We all understand the importance of word-of-mouth marketing and client recommendations.
It’s how the trade ran for the past 60-70 years.
The only advertising builders required was a name on their truck and maybe an old business card in the glove box.
So, what’s changed?
The clients.
Word-of-mouth marketing is still an essential part of your marketing strategy, but only if clients can find you in the first place.
And today’s homeowners mostly choose construction companies while sitting on the sofa scrolling through the listings, relying on high-quality visuals, well-written content, and customer testimonials.
It’s why branding’s now the foundation of your business, the keystone everything else relies upon, the plum line that. OK, you get my point.
But not any branding; yours has to engage and connect with your target audience’s emotions, transporting them into their dream property and preparing them for the experience they’re about to pay you for.
And our 6 keys to building a rock-solid construction brand will help you put them there.  

1. Choose Your Brand Identity

Just as there’s the right tool for every job, there are the right construction companies for every building project.
Your brand identity tells your story and informs clients of what service you provide. The story you portray determines how they perceive, interact, talk, and feel about your business, and it’s crucially essential you nail yours.
Because at first, your brand identity is how you establish your company, but ultimately it becomes your reputation.
What is brand identity?
Brand identity includes every visible element of your company, such as the colors, fonts, shapes, and logo you use. And how you present them to the public using marketing strategies such as websites, social media platforms, and physical advertising like uniforms and vehicle signage.
Seth Godin, the marketing expert, described branding as:
“A brand is a set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.”
Meaning, before you can build your brand, you must decide what you want your company to be known for, then create your identity to suit.

2. Prove You Are Trustworthy

If “81 percent of consumers said they need to trust a brand to buy from them” (Edelman, 2019). Imagine how high that percentage is when choosing a construction company?
Clients need to be able to trust you before they’ll let you in their homes, let alone build it!
Authenticity, transparency, and credibility are how you gain that trust.
Consider using these tactics to build trust with your brand:

1. Be accessible: According to Nectafy, “88% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours”. Your construction company must be present where people are searching (more on that later) and when they’re searching as it shows you’re available and contactable.
2. Promote your testimonials: 84% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. You must use your marketing platforms to show your testimonials and promote your business.
3. Be consistent: Consistency plays a vital role in the standard of your work and how you advertise it. The more often people see your business, the more familiar they’ll become, and familiarity builds trust.

When your brand successfully establishes trust, customers won’t second guess your reputation. They’ll invest their money in your company, knowing you can be relied on to provide a professional and competent service.

3. Spotlight the Experts of Your Construction Team

We all trust an expert, and often people are happy to pay far more to work with one.
Clients employ you not only for the building services you supply but also for the advice and recommendations you provide. And if you give your customers a way of accessing expert advice, they’ll feel they have access to a company they can trust.
You can do it in numerous ways:

• Your website is an excellent place for providing free valuable advice. Build an FAQ page and answer those most frequently asked questions!
• Use social media, such as a Facebook business page, to provide ongoing and up-to-date advice and handy tips to your community. It encourages likes and shares, and those are powerful WOMM strategies.

But your team are just as valuable:

• Shine the spotlight on those staff members that are experts in their field and tell their story. Showing the human side to your business also helps create strong client-company relationships.

Being the expert in one niche within the construction industry is far more powerful than being a jack of all trades. So, if you are an expert or have one working for you, use this expertise to promote and build your brand.

4. Choose Branding That Works for Your Target Market

Branding isn’t generic; it exists to individualize and humanize companies using designs, colors, shapes, taglines, and fonts.
It’s also the first impression consumers have of you, so it has to make a solid first impression.
Your logo is that first impression, the smile on your face, the firm handshake upon first meeting, and it requires serious consideration.
When creating a logo, you must choose design elements proven to work for your marketplace, show your brand’s personality, and connect on numerous emotional levels with your target audience. Its primary job is to grab your audience’s attention, so they look closer at your business.
You can find construction logos and ideas that work for your industry by looking at established construction companies within your sector.
Construction logos are generally combination logos, these consist of a name and an image or design, but whichever you choose, the following rules apply:

1. Your logo must embody your brand.
2. Be instantly recognizable and understandable.
3. Be versatile so you can use it on and offline.
4. Be timeless, so you don’t go out of fashion.

Another rule for logo design is simplicity. Restrict color use to no more than three and fonts to two. And use colors and shapes wisely as they send a strong message to your audience.

5. Build Your Marketing Strategy

Where you advertise your branding is as important as the branding itself.
It’s why you need a marketing strategy, as it determines which advertising tactics will provide you with a maximum ROI. And you find those tactics by researching your target audience and looking at your competitors.
Established competitors use marketing platforms that are proven to provide value for their investment. If you research their websites, you can see the type of content they generate to get recognized by Goggle and potential customers and which social media platforms or print publications they use.
Your target market is, of course, whom your branding is for, and as such, must be designed to suit their taste.
Suppose your construction company focuses on one type or style of development. In that case, it will have a customer base attuned to it, and they’ll have specific demographics you can use to inform your marketing approach, such as age, employment, location, and income.
All of which you can use to form your branding style. 

6. Consistently Put Your Brand on Display

Do you know what percentage of consumers source local businesses online before contacting them?
97%!
“If your business is not online, you’re not in business” – Bill Gates
If you want to build a rock-solid construction brand, you must take advantage of this high-volume online research. Building a professional website, creating a free Google My Business listing account, and running Facebook ads to engage with your community can help you do it.
But construction companies must also use physical advertising strategies to ensure they establish themselves within their community.
Such as:

• Local print media and radio – It’s proven that consumers are more inclined to trust local businesses that advertise using local radio and newspapers.
• Transit advertising – This is an excellent way for building your construction companies brand awareness as consumers see it daily while using trains, buses, subways, and taxis.
• Put it on a billboard – Billboards are said to give a 497% ROI! Its why realtors love them.

When deciding where to display branding materials, choose positions based on your target audience’s demographics, most used forms of transport, and general location.