As a construction materials supplier, you may feel discouraged or even overwhelmed at the thought of trying to create a marketing message that will engage your ideal potential buyers. Fear not, there’s hope! Here are seven ways to grab your audience’s attention and get them interested in your product:
Educate your audience
One thing that many construction material suppliers have in common is that their products can be seen as complex, highly specialized, or not well known. Believe it or not, this can be a huge advantage for your business! Show off your knowledge as the expert and teach your audience about your product and how it can help them solve a problem.
Incorporate tools like video, infographics, and blog articles to pass along your knowledge to your audience in a simple yet engaging way. Focus on the customer as much as you can and put yourself in their shoes. This mindset will be your internal filter to keep you focused on sharing information that they will find informative and helpful!
Keep it simple
A surefire way to lose your audience is to overcomplicate your value proposition.If a prospect is looking for the best material for a particular project and they’ve landed on your website, make it easy on them. Within three seconds of landing on your home page, the website visitor should be able to understand what your product is and what outcomes it produces for your customers. Make sure your selling points are very clear not only on your website, but on every piece of content potential customers see (brochures, email signatures, your business card, trade show materials, etc.).
Focus on your value proposition (unique selling proposition)
On the homepage of your website, answer these questions explicitly and succinctly. Shoot for 2-3 sentences that summarize your points.
- Who stands to benefit most from your product?
- What are three key ways your product makes your customers’ lives easier?
- How is it vastly different from your competitors’ products?
- What outcomes can your material provide for the long haul?
- What types of projects are a perfect fit?
Filling up the page with product features and benefits can be overkill to your prospect, so focus on the most important points and hammer those home!
Convey credibility
Pull up your website and 2-3 of your competitors’ websites in your browser. Ask yourself the following:
- Which site conveys more credibility?
- Which site will my potential customers be drawn into to learn more?
- Are we losing credibility with potential customers with the website as it is?
Having a website that shares up to date technical information, project photos, case studies, and educational resources is a perfect way to stand out in the commercial construction materials industry. When your website is easy-to-navigate while showcasing your product’s value proposition, your prospects gain even more confidence that your company is the right partner to work with.
Think outside the box
In addition to your website, your business can be memorable by thinking outside of the box. A good example of this strategy was used by Blendtec, a company who sells commercial and residential blenders. The company’s founder, Tom Dickson, wanted to demonstrate the power of the company’s blenders in an interesting way, and the popular YouTube channel “Will It Blend?” was born. In the video series, Dickson takes various objects (including iPhones!) and tries to blend them in a Blendtec blender. The videos are entertaining and highlight the power of the blenders, making them very memorable to viewers.
Tell a story
Sharing testimonials from happy customers is a great way to illustrate how your product solved a problem. If you don’t have one already, consider creating a dedicated case studies tab on your website to prove to customers in similar situations that they should move forward with your product. Here are a few ways you can showcase past projects and the outcomes they produced for your clients:
- Write a two to three paragraph write-up detailing the company name, the problem the company faced, and specifically how your product was a home run solve for them. What tremendous pain point did your product solve?
- Create a short 1-2 minute video with the company owner/project lead explaining why your product worked well for them, and how it stood out from the competition.
- Request a quote from your happy customer explaining why they loved your product. You can add these quotes to a separate testimonials page. Make sure you list the person’s name, company and a photo of the person (if they agree to that).
Make it visual
Showing your product in action via short demonstration videos can engage your customers so much more than by simply listing out reasons why it excels. As the old saying goes, “Show, don’t tell.”
One of our clients, PermaTrak, is a precast concrete boardwalk supplier; their product is specified for commercial trails, greenways, and parks and recreation projects. To highlight the features and benefits of using a PermaTrak boardwalk on a project, together we’ve developed a series of videos highlighting how their product is enjoyed by the community.
Check out this recent video of a project that features several applications of their product:
Incorporating a visual message with your product helps your audience see your work in action and visualize how your product will help solve their problem.
Using one or more of these tactics is an easy way to make your product stand out among the competition.
We’d love to help you create a content strategy that resonates with your ideal buyer - drop us a line to learn more!