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Construction firms are discovering the value of marketing

Construction companies aren’t known for their marketing programs. In fact, until relatively recently, about the only marketing construction companies did was to post signs at their job sites.

But construction companies’ markets are no longer limited to a relatively small radius of their home bases. Today’s construction companies can compete — and win — jobs anywhere in the world. And as their markets, and the competition, expand, construction companies are beginning to understand the value of marketing.

“It wasn’t until about seven years ago that marketing became part of our strategic plan,” says Rosa Rozek, marketing coordinator for Chicago-based Berglund Construction. The firm has three offices and about 400 employees. “Now we actually have a department, and people are charged with creating high-quality proposals, bids and presentations. It used to be just another duty for the administrative staff.”

That’s not unusual.

“It’s only been in the last 10 years or so that construction firms have started hiring marketing people,” confirms Traci Johnston, Chicago marketing manager for Turner Construction Co. “In the late ‘90s, when the economy was going wild, they knew marketing was supposed to help them grow, but they didn’t really understand what marketing was.”

They’re learning. Sophisticated websites are the norm, and are solid planks in construction companies’ marketing platforms. The rest of the platforms’ supporting structure varies.

“The main driver in our marketing plan is responding to requests for proposals (RFPs),” says Carrie Mandelin, marketing manager for Mortenson Construction in Elk Grove Village, Ill. “But we try to touch each market sector and every customer with mailings three or four times a year.”

To do that, she says, the Minneapolis-based company with nine offices in the United States, one in China, and 1,800 employees designs and sends postcards or brochures to specific market sectors, each highlighting one of its brand pillars. After a recent rebranding, however, everyone in the mailing database received two mailings to acclimate them to the change.

Trade show takeaways
Mortenson also attends six to eight trade shows a year, but the firm doesn’t always take the standard giveaways along.

“At a recent show, we used the money for a lanyard sponsorship that put our name and logo all over every name tag the show distributed,” Mandelin says. “And we’re going to give away an iPod® shuffle™ at an upcoming show.”

Berglund, too, emphasizes its presence at symposiums and conferences for target markets.

“One of our executives became a member of the board for a recent symposium,” Rozek says. “That made us really a part of the process. And we’ve gone from a typical pop-up display booth to a custom-designed, streamlined steel and fabric booth featuring flat panel screens.”

One of the giveaways at Berglund booths is a capabilities brochure intended to introduce the company to potential new clients.

“We don’t use it to target specific clients, and it doesn’t include any information that could get outdated,” Rozek says. “When we get a lead, we produce a packet specific to the market, highlighting specific relevant experience, our safety record, client references — the things they’re likely to want to know.”

Chicago-based Bulley & Andrews sends about 125 brochures to current and potential customers a year, but they’re never the same brochure.

“We don’t have a standard brochure, because they get outdated too fast,” says Sloan Watson, marketing director for the 400-employee firm. “We customize them on request, using a template with our message and branding. The vast majority of the time, they are being developed for a specific market sector.”

At Turner, with more than 50 offices worldwide and about 5,000 employees, some of the marketing is broader.

“We’ve been doing our Turner City — a city graphically created with all the buildings Turner completes in a year — since 1910,” Johnston says. “And our quarterly construction report has become one of the standards in the industry since its inception in the late ‘40s.”

e-blasts spread the word
Less globally, she adds, she sometimes sends e-blasts on completed projects to target markets, and regularly distributes press releases that chronicle progress from ground-breakings to topping out to completion of projects.

Similarly, Berglund sends corporate announcement postcards to a database of 2,000 contacts developed in-house. The company also arranges networking sessions that company executives organize with architects and planners.

“We create a PowerPoint presentation and go meet with them at their sites,” Rozek says. “It opens doors both ways, and we’re pre-qualified when an architect has a new project. We are working not only to shorten the sales process, but also to diminish the perception that we’re a mid-sized construction company. We’re demonstrating our ability to compete with much larger firms.”

Given all this, it’s clear the communications segment of marketing is growing in construction firms, and they may soon need some help.

“We’re right on the cusp of needing to go the next step and start outsourcing some of our projects,” says Watson. “I’d like to be more proactive on that front.”

For more information about how The Simons Group can help your organization with print and electronic marketing projects, contact Lee Zoldan at lzoldan@thesimonsgroup.com.