I Need A Guidance Or Mentoring In Marketing.....

CF Construction

I'm fairly new to the construction industry. I've been doing it for a little over a year and a half and I'm really liking the industry (I tend to like the administrative porion much more than the actual labor). Before going into construction I did sales for about 5 years and also started my own music production company.


As indicated, about a year and a half ago I was hired by a general contracting company. During this time I've learned and continue learning things on a daily basis. I've been given responsibilities of "project supervisor" as well as "permit expeditor", which I don't mind, it's very good money for an easy task. In addition to these responsibilities, I also do some tasks normally a General Contractor would do (I'm bascially an apprentice...maybe within a few years I'll have my own GC license). I meet with sub-contractors, show them the proposed jobsite. I also get estimates from them. I also deal with the clients directly as well. Of course, anything outside of my expertise and knowledge area, is quickly reffered to the General Contractor, and even things I'm sure of, I still double check with him.


I've been responsible to do marketing as well for this company. I must admit, I've never had any type of teaching when it comes to marketing. However, I have bought a few books in regards to marketing. In addition to that, I have 3 different books having to do with the construction industry; General Contracting in specific. These books touch on small time projects to those that require very strict time frames due to the enormous size of the it. They also touch on many other topics very vital to a construction company, but they discuss very little when it comes to marketing. Today, I finished buying another book. It's from Entrepreneur Magazine "Start You Own Construction and Contracting Business" and so far I like what I've read.


Since my hiring, my main focus has been to give this company more of a "professional/corporate" look. Before I came into the picture, the company's image was basically a General Contractor in the construction industry who had a crew of workers and than his subs, that was all. The General Contractor has always relied on "word of mouth" for the majority of his marketing, but even that, especially in these times of financial peril, has come to somewhat a halt. Since my arrival I've helped put much more emphasis when it comes to marketing. I've done simple things such as give the company it's own "identity" by having a logo made for us, and I wrote the slogan "Your Vision Is Our Commitment", which expemlify what we're all about and how we approach our projects. In addition to that, I've new business cards printed (the previous ones looked very amateurish, not to mention very unappealing). I even had the company become accredited through the southeast division of The Better Business Bureau. We've taken big steps since, as far as marketing our company out there. This month, perhaps within the following week, we will have an advertisement in a magazine that appeals mainly to architects, interior designers, and affluent individuals. The magazine is called Miami Home and Decor. This is our targeted audience because it's what we've specialized in....the remodeling and/or construction of high end homes and condominiums. So hopefully good things come about due to that. And recently we had our website completely redone (link is on my signature).


Besides the things I've done so far, what else can I do?



Somethings I have in mind are the following (and please let me know if these are good ideas, or not):

- From this point forward things will be done through written contracts with our clients along with out subs. Amazing it might seem, yes, but up until now, the General Contractor I work for never had an issue. Either way I want to make sure that we don't wait to have one to have this put in action. (Not really marketing, more like an essential)

- I was thinking of joining other association related to the construction industry, directly that for a General Contractor. Can anyone name them and if possible, indicate what the benefits are to becoming a memeber besides impressing your clients?

- Perhaps more magazine advertisements in publications that target our audience. The magazines I have in mind, their demo-graphics are homewoners who have a property value no less than $500,000 and that make no less than a yearly 6 figure salary. I've done my research and have begun to request information from these publications so I have a better idea as to whom I want to target.

- Join another association such as the South Florida Business Journal where we can network with potential clients, or individuals/companies that we can build a partnership with.

- I also had in mind in getting a space/booth for Home Shows that are hosted in Miami and South Florida in general from time to time.

- Having flyers printed and do a bulk mailing all throughout Miami, targeting residences and business' alike.

- E-mailing architects indicating to them who we are and what we do. Letting them know we can assist with any future projects they might be working on (if a General Contractor hasn't already been hired, or there's problems with the existing one). Furthermore, to simply try to build a working relationship with them so in the future we may come to them for our future projects.


I don't know if that last one is good or not. I guess it all depends on the approach. In addition to those I've mentioned, I'm having a "package" being completed at the moment. This "package" is similar to booklets you get when you open a bank account. I think this "presentation" will set us apart from most of our competitors and it'll show our client(s) how detailed we are in all aspects of the project, not just the construction portion.



