7 Ways to Manage Construction Marketing During the Low Season
Winter brings a change to the construction industry. It’s when you’re catching up on that admin work, avoiding the frozen ground, and preparing for the following year.
Although it might be tempting to put off creating new construction leads, the low season is the perfect time to start getting people thinking about an upcoming project. You can also start gaining more traction from the work you’ve already done by keeping communication lines open with your clients.
Here are some tips that can help you use the low season to your advantage, with or without the help of a construction marketing agency by your side.
What Are the Best Ways to Generate Construction Leads in the Winter?
1. Ask previous clients for reviews
The winter season gets slow for more than the construction industry. You’ll find plenty of clients who are trying to fill their working days with meaningful tasks. That’s why reaching out to ask for a review during this time makes sense.
Authentic reviews that don’t get marketed as testimonials can deliver the right information to encourage lead generation. Many people treat this information the same way they’d get a personal recommendation from a friend or family member.
Some of the best places for a review are Google My Business, Homestars, and Facebook.
2. Send emails to your customer list
This construction marketing effort is all about keeping your brand at the top of the mind. A simple note that wishes people a happy holiday or a thank you for their service is all it takes.
You can also use emails to ask for referrals or put out queries about new projects in the coming year.
3. Update your company website
The winter season is the perfect time to start updating your website with new photos, content, and testimonials. You’ll also want to go through the technical side of things, ensuring that there aren’t any errors that could cause people problems.
If you haven’t created a responsive site or one that’s mobile-friendly, now is the time to invest in those attributes. You could be hurting your search rankings without them.
4. Order new apparel for your team
After a long season, your company apparel starts looking a little worn out. When winter arrives, you’ve got the opportunity to update your look, change your logo, or replace items that don’t deliver an appropriate first impression.
5. Schedule your social media posts
Even though you aren’t working in the field as much during the winter, you still have an audience that wants to hear from you on social media. If you have portfolio pictures, behind-the-scenes information, or new content for your community to review, scheduling posts will keep your profile active.
How can you keep people excited about your social media construction marketing efforts in the low season? Here are some strategies that work consistently.
- Respond to comments as quickly as possible to engage potential clients in online conversations.
- Follow more people while commenting on posts to let people know you’re interested in what they’re doing.
- Run a sweepstakes, hold a giveaway, or host an online interactive event.
6. Migrate to construction project management software
Although you might be comfortable with how the busy season went, the companies that sit back during the winter are the ones that fall a step behind. When you migrate to construction project management software, you can more efficiently manage many of your manual tasks.
The best software tools let you work with payroll, employee benefits, construction leads, estimate creation, dispatching, and more.
Even if you’re used to the traditional method of securing leads or securing estimates, you’ll find that software often works instantly. Putting pen to paper takes time that you might not have when comparing operations against a competitor.
It can take a couple of months to review and demo the various options out there today. When you work on this upgrade during the low season, it won’t feel like you need to rush through the process.
7. Hire a construction marketing agency
If you don’t want to be doing all the work yourself, a construction marketing agency can fill in the service gaps where you’d like some help. You’ll have more time to focus on the rest of your business, from equipment purchases to onboarding new workers, without compromising your lead generation capabilities.
The work you do in the winter can help you stay ahead of the competition when things start picking up. By implementing these ideas today, you’ll be ready for what happens tomorrow.
