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Why Construction Marketing?

100_1218_nightShot_No3This is a question that my team & I get quite frequently. It’s not an amazing story sparked by an epiphany, but it was done for the right reasons. We worked with a few construction companies over the years, but in 2005 we started working with a large general contractor here in Southeast Louisiana, Barriere Construction. They told us, the more we know about construction, then the more we can help them and the more they will help us.

Barriere encouraged us to join ABC Bayou (Associated Builders & Contractors) and as our relationship grew, they referred us to other contractors. After a few years, we had about a dozen construction companies as clients. In 2008, our creative director went to a conference for marketing & design firms that encouraged niche marketing. We knew we had more to offer our clients if we knew their industry and we didn’t want to be a order taker design company. After looking at our client list, we knew we didn’t want to specialize in law firms or doctors and we had a good number of construction clients. We liked working with construction companies because they are down to earth people that let us do our jobs. We quickly decided to specialize in construction and after discussing it with our construction clients, they thought it was a great idea. That is except for our name, Design the Planet, which three of the five said was “too fluffy for construction”. The Brand Constructors was born as the construction marketing division of Design the Planet and we launched the brand & website in March of 2009.

Since then…

  • We’ve got more involved with ABC Bayou, sponsored some events over the years and presented at the National ABC Education Conference a few years back.
  • Joined SMPS (Society of Marketing Professional Services), a great organization dedicated to the marketing & business development teams of the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (A/E/C) industry. I am on my local chapter’s boards and regularly speak at conferences as well as write in different publications. Our team has won numerous local and national awards with SMPS. I also become a CPSM (Certified Professional Services Marketer) with the organization (which I highly recommend) and I am on the Southern Regional Conference planning committee.
  • Last year we jumped at the chance to join the Construction Marketing Association (we hadn’t heard of it previously), won an award with them for logo design, and I completed their certification in its inaugural year making me a Certified Construction Marketing Professional (CCMP).
  • We’ve also won our clients numerous excellence in construction awards over the years, especially Barriere Construction.
  • We’re all over social media, sharing our expertise via this blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, and even Pinterest. The team & I love sharing on LinkedIn’s group discussions – SMPS, Construction Marketing Ideas, and Construction Marketing Association.
  • The past few years we’ve worked hard to build a team of consultants that can assist our clients and the construction community from marketing strategists, public relations, proposal developers, technical writers, construction site cameras, photographers, other marketing firms, and more.
  • BRC_Web_Screen_MockupMore recently, we retooled this very website and launched a national campaign to build brand awareness.

Our goal is to be the go-to marketing & design company for the construction industry – general contractors, subcontractors, construction machine manufacturers, and for other companies that support the construction industry including suppliers and engineering firms. We build out the marketing toolkits that construction companies need to be successful and to dominate their competition and recruit employees.

It all started by going above & beyond for a client and really understanding their needs, their industry, and how to fully maximize their marketing. Its been fun and we’ve just begun.