E-marketing: a direct line to your customers

The construction sector is facing its share of challenges at the moment, with rising costs, skills shortages, and wider economic conditions creating a highly competitive market where everyone is working hard to stand out from the crowd.

With a pool of competitors likely targeting the same group of customers as you, the challenge for construction marketing is to stand out from the rest and ensure that you are front and centre in your potential customers’ mind when they are making a decision on which product or service to purchase, and from whom.

Of course, we always recommend a mix of marketing solutions as the most effective path to securing that sale – but when you want a direct line to your customers, e-marketing is an effective, targeted and cost-effective option. E-marketing is a technique used to reach new or existing audiences, raise brand awareness, and generate leads. It provides valuable data and information that can be useful for both marketing and sales teams.

E-marketing can signpost your customers toward the next step on their purchasing journey, position you as an industry expert, and can highlight any special offers or insights you want your customers to see.

At Harris we manage several of our clients’ e-marketing messaging and platforms to ensure they are sharing valuable and engaging content to the audiences they want to influence the most.

Let us show you how we create successful e-marketing campaigns!

 

Create a content marketing strategy

A strategy allows you to grow your audience, and engagement, by giving the user valuable information that educates on your business, industry, or product. Consistency is key to engage your audience and planning ahead allows you to identify subjects and content and create a workable schedule for your e-marketing campaign.

To get the most from e-marketing you must have an up-to-date and GDPR-compliant data list. This could be your existing customers with whom you want to share news and developments, or a list of prospective clients where you know your products and services would add value or provide solutions for their business. Building, maintaining and monitoring your contact data is an integral part of your e-marketing strategy.

 

Put your audience first

If the content you are providing isn’t valuable, then your audience won’t engage with it, it’s as simple as that. For e-marketing to be successful you need to give your audience value for their time, information that is relevant to their particular sector of the construction industry, and engaging enough to make them want to read on.

Understand your customers’ challenges and pain points, and create content that addresses these as much as possible. The construction sector is constantly evolving so sharing content that educates and informs while being tailored to specific audiences can make a tangible difference. What would engage with an architect may not do the same for a main contractor; put yourself in their shoes and ask, would I click on this?

Lastly, no-one likes being overtly sold to. Mixing your content with softer messaging (such as advice, tips, or inspiration) as well as sales messages shows a deeper understanding of your customers and helps to build a warmer and more engaged audience.

 

Bring your design to life

It’s no secret that any piece of marketing collateral that’s eye-catching and well-designed will be more engaging for your customer, and the same is to be said for your e-marketing. Including icons, infographics and animated elements will increase your engagement and lead to higher click-rates and revisits. It’s also important to ensure your calls to action are clear and easy to follow: if you want someone to click, make it simple and make it obvious what you are asking them to do.

Creating graphics, like ones you see on social media, makes the user more likely to click on the story to find out more, or scroll through the remainder of the e-shot. You can do this by adding text tabs to your images, embedding videos, or creating gifs.

Align your e-marketing designs with your wider marketing activity. Using the same design identity for e-marketing, social media, digital advertising, and other collateral such as brochures or point of sale assets will make your brand more coherent and recognisable, and make it more likely that you will be at the forefront of your customers’ mind when they make a purchasing decision.

 

Optimise for discoverability

SEO gives you the chance to optimise your e-shot content for keywords that are relevant to your business or niche. By optimising your e-shots using the right keywords, you will target and direct the right audience to your website. Users who have signed up to your newsletter are considered high quality traffic hence they are likely to spend more time on your website after clicking a link in your newsletter. With SEO you get valuable insights into what your users are searching for and what phrases make them click.

Implementing SEO into your e-marketing does not only increase leads and website traffic but also brand awareness and engagement. Together, SEO and e-marketing improve your website ranking on the search engine results page and lead to higher conversions.

 

Review, learn and improve

One of the stand-out benefits of e-marketing is the wealth of analytics available. Use this resource to identify trends and develop an understanding as to what content your users engage with and find most valuable. This will help you gain a deeper understanding of exactly what makes your audiences open, and click, so you can tailor future e-marketing campaigns accordingly.

 

For a relatively modest investment e-marketing is a direct way to reach an audience, and to be able to measure its effectiveness via detailed data. As a construction marketing specialist with over 35 years’ experience, we understand your customers and how to achieve those all-important opens and clicks. For a no-obligation discussion get in touch.