Again, I'm doing lots of studying and learning as I go. So what input(s) do you guys have to help me make this marketing responsibility that has fallen on my shoulders (and I very much like it) a success?




Thanks in advance.

__________________
CF Construction and Remodeling, Inc.
"Your Vision Is Our Commitment"
General Contractor In Miami

woodmagman

I do not think you need any help, you have managed to put every detail about your business into this post including were we need to look for your advertisements, accreditations and you are showing good development of a company resume

Max Nomad

I'm inclined to agree with Woodmagman. When it comes to Marketing, it's almost an "either or" situation -- either you hire someone to do your Marketing or you don't. Not really any need for in-between in the form of a "mentor" because you're already on that path. Sounds like you just need sources to learn about Marketing methods that work. Here are some books that I'd recommend putting in your library:

"Principled Profit: Marketing the puts people first" by Shel Horowitz.

"Guerrilla Marketing" and "Guerrilla Advertising", both by Jay Conrad Levinson.

As you get into learning about the mechanics of Marketing concepts you'll come to this sort of Zen-like conclusion that most of your best Marketing methods are going to be born out of simple study and observation of the immediate world around you. Study every type of customer that you service. Study their backgrounds, their similarities. Study their likes and dislikes, hopes, dreams and fears. And lastly, think in terms of "Finding the Pain" that your customers commonly come to you with and, sorta like a doctor, how your services heal that pain. If you can spot that and put that into a simple message that will connect with people suffering from this pain and convey that you know how to heal it, the rest is simply finding innovative (and cost-effective) ways to get that message to your target market's eyes and ears.

Hope that helps...

__________________
Majestic-Tile, a division of Majestic Home Improvement, LLC.
http://www.majestic-tile.com/
My Publishing Company and Graphic Design Portfolio:
http://www.bgpublishing.com/

CF Construction

Wow, thanks to the two of you, especially Max. That was quite a read, a very good one though. Thanks for the suggestions though, I'll definately put those on my list next time I make it out to Barnes & Nobles.






...what do you guys do you think about the logo I had made for our company?

__________________
CF Construction and Remodeling, Inc.
"Your Vision Is Our Commitment"
General Contractor In Miami

rbsremodeling

I assume those are buildings to the left. But It may appear to some that they are letters. Can you make the buildings a little less obvious or bold so that someone does not think it is part of the Business lettering/name.

Or I might just be anal and its fine

__________________

CF Construction

Letters?

What letter(s) will that be?

__________________
CF Construction and Remodeling, Inc.
"Your Vision Is Our Commitment"
General Contractor In Miami

rbsremodeling

The buildings kinda look like they are part of the CF in the logo

__________________

woodmagman

E laying Down on its back
W squared off
WCF

nah... they are buildings, and big ones at that. I think Donald is in the house....

This coming from RBS I mean RBs

hows your day there Rob.

CF Construction

Can someone link me to construction organizations? I know there's one that I believe is known as the NHBA? In addition to that, which other organizations exist?

__________________
CF Construction and Remodeling, Inc.
"Your Vision Is Our Commitment"
General Contractor In Miami

Max Nomad

Good choice of typeface (font), good graphic elements, great choice of color and crisp design overall. My only problem with the design is that the graphic elements seem to conflict a bit with one another. The building-shapes to the left of the CF pull the CF into that aspect of the design at the cost of making the blue house-shape over the CF seem like it was placed there as an afterthought. Focusing on the blue bar over the CF makes the building-shapes and cyan bar seem equally as disconnected.

Because those two graphical elements convey "commercial and residential" construction, I understand why they are in the design but because they are radically different graphic approaches they don't quite integrate as a whole design. Depending on how I look at the logo, I see two or three main pieces that are just very close to each other but not "together". Anytime I've run into this problem while doing logo design I tend to keep this principle in mind: I like Chinese Food and I like Italian food -- but that doesn't mean that Stir-Fry-Kung-Pao-Chicken-Parmesean-over-rice will be a tasty dish. And no matter how much it might suck to go through, I'll save out verisons of the logo and begin reworking each graphic approach to see if I can get that unification that a professional logo design needs.

