Whether you’re just hanging out your shingle or have already nailed down many of the basics, branding your construction company is key to sustainable success. That’s why we’ve created this guide that breaks down the process step by step. In addition to offering comprehensive construction branding ideas and extra tips to round out your strategies, we’ll share why branding is so important and how to tell if your branding efforts are working. Let’s dig in.
What is construction branding?
Branding a construction company means creating a distinct identity in the minds of your potential and actual clients. It involves setting both a visual tone and a tone of voice in your public-facing materials — marketing, communications, presentations — as well as within your company, reflecting your values and goals. Think of any company that’s been around for 50 years, and you’ll likely have a clear picture of its identity. That’s great branding at work.
Why is branding your construction company important?
The benefits of creating a brand that clients will remember and trust directly extends to the bottom line. In fact, 46% of U.S. respondents to the 2022 Salsify Consumer Research Survey say they will pay more for brands they trust. In the construction industry especially, where good relationships, referrals and word of mouth are essential, creating a trustworthy image through various construction branding ideas will go a long way toward getting both new and repeat business.
Good news for small businesses, by the way: 76% of respondents to a recent Kearny survey say they trust small businesses overall more than large ones.
Branding construction companies, step by step
Now let’s break down the branding process. We recommend that you follow the steps in order as much as possible.
1. Define your audience. Knowing exactly which types of clients you’ll be targeting with your construction branding ideas will help you create the kind of messaging that appeals to them. You can research this by using social media, looking at the clients of your competitors, reading statistics-based reports published by industry experts and more. If it’s easier, you could also start with figuring out who your clients aren’t. Whichever point you start from, think about age, family status, income bracket, style preferences, approach to working (such as only in person or all virtual) and location.
2. Define your niche. Again, market research will help here, because it can shed light on any gaps in the industry and in your particular locale. Maybe your city is saturated with a certain type of renovation service but light on companies that can create custom builds. Maybe you have a specialty that isn’t even offered there yet. If your services are similar to those offered by other companies in the area, you’ll still want to define your distinct niche — what makes your construction business unique?
3. Evaluate competitors’ brands. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Perhaps you can borrow from the former and improve upon the latter. Who are their clients, and how do they market to them? You can look at your competition’s social media, blogs, press releases, and any published stories about them; if they’re a public company, you can also access their financial filings. Branding your construction company doesn’t have to mean reinventing the wheel; it often means refining the wheels that already exist.
4. Choose a name. If this was actually the first thing you came up with, you might be ahead of the game! But you also might want to revisit it now that you have a better idea of your audience and niche. For example, if you’ve decided to focus on building home office additions for Millennial tech workers, you’ll want a name with a more modern-sounding ring than if your audience is older retirees. Choose something that will be memorable, and be sure to check with the website of your state’s business filing agency to see whether it’s already in use. You might also come up with a tagline to go along with the name — something that will stick in clients’ minds as well as make them want to check out your business.
5. Set a branding budget — and stick to it. Keeping track of your expenditures not only will help ensure that your money is going exactly where you want it but will make it easier to analyze which of the construction branding ideas you’ve chosen to implement are working best. And setting a branding budget also will help you keep your business’ overall profit and loss figures where you want them.
6. Create a logo. A logo can communicate a lot about your company at a glance and can make a strong first impression on potential clients. In fact, it might even be considered the foundation of your brand identity. You’ll want to consider the image itself as well as the colors and, if it includes any letters, the font. This is one area where hiring a professional can make a big difference.
7. Build an online presence. Estimates on how many Americans shop online vary; at least one says it’s as high as 80%, but regardless of the exact number, it’s indisputable that a presence on the internet is an important part of building a successful construction business (or any business, for that matter). High-quality product detail descriptions are key — a strategy you can apply to descriptions of your services and project photos. Ways to build your online presence as part of your overall branding construction strategy include:
- A website. If you’re not particularly tech-savvy or simply don’t have the time or interest, you can have a gorgeous and effective website custom-made. A website is the foundation for your entire online presence, as it gives clients a landing place and (ideally) a way to reach you.
- Social media. So many kinds of social media platforms exist today that it should be fairly easy to find at least one that feels good to post regularly on. Post project photos, company announcements, industry-related inspiration … whatever you feel will resonate with your defined audience. And remember that consistency is key here. Regular postings will keep you at the forefront of potential clients’ minds and also make your business feel more familiar to them, which in turn will build trust.
- Advertising. It seems like new and creative methods of advertising are popping up all the time, so you have a range to choose from. When it comes to using advertising for
branding a construction company, consider again who the defined audience is. Where do these people hang out online and in person? What publications do they read? Do they take public transportation? Knowing these things and more will help you target your advertising most effectively. - SEO. Search engine optimization is often mentioned in any set of construction branding ideas, and for good reason. If you’ve built a beautiful website, you want it to show up in the first few search results rather than at the bottom of the page or not at all. SEO will help you get the online visibility your company needs. How to start? Blogging through your website or producing other content, such as videos, is a good way for many small business owners. Learning how the various search engine algorithms work and how to take advantage of them can require a bit more homework, but it’s worth it. Or you could hire an SEO specialist to do the work for you.
