But don’t worry – we’re here to help!
Marketing in the construction industry is confusing. Specifically, marketing in the design-build remodel niche of the construction industry, can be difficult, to say the least. Why? And more importantly, how do you change that? We’re going to dive into a few of the key factors that contribute to challenges that business owners and even marketers face when building customer personas and lead gen campaigns for the remodeling industry including gender dynamic, industry verticals, the relatively narrow focus of the design-build niche, and, finally, what you can do to attract and convert the right people despite these variables.
Gender Dynamics
Research tells us that at least half of all decisions about the home are made by women, especially because women tend to be in charge of household labor. (That is, in typical cisgender, heterosexual relationships. Still waiting to see research on “non-traditional” households.)
Construction is an industry dominated by men, but remodeling is primarily selling to women.
Women are usually the ones doing the research, finding the contractors, and making the initial appointments. Then they get their husbands involved when they meet with the contractor.
But this isn’t the only industry where that happens – the beauty industry is primarily run by men. Global Cosmetics Industry reported that 2/3s of all executives in the industry are male. So how do they market so well? After all, beauty is valued to be a $571 billion industry in 2023. That’s a much bigger conversation, especially when you get into societal expectations of women. But we can learn a few things from them.
The beauty industry knows who their target client is. They know their demographics and they play to them. Their branding, their copywriting, their product visuals – they all are selling to the target demographic.
Too many male contractors have masculine-leaning branding. It’s okay to straddle the line between masculine and feminine branding. It’s okay if you are teetering over toward masculine. But you have to know who your target demographic is, who is finding you online, and who is calling you. Design your branding to attract and convert them.
Industry Verticals
Google Ads doesn’t know how to differentiate between general housing/real estate ads and home improvement/remodel ads. Nearly every single client we’ve worked with has been dinged for putting age and income demographic exceptions on their Google Ads.
This is because, in the United States, it is discriminatory, and therefore illegal, to target specific demographics for housing and real estate. And because Google Ads does not seem to understand that the word “remodel” isn’t trying to sell someone housing, it flags home improvement ads that have target demographics such as “above age 24” or “lives within a certain zip code”. (We understand Google is being cautious, but it means more manual work for marketers rather than relying on programmatic media buying solutions. And more importantly, what does it say about the usefulness of AI if it can’t figure out the difference between the two industry sectors?) Of course, you can appeal the flags, and usually Google realizes it’s not a housing advertisement.
Niche Market
Design-build remodels are a niche market. Sure, there are over a dozen contractors in your small town, but they don’t all practice the design-build process. Most of them are handymen or the “Chuck in a Truck” type. Their ads often get lumped in with yours. Their SERP listings (search engine result pages) get mixed in. And your niche design-build firm gets lost in the crowd.
You’re also a small fish in that niche market. If sites like Angie and Houzz are targeting the same keywords as you, how do you compete? They have hundreds of pages, a plethora of high quality backlinks, and a domain authority to be jealous of.
Specialized Help
Let’s be honest here: You need help with your digital marketing tactics. You need help to stand out. But not just any old marketing agency or ads company will be able to get you the results you want. You need specialized help.
You wouldn’t trust any old surgeon to operate on a broken foot. You want an orthopedic surgeon who only operates on feet. An expert in a niche.
Very few marketing agencies specialize in construction marketing. Even fewer specialize in the design-build niche.
You need a company like Keokee.
Keokee works with design-build remodeling firms and contractors throughout the country. We offer branding, web design, and digital marketing services.
Because we specialize in the construction and home improvement vertical, we know a thing or two about how to market in it. We can pull data from our plethora of clients to understand how the construction industry is doing. We can compare your company to other clients in your region to understand keyword choice and CPC costs.
You guide your clients through the design-build process and help them understand how it benefits them. We guide you through the branding, web design, and digital marketing processes to show you what we do, why we do it, and how it benefits your design-build construction company.
We know how to market to a niche audience. After all, you found us, right?