Hope that helps. Good luck with it...

__________________
Majestic-Tile, a division of Majestic Home Improvement, LLC.
http://www.majestic-tile.com/
My Publishing Company and Graphic Design Portfolio:
http://www.bgpublishing.com/

lawndart

I took a quick peek at your website, and noticed how pretty it was. That said, I don't think your site will rank well in local searches for your targeted keywords. Work on optimizing it for the search engines and you'll have a site that is worth something to your business. Pretty sites that just sit there are no good for business.

Also ditch the disco music.. I would think that it would turn off a bunch of potential clients. Looks like you have everything else covered.

Good Luck

Carport King

CF this is a prime example and an excellent marketing question that you must answer? See everyone else that is looking at your logo does not understand your marketing or company niche. You do?

Anyone that has ever been to or seen pictures of Miami has seen all the high rise condo's and buildings there. Again it is understanding your market and your niche.

Your client's from Miami would clearly understand your logo. Keep it!

You are on the right path with your marketing as long as you keep a narrow rifle approach to who your core client really is. Your magazine that you have chosen are good also and stay on the higher upscale type work. This is where the money is!

Remember it's not the quantity it's the quality your looking for.

Let me know if I can help I think I remember a thing or two about the magazine end of things. Good luck and great job.

CF Construction

Thanks King, I'm glad you liked it.


The logo will remain as is, I just wanted to get people's input. All of our printed material, ranging from business cards, magazine ads, website page, brochure/package, shirts, company vehicle, etc. all carry this logo. Not to mention that we already hold the rights to the logo as well. The house is easily recognized as us doing residential projects, while the buildings culd be taken for high rise condos, or a commercial office building.

As for the magazine, I got word from the Manager that's in charge of the magazine marketing and he indicated to me that by mid-week next week their new issue will be out (which is a quarterly issue, so it'll be there for the next 3 months) and our advertisement will be in there! The advertisement will definately stand out from the rest. I, along with the graphic designer we've hired to do all of our "visual marketing", we studied the magazine very thoroughly and we think we came up with an advertisment that will definately stand out from the rest. Not to mention that I've never seen a General Contractor place an advertisement there, yet they can. Other publications I'm aiming for is Ocean Drive magazine, Luxe Magazine, Florida Design, Luxury Homes, and a few others. This is our targeted clientele base and as you indicated, it's not about the quantity, it's about the quality of project you get. Quite honestly, we turn down "small" projects because it's not worth our time and any potential hassles to get these small time projects. We rather have 3 working projects, but projects in which there's a good amount of earnings than have about 7 "small jobs". Than again, it goes back to who you target mostly.

__________________
CF Construction and Remodeling, Inc.
"Your Vision Is Our Commitment"
General Contractor In Miami

MattCoops

If you construct and remodel skyscrapers, it's a good logo.

__________________
Matt with Cupan Custom Tile & Paint of Lowell, Massachusetts
Design and installation of ceramic tile and natural stone for floor, wall, and countertops
(978) 601-8774 | cupantile@gmail.com | view tile pictures and more

CF Construction

We do interior construction and remodeling inside of commercial buildings as well as condominiums as well. However, we do not construct the actual building itself and we've never have. Quite frankly we're not that big of a company to take on such projects. The last thing we would like to do is blemish our name and reputation by taking on something that without a doubt is way over our heads and perhaps budget (I assume you easily have to have millions, or alot of money in your account prior to taking on a project like that). Also, you have to know reliable companies from the get-go. On the flip side, we do new construction of homes as well as do additions to any existing residence. We've done them throughout Miami, especially in very good neighborhoods throughout Miami.

