Are you making these eight marketing mistakes?

Are You Making These 8 Marketing Mistakes?

As a professional in the residential construction industry, you want your business to be as successful as possible. To achieve such a goal, however, you must have a solid marketing plan, because, without one, it can be difficult to attract new customers.

Unfortunately, many business owners simply don’t know where to start when it comes to marketing, and they end up wasting money on ineffective marketing strategies. To avoid this scenario, check out these eight marketing mistakes you should avoid.

1. Capturing Unqualified Leads

There is nothing wrong with allotting a certain percentage of your marketing budget towards capturing leads, as long as they are actually qualified. If your leads have no intention of utilizing your business or its products, you are just wasting your time and money. You don’t want this to happen to you, and luckily, there are steps you can take to ensure it doesn’t.

Before capturing leads, you must decide who your target audience is. For example, if you are in the remodeling business, it won’t be helpful to reach out to someone seeking the services of a plumber. By doing this, you can avoid the bidding rush and expand your business at the same time. You can also attract more customers by reducing your service area, which will save you commuting time and lower your overhead costs.

2. Failing To Keep Track of Progress

Are you keeping track of your overall marketing goals? If not, you may want to start. You see, neglecting to measure your progress and set reachable goals, makes it difficult for you to determine whether you’re succeeding or failing. If you aren’t progressing at the rate you want, you can adjust your approach or use a new one. If you are progressing, you are in a good place — you know what works. However, if you don’t keep track of your marketing strategy, you will have no idea where you are.

By measuring your efforts, you are making a sound investment. After analyzing the results of your marketing campaign, you can revise your tactics and avoid wasting countless dollars on ineffective marketing strategies. There are numerous software solutions your company can use to keep track of your marketing goals and budget.

3. Accepting Any Marketing Services From Anyone

As a remodeler, you should never accept marketing services from a person or company that does not have your best interests in mind. Many marketing companies attempt to sell services to niche businesses without understanding their goals and challenges. Many of these marketing companies simply don’t know how to best help those in the remodeling industry.

By identifying your target audience and setting tangible goals, you can reduce your chances of being taken advantage of by an inept marketer. Often, remodelers find that creating a pay or no-pay service agreement is the best approach when negotiating with marketing companies. By drafting such an agreement, the marketer can only be paid for results, not effort or time.

4. Failing To Do Your Research

Have you done your research? If you haven’t taken the time to research what are the needs of your target audience, where they reside, and how to best reach them, you could be in deep trouble. As a business owner, you must make time to thoroughly performing market research. Doing so can save you money and time down the road and help you more efficiently launch a single campaign. Once you have access to the data and information you need, you can better price, package, and promote your remodeling services to the people who need them.

5. Forgetting To Market to Current Customers

Many companies focus all their time and efforts on appealing to new customers while neglecting the value of repeat customers. Repeat customers are a great source of potential revenue, and many companies find marketing to them is far more effective than reaching out to new customers. It is also more expensive to sell remodeling services to new customers — this is something to keep in mind if you are on a strict budget.

Repeat customers don’t have as many barriers to overcome before utilizing your services because they already trust you to do your job. The more they’ve utilized your services, the more they are likely to do so in the future.

6. Underestimating the Power of Word-of-Mouth

The field of marketing has greatly advanced over the last few years, but still, nothing beats good old-fashioned word-of-mouth marketing. Many newer companies overlook the value of word-of-mouth marketing, but in reality, satisfied customers are much more likely to tell their friends, family members, and co-workers about your company. Word-of-mouth marketing can not only attract new customers but help you obtain repeat business as well.

7. Ignoring the Competition

When it comes to marketing ideas for remodeling companies, there are many to choose from. However, no matter which idea you decide to go with, you must not overlook your competition. Differentiating yourself from others in immensely important, but you can learn a lot by examining the approaches used by other remodeling companies. You can do this fairly easily by conducting a SWOT analysis or researching your competitors online. You can also find out how they engage with customers by visiting their social media pages.

8. Not Using Social Media

You should never be scared of social media. Today, social media is everything, and you must use various platforms to connect with potential customers. Marketing through social media can be a cost-efficient and relatively simple way to reach consumers who may be considering utilizing your services. Before taking to social media, however, it can be helpful to clarify your goals and choose the appropriate network first.

Marketing the Right Way

If you really want to effectively market your business, here are some steps you can take to do so — the right way:

• Do your marketing research.
• Target the right audience.
• Keep track of your marketing goals and progress.
• Strive to capture quality leads.
• Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing.
• Scope out the competition.
• Market to repeat customers.
• Take to social media.

By taking the measures listed above, you can ensure your marketing approach yields the results you are seeking.

Learn More

Creating an effective and budget-friendly marketing plan can be difficult for remodeling businesses, but it can be done. Reach out to GuildQuality today to learn more about marketing to the right customers.