Right now, home builders and remodeling contractors have all the work they can handle. There is a huge demand for their services, and supply chain issues are placing a limit on how much work they can actually complete.
So it stands to reason that the last thing they need to do is to market themselves. But that is flawed thinking.
It’s actually just as important, if not more so, to market your company and brand when you’re busy. Here are the reasons why:
Times Change
Things may be crazy right now, and the thought of trying to get more work may seem ludicrous.
We don’t blame you for feeling that way. After all, why spend the time and resources promoting yourself when you’re stretched to the limit?
But things change. Fast. If there’s one thing we’ve all learned over the last couple years, it’s that world events and market forces can shift suddenly.
In the blink of an eye, the home building and remodeling market can completely change. One day you’re fighting customers off, and the next they might all disappear.
For marketing to be successful, it has to be consistent. You want your potential customers to think of you when they have a project in mind. You can’t predict when that will be.
The only way you can be sure they think of you is by having a consistent marketing program. The more customers see your name and know what you do, the more likely they are to call you when they need help.
That will help protect you when business gets a little harder to come by.
Marketing Takes Time
Getting new work isn’t like turning on a spigot. You can’t just make it happen whenever you want.
Marketing takes time to have the desired effect. This is especially true for services like home building and remodeling, which have a high cost and a long sales cycle. Customers will spend a great deal of time thinking about their projects, planning how to pay for it, and researching products and contractors before they ever pick up the phone.
If you’ve been neglecting your marketing for a couple years because you’ve been too busy, starting it up again will typically not have an immediate impact. It could be several months to a year before it starts to really have the effect you want it to.
But if you’ve been consistent with your marketing (see above), you’re probably already on customers’ radar, and you won’t have to work as hard to reach them.
Marketing Helps You Diversify
As we stated above, times can change quickly. We can’t predict the future, but it’s safe to say that that the current demand for building and remodeling will have ups and downs.
When companies are riding high, they should be sure to take the time to think about what they can do to survive tougher times. Or even thrive in them.
One of the ways you can do this is to explore diversifying your services. For example, when the demand for remodeling declines, the demand for repair and maintenance might increase. This could be a time to increase your service offering to address the future needs of your customers.
A key part of that is marketing. It’s one thing to offer maintenance services, but if no one knows about it, what good does it do you?
Marketing your additional services while you’re busy with projects does two things: it plants the seed among your customers that you’re someone who can help them when the time comes, and it keeps your name and brand in front of them.
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We get it. All this might sound like self-serving advice coming from a marketing agency. But the fact is that marketing is all about occupying a space in the mind of your customers, and that takes effort. When you stop working to maintain that presence, your customers start to gradually forget about you.
And it doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. When you have all the work you can handle, you should allocate your resources to keeping your current customers happy.
But be sure to reserve some of that time and effort to continuing your marketing so you’re ready for when times change.