An Expert’s Guide to Content Marketing for Construction Companies

Content marketing is just as essential for construction companies as it is for any other business. Explore the benefits and thinking behind content marketing for construction companies, and how content writing can help you attract valuable leads.

How Construction Content Marketing Works

Suppose you have a client who knows they need to build a new shed for their yard, and that they don’t have the resources or manpower to do it on their own. They aren’t exactly sure where to start, so they pull out their phone and use Google.

Here is what the results might look like if they search for the phrase, “shed builders near me,” in northeast Wisconsin:

These are among the first results they’ll see on page one when they start looking for people who can construct sheds near them.

Think about who’s looking for these services. They’ve already concluded that they can’t build a storage shed on their own, so they’re starting to explore contractors they can reach out to. Google understands the intent behind what they’re looking for, so it’s offering localized, relevant results to help them solve their problem.

Why Do Construction Companies Need Content Marketing?

No matter if your construction company works with residential, commercial, or public contracts, every company needs content to help its clients understand the services they provide.

People, including project managers and business decision-makers, trust search engines to find contractors like yours when they need to complete a project.

How to Create a Construction Content Marketing Strategy

Every piece you or your content marketing agency makes should aim to help your stakeholders, clients, and community. The key is driving them to want to work with you and garner positive brand recognition.

With that, empathy and evidence are two principles to follow when developing your content strategy.

Using Search Empathy to Understand Your Customers

Chances are, your clients are requesting your proposals or getting an estimate so they can solve a problem they have.

As part of your content strategy, this means conducting research on your target audience and their needs so you can address them directly. It also means digging deeper into the intent behind the keywords they use when they search for your business online.

The key to effective content writing and marketing is to address these problems directly, so you bring more of the right kind of traffic for your software and services.

Promoting Your Services

An evidence-based approach to content also means using data at the core of how you promote your businesses. In addition to using search empathy as a baseline, you should also use this data to help you create content that works.

It’s essential to use data to find the keywords your clients are using when they look for contractors like you. Understanding the keywords they’re using—and if they’re attainable for your business—can help your content marketing strategy attract leads.

Parts of a Good Construction Content Marketing Strategy

Selecting Target Audiences

No matter which type of work your construction business does primarily, it’s important to know who your audiences are. You also likely have more than one audience you need to reach depending on the types of work you do.

Creating Helpful Content

It’s essential to provide direct, clear answers to your visitors’ questions through your content if you want to stand out from your competitors. Doing so allows you to build credibility without your future clients having to read between the lines to see what it’s really like to work with you.

In turn, they’ll be more likely to want to work with you when they’re ready to move forward with their construction project.

Offering Content on Different Platforms

A good content marketing strategy doesn’t limit itself to just your website. While content creation and maintenance for your website are important, you should also include content across multiple platforms to expand your reach. This includes promoting your content through social media, YouTube, guest posts on other platforms, email marketing, and more.

However, this doesn’t mean you have to add content to every single platform in existence. Identify where your target audience spends the most time online and use that information to concentrate your outreach efforts on those platforms.

Fostering Conversions

A well-defined content marketing strategy can help your website earn more conversions. However, your content strategy should predetermine what those conversions look like across every piece you create.

Common conversion goals include:

• Subscribing to your company’s marketing newsletter
• Downloading a piece of content
• Requesting an estimate
• Submitting their information on your forms
• Clicking to call
• Reading the content itself
• And more

No matter what your call-to-action is, your content should include messaging that drives your target audience to do what you need them to do if they want to engage with your services.

SEO for Construction Companies

Content marketing and SEO are intrinsically linked. You simply cannot do one without the other and expect the best possible results. SEO campaigns don’t get very far without quality content at their core, and your content won’t attract any attention without SEO to back it up.

A good, competent content marketing agency for construction companies will use a foundation of keyword research, website audits, and optimization recommendations to help your content go further, along with on-site and off-page SEO efforts.

How to Use SEO to Spread Your Content

A robust SEO strategy will help you distribute your content far and wide by using targeted keywords that your future clients use. This includes creating pages with robust keywords and other on-page SEO features, off-site SEO, and localized content that helps you find leads in your service area.

This will allow you to reach more people who are looking for your services right when we need them.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the written and visual content of your website. Some common examples of improving on-page SEO include adding relevant keywords to the written copy on your pages, page titles, section headings, meta descriptions, and alt text on your pages. These are the signals that tell Google about what’s on your site.

Content writing plays a key role in having robust on-page SEO. Your website pages need well-written content to convey your solutions and industry leadership to potential customers. Incorporating keywords into that content is just as essential, as it allows Google to show your pages to its users as results and solutions.

Off-Site SEO

Off-site SEO refers to the tactics you use to optimize your brand presence on platforms you don’t own. While off-site SEO isn’t as easy to control as the resources on your company’s website, it’s incredibly valuable because it helps your business build credibility with search engines. Common tools and tactics for improving off-site SEO include:

• Link building: Link building is the process of developing relationships with other legitimate websites so they link back to your site and improve its credibility with search engines. The process takes time, but it can make a massive difference in how your pages rank on search engine results pages (SERPs), where your customers will see you among the top websites.

• Using social media: This includes posting regularly on LinkedIn and other accounts and including links to your website in your business’s social media profiles. Encouraging your customers to review on social media sites or your company’s Google My Business listing can also support your local SEO tactics.

• Brand monitoring: Whether you use dedicated tools or hire an agency to help you with the work, brand monitoring helps you track what people are saying about your brand and where on the internet there are links to your site—both good and bad.

Avalanche’s SEO for Construction Companies

Creating a robust and effective content marketing strategy takes time, resources, and effort. While your marketing and business development teams might not have the bandwidth to do that on their own, working with a dedicated content marketing agency can help you implement those strategies.

At Avalanche Creative, we specialize in creating data-driven, evidence-based construction content marketing and SEO strategies. Our empathy-driven approach to content allows you to attract high-quality leads to your website, allow you to win more of the bids you want, and help your business grow.

Connect with us today to learn more.

Evidence-Based Construction Content Marketing Strategies

It’s one thing to create content that your managing partners or CEO want you to make because they think they’re valuable—but it’s another thing altogether to expect that content to get any long-term traction.

Instead, the majority of your content strategy should be evidence-based and utilize data as its driving force. While marketing is not an exact science and results are never truly guaranteed, this gives you a better chance at helping your content rank and get in front of the people who are looking for your services. This also allows you to more easily adjust as needed once your content is established on your website.

Other Construction Marketing Resources

Since your potential clients are most likely to search for your contracting services when they’re trying to solve a problem they have, it’s vital to establish brand awareness early in their journey. That way, they’ll be more likely to seek you out when ready to sign on with you. Outside of SEO and content writing, that can include:

• Paid search, also known as search engine marketing (SEM)
• Email marketing
• Network marketing
• Social media advertising

Start Generating More Leads

Ready to win more of the work you want for your construction company? Message us today and we’ll help you grow in the ways that matter most.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is Top-Funnel Content Useful?

Yes! Top-funnel content helps you provide answers to the most basic questions your potential clients have. This allows you to establish your expertise while they’re still early in the process of researching how to address their needs, without scaring them away by talking about committing to your services before they’re ready.

How Long Does Content Marketing for Construction Companies Take to Work?

Typically, it takes several months to start seeing concrete results once you start implementing content marketing for contractors. Our team can sometimes identify low-hanging fruit to help you start ranking for specific keywords quickly. However, it typically takes Google’s algorithm time to recognize your efforts and rank your pages higher in their search results.

However, once you have a page ranking highly in Google’s search results, it’s much easier to keep your brand in that position for a long time.

What Should Construction Company SEO Services Include?

At a glance, your construction company SEO services partner should offer the following as part of your partnership:

• SEO strategy planning
• Website optimization
• Content writing