Ten Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Construction Marketing Agency

Construction is an unusual industry to market. The buyers are few and sophisticated, the sales cycles are long, relationships carry enormous weight, and a single project can be worth more than years of marketing spend. An agency that does wonderful work for restaurants, dentists or software companies can still be the wrong fit for a commercial general contractor, through no fault of its own. Many of the contractors who come to us have been burned before, either by a six-figure marketing hire who left after a year or by an agency that delivered a pretty website and then disappeared. These are the questions we would ask if we were sitting on your side of the table.

Do they understand how you actually win work?

Start by asking who they work with in construction right now, and get names and project types. Then look at those clients’ websites and qualifications packages. Do they look like the companies you compete with for the work you want, or like a portfolio of unrelated industries? Next, listen to their vocabulary. A partner who understands this business will talk naturally about shortlists, qualifications, owner’s reps, delivery methods, GMPs and go or no go decisions. A good test is to mention Procore, a CM/GC delivery or your EOS Rocks and see whether they follow along. If the conversation is all followers, impressions and viral content, they are thinking about consumers, not owners.

Then ask how marketing will support your business development. For a general contractor, marketing should make the BD team more effective with better materials, warmer introductions and a website owners trust. It should not run as a separate track with its own goals. We wrote more about that connection in business development for general contractors.

Who will do the work, and what happens first?

Meet the people who will actually work on your account, not just the person selling it. Ask how they plan to get project stories and photos out of your field teams without eating up a superintendent’s time, because that single process decides whether your content stays current. Ask what happens in the first ninety days. A strong answer starts with understanding your business, your markets and your goals, then sets priorities. A weaker answer jumps straight to a list of tactics and a posting calendar. Asking about the first ninety days is the best way we know to avoid repeating a bad experience.

Ask how they measure success. Website traffic is fine to watch, but what really matters for a contractor is invitations to bid, shortlists, interviews and wins in your target markets. Ask how they will report on those, and how often. If they cannot connect their work to your pipeline, it will be hard to tell whether it is working.

Who owns what, and how will it fit your company?

You should own your domain, website, social accounts, photos and written content, with clear handover terms if you ever part ways. Ask directly. You should also be able to update your own website without calling anyone to change a phone number or add a project, so ask them to show you how editing works. And ask how they will work with the tools you already use. Your team lives in Microsoft 365, Teams and probably Procore. Nobody wants to learn three new portals just to approve a social post.

Ask how they handle approvals and your voice. Nothing should go out under your name without your approval, and everything should sound like your company rather than a template. Finally, ask what they will tell you that you would rather not hear. The right partner will be honest about weak positioning, tired materials or pursuits you should stop chasing. If everything sounds easy, be careful.

Coral is a social media and marketing whiz! She works tirelessly towards accomplishing your goals.

Julio Galindez, Managing Partner, Galindez LLC

Yes, we are a construction marketing and growth partner, and we would be glad to answer every one of these. We have been doing this work since 2008 and have focused on commercial construction and AEC firms since 2017. Our approach starts with strategy and business development, and the tactics follow from there. Our clients love that we tell them the truth, even when it is not what they hoped to hear. You can see who we work with and decide for yourself. Whoever you choose, we hope this helps you choose well, and if you would like to put us to the test, schedule a strategy call.