4 Problems With Building Materials Sales and Marketing

The building materials industry tends to be behind other industries in sales and marketing strategies.  Here are four issues that keep building materials manufacturers behind and some insight into how to avoid and correct them.

1) Not being proactive in adopting new marketing technologies to meet customer demand: you should implement new technologies as they come up (within budgetary reason, of course). It will be more costly to play catch-up with new technologies than it will be to invest in technology in the future.

But this doesn’t mean just updating your computer systems — this also means becoming proficient in such things as social media,  SEO optimization,  PPC (pay-per-click) and retargeting campaigns, and regularly updating your website with blogs that are salient and pertinent to the matters at hand.  The smartest marketing companies in other types of business have already made this shift.

2) Lack of investment in continuously refining their understanding of audiences through research, focus groups and interviews with stakeholders: like every other industry, the building materials industry is always in a state of flux and change. If you don’t evolve, you will perish. You leaders should spend time with customers on a regular basis.  People in the marketing department and your agencies should ride along with sales people at least once a year.

3) Not enough visual based assets like video, infographics and high-quality photography: the average person spends about 8 seconds looking at something — so build your visual marketing campaign around this very idea. And, further to that end, you’re going to need visuals that are quality, and can deliver the message in those 8 seconds (or less). Cutaway illustrations and animated videos are also a great way to make complex product or system understandable.  Check out Jason Yana’s work on his site.  He is the master of building materials visualization.

4) Mediocre commitment to customer service.  Customer service can provide a real competitive advantage today and make you bulletproof to competition. Rather than looking at customer service as an expense that should be lowered, look at it as a tool to increase loyalty and grow your sales. Read more here about why customer service is important.

If these aren’t enough problems for you, here are eight more.

If you’d like to grow your sales faster, contact us to discuss how we can help.