Who Is The Ideal Client For Builders?

It's one of the most uncomfortable conversations a business owner will face when assessing their marketing.

But unless you can answer this question, you will be wasting your time on quoting, and your money on advertising.

So Who Is Your Ideal Client?

We speak to hundreds of builders every month about their marketing strategy, and the most popular answer we receive to this question is:

"Well pretty much anyone who is looking to build a new home. Or even anyone looking to renovate, I wouldn't turn them down. Or anyone looking to build an investment property and I’ve done some commercial work."

And that’s understandable because when times are a bit lean, you don’t want to miss out on a single opportunity. Which is why we see builders' web sites claiming they ‘specialise’ in new homes, renovations, decking, commercial, industrial and maintenance.

You may have done all of these things in the past couple of years, but when it comes to successful marketing, you’ve got to focus on a particular niche. Ideally the one with the biggest margin and the biggest demand. Once you have the niche, you can drill into the profile of the client who is most likely to buy from you and will be a pleasure to work with.

You Have To Be Specific

But when you start getting specific, well, that's when it starts to get uncomfortable.

Naturally we don't want to leave anyone out.

We don't want to feel like we're pushing away clients.

And let's be honest, we feel like we are losing business.

The problem is you can't create persuasive, targeted marketing when you're trying to appeal to 10 different types of people at once.

If we try and become all things to all people, we end up appealing to nobody.

In fact, what we end up doing is trying to find a client who is looking for a builder that specialises in residential, commercial, industrial and maintenance and there aren't many of those out there!

Identify Their Characteristics

Now this is a big topic and we could go very deep, but right now we just want to talk about some of the characteristics you need to know.

Start by looking at the ideal clients you have previously built for. What do they have in common?

Where do they live?

What gender are they?

Are they married?

How old are they?

What’s their income?

Have they built before?

Do they have kids, if so how old are they?

What is their net worth?

Do they have investments?

What are their interests and hobbies?

Where do they socialise?

Remember, we are only looking at your ideal clients, not every client you have ever built for, but just your ideal client in order to build up a very clear profile.

What To Do Once You Know Who Your Ideal Client Is

When you have completed the profile, put a picture up on your office wall bullet pointing their characteristics.

Now, every time you work on your website, create an advert or write an email, imagine writing specifically to that person.

And when you advertise on Facebook, target their profile. Once you start sending visitors to your website, you can start targeting ‘Lookalike Audiences’ which will send visitors with similar profiles to your website.

By doing this exercise, you will save thousands of dollars in advertising and reduce the amount of time spent quoting jobs that you don’t win, by up to 80%.

To learn more about targeting the right audience and how you can generate more quality enquiries, click here.