General Contractor Marketing

At GW Branding Group, we specialize in helping general contractors establish a clear brand identity and online presence that resonates with their target audience. In this blog post, we'll share some of our top tips for building a successful marketing and branding strategy as a general contractor in the Chicagoland area. Furthermore, the GW Branding Group has officially launched our General Contracting Marketing Program which starts out with our Foundational Brand Program. In the FBP, we consult with you to develop your brand identity and establish your digital marketing plan for success.

Having A Strong Brand Identity

How A General Contractor Establishes Their Brand Identity and Target Audience

To establish a strong brand identity, you need to understand your unique value proposition and key differentiators. Not every contractor offers the same services and your competing to stand out in your local area by being unique. By defining your brand identity, you can communicate your strengths and competitive advantages to potential customers, which can help you set yourself apart.

It's also important to understand your target audience. In the Chicagoland area, general contractors typically work with a range of clients, including homeowners, property managers, and business owners. By understanding the demographics and psychographics of your target audience, you can tailor your marketing and branding efforts to effectively reach and connect with potential customers.

You can do this by looking at the demographics of the neighborhoods that you are working in. For example, if you are working in Naperville, you are more likely to target families looking to expand their home space or remodel their homes to increase their value. If you are in a historic neighborhood, for example, you may be targeting renovation and restoration projects as the homes need to be kept up and restored.

By asking yourself these questions, you can get a better understanding of your target audience:

• What projects are we best at?
• Which projects do we enjoy doing the most?
• Out of my past projects, which was the most profitable and how can I increase leads for these types of projects?

Some Contractors may find that they enjoy creating custom decks like Ace Of Decks and they specialize in doing just that. There are other contractors like Red Cloud Contracting that focus on basement remodeling and home renovation projects. It is important to understand what services you need to focus on and develop your brand and audience around! We encourage you to take a look at your brand goals and see if they align with these 3 questions we just stated above.

Establishing Your Online Presence

In today's digital age, having a website and optimizing it for SEO is critical for building your online presence and connecting with potential customers. Google's SEO process is complex, but by optimizing your website content and structure for search engines like Google and Bing, you can improve your rankings and drive more traffic to your site.

What to do if you are just starting a contracting business and you need a website?

If you are just starting your contracting business and are looking for a website builder to host your domain name and create a custom website, then you are more likely a candidate for the GW Website Builder which is our in-house website builder platform that we use to custom design and develop websites. Our website builder is a drag-and-drop system that is easy to use and manage. We also have over 13 tutorials on how to use the website builder as well as offer low-cost training packages so that you can save money and invest more in your general contracting business as a start-up. Tutorials and training can be found by clicking here.

Chicagoland Website services for contractors making between $500,000 and $1,000,000 in Revenue:

Are you a contractor that makes anywhere between five hundred thousand and one million in revenue? If so, the GW Branding Group offers custom website solutions that are tailored to your brand and needs. We have worked with contractors that have undergone 3 to 4 versions of their website before finally finding the GW Branding Group. When we work with you to build your site and increase your online presence we go all in partnering with you to create a fast-track program that meets you where you are and takes you to where you want to go. View our custom marketing management services.

Are you looking to scale your revenue further and need a marketing specialist to help you invest in marketing? Watch our Case Study with Red Cloud Contracting to learn how we helped them scale their contracting business in the Kane County area.

Ten Keywords That General Contractors Can Use to Target Their Audience In the Chicagoland Area

• General Contractor Services In Chicago
• Home remodeling contractor in Kane County, IL
• Commercial construction company near me Chicago
• Custom home builder in Chicago
• Kitchen remodeling contractor in Chicago
• Bathroom remodeling contractor in Dupage County
• Roofing contractor near me in Geneva, IL
• Painting contractor in St. Charles
• Flooring contractor in Cook County, IL
• Masonry contractors in Elk Grove Village, IL

By incorporating these keywords into your website content and structure, you can improve your chances of ranking for relevant searches and driving more traffic to your site.

Should I Invest in SEO Services For My General Contracting Business?

SEO is a long-term marketing strategy that helps your business get found online by optimizing your website for search engine rankings on Google and Bing. When it comes to service-based businesses, especially those who are working in homes, SEO is a key factor in getting your website found locally by customers searching for your services. Your website will show up in the search engine's SERPs or Search Engine Result Pages. We use software from NP Digital called Ubersuggest that helps us with an in-depth audit of your website's rankings. We can track your site and offer a list of deliverables that will help you increase your rankings. Take a look at this SERPs Guide from NP Digital.