Bonus construction branding tips
Ready for the next-level efforts in branding your construction company? These tips can help not just with branding but with networking and in some cases even generating leads.
Learn about the psychology of marketing
While branding and marketing aren’t exactly sciences, basic underlying principles regarding human motivations and behavior come into play. When you’re working on branding your construction company, carefully consider the color palette, for instance. Certain colors are naturally associated with certain ideas and feelings, such as green for eco-friendliness and blue for trustworthiness. Learning about consumer psychology also will give you a leg up on things like why people choose one construction business over another when on paper they look equal.
Do great work
Whether your website is loaded with trust-inspiring blue or not, the kind of real, lasting trust that leads to repeat customers and referrals comes from leaving clients happy. And that means providing great quality and service on projects big and small. When you do successfully complete a project, uploading project photos to your website and any professional profiles can further your branding efforts. Getting the client to write a nice review also will help build your brand as being trustworthy and quality-oriented.
Partner with charities
Volunteering your time, spare materials and/or consulting expertise for a charitable project will build goodwill and contribute to the perception of your brand as being caring and value-oriented. Plenty of online sites act as matchmakers between volunteers and organizations, but when it comes specifically to branding construction companies, consider focusing your efforts on local charities rather than international ones, to build a name and reputation in the community where people might be interested in your services.
Join construction associations
From big organizations such as Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) to specialty ones such as the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), many industry associations exist. The benefit to branding your construction company is a little more indirect with this one, but you might find continuing education courses (which keep your skills up to date, which promotes client trust), networking events (which might land you referrals) and even marketing resources. Plus it might make it easier to keep tabs on what the competition is doing.
Use downtime wisely
If howling winters put the kibosh on construction projects for a few months, or you notice any other seasonal slowdowns, plan to put that time to good use by analyzing your construction branding efforts (see below) to see what’s working or not and where you might even invest more time and resources. After you take a well-deserved vacation, of course!
Collect and act on client feedback
The vast majority of customers consult reviews before hiring or buying, so positive public feedback is essential. But even highly satisfied clients might not think to write a review. Requesting reviews might feel awkward at first but will get easier over time. And be sure to deal with any negative reviews in a professional manner. Adopting the right mindset and working to resolve the issue will go a long way to turning those negatives into positives.
Market your team
Giving your company a human face makes it relatable and personable. So in addition to posting project photos, consider posting photos and write-ups about your team members. You can take a classic route, such as highlighting an Employee of the Month or sharing photos from jobsites or staff parties, or a more creative one, such as creating mini interview videos with quirky questions.
How to tell if your branding is working
Following through on construction branding ideas with solid data will help ensure that you put your marketing dollars to good use. Here we’ll discuss tools to help you measure your efforts as well as types of metrics themselves.
Tools to measure branding effectiveness
- Website analytics. Simply put, website analytics tools help you understand your customers better, and understanding customers better can help you hone your efforts when you’re branding your construction business. How many people clicked through to a website section you just added? How many unique versus repeat visitors does your website get on average? What percentage of visitors fill out a contact form? Tools that tell you this and more range from simple free ones provided by some web hosting services to more complex ones for a fee.
- Paid-advertising analytics. If you pay for advertising, the host likely will include its own analytics tools for impressions and clicks in the fee. Take advantage of these! While there might be a learning curve, you’ll likely find that investing the time (or paying someone else to) can lead to many happy returns on your investment.
- Social media analytics. Some of the big social media platforms offer free analytics tools for business accounts, and they’re generally pretty easy to use. If you want a consolidated view of your postings’ performance across multiple platforms, consider paying for software that does just that (there are multiple options). The earliest social media analytics method of all is still the simplest, though: tallying likes and shares.
- Review sites. Wherever construction services are advertised, client reviews often are nearby. Keep an eye on these to see what people are saying about your company. If they’re saying enough and conveying the things you hoped they would, great! If not, it’s time to refine your branding efforts.
- Customer and employee feedback. Even if a client doesn’t post a formal public review, you can request feedback. For feedback specifically about efforts in branding a construction company, you can ask things such as, “What were your first impressions of the website?” “What does the logo say to you?” and “What feelings did our marketing prompt?” Similarly, subcontractors and staffers can be valuable sources of free feedback. Just keep in mind that they might not feel comfortable sharing any critiques with the person who signs their checks without strong encouragement.
Brand effectiveness metrics
Pulling from the above tools, you’ll want to look at metrics including:
- Website impressions and traffic
- Social media likes, comments and shares
- Advertising impressions and clicks
- Review comments
Checking metrics on a periodic basis, such as monthly or quarterly, will give you a big-picture view of performance. For instance, is one social media platform getting more traction than another? If you’ve just launched a big advertising campaign, checking daily might be the way to go.
Key final ingredients in a successful branding campaign
Here we’ve given you a step-by-step guide to branding your construction business, shared how to measure your efforts and offered plenty of bonus tips. Two final key ingredients in creating a winning recipe for your construction branding efforts still remain, however: patience — with both the process and yourself — and a software solution full of time-saving tools. Houzz Pro is just that solution, with features construction pros love, including a takeoffs tool, an estimate builder with pre-populated line items and the ability to create and present 3D floor plans. Try it free today!
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