LinkedIn Marketing for Construction Companies
LinkedIn marketing for construction companies can be an effective lead-generation tool. But when most people hear the phrase “digital marketing,” social media is one of the first tactics that comes to mind. Social media management is a crucial part of any digital marketing strategy–but B2B social media requires a very different approach than B2C. If you’re focusing on digital marketing for construction companies, your social media plan should communicate your expertise to your audience through targeted and relevant content.
In this article, we’ll address the best construction industry marketing tools for social media. We’ve worked with dozens of architects, owners, general contractors, and other construction industry businesses to create social media content that boosts their brand recognition, increases engagement, and drives web traffic.
When it comes to the B2B construction industry, LinkedIn is the most important social media platform.
LinkedIn marketing for construction is by far the best social media platform to connect with construction industry decision-makers and can help your brand stay top-of-mind. LinkedIn offers organic posting, which is free, and paid/sponsored post options, which allow companies to target their customers by location, title, industry, etc.
But don’t just jump on LinkedIn every other week and post something miscellaneous–craft a deliberate LinkedIn strategy that will maximize engagement, help increase visibility for your brand, website, and content, and generate leads. Ask yourself:
- What is my brand’s tone of voice? Make a list of adjectives that you want to describe your company, and make sure all your posts align with that tone.
- How often will you post? Once a day would be great, but you may not have the time or bandwidth to make that happen. 1-3 times a week is fine, but make sure to keep to a consistent schedule. Use tools like Hootsuite or Loomly to determine the best times of day to post in order to reach the maximum audience.
- How often will you “promote your services” and how often will you simply share valuable content or your insights? You don’t want to come across as too pushy on social media–for every one post that you heavily promote your own brand, aim for three posts that share a helpful article or insight. No one likes to be sold to all the time.
Once you’ve thought through these questions, start by creating your LinkedIn business page and adding images of your work and all your contact information. You’d be surprised by the number of small- to mid-sized companies in the construction industry with no LinkedIn presence at all–so you’ll already be a step ahead of the competition. Once your page is set up, start sharing posts about your work, news on jobs, and industry tips (like home maintenance). Repost and curate content from other sources, and share insights from peers, clients, and industry experts.
One downside to organic LinkedIn marketing for construction is that you’re only reaching people who are already within your network and connected to your brand. It’s essential to attract new followers to avoid an Internet “echo chamber.” Make sure your company leadership and sales team shares your company’s LinkedIn content on their personal LinkedIn profiles. In addition, follow people who have followed your competitors or accounts that are similar to yours. Comment on their content and, if they respond, engage them in a dialogue.
Paid LinkedIn marketing for construction
In order to increase the reach of your message and target your ideal prospects on LinkedIn, you may need to develop a paid ad strategy and campaign. Take your best content and turn it into a sponsored post targeting your ideal prospects in your ideal geographic areas. This works best if you have organic content already on the platform–users will see the sponsored content as an entrypoint into your brand, and are then more likely to click through and see the rest of your posts.
LinkedIn marketing for construction lets businesses create a variety of ads, including sponsored content, message ads, text ads like pay per click (PPC) and cost per thousand (CPM), and dynamic ads. You can set the budget, and start/stop your campaign at any time. One of the biggest advantages of paid LinkedIn marketing for construction companies is the extensive targeting options. You can filter your audience by metrics like job title, industry, company name, and interests. Once your campaign is up and running, you can quickly track progress, monitor KPIs, and make changes via the LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
Remember: social media is not the best digital marketing tactic to find high-intent users.
When a prospect visits your website, it’s because they searched for a term that led them there or they came directly to your site looking for your company. That means you know that they’re looking for some information that you can provide. The downside to LinkedIn compared to paid and organic search is that you have no information about the intent of your audience. They are not actively searching for your company or product–they’re just browsing.
LinkedIn is still an important tool to engage your audience, but keep in mind that that audience may not be anywhere close to purchase-ready. You just have to hope that they encounter your posts at the right time–or that they remember your brand later on when a construction need arises. Develop social media content that can capture the attention of your audience, even when they’re not looking for you.
The bottom line
Will LinkedIn marketing for construction singlehandedly clinch your biggest contract to date? Maybe not…but customers use LinkedIn profiles the same way they do a website: they want to get a feel for your company, evaluate your work, make sure you seem trustworthy, and see what other people are saying about you.
LinkedIn is a critical component of the best digital marketing strategy for construction companies. To find out more about how digital marketing can transform your business by generating leads and driving revenue, check out the other blog posts in our series or contact us today.
