Getting Started Guide: How to Advertise on Your Construction Site

Advertising your construction company offline: Construction sites and other places to advertise

There are countless reasons you need to advertise on and around construction sites. Every flat surface facing the street and other businesses should be viewed as opportunity. Consider trying out these construction advertising techniques below.

Advertising on the construction site:

Put Up a Sign!
No matter the size of the project (within reason) or the location, you should be advertising your company. During construction and after construction, you should have a sign in the yard or on the premises that displays your company and contact details. Creating a sandwich board with a message on both sides is about as simple as it gets for someone in Construction.

People are not only curious but they might just appreciate your work and decide to give you a call or check out your website for an estimate. There are all kinds of banners you can buy to put on chain link fences or across doors, get creative.

Work Trucks are Billboards:
Make sure you’ve got signs up on your truck(s). You never know who might pass by and be interested in your work. Magnetic stickers are cheaper than wrapping your entire vehicle but obviously one looks better than the other. Consider both options.

Shirts for your Contractors and Workers:
Nobody hates free t-shits. The clothes you wear on your site give passersby a better impression of what type of organization is doing the work. Don’t hesitate to get some inexpensive shirts made in a variety of sizes for the folks on the site.

Hand out your card – Yes really:
In an atmosphere where people don’t usually exchange cards, stand out by handing yours out to everyone. Simply put, “I’m always trying to find new projects. I do _____ type of work. Feel free to pass it along to someone if you know anyone looking.”

Get Creative:
If you have a pressure washer and a water source already, try buying a stencil and do some reverse graffiti. This is where you power wash around the stencil and when you remove the stencil afterwards, there’s an outline of your design. See more great examples of reverse graffiti.

Advertise Off the Construction Site:

Sponsor events:
Pick your industry events and decide what price points seem reasonable to you. Every event has a pricing package; it never hurts to ask for a deal.

Charity events:
Many charities will agree to put your company logo on their banners or on their website if you’re willing to contribute enough to the cause. These don’t always translate to direct business but it is a chance for you to network with other donors, organizers, and spread some good-will among potential customer’s participants.

Sponsor Amateur and Youth Sports Teams:
The simplest way to find a team is to ask your contractors, workers, or customers if they have kids on sports teams that are looking for a sponsor. Not that I’m recommending this, but you may just use this as leverage to call in a deal from a client or contractor down the road for your efforts.

Door Hangers and drop by’s:
It’s always a classy move to apologize for your noise in a quiet neighborhood or office complex. Stop by the houses with door hangers that say, “We apologize for the noise- we’ll try to keep it down.” Then include the services you offer and a link to your website. If it’s a commercial job, stop by the other buildings and try to briefly talk with the folks  at the other offices, businesses, or just the supervisors that run those buildings. It’s obviously a case by case type of situation. Hand out business cards and company pamphlets and tell them what you do in case they might be interested. Note to contractors, many office buildings will have a list of approved vendors- you need to get on that list to work on their building. Ask how to get on the list via the building supervisor and start the process.

Mailers:
The mail advertising is almost as old as the construction industry, yet when many companies have left paper for digital- you might find more opportunity in a less crowded playing field. Consider trying a few advertising campaigns that go out to your target customers. These can be expensive depending on the amount of mailing you’re doing but there are plenty of companies in your local city that do all of this for you.

Speaking events:
Always take the opportunity to get in front of a crowd and tell them about your business. Just make sure the crowd is filled with people that will consider your product or service. Plenty of trade shows and conferences have breakout sessions or presentations. Consider giving a presentation about a project you completed. Some of the best presentations are about something that took you a long time to overcome or learn the hard way; if only someone had told you this before you got started. People remember you and your company after these presentations.

Take a look at our free masterlist of marketing and sales tools for 360+ tools and guides to help you to advertise for free or almost free and download our free guide on advertising your company in the construction industry in order to become a construction marketing expert.