Everyone has a story about a wildly successful construction company that succeeds despite not having a website, a Facebook page or sometimes, without any marketing efforts whatsoever. However, these companies are the exception to the rule, and the vast majority of businesses (including construction companies) need to invest in some marketing efforts to be competitive in their markets. This is especially true for newer companies that are just starting out.

At a minimum, a business is going to need a responsive website, a company email and a Facebook page to be competitive. Here’s a brief overview of each.

A Responsive Website

Obviously, a website is important. For a website to be effective, it needs to be able to work on different devices. According to various sources, between 50 percent and 60 percent of all searches come from mobile devices, especially smartphones. That means if a website isn’t viewable on a mobile device, then it’s already useless for more than half of the people who may be trying to find it.

A responsive website means the site dynamically determines what type of device the viewer is using (i.e.: a phone, desktop, etc.) and then automatically configures itself to be ideally viewed on that device. This is also called optimized, and it’s essential.

Part 1 of this series featured Google business listings; if a construction company does not have a website, the owner can create a one-page site in their company’s Google business listing. This is the easiest and quickest way to establish a web presence if a company is starting from scratch.

Domain registration and website hosting companies such as GoDaddy typically offer templates that you can use to create a simple yet professional-looking site. For a step up, companies such as Wix and Squarespace will allow business owners to create a more dynamic site with better functionality and graphics—even if the user is a complete novice.

A Facebook Page

These days, a Facebook page for the business is probably just as essential as a company website. Having a Facebook page opens up the opportunity to take advantage of a lot of functionality that is more marketing-related than anything else. Take pictures of recent jobs? Put them up on Facebook. Have a great experience with a client? Ask them to give you a glowing Facebook review or, better yet, ask them to share the page with all of their friends.

There are many instances of industry peers that even use a Facebook page in place of a real company website. (This isn’t recommended however. The best practice is to have both). The point is, a Facebook page is shareable (through the Facebook network) in ways that a regular webpage is not. Plus, it’s free.

A Company Email

Having a company email address looks more professional than using a Gmail, Yahoo or (heaven forbid) an AOL address. For example, which of these email addresses looks like it comes from the more established, professional firm: acmeplumbing@aol.com or sales@acmeplumbing.com? Getting a company email address goes hand in hand with getting a company website—once the site is up, getting the email address is easily done.

This is the second article in a four-part series on Marketing Your Construction Business. Click here to read part one.