Building your brand: a roadmap for your customer’s journey

As the year draws to a close, at Harris Creative we’re supporting our clients as they look ahead to 2025 after what has been, for large parts of the construction sector, a challenging year.

While there are certainly opportunities afoot – not least with the Chancellor announcing increased investment for housing, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure in the Budget – there are certainly challenges, with the collapse of ISG sending shockwaves through the construction industry. With competition high, it will be up to companies to put their best feet forward to benefit from the opportunities that come their way.

That’s why having the best possible sales and marketing collateral is crucial to any company’s success.

A holistic approach

When we speak to clients about their brand, we take a holistic approach: after all, it’s no good having a top-notch social media presence if your website hasn’t been updated since 2015. We encourage clients to consider every single touchpoint their customers may encounter, and ensure that they are getting a consistent message as well as a consistent brand identity.

That means, yes, ensuring your brand is clear and coherent – and it’s worth working with your agency to review this periodically. But what is also means is undertaking regular, full reviews of your customer journey, and how they might encounter your brand along the way.

For many companies, their website is their first opportunity to ‘sell’ to a client: so you have to keep it fine-tuned and updated. As we tell our clients, a website is like a car – to run well, it needs regular maintenance. That’s why we offer web maintenance retainers as well as full web development.

You also need to put regular effort into your sales collateral – with the Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI), it might be better to focus on digital assets rather than printed brochures, as the information may become out of date, especially with regulatory changes and shifts in terminology from the new government. However, your brochure is not the only designed asset that your clients might see: there’s no point having a glossy professional brochure, if the next thing your customers encounter is an old-fashioned looking datasheet with your old company logo on it!

We recommend reviewing your presentations and email signatures regularly too. A well-designed presentation template can save a great deal of time in the long-run, and if there is information that you consistently want to include in your sales presentations or CPD webinars, for example, your construction marketing agency will be able to support by designing something that fits your brand and is visually engaging.

The same thinking applies for bid documents and quotes: in a competitive environment, it’s easy for people to be turned off by a document that doesn’t match the professionalism that you want your brand to project.

And in a market when every lead matters and where your competitors are chasing the same opportunities as you, don’t neglect the latter stages of the sales funnel. Aftersales follow-up needs to showcase that same level of professionalism and to reinforce a positive impression of your business and its product, people, and values.

Completing the journey to a sale

Your customer’s journey to purchase is vitally important for creating loyalty and earning repeat business. Give your customers a consistently good experience, and they’ll be far less likely to walk away without buying, or to look elsewhere in the future.

You should see every piece of your marketing collateral as a step in this journey: from initial contact, follow-up, quotes or bids, and then aftersales service, every touchpoint with your customer should be of the same high quality and should reflect your brand and its values. That means making sure you keep sight of the bigger picture – or working with a construction marketing agency that can act as guardians of your brand and design assets.

In short, it’s a good idea to work with a design agency that knows how to make a positive first impression – but it’s a great idea to work with one that can help you make an excellent lasting impression too.