Your Growth-Focused Building Materials Marketing Strategy

Whether you serve residential or commercial customers, one thing is certain: you want to keep growing your building materials company, no matter what. Here’s your plan to do exactly that with the smartest tool at your disposal — digital marketing.

These growth-focused strategies can help you allot time (and staff) to the right steps at the right times, even while you stay busy running your business

[Related: How to Make the Right Marketing Investments]

Digital Marketing for Building Materials — A Step-by-Step Plan

From identifying your core customer to posting their reviews, here’s how to get started. Each digital marketing strategy builds upon the other as they work together.

1. Know Your Customer and Your Competition

Analyze your customers and competitors before you start marketing online. It’s one way to ensure your marketing efforts don’t go to waste.

Ask yourself these questions to help pinpoint your target audience and target market:

• Do you mostly serve residential or commercial customers?
• What type of customer (demographic, income / revenue, etc.) usually purchases your building materials?
• What needs does your building materials business solve for your customers?
• What do those customers value from your distinct business?
   

Next, take a moment to look at local competitors:

• What local building materials businesses appear when you look for your products /  services in search engines?
• Have your customers mentioned other building material suppliers they use\, including big box retailers
• How does your building materials business outperform those suppliers?
   

By narrowing down who’s buying and who to outdo, you’re ready to start digital marketing with clear eyes. Keep your buyers and your competitors in mind as you take the next steps.

Tip: A digital marketing company will help you find your target audience and major competitors. They have the tools and experience to analyze your targets with remarkable precision.

[Related: Small Business Digital Marketing 101]

2. Claim and Build Out Your Business Listings

Fill out your Google Business Profile (GBP) as fully as possible. Your GBP is usually where customers first find you — nearly half of Google searches have local intent.

Make sure your GBP includes these details and any others available to you:

• Business name
• Address / locations / service areas
• Phone number(s)
• Business hours
• Website URL
• Social media profiles
• Products / services offered
• Pictures
• Star rating and reviews
• FAQs
   

If Google has a field for it and you have the information, enter it! The more complete and accurate information your customers see — especially ratings and reviews  — the more likely they are to trust your building materials company.

Tip: Your Google Business Profile is foundational to your business growth. Kickstart that growth by increasing search engine visibility with an optimized Google Business Profile.

[Related: Check Your Online Listings On Google Now]

3. Get a Smart(er) Website

Take a critical look at  your building materials website and ask yourself — does it have, and do, everything it needs to? For starters, it needs to keep and hold prospective customers’ attention. Customers take all of 30 seconds to judge your site — and a smart site makes that impression more impressive.

What do we mean by “smart site”? That boils down to a few invaluable factors:

• Speaking to and engaging visitors — and making it easy for them to become customers on every page
• Looking good and functioning properly on both desktop and mobile
• Working seamlessly on mobile devices and with voice search
   

If you have a website now — especially an older site — it may need a complete redo to have it hit all those marks. And if you don’t have a website, we strongly recommend not going the DIY route! Al high-performance website takes time and expertise (and a lot of it) to build.

But when you do hit those targets, your website can boost your business growth across the board. Let’s look at two more smart website features that drive growth in building materials marketing.

[Related: See How Your Site And More Stack Up Online]

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

In short, SEO is the art and science of researching, finding and placing keywords that help your website and online content show up more prominently in the search results.

SEO for building materials is no different. SEO specialists place those critical keywords throughout your website, behind the scenes and in customer-facing content...all with the goal of helping customers find you before your competition.

And SEO is doubly important when you’re up against big-box retailers and tight local competitors. It’s what makes your site stand out amid competitors and bigger-budget businesses.

Content Marketing

Content is essentially anything customers see on your online channels — text, media and more. It walks hand in hand with SEO to help drive organic traffic to your website. Great content informs, engages and entertains, all to boost your bottom line with repeat and new customers.

Content marketing for building materials websites includes a huge array of possible customer-pleasing avenues:

• Blog posts
• How-to videos
• Before-and-after photos
• Website copy
• Product and service descriptions
   

That’s just scratching the surface — like SEO, content extends to social media posts, ads and beyond. At the end of the day, anything you’re including on your site or sharing online should be considered content — and it’s all an opportunity for new customers to find and choose your business.

[Related: 5 Things Customers Want To See on Your Local Business Website]

4. Start Using Social Media to Promote Your Business

Create official social media profiles for your business — and start posting. Official social media profiles for your building materials business are must-haves. About 75% of customers aged 18 to 65+ use at least one social media platform.

Without a social presence, you miss a massive opportunity to reach new customers and engage with existing customers. Social media marketing lets you speak directly to your target audience, driving awareness and engagement.

To really increase the reach and impact of your social media efforts, run targeted social media ads. Your target customers will see them whenever they’re on sites and apps like Facebook and Instagram, helping your ads reach the right customers at the right time.

Tip: Use Facebook (Meta) and Facebook ads, at a minimum. With more than 3 billion global users, Facebook has the largest reach of any social media platform. Digital marketing for building material suppliers isn’t complete without it.

[Related: See how many customers you could reach with Facebook ads]

5. Post Reviews, Reviews and More Reviews

Collect and post great reviews across your website, social media profiles and business listings. Actually, post them everywhere you can. 9 out of 10 customers look at reviews before buying from a business — make sure they can find what they need to choose you.

Positive reviews are a particularly important part of digital marketing for building materials companies. When you enter someone’s home or business, they want to know what to expect.

If you find yourself short on customer reviews — just ask for them (or find an all-in-one reviews and reputation solution). The resulting word of mouth and referrals are vital growth drivers. After all, 92% of your customers trust referrals over ads…even the best ads.

And don’t forget to respond professionally to any negative reviews too. Consumers like to see that your business is listening...providing transparent resolutions...and not ignoring any bumps along the way.

Tip: You have more ways to enrich your building materials marketing strategy, including search ads, display ads and automated messaging. The sky’s the limit — a digital marketing company can help you find the right mix for your goals and your budget.

[Related: 5 Reasons Why You Need To Focus on Online Reviews Now]

Find an All-in-One Building Materials Marketing Solution with Hibu

Digital marketing for building materials businesses involves a lot of moving parts. Let us put the pieces together for you Hibu.

We offer custom digital marketing solutions that get your small business big results. Start to finish, we’re partners in your digital marketing journey and here for you at every step. And we have plenty of experience helping home and building service businesses like yours succeed.

Complete our short Get Started form or call 877-237-6120 for a free consultation. We’ll discuss your needs and see how we can help grow your building materials business today.