If I could tell Trades & Construction Businesses one thing about Marketing…
‘There’s so much competition in my industry. I need to stand out’.
‘I’ve got 20 other building companies on my doorstep. How do I become the go-to expert?’
‘I need to appeal to everyone to grow my Trades business. Where do I start?’
It can feel like a tough old ride.
Marketing your Trade and Construction business.
At the best of times.
Especially when your competitor brings out an all-singing-all-dancing new website (that gives you website shame).
Or when another has just rebranded their vehicle fleet that now lights up the road brighter than a Phillips 5000 Lumen LED (other bulbs are available).
You see another company do something new in their business.
You like the idea.
Think it would be great for your business.
Be it designing a new style of website.
Advertising on a certain online directory.
Having fancy brochures designed, printed, and mailed to every business in town.
And you get ‘shiny object’ syndrome.
Which steals your focus.
And more importantly, costs you a small (or large) fortune.
Which you never see a return on.
Suddenly it doesn’t appear so shiny anymore. Does it?
What if there was a way you could…
✅ Stand out miles from your competitors.
✅ Be the ‘go-to’ expert.
✅ Stop making branding mistakes that are costing you.
✅ Make better business and marketing decisions for your clients.
✅ Build a brand that builds your business while you sleep.
All whilst saving…
⌚️ Time.
💰 Money.
🤯 Your Sanity.
Well it all starts with doing one thing.
Working out who is the Ideal Client for your Trade and Construction business.
Let’s dive in…
What is an Ideal Client?
An Ideal Client represents your PERFECT customer. The one who wants and needs EXACTLY what you offer and is willing and able to pay for it.
This varies from company to company.
For example.
If you run a Domestic Construction company your Ideal Client may be a growing family who are looking to extend their property so they don’t have to move out of an area they love but create enough room for the children they have, with more children on the way.
The Ideal Client here might be the mother of the family (for your business) who is the key decision maker in your experience.
Perhaps you run a Commercial Air Conditioning business.
Your Ideal Client may well be independent restaurant owners as you operate a 24/7 call out service.
The Ideal Client here may well be the restaurant owner or manager who organises the suppliers that keep their restaurant open and functioning.
Understood?
Great. Next.
How is working out my Ideal Client going to help my Trade and Construction business?
Working out your Ideal Client for your Trade and Construction business will be the single biggest game-changer you ever make.
It affects EVERYTHING.
We consider it SO important in our Trade and Construction Brand & Marketing Agency for that we will ONLY take on new clients once we have done an entire workshop with our clients on their Ideal Client.
It's that important.
We uncover information about your Ideal Client such as:
1️⃣ Area they live in
2️⃣ Job Title
3️⃣ Where they spend their free time
4️⃣ What Social Media platforms they use the most
5️⃣ What they want out of life
For us, it’s a way we get to fully understand your business and who you want to target.
Only then can we come up with the right ideas that are going to catch the attention of the people you want.
For our clients…
✔️ It gives clarity and purpose as to what they are trying to build.
✔️ A greater understanding of who they want to serve.
✔️ What they need to do, where they need to be and how they need to show up as a business to convert these people as clients.
When you have clarity in your business – rather than just trying to appeal to everyone and take on every job that pays – incredible things happen.
Here are 3 game-changing benefits to uncovering your Ideal Client in detail.
1. You will separate yourself from other Trade and Construction competitors.
Simply put.
Not every company that appears to be the ‘same’ Trade and Construction business type as you is your competitor.
Read that again.
What do I mean?
Just because you come across another decorator, or electrical company or building firm doesn’t mean they are your competition.
On the surface, it may appear that they are but here’s when they are NOT your competitors…
Their Ideal Client is completely different.
Example.
I work with two decorating companies in London.
Two companies who actually serve the domestic market.
Wow. Even bigger competition.
But no. Not even close.
From working with both of them we discovered – in detail - who their Ideal Clients were.
Both had little to no marketing to start with.
Both APPEARED (online and in print) to be domestic decorators that helped the same people.
In fact, from the marketing efforts that they had both made so far, they looked pretty identical ‘on paper’.
However.
Our Ideal Client discovery showed us this.
🎨 DECORATOR A
Had an incredible portfolio of clients (and photos) of high-end interiors of lavish, multi-million pound apartments in London.
He had a 15-man, full time team and his most profitable, enjoyable work was helping affluent clients in and around Central London with luxury painting and wallpapering.
🎨 DECORATOR B
Was a one-man band with an apprentice, working in London and surrounding areas.
From working with us and thinking about what work he enjoyed most and that was highly profitable, he decided he wanted to specialise in SPRAY PAINTING domestic kitchens for clients looking to update their home whilst saving money (not investing in a completely new kitchen).
Both domestic decorators.
Both situated in London.
Yet their decorating businesses - what they wanted to specialise in and, more importantly, their Ideal Clients - are worlds apart!
Neither real competitors.
They are just in the same industry.
Their market is totally different.
Though had you looked at both their websites you wouldn’t have known that difference as they both weren’t marketing themselves correctly.
They both just looked like small decorating companies that would do ‘any’ kind of job.
Which they both agreed they only wanted to attract the specific jobs and clients I outlined above.
Overview.
When working out your Ideal Client - who you serve specifically – you start separating yourself from the other ‘decorators’ or ‘electrical companies’ or ‘building firms’ because your marketing can start to reflect the kind of work and client you want.
