Yes, as a construction small business, you need to develop your relationship-building skills. You need to add value to your community. You need to develop strong relationships over time.

But building strong relationships is more of an attitude, a mindset, or a culture you can create than it is a marketing action you can take today.

So what actions can you take today to jump-start your marketing as a contractor?

Take your “relationship building” culture, and inject this culture into the following marketing actions:

1. Ask for referrals by calling your past customer list and other contacts.

2. Offer a “check-up” service, or perhaps 1 hour of free handyman work to your list of (good) past clients. (See this great article by Mark Buckshon about Jon Goldman’s marketing idea.)

3. Overhaul your website, and take action to move up the search engines and get found online.

4. Send out a mailer to a quality list, with a good offer and call to action.

5. Offer your ad to print media at a remnant price (tell them they can run your ad for x amount if they have vacant spots – set your own price.)

6. Go to networking events and try to meet 75% of the people there (ask about them, don’t talk about yourself.)

7. Build a ramp for someone in need, and do a press release about the build.

These are 7 marketing actions you can start with right now. Today. Right after you click away from this page.

Yes, you should absolutely focus your energy on building relationships. You can begin building some new relationships by taking these actions right away to jump-start your marketing as a builder, remodeler, subcontractor or any construction small business.

Pass it along: If you know someone who could use help with website promotion and online marketing, feel free to send them a link to this page, or link to it on your own website.

Technorati Tags: Construction Marketing, Construction Small Business, marketing ideas

When it comes to growing your business in the construction industry, here are three categories it really helps to focus on:

1. Marketing

2. Building Trust

3. Teambuilding

As a builder, contractor, remodeler, plumber, or whatever your do, these principles apply.

Look around the site and you will find resources and more information on all three of these key areas.

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Technorati Tags: Construction Small Business

Are you maximizing 100% of all four marketing quadrants in your business? Which areas are you neglecting?

I’m going to break construction marketing down into four quadrants. Doing this allows us to drill down our marketing strategy and allocate our time and resources to the most effective marketing activities.

Here are the four quadrants:

1. Face-to-Face Marketing

• Ask Questions – Focus all your energy on how you can really help your clients most.

• Use a strategic referral request system.

• Networking on steroids -Only go to events that put you in front of real prospects, not fellow contractors.

• Know how, when (and if) you should give a prospect your business card.

• Form strategic alliances and joint ventures with other business owners.

• Use positioning & reversal techniques to close more sales.

2. Direct Response

• If you don’t use direct response you are leaving cash on the table.

• There are two very simple keys to direct response that will explode your results:

-An Offer

-A Call to Action

• Integrate your direct response marketing offer and call to action into everything you touch.

• Use persuasive communication (NOT intrusive sales jargon) to influence your prospects to buy from you.

3. Media and Advertising

• “Advertise the advertising”, or…

• Use media to drive prospects to your offer and your call to action.

• Use “guerilla” free press techniques to position yourself as an expert, and—you guessed it—drive traffic to your direct response system.

• Use persuasive copy and direct response in all your sales letters, ads, flyers, brochures, tv & radio scripts, webpages, articles, yellow page ads, signs, your trucks, and ANY contact with a potential prospect.

4. The Internet

• Use email autoresponders to build a list of prospects so you can market to them.

• No one cares if your website is pretty, especially if they can’t find it. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

• Don’t make the common mistake of designing your website like it’s just a way for the people who already know you to find your address.

• If your website doesn’t offer something of value, you are wasting your time (and $) on an expensive “business card” hidden in the cyber jungle.

• Offer + Call to Action + Autoresponder = “Drag It Home” approved marketing.

So, those are the four quadrants. Look around the site to learn more about how to maximize all for quadrants in your construction business.

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Technorati Tags: Construction Blog, Construction Marketing, Construction Small Business