10 Key Steps to an Effective Construction Business Growth Strategy

I’m David Watling, and as the most recent team member to join Pauley Creative, I thought I’d give a little introduction into my new role as Head of Sales. As well as a quick debrief on me , I’ll be sharing with you my top recommendations on how to achieve an effective business growth strategy for your construction business.

So, why me?

With over 21 years sales experience and over 13 years in Digital Marketing, I understand the most effective and measurable tactics for bringing qualified leads to your business. Having worked with complex national clients in the past, I have grown a thorough understanding of who key customers are and how they like to buy and interact with businesses online. As part of my role, I intend to ensure that all of our existing and future clients remain ahead of the digital curve, in producing successful & measurable returns.

For me Pauley Creative was the right fit, being a client-centric business who as a united team, ensure a good-quality service is delivered at the heart of every action.

So without further ado let’s move onto my key recommendations for you – to ensure your construction business can achieve sustained business growth.

1. Nail your value proposition

First things first, ensure your construction business sustains long-term growth by defining exactly what it is that makes you so great – and most importantly – what makes your products and services better than the competition.

Do you offer a special benefit that only your products provide? How is your customer service better than the rest? What makes you so relevant, differentiated and credible? 

By outlining this from the offset, you can use it to shape your business strategy & communication tactics going forward.

2. Create measurable KPI’s

Outline your business objectives and prioritise them from the offset so that strategies and tactics can be identified to achieve each one.

These tactics should be defined in the form of KPI’s; identify which key indicators affect the growth of your business, then dedicate the most time and money to those areas.

It’s worth noting that your list of business KPI’s and objectives is never definitive and will need to be reviewed regularly to ensure it remains up-to-date and closely aligned to the ever-changing digital environment.

Most importantly, create  KPI’s that are measurable, in order to evaluate the success of reaching your business goals.

3. Verify your revenue streams.

Make it clear from the beginning what your current revenue streams are and which ones could be created in order to increase the profitability of your business.

Once you’ve identified the potential for new revenue streams, always consider whether they’re sustainable in the long run.

4. Identify your ideal customer

You got into business to solve a problem for your construction audience, but before you go out there and communicate online, who is the ideal customer? You may think you know, but surprisingly enough this is the one aspect of construction marketing that the majority of businesses overlook.

So first things first, outline your key customers by creating detailed persona types – we show you how to create them in this short blog post here.

It may feel time-consuming to begin with, but as you adjust your construction business to stimulate business growth going forward, having these key audience types to revert back to becomes crucial.

5. Understand their key requirements 

As the world of digital and online search continues to develop, our customers’ needs and requirements become more sophisticated. Therefore ensure you know exactly what you need to deliver at each stage of the buyers funnel to solve the problems of each differing audience member.

For example, an architect may require CPD and technical information from your site, but a contractor may require dimensions, fitting instructions or after-sales support.

Unsure of exactly what your audience needs at each stage? One way to measure this is to conduct a survey to gain valuable insight and feedback. This is particularly important as it allows your business to adjust to the feedback and compensate for where you’re currently falling short.

Read our post here which details the effects of Paid Search to match the different requirements at each stage of the construction buying cycle.

6. Make the most of existing company data

Your existing company data already contains most of the answers you’re looking for to be able to solve key customer problems; it should, therefore, lend itself to your strategic decisions going forward.

You can use the data from your key indicators and revenue streams to further personalize your growth plan, in order to better understand your business and audience types which in turn will lead to improved business growth.

7. Define the best communication strategies

Yes – you may have a rough idea of how to approach your audience and what channels are most effective, but this needs defining in a carefully-considered content marketing strategy.

This should include what type of content would be of most interest to each audience member, what form would best instigate their engagement and on which marketing channel it would receive the most impact.

View our Slideshare here for more ideas on creating an effective content strategy.

It’s important to note that not all communication methods offer the same value across different businesses, and similarly, you don’t need to be communicating across every possible platform out there. Adjust your communications to something that best suits your customer base.

8. Personalise your approach to retain leads

I can’t emphasise the importance of personalised marketing – now that you’ve defined your audience types and researched their exact requirements, you no longer can get away with sending the same people the exact same thing.

Using the right automation software is a must to ensure you’re reaching out to customers in an intuitive way, whilst delivering the right message to solve their problems at exactly the right time.

Always market to your customers without making them feel like they’re being marketed to.

9. Re-evaluate your competition

Never stop monitoring the activity of your competition, as they may be excelling at something that your company is struggling with. Look toward similar businesses that are growing in new, unique ways to inform your growth strategy.

Always consider why your competitors have made alternate choices.

Why have they chosen this route? Is it the right approach to take, or is your business simply positioned differently?

 10. Focus on your strengths

Identifying ways to grow your business doesn’t necessarily involve targeting your weakness – focusing on your strengths can often help to establish the best strategies going forward.

Identify a unique strategy that supports these strengths and enables you to build upon them.

When you take this approach, you’ll quickly come to realise that creating a growth strategy isn’t a one-size-fits-all process, so don’t fixate on your competitors too much. Adapt your plan to smooth out any personal weaknesses and enhance the strengths that will best support and satisfy your specific customers.

Keep your customers coming back for more by tailoring your digital growth strategy to your value proposition every time, which satisfies their everyday wants and needs in a way that is completely unique to your business.

I hope the above information was helpful to you – and if you require any further support on re-shaping your own construction business strategy, don’t hesitate to contact us. Or sign up to our blog to stay up to date with the latest construction marketing news.