Not who Joe Bloggs down the road is after.
Which moves us neatly onto benefit number 2.
2. Your Brand and Marketing will attract more of the work you want.
Now you’ve worked out who your Ideal Client is and what they ‘look’ like (on paper), your marketing can become laser focused.
Which means you will attract more of that type of work.
How is that?
Well, let me tell you.
Everything you promote from this point on should ‘speak’ to the Ideal Client that you have chosen.
⚠️ If you do decide take on work that does not reflect your Ideal Client or the Ideal Client job type you are after – then do not use it in your marketing.
Why?
Because you will…
❌ Confuse your audience
❌ Potentially put off your Ideal Client.
For example.
You’re a Commercial Electrical Contractor.
And you want to be the go-to company in helping Schools and Universities.
Well here’s a starting point of what we need to see in your brand and marketing:
✅ Testimonials from Schools and Universities.
✅ Images on your website of Schools and Universities.
✅ Website copy about how you help Schools and Universities.
✅ Social Media posts about projects you’re working on in Schools and Universities.
✅ Proposal Documents showing your accreditations of what you would need to work in Schools and Universities.
Everything becomes focused around Schools and Universities only.
Catch my drift?
We don’t land on your LinkedIn page and the top 5 posts are about small domestic jobs you did in the area.
As a School or University Facilities Manager I would think I’m in the wrong place if that’s the first thing I saw.
That your business doesn’t cater for the work we need.
So I’d carry on my search.
And likely not ever come back to your business just because I’d presume you don’t deal with the kind of jobs we need.
❓ But what if your marketing played out differently?
Imagine that no matter where we came across your Commercial Electrical business first -a business card at a networking meeting, your website, your LinkedIn page - everything tells us about how you help, solve problems and relieve stress for Schools and Universities.
As a Headteacher or School/University Facilities manager, we’d know instantly we’re in the right place for the go-to experts for School and University Electrical works.
Right?
Which encourages this action from the client…
☎️ To pick up the phone and enquire with you.
🚀 When your marketing becomes more focused around your Ideal Clients, we start building trust even before any enquiry is made.
🚀 When your marketing becomes more focused in your Trade and Construction business, your brand starts to do a lot more of the heavy lifting in attracting and converting the CLIENTS you want to serve and work with.
Clever stuff.
3. You will save more time and money in your Trade & Construction business.
Knowing your Ideal Client saves you A LOT of time and money.
Not only in your marketing, but in your business decisions too.
Let’s start with marketing.
If you know your Trade and Construction specific Ideal Clients inside out, you can make much better brand and marketing decisions that give you better results.
And put your money behind brand ideas that are going to benefit you.
If we jump back to the example of the Commercial Electrical company who help schools and Universities.
A University enquires.
They have MULTIPLE campuses.
This contract is huge for our Electrical team.
If we know that this is the EXACT kind of project that will grow our business and we want more of, then taking the opportunity to document it to the fullest makes total sense, doesn’t it?
For example.
⭐️ If this our dream job, it would make sense to think about hiring a photographer to come in at the start, middle and end of the project to capture photos.
Photography that you can bank and use on our website, brochures, social media of our Ideal Client work for years to come.
⭐️ If this is our dream job, it would make sense to speak with the client (be it the Facilities manager or contact that you liaise with) about filming a testimonial video with them at the end of the project.
Enlisting the help of a professional production team (you can check our team out here) to capture your delighted Ideal Client on camera singing your praises.
Why would we invest in marketing efforts like this on our Ideal Client jobs?
Because we know if we capture how we played our part in transforming sites and the lives of happy Ideal Clients, we can promote it endlessly and guess what…
✨ Attract more of it.
So it then makes sense to make brand and marketing investments on certain types of jobs.
Then how does this save me time?
If you know you are capturing and promoting work, testimonials, photos, copy etc all of your Ideal Clients and work, you are not wasting any time on marketing efforts that attract the wrong kind of audience.
Nor are you wasting money on ‘shiny objects’.
Capturing only Ideal Client work and projects, helps you build a library of content – video, photography, images, testimonials - to dip in and out of for years and years that speaks to the customers you want.
How else it saves you time and money is that it stops you capturing and promoting jobs and clients that you DO NOT want more of.
And for business?
The same as your marketing.
When looking to make new business decisions – hiring of staff, new services to add, qualifications to go after – having your Ideal Client in mind the entire time means you can make faster, easier, better decisions in your business.
That all add up to you creating more solutions and a better customer experience to the clients you want to serve.
It's all quite straight forward really.
When you know how.
3 BENEFITS TO WORKING OUT YOUR IDEAL CLIENT FOR YOUR TRADE AND CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS RUNDOWN:
1. You will separate yourself from your competitors.
2. You will attract more of the work you want.
3. You will save more time and money.
🛠 Need a little more help nailing your Trades and Construction Brand?
Course you do.
First. Let’s work out where you are with your brand.
Got 3 minutes?
Take our Trades Quiz to discover how you score with all things ‘Off The Tools’.
We have heaps of tips, tricks and hacks for your Trade and Construction business in our cheat sheets, videos and ideas waiting for you on the other side… i.e., your results page.
So you can improve your score.
And BUILD your business by NAILING your brand.