__________________
CF Construction and Remodeling, Inc.
"Your Vision Is Our Commitment"
General Contractor In Miami

user36832

hello...i reviewed your website....photos rock....everything is clean........but i really wanted to let you know something....first off i'd like to say......that my best friend is a flash designer/developer...went to princeton.....he has worked for Michael Jordan, Ikea, McDonalds, Doc martin, smithsonian national museum, at&t, and a ton of other huge corporate clients.....and he is like the foreman of these web projects........he gets paid well....150k per year....he's top notch....we just had a meeting about the website i wanted to develope for my contracting company....and he's really recommending that i code the site in HTML.....because the way google crawls sites....he says flash sites don't get picked up in search like HTML sites do.....i wanted to do something like your site...because its so cool...flash has more flexibility....design wise....and it looks so tight....but i'm going to go with his recommendation on this....and code it in HTML.....and use alot of properly formatted text...that will get picked up by google search....he mentioned having a header that reads "Service Areas".....and plastering it with names of towns and zip codes that i'm willing to travel and work in.....he said that way when someone types in "po-dunk town remodeling" into google that these keywords will be indexed from my site....and will drive traffic....

it makes alot of sense.....once he explained it....but his princeton education and work portfolio is why i trust his opinion.....he's my friend....and knows i'll pay him well.....in fact we have paid him for years to make websites for my family....this time he said HTML for my construction site......he once coded an ebay website for me.....and it generated in it's best month.....59k....gross of course....i netted about 10k of that.....in fact i often ask myself why i don't get out of contracting and go back to online sales.....i just sell jobs....and have a relationship with a great builder to run my company....he can't sell...but he shows up on time...and knocks out the projects....right now i'm doing flyer marketing...and its doing well....but i'm going to step it up with the web advertising.....

PM if you'd like to chat more....i have some other good techniques for marketing...that have been really worth while....

SLSTech

Edited for clarity

#1 You might want to learn how to properly format text
#2 Advertising is not allowed on the site
#3 You can't use the PM feature until after you have 15 posts, for a good reason

__________________
Alabama Full Service Remodeling, Renovation, and Preservation by SLS Construction
Certified Energy Efficiency Audits, Ratings, Modeling, Verifications, & Consulting
Residential, Commercial, & Industrial Infrared Thermography Scans

mark the coach

In addition to NAHB another organization is NARI (national association of the remodeling industry).
Your logo, tagline and site information is very good.

mark the coach

SLSTech

Dittos with NARI
Others you may look into
NKBA - National Kitchen & Bath Association
Local Chamber of Commerce
Local BBB

FYI - your site appears to be busted at the moment - It keeps sending me to an Index2 page with a page not found for any link I click
Based off of you intro - it would appear that you build condo's etc... but you state above that you don't
Don't get me wrong, I like it but it appears that you are after building comm buildings due to the cranes, Bulldozers & 3 buildings going up side by side
Music is generally a big no-no & in your case, I would take it off Just my .02

__________________
Alabama Full Service Remodeling, Renovation, and Preservation by SLS Construction
Certified Energy Efficiency Audits, Ratings, Modeling, Verifications, & Consulting
Residential, Commercial, & Industrial Infrared Thermography Scans

Publisher1

Another resource if you are serious and focussed on marketing -- SMPS -- Society for Marketing Professional Services. Kind of a misnomer, because it should really be called Society for Marketing Architectural, Engineering and Construction Services. Lots of supporting materials, training, and local chapters everywhere.

Of course this group is going to help in your direct marketing/connections less than associations within your community/primary markets. In my business, associations remain the primary and most productive form of marketing.

Some additional thoughts:

Print media (and other forms of conventional advertising) can be expensive and produce disappointing results. (Sheesh, I'm saying that, and 99 per cent of my income comes from selling print advertising, not in your market). The challenge is that to properly validate the situation, you need to advertise for several months and of course this drains your budget while you find out whether it works or not.

Keyword advertising (Google local) tied to your site may be profitable and relatively inexpensive; also you can track and quickly adapt your campaigns.

Media relations and publicity -- especially news articles and picture profiles in those glossy magazines -- may work well; consulting with someone with PR Communications skills may be give you much more bang for buck than advertising.

Remember while things like your logo and advertising and stuff like that are important, the main thing you want to achieve are really good connections and impressions once the people start doing business with you. Your brand largely is the interaction you and your employees have with your clients. After all, repeat and referral business continues to be the primary (74-76 per cent) source of business for most contractors.