Like any industry, marketing for the construction industry in 2024 is evolving. Over time, new tech, competition and changing consumer behaviours are driving change and building companies that embrace them are getting an edge on competitors.
High-Performance Builds
As states make changes to building rules around energy-efficiency and sustainability, some builders are moving beyond compliance and adopting sustainable practices. Doing so locally positions their business as pioneering, but it also future proofs the business. Overseas, environmentally friendly building is now less of a selling point, and more of an expectation. (Eerkiainen & Sarasoja 2013)
Read more:
How going green is securing market share.
Marketing yourself as a green builder
Content-based marketing
There's no doubt about it, user-generated content now genuinely competes with traditional media and this is translating to accessible opportunities for business.
vertical Video content
The portrait, or vertical screen format is replacing the traditional horizontal format, becoming the default for mobile video production. (Lana et al, 2021). People across all age groups tend to engage better with the vertical format when on mobile, and this engagement is translating to improved ad receptivity.
Authentic Content
Hard-sell tactics, an increase in image filters and AI generated content seems to all be linked to an increased aversion towards overtly promotional content. The opposite of this is authentic content and it's been found to perform better when it appears to be exactly that. The good news is, you may not need a camera crew or staff to create it.
What exactly is 'authentic' content'? Authentic content tends to be less polished, less scripted and more transparent. For builders this could equate to behind-the-scenes video or an enormous trail of online reviews. In Semrush's 'Social Media Trends Report 2024' quality content is key to continuing to drive online engagement in 2024.
One example of a business that has found a way to integrate this demand for more natural content, is Bunnings. Bunnings likes to use staff in their ads and the brand's 'how-to' content, giving a big business a more 'down-to-earth' feel that resonates with their audience.
Showcasing your people online helps people get to know your business better. This, in turn, helps establish trust, moving the prospective buyer closer to committing to your building service.
Service Design Integration
Client experience can dictate builders' success. One way to own the process is service design. Service design is a practiced methodology being used to improve client relationships, efficiency and strengthen business reputation. Interested in knowing more about that? Here's how builders are using service design 2024
AI in the construction process
The use of AI within the planning stage of construction projects has been identified as being particularly beneficial. (Regona 2022). In a McKinsey Global Institute report into AI, companies that are investing in tech are 50% more likely to make a profit. (Bugin et al, 2017).
Virtual Reality (VR)
Virtual Reality tech is becoming increasingly popular in the home building industry as a way to offer prospective buyers an immersive and interactive experience. A builder can allow potential buyers to take a virtual tour of their builds, creating an immersive experience compared to the traditional in-person or video tours.
Fairhaven Homes for example has created VR experiences that enable buyers to take a tour using Matterport tech. Others offer opportunity to completely customise their home design through VR. A builder could allow users to explore different neighbourhoods, and learn about the community lifestyle in the area they're considering buying.
While that sounds novel now, in the future it could be a prospective buyer's expectation. Shifting now positions your business for what's next.
campaign Personalisation
AI and machine learning algorithms are sifting through vast amounts of data to facilitate personalised ad delivery. For example, marketers can set AI to match ads about energy-efficiency to an environmentally conscious customer, or ads about a spacious home to a prospect with a large family. Ad relevance is critical to campaign performance, and marketers are using the AI within the ad platforms to improve performance.
Traditional mediums like direct mail are also being tailored to audience segments. No need to distribute your flyers to the entire neighbourhood, there's distribution data available to support a more personalised approach.
NB: The rise of personlisation brings with it privacy concerns, so be sure to keep your business privacy policy up-to-date and transparent for customers.
Contextual Ads
Google's third-party cookies phase out is provoking exploration of new personalisation methods like contextual advertising. Contextual advertising is basically ads matched to relevant content placements. A home renovator could have an ad on an interior design website, an architect may purchase ad placements on an architectural magazine's YouTube channel, or a window company pop ads on passive house podcast.
increased Voice Search
An increase in the use of voice to search the web means we continue to need to optimise website content to support the change. For voice, there's two critical components:
- Conversational Content
Conversational content in relation to voice search refers to content that reflects natural human conversation, especially aligned to answer questions as it might be requested via voice-activated serach tech' like Google Assistant or Amazon's Alexa.
- Schema Markup
Schema markup is a way of formatting your website content so that search engine 'crawlers' essentially understand your content better for tools like voice search. This can get complicated, so I recommend you work with someone like an SEO professional to manage this out for you.
Want to know if your website is using structured markup? You can use Google's developer tools to scout it out.
more Ad Platforms
Ads are big business. So big that the US Department of Justice is suing Google for monopolising digital advertising technology. However more advertising platforms are continuing to come online—Apple now has its own ad platform, Quora now offers ads and TikTok ads continue to attract an evolving demographics. Knowing where to put your marketing budget it critical in a changing advertising landscape.
One of the best ways to maintain agility in this landscape is to monitor channel performance over time. Continue to invest in areas where you're gaining traction. Use a tool like Google's Looker Studio, and Google analytics but get a professional to set-it up for you.
The future of marketing for the construction industry
These are just a few examples of the trends and predictions for the future of marketing within the construction industry. As tech' continues to evolve it's likely that new and innovative online marketing strategies will emerge, helping home builders reach potential buyers more effectively and provide a better overall customer experience—for those that embrace it.