In addition to having a website, having a strong social media presence and creating valuable educational videos on YouTube can help you build your brand and connect with potential customers. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram can help you build brand awareness and engage with potential customers, while educational videos on YouTube can help you establish credibility and trust. We recommend finding a media partner who can give you a cost breakdown of what it would look like to produce content for you.

At the GW Branding Group, we work with trusted media partners to deliver brand videos, YouTube videos, and custom shorts and reels for social media that leave audiences wanting to learn more about our general contracting clients. We manage platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more leveraging content to create leads.

Creating General Contracting Customer Journeys For Home Owners

Understanding the customer journey is critical for providing a positive experience and building customer loyalty. By automating your customer journey through email nurturing campaigns, you can keep potential customers up-to-date on your services and build a relationship with them over time. We help you to create customer journeys by taking you through our Foundational Brand Program. We work with you to develop and automate your customer journey by service category. For example, you will have a different customer journey for someone who is looking to remodel their entire home vs someone who is looking to finish their basement. The sale process is different, therefore your marketing journey is also going to be different. We work with platforms like Active Campaign to build out your journey automation process. These customer journeys can also be referred to as drip campaigns.

Quality Brand Videos For General Contractors

Clear and quality branding videos can help you establish your brand identity and build trust with potential customers. By showcasing your company's values and mission, as well as customer testimonials, you can effectively communicate your strengths and build credibility with potential customers.

How do you put a brand video together? When it comes to developing your brand video we look to bring your story to life. Showcasing your brand's story can be a difficult task to manage which is why the GW Branding Group offers custom media packages. Working with our media partners, we can deliver you a custom brand storyline and script for producing your video! Showcasing your video online is a great way to make sure that you generate more traffic to your website. By back-linking your brand video, Google will look at your site's content and rank your site higher for providing more value to the end user.

Build Trust With Online Reviews For Your General Contracting Business

Online reviews are an important tool for building trust and credibility with potential customers. By using Google Reviews and other review platforms like Trustpilot, you can increase brand trust and showcase your company's strengths. Reviews are a vital part of Google's ranking factor and the more reviews you have, the higher your trust score becomes. Your clients will almost always look at reviews before making a purchasing decision, especially when it comes to someone working on their home. Consumers want to know that the person they are trusting the work at their home is going to be able to handle the job and prove it through online reviews.

How To Automate Online Reviews For General Contractors?

When it comes to collecting reviews as a general contractor, it can be hard to constantly remember to ask for reviews. This is why marketing companies like GW Branding Group make it easy to automate this process through your emails. Google and other online review platforms offer easy-to-use links so that you can send out requests for online reviews with a few clicks. Better yet, when you put these review links in automated emails, you can continuously collect reviews.

having 5-star reviews is great, but not likely. Google will recognize this and it is important to shoot for a 4.5 or above. Not every customer will be happy which is why it is important to have standard operating procedures around how to respond to negative reviews online. Keep in mind personalized messages are much more recognizable to both consumers and Google when it comes to your review responses, so make sure you leave a personal reply rather than a generic thank-you response.

Pay Per Click Advertising For General Contractors

Pay-per-click advertising on Google and Facebook can help you increase visibility and drive traffic to your website. By targeting the right keywords and audience, developing engaging ad copy, and using local service ads from Google, you can effectively reach potential customers in the Chicagoland area.

General Contractor Ad Groups For Google Ads

When it comes to PPC advertising on Google, as a general contractor it is best to separate your Ad Groups by the services you are targeting. For example, if you are a general contractor targeting basement remodeling your ad group should contain keywords related to only basement remodeling. Furthermore, you can separate an ad group for kitchen remodeling if you also offer that as a service. In a kitchen remodling ad group you would have keywords such as:

• Kitchen Remodeling Near Me
• How To Hire A Kitchen Remodeling Service
• How Much Does It Cost To Remodel A Kitchen?
• How Long Does It Take To Remodel A Kitchen?
• Kitchen Contractor
• Kitchen Renovation
• Kitchen Finishes

What is the best way to market your general contracting business?

The truth is there is the best way to market your general contracting business is to scale smart and keep up with your marketing strategy. If you are looking to discuss your digital marketing strategy, contact the GW Branding Group today and we will set you up with a 30-minute strategy call with our digital marketing specialists.