Email marketing for construction, simplified

Email marketing is as essential to construction marketing strategy as nails and hammers when building a house. It holds the potential to yield significant returns on the investment made in implementation and execution. Emails see a greater return on investment per dollar spent when compared to other traditional marketing tactics.

This ROI potential is impressive – and it’s the result of personalized and helpful messages directly reaching a prospect’s inbox.

Let’s dig a little deeper.

What is email marketing for construction companies?

Email marketing is a digital marketing strategy where businesses send targeted messages and information to customers and prospects.

This tactic is used to:

• Connect and build relationships and brand loyalty
• Deliver relevant content and updates
• Support sales efforts

Why should construction companies use email marketing?

Email marketing can be a valuable addition to a construction company’s marketing, sales and customer relationship strategies. Here are the top four reasons why.

1. Connecting with different audiences

Construction professionals are often reaching out to potential home buyers, subcontractors and existing clients. Email marketing provides a direct and efficient way to communicate with each audience. That way, you can keep them informed on projects, promotions and industry updates, tailoring the messaging to each demographic and customizing email sequences by need, while still communicating with many people at once.

2. Saving time on communication

Creating individualized emails can be time-consuming, especially if you’re someone who wears multiple hats within a construction company. The truth is, even large construction companies rarely have the resources to justify 1:1 email for every single promotion or announcement. Expert email newsletter software streamlines the process, assisting with personalization, segmentation and lead generation efforts.

3. Boosting ROI while building authority

By consistently delivering valuable and relevant content to subscribers, email marketing can help establish a company’s authority in the residential construction industry. By targeting specific segments with compelling offers, construction companies can increase their chances of converting leads to paying clients. Moreover, this marketing tactic helps your team maintain regular communication with clients even after projects are completed. This strengthens relationships and increases the likelihood of repeat business or referrals.

4. Maximizing your team resources

An email marketing and automation platform helps your team write personalized emails more efficiently, leveraging predesigned templates and user-friendly interfaces. An email marketing tool helps analyze and distinguish patterns in audience engagement, helping your team craft data-driven messages to better interest your audience. Automation capabilities can also set up email sequences and triggered messages, reducing the manual work required of your team while delivering consistent outgoing messaging.

Benefits of construction email marketing

Construction email marketing offers several benefits that can significantly impact your business’s bottom line. Here are key advantages to consider.

• Increased engagement: Email marketing offers an opportunity for direct and engaging communication. It fosters high levels of interaction and response.
• Cost-effective outreach: Emails typically see a greater return on investment per dollar spent when compared to other traditional marketing tactics.
• Personalized emails: Digital mail can be customized for specific audience segments. This means you’re delivering content that resonates with each recipient’s interests and needs, increasing the likelihood of signing a client.
• Trackable results: Email marketing software offers robust analytics and metrics. This allows you to track and measure the performance of your campaigns so you can adjust when necessary.
• Increased traffic and sales: Well-crafted email campaigns can drive traffic to your website, generate leads and boost sales. This helps your construction business grow, no matter how the housing market is trending.

How to create an effective construction email strategy

Before you create an email strategy, it’s important to define clear goals, identify target audiences and segment campaigns. That way, when you’re ready to develop and launch each communication, you know that you’ve done what you can to ensure it succeeds.

Here are a few steps – and construction email tips  – to help ensure your construction marketing plan is well-executed and effective.

Step 1: Create a list of valuable leads

Creating an email list from scratch isn’t easy –  but it’s essential.

Sending emails to just anybody and everybody can hurt your deliverability rates and inflate your email marketing budget, lessening ROI. Remember, quality is better than quantity, even when email marketing makes it possible to reach a high volume of people.

If you’re just beginning to build your email strategy, start creating a list of leads you know have an interest in your services. This might include people who have reached out before as well as subscribers and contact submissions on website landing pages.

One of the most popular methods of generating leads is through forms embedded on your website. Some common form types help website visitors:

• Become email subscribers
• Access gated content and information
• Contact the company

As visitors input their information into the form, you’re building your email marketing list at the same time, using their contact information and reported interest.

Pro tip: When creating forms, ensure you’re gathering accurate lead data while staying engaging. Focus on capturing only essential information – such as name and email – and promote the form’s website landing page in targeted ads and social media. Try to position this content to audiences that match your geographic location, build types and budget proposals. This can help drive traffic to your website, build your email marketing list and ultimately boost your client list.

After figuring out which leads make up your ideal audience, use expert CRM tools – like the features in Buildertrend construction software – to manage relationships with potential clients. Buildertrend’s CRM tool is critical if you want to automate sales, reach your marketing goals, figure out where each client stands in the funnel and send email content that nurtures a specific segment.

Super pro tip: If you use brochures, handouts or signs to promote your business, add a QR code for all those materials. That way, users who haven’t yet found you online will be able to access your landing page or subscription form and sign up for your email list.

Step 2: Craft intriguing subject lines

An email subject line is as important as a strong first impression.

It’s estimated the average person receives 121 emails per day. That’s a lot of clutter to sift through. A strong subject line can help your email get opened, instead of ending up in the virtual trash can.

• Keep subject lines short and to the point
• If you’re advertising a special promotion, include the dates and tailor messaging to individual audiences
• While some keywords such as “urgent” may trigger spam filters, you can still drive urgency by using language such as “limited time offer” in your subject lines
• Use a subject line to demonstrate how you’re solving a problem or offering value
• Personalize wherever possible. Even adding the recipient’s name may help increase open rates

Pro tip: It may seem like a lot of work to personalize every email you send. CRM and email marketing software can help merge your contact information directly into emails and subject lines.

Step 3: Offer valuable content and include a clear call to action

Remember, email newsletters aren’t just about intriguing subject lines. If the content inside the email doesn’t keep your audiences engaged, eventually they’ll stop clicking.  

A home buyer who’s ready to do business with you needs content that differs from a lead who just discovered your company. For example, a testimonial video is more effective for someone about to sign with you, while a blog post on interior design trends may appeal to someone not yet ready to purchase. Ensure you’re sending the right types of content to the right audiences.

Pro tip: Use actionable verbs in your email content, and make sure your readers can easily understand what their next move is supposed to be. Also, use bold typography when needed and images where necessary. Too much text or too many images will make your email look like it belongs in the dreaded spam folder.

Step 4: Leverage construction email software to manage campaigns

Construction software is a useful tool to help achieve all the steps mentioned above. It can connect the dots between your email lists and CRM contacts, ensuring you’re hitting the right audiences with the right messaging at the right time.

What’s more, email marketing software typically offers email templates, automation and analytics to simplify email management and improve ROI. Buildertrend’s software, for example, provides a centralized platform for managing contacts, segmenting audiences and creating personalized campaigns.

Once the emails are sent, Buildertrend helps construction companies track the performance of those campaigns, including important success metrics such as open and click-through rates. In short, Buildertrend helps drive the most benefit from email marketing efforts, without adding work to your construction team’s to-do list.

Best of all, Buildertrend’s construction email software is integrated with other powerhouse features, such as financial, client and project management tools. With this centralized software approach, your team can operate from shared data, ensuring you’re able to analyze the impact of your email marketing efforts through to project success.

Construction email templates and examples

If you’re creating your email marketing strategies from scratch, you may not know what emails to consider including in your campaigns. Here are a few email examples you may want to consider building as templates within your email marketing system. That way, you can easily reuse and repurpose them whenever needed.

• Promotional offers: These emails help builders promote special offers, discounts and limited-time deals to potential, current and previous clients. By saving a template version, you can quickly craft promotional emails, tailoring the message slightly to highlight specific services or offers.
• Event invitations: You may want to invite your audience to an open house or client appreciation event. These emails can include event details and registration links, and they can help you track event responses without a ton of manual work.
• Client testimonials: Many builders choose to share recently completed projects and client reviews with their audiences to help build reputation and credibility. These emails can help you achieve that goal, without sounding self-serving.
• Seasonal greetings and touchpoints: It may be part of your lead nurturing strategy to stay in touch with prospects and past clients. With an integrated CRM and email system, you can take note of important holidays, anniversaries and other celebrations, setting up email triggers for each. This helps you stay front-of-mind for your audience, without only relying on sales-driven messaging.

Get the best results from your construction emails

Just as the construction industry is constantly evolving, marketing best practices can change quickly. Even a wildly successful promotional offer may flop six months later. It’s important to analyze the performance of your email campaigns and use the insights you gain to refine your strategies over time.

If you’re not sure of the most effective messaging or call to action, try different versions and use A/B testing methods to track what makes the greatest impact. Never forget to make great use of your data.

Email marketing with Buildertrend

Buildertrend construction software can help simplify your email marketing strategies and achieve better results.

With integrated email marketing, businesses can manage every stage of the home building process in one system – from generating potential leads to managing projects and client relationships and collecting payments.

Features such as customizable email templates, automated drip campaigns and comprehensive analytics help to create personalized and engaging email content, track the performance of campaigns and streamline communication. It’s proven to save time and build trust with leads – all while achieving quicker communication and response times.

“It maintains that communication with the homeowner automatically with a personal touch, and my sales team doesn’t have to do a thing.” – Jennifer Crompton, Todd Whittaker Drywall Inc.

To learn more about email marketing with Buildertrend, contact us today.

Want to learn more about Buildertrend? Visit our frequently asked questions.

Construction email marketing FAQs

Get answers to the most common questions about email marketing for construction.