how can this aspect be improved? It is worth reducing the number of graphics on the page and compressing them.
In addition to this, it is a good idea to limit the number of plug-ins extending the functionality of the site to those that are really necessary. It is therefore necessary to decide whether you need, for example, a chat plug-in or whether it is better to remove it and leave even one for static website storage. This reduces reloading of the site if no action has been taken for a long time. Obviously, other tips will work for small business websites and others for large companies that require more options and content on their pages.
Site security
Another point to look out for is to try to get an SSL certificate. Obtaining one means that Google considers the site secure, as data is exchanged between it and the user in an encrypted manner. From a potential customer's perspective, this probably won't matter, but it does have an impact on how search engine bots rank the site. In other words, a secure site with an HTTPS domain rather than HTTP (as most do) has an extra chance of ranking high in search results.
Addition of a sitemap
Another optimisation element that only Google bots will pay attention to is the sitemap. Under this name is a file containing the URLs of all subpages. Its purpose is to make it easier for algorithms to index, i.e. to scan sites to see where content relevant to the user's query is located.
Correct display of computer and mobile versions of the website
If you are looking for construction or renovation contractors, it is important for your website to be compatible with different devices. It should display correctly on both computers and mobile devices. Particular emphasis should be placed on this element of optimisation, as the majority of web traffic nowadays comes from smartphones and tablets.
Websites that are poorly optimised for them fall in search results. What is more, desktop variants are difficult to read and scale poorly on smaller phone displays. If a user comes across such a site, he or she is likely to quickly leave and look for a company that clearly presents its offer, regardless of the device used to access the site.
Website positioning with the help of content
Advertising a renovation company using its own website is not possible if it lacks content. In the first instance, it is necessary to include all the data necessary for the customer to contact you. This should not only be in the Contact section of the website, but also in the Google Company Profile. Once this is completed, the chance of a customer contacting you about an order is greatly increased. A section on the side of the search engine with addresses, telephone numbers and business hours means that the client does not even have to visit the website to find the necessary information.
Google's Company Profile shortens the route of contact with a company, but it also has a disadvantage. A person who receives information on the search engine's website will not enter the company's website. Thus, there will be less traffic to it, and this also translates into positioning. This is why it is so important to increase traffic with content. To make this possible, you need to set up a blog. How do you advertise your construction company with it? Guide articles for people who want to do some physical work themselves will help. This way, the company can position itself not only for phrases such as construction company Warsaw, but also, for example, how to install a tap in the kitchen.
Importantly, for texts to have the desired effect, they should be saturated with keywords, i.e. those most frequently typed into the search engine by internet users. They should also not be missing from texts written for other pages. Their influence on the position in search results is just as great as that of content prepared for a company blog. However, moderation is required. The text should sound natural, which means that too many key phrases are not advisable. However, everything should be adapted to the length of the text.
Construction company advertising versus content marketing - is it a good fit?
Content marketing, i.e. advertising activities, products and services using content, is an extremely effective promotional tool. Unlike other ways of reaching customers with a marketing message, both parties benefit from it. This can already be seen in the example of a company blog, which on the one hand improves positioning and on the other provides interesting and useful content for web users. From there, it is only one step to attracting interest in the company's services.
Content marketing beyond your own website allows you to reach more potential customers. Its effectiveness, however, depends on where the texts are published and the level of content knowledge they contain. Topical websites are a natural place for content. This is where most people interested in renovating or building a flat can be found. Large general-interest portals, on the other hand, are the best way to reach as many people as possible.
Importantly, sponsored texts published on external websites should be written with the reader in mind, which means that what counts above all is a comprehensive and professional answer to the reader's question, rather than praising the company and encouraging them to use its services. How do you advertise a construction company well by following this principle? Simply mention the company, adding a link to its home page or one of its subpages related to the topic of the article.
Search network advertising for construction companies
Positioning by improving the performance of the website and content brings results, but you have to wait a few months and sometimes even a year for them. Sometimes, however, this time may be too long, and yet orders are needed on an ongoing basis. How can you get them faster? Here are two examples of ways.
Sponsored search results
One way is to exploit the potential of Google Ads (formerly AdWords) paid advertising. One form worth recommending is sponsored links, which is nothing more than a paid service that lifts a link to a company's website to the top of the search results. Due to the expense involved, it is difficult to stay on top at the expense of companies that care about SEO. Nevertheless, you can choose this solution to promote your business for a period of time.
The good news for business owners (not only of construction companies) is the development of this form of advertising. Sponsored links do not have to consist only of a link and possibly a short description of the site. Google offers more and more extended variants of the Ads service. In this way, elements such as a contact form, which can be filled in immediately, or links to sub-pages can be included under the link. There are more than a dozen different types of extensions and, most importantly, you do not have to pay extra for them. Unfortunately, Google has stipulated that a maximum of only four may be used at any one time. 
Advertising banners
Ads for construction companies can also be displayed on pages other than search results. Depending on the choice, they can appear as static graphics placed at the top, on the side or between the content of the website. In addition to these, banners that show up in random places on the page are suitable for promoting the business. From a user perspective, the latter are particularly annoying, but static banners are also not welcome by web users. Their effect is therefore not always what the advertiser expects.
The popularity of banners, although still quite high, is declining every year. For the companies paying for such advertising, the problem is not only the poor public perception of promotional banners, but also their blocking. Although site owners try to combat this practice, the results are not sustainable. Developers of anti-advertising plug-ins and browsers are constantly improving their products, which allows them to be one step ahead of safeguards that force users to disable such browser extensions and browse sites with adverts.
Construction company in social media - why bet on this form of advertising?
Building adverts in search results and on pages has huge sales potential, but lacks the ability to influence social network users. The presence of a company profile is important, as not having one is a missed opportunity to reach more people. For a renovation and construction company, the most important social medium on which to promote itself is Facebook. The largest social network is a good place to:
- presenting the company's activities;
- showing and giving at thematic groups;
- talking to former, current and perhaps future customers on the company profile;
- promote your blog and texts published on other sites.
Instagram is also suitable for advertising a company. As a video-oriented medium, it is suitable, among other things, for presenting tips that DIY enthusiasts are likely to be interested in. However, short videos are not enough for everyone. This is why it is a good idea to set up a YouTube channel and create longer episodes.
Advertisements for construction companies with InPost - many opportunities to promote your services
Marketing activities carried out online are worth extending to include cooperation with us. We offer several advertising formats, including the possibility of placing a banner, for example, on the homepage of InPost and the Parcel Manager platform. Displaying your advertisement on such popular websites allows you to reach thousands of internet users every day.
Our service is also worthwhile because it goes beyond the virtual world. Those running a construction and renovation company can veneer a Parcel Machine® or more at selected locations across the country. We also include the option of promoting ourselves on the screens of the machines. There is a choice of three moments to display advertising - before, during and after the parcel collection procedure.
Which is the best way to advertise your construction company? Check out inpost.co.uk/advertising or apply via the form below. We will discuss all the issues so that advertising your construction company is as effective as possible.
Advertising your company with InPost? Always a good idea!
Take a minute to leave your contact details and we’ll prepare a tailored offer for you.
There are plenty of possibilities:
- Branding on Parcel Locker machines
- Ads displayed on Parcel Locker screens
- Sampling of promotional products
- Banner ads on the InPost website
- Advertising in the InPost newsletter
- Push notifications in the InPost Mobile app
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