The Ant or Grasshopper Marketing Strategy

Marketing

Like the Aesop fable The Ant and the Grasshopper, it is the ant that survives the winter because he spent the nice summer weather gathering food in preparation, while the grasshopper spent his time singing.

That’s the same problem if you have no marketing strategy in place. There is a habit of many business owners in the trades to just take what the market dishes up and not put some proactive systems in place to generate work. “I get all my work from word-of-mouth”. That’s great when WoM is working, but what if it isn’t? What’s the back-up plan? Usually there is none. This is particularly true when you are busy, or the market is stronger and the perceived need to generate leads is less. Before the economic winter arrives you should review your marketing strategy and make some changes.

Google logo

Google to reward good content

Marketing

If you rely on your website content (either via a blog or the core web page content) to help you rank on Google, you need to take notice of this major change in Google’s algorithm. The helpful content update will target websites that have a relatively high amount of unsatisfying or unhelpful content, where the content has been written for search engines rather than humans. This could mean those sites will rank lower in the Google search results that are served up to consumers using the Google search engine (which is most people on the planet!)

Google’s new helpful content update specifically targets “content that seems to have been primarily created for ranking well in search engines rather than to help or inform people.” 

The purpose of this algorithm update is to help searchers find “high-quality content,” Google said. Google wants to reward better and more useful content that was written for humans and to help users.

moses and 10 commandments

10 Steps to Develop Strong Core Values

Your team

Having the right culture in your company is vital to its success.  The culture that exists in a company can make or break it, so it is important to make sure the right one is proactively developed. Establishing an agreed set of Core Values is the best place to start.  By not taking a proactive approach the culture will simply evolve in a random way, usually by drifting towards whoever is making the most “noise” in the company.  If that person is a positive, uplifting type then you are lucky and the culture will generally be positive.  If, on the other hand the noisy one is a moaning, slack-arse, negative type, then you have a problem.  Other people will be dragged down to this level and the whole company culture will become negative.  You will end up loosing your best employees and retaining your worst.

thirsty man in desert

Time to dust off the marketing playbook

Marketing, Sales

While most construction businesses are still pretty busy and the runway of work ahead should see you into 2023 without too many issues, the longer term picture is looking a bit more fuzzy. It’s time to start reviewing what you are doing in the marketing and sales space and look to make some improvements.

There is a habit of many business owners in the trades to just take what the market dishes up and not put some proactive systems in place to generate work.  “I get all my work from word-of-mouth” is what I hear a lot.  That’s great when WoM is working, but what if it isn’t? What’s the back-up plan?  Usually there is none.  This is particularly true when the market is stronger and the perceived need to generate leads is less. With building consents running at record levels over the past year, you can understand why marketing has not been high on the priority list of most people. Inflation, Covid, supply lines and labour shortages have naturally dominated the headlines. A downturn in building activity however will naturally make some of those issues die away. The need to generate more leads and improve your conversion rate will start to sneak up on you if you don’t take proactive steps.

niche target

The Power of Niche Marketing

Marketing

With the construction industry being in a fairly buoyant state at the moment the apparent need to focus on marketing does not seem to be a high priority.  This may appear to be the situation on the surface, but ignoring it can lead to a roller coaster of leads coming in and result in a feast or famine of work in the longer term.  Why not take the opportunity to proactively refine your marketing and provide a solid lead generation machine of your ideal projects?  A corner-stone of this is the strategy of niche marketing.

Niche marketing, or specialization is used by industries of all types because doing a few things with a high level of expertise will bring recognition and a reputation of excellence quicker than doing many things well. Read on to see how you can choose a niche for your business and the benefits it brings.

What Is Your Signature System?

Marketing

Your “purple cow” is also known as your signature system, your unique selling proposition, or USP.  It is a sentence or phrase that explains what makes you special. It gives your prospects a reason to do business with you rather than your competitors. A good USP that is properly used makes your marketing a lot more effective, because it gives you dominance over a market niche.
It can be one of the most transformational shifts in your business right now and can be done at little or no cost. So how can you do this?

Still Using A Spreadsheet to Track Leads?

Marketing, Sales

While spreadsheets are relatively easy to use and widely known, it’s definitely not the most efficient or effective way to collect, analyze, and manage business data, especially if you’re a company that’s hoping to grow in the near future.

There are clear distinctions between the features of a CRM versus a spreadsheet. If you have to manage multiple leads coming in and have a multi-step sales process, using a CRM system may be a step worth taking, and need not cost much.

How to make your emails look professional

Marketing

People these days expect your business to have a domain name and a website. An email address like jsmith@yourcompany.co.nz tells people you’re serious about your business. 

Free email services, such as Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo, are great for personal use, but when you use a free email account for business purposes, people will start to doubt your professionalism and credibility.  If you want your prospective clients to take you seriously and you don’t have your own domain name email address, I recommend you….