Branding
For a construction company, a brand is not a slogan. It is what people remember after your truck passes, your sign sits on a lawn for the length of a job, or your crew leaves a site clean. Branding is the work of making all of those moments look and sound like the same company, so that when someone finally needs a contractor, your name is the one they recognize.
Marketing For Construction is an independent referral service, not a marketing agency. When you send the form, your details go to an independent marketing agency that prepares any proposal and does any work, including brand work.
Want a proposal for your company’s look, from logo to trucks? Send the form.
The pieces of a construction brand
| Piece | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Name | Easy to say, spell and remember, and used exactly the same way everywhere |
| Logo | Readable from across a street and at the size of a phone icon, in one color as well as full color |
| Colors | Two or three, used the same way on trucks, signs, shirts and the website |
| Vehicles | Name, trade, website and phone, large enough to read in traffic |
| Job site signs | The same layout every time, placed with the owner’s permission |
| Website and social | The same name, logo and colors, with photos of your own work |
Your name has to match on Google
Branding has a practical side on Google. Google’s Business Profile guidelines say your name should reflect your business’s real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery and as known to customers, and that keywords should not be added to it. A consistent brand makes that easy: the name on the truck is the name on the website is the name on the map. If you are rebranding, update every one of them together. The page on local SEO for contractors covers the profile in detail.
Construction social media marketing
Social media suits construction because the work is visual. Progress photos, before and after shots, short clips of a tricky install and a finished room are the kind of posts people stop for. A few rules keep it useful and safe.
- Ask before you post a customer’s home. Leave out house numbers, faces and anything that identifies where they live unless they agree.
- Show your own work. Do not post other companies’ photos as yours.
- Disclose paid promotion. The FTC’s endorsement guides require payment, free work, employment or family ties to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously when someone promotes you.
- Never buy followers or likes. The FTC’s rule bans selling or buying fake indicators of social media influence for a commercial purpose.
The job site is part of the brand
People judge a construction company by what they see on its sites as much as by its logo. Clean fencing and signs, materials stacked neatly, a crew in matching shirts and a site left tidy at the close of each working day all tell neighbors what kind of company you are. None of that needs an agency, and every neighbor who walks past is a possible customer or a source of a referral. Brand work that ignores the job site is only half done.
When to rebrand, and when not to
A new logo is tempting, but a rebrand costs more than design: new truck lettering, new signs, new shirts, a new website and updates everywhere your name appears online. It makes sense when your current name is confusing, too close to a competitor’s, tied to a trade you no longer do, or when your look is so inconsistent that people cannot recognize it. It rarely makes sense just because you are bored of it.
What to ask a branding designer
- Will I own the logo files outright, in formats a sign shop and a printer can use?
- Will you show the logo on a truck, a sign, a shirt and a phone screen before I approve it?
- Will I get a one-page guide to colors, fonts and how the logo is used?
- How will the new look be rolled out on my website and Google listing?
A brand works when everything else points at the same place. For the website side, read contractor website design, and for the paid side read construction advertising.
Send the form for a branding proposal from an independent agency that works with contractors.
Questions owners ask
What does construction company branding include?
Your name, logo, colors and the way they appear on trucks, job site signs, uniforms, your website, social media and your Google Business Profile.
Should my Google Business Profile name include my services?
No. Google’s guidelines say the name should be your real-world business name, with no keywords added.
Can I buy followers for my construction company’s social accounts?
No. The FTC’s rule bans buying or selling fake indicators of social media influence such as fake followers, views or likes for a commercial purpose.
Get a construction marketing